EMC VSI Plugin v6.3 for VMware vCenter Now Available!

The latest version (v6.3) of EMC’s Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) plug-in for VMware vCenter is now available to download for free from EMC’s support portal.

What is a VSI plug-in?

If you’re running EMC storage, or are thinking of implementing some EMC storage in the future, then definitely check out my earlier blog post which runs through what the EMC VSI plugin is and the functionality and benefits that it can offer (keeping in mind this was for the pre-web based version of vCenter).  In summary, what it offers is the ability to integrate many of the day to day storage related tasks (eg: general management and provisioning) that you’d usually have to leave the VMware vCenter web based management interface to perform.

The following EMC storage systems are supported as of this release;

• EMC ViPR software-defined storage
• EMC VNX series storage
• EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage (The new VMAX3 is not supported at this time.)
• EMC XtremIO storage
• EMC VNXe3200 storage

Also, in this v6.3 release there is supported included for several functions of EMC AppSync.

Benefits of the EMC VSI plug-in

As most tech admins know, having to switch between management interfaces or utilities can be time consuming, and can quite often be the cause of any human error.  So being able to perform all your day to day tasks relating to your virtual and associated storage environment from a single management interface (ie: VMware vCenter) can only be a good thing!  Even if you’re not running EMC storage in your virtual environment, take the time to check out to see if your storage vendor has a VSI plugin on offer – most have (with varying degrees of functionality).

What’s new in EMC VSI v6.3?

There is a nice mixture of support and new enhancements, the following is a summary of the key release features:

Support for the following functions on EMC VNXe3200 storage:

• View storage property details
• Provision NFS, VMFS, and RDM volumes

Support for the following functions on EMC Symmetrix VMAX:

• Set a read-only property on an array
• Restrict device size and thin pool size

Support for the following EMC AppSync features:

• Manage AppSync server credentials
• Manage AppSync service plans
• Manage AppSync datastore copies
• Restore a virtual machine from a virtual machine copy
• Restore a datastore from a datastore copy

Support for the following features on EMC XtremIO:

• Set Round Robin
• Set HBA queue depth
• Set Host Parameters (Disk.Sched)
• Reclaim unused space (UNMAP)
• Extend datastores
• Provision multiple same-sized datastores

Where can I download it from?

The latest EMC VSI plugin can always be downloaded from the EMC Support portal.  If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to create a free logon account and from there youíll have access to not only the VSI plugin but plenty of other useful tools and utils – worth a look.

For ease, why not check out my post which outlines

how to create an EMC Support portal logon account in 3 easy steps

.

The post EMC VSI Plugin v6.3 for VMware vCenter Now Available! appeared first on TechHead and was written by Simon Seagrave.