Veritas InfoScale™ 7.4.1 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi
- Section I. Overview
- About Veritas InfoScale solutions in a VMware environment
- Section II. Deploying Veritas InfoScale products in a VMware environment
- Getting started
- Understanding Storage Configuration
- Section III. Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware environment
- Application availability using Cluster Server
- Multi-tier business service support
- Improving storage visibility, availability, and I/O performance using Dynamic Multi-Pathing
- How DMP works
- Improving data protection, storage optimization, data migration, and database performance
- Protecting data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Optimizing storage with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Migrating data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Improving database performance with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability on VMware disks
- About setting up Storage Foundation Cluster File High System High Availability on VMware ESXi
- Configuring coordination point (CP) servers
- Section IV. Reference
About SmartTier in the VMware environment
SmartTier is a VxFS feature that enables you to allocate file storage space from different storage tiers according to rules you create. SmartTier provides a more flexible alternative compared to current approaches for tiered storage. Static storage tiering involves a manual one-time assignment of application files to a storage class, which is inflexible over a long term. Hierarchical Storage Management solutions typically require files to be migrated back into a file system name space before an application access request can be fulfilled, leading to latency and run-time overhead. In contrast, SmartTier allows organizations to:
Optimize storage assets by dynamically moving a file to its optimal storage tier as the value of the file changes over time
Automate the movement of data between storage tiers without changing the way users or applications access the files
Migrate data automatically based on policies set up by administrators, eliminating operational requirements for tiered storage and downtime commonly associated with data movement
Note:
SmartTier is the expanded and renamed feature previously known as Dynamic Storage Tiering (DST).
You can use the SmartTier functionality of InfoScale in a VMware environment similar to how you use it in the physical environment. For example, you may have two different types of storage arrays, some SSD and some HDD. You can allocate one VMFS on each type of disk. You can use the SSD devices as one storage tier and the HDD devices as the second storage tier.
For more information about SmartTier, see Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability Administrator's Guide or Storage Foundation Administrator's Guide.