By Calvin Zito, @HPStorageGuy

This is the third in a series of three podcasts focusing on our HP Converged Infrastructure announcement. In part 1, I spoke with Sr. VP and GM of HP StorageWorks Dave Roberson.  In part 2, I talked to the former CEO of IBRIX Milan Shetti and Marketing Director Lee Johns about the new X9000. 

In today's podcast, we talk about block-based storage virtualization.  Storage virtualization is often a confusing topic because there are different types of storage virtualization.  Today's podcast discusses two types of block-based storage virtualization: within an controller array  (like our HP StorageWorks EVA) and network or SAN based (our StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform or SVSP).   Each of these products had enhancements that were announced with the November 4th Converged Infrastructure announcement.  

With the SVSP (link goes to the hp.com product page), we announced a "new" management tool - Command View SVSP.  This will be very familiar tool to EVA customers as Command View SVSP is very consistent with Command View EVA.  But it also simplifies and automates the task of provisioning a LUN.  For the details, listen to the podcast.

The advancement with the StorageWorks EVA (link goes to EVA family page) is with our Cluster Extension EVA.  This software manages the failover and failback between EVAs in a cluster.  What's new with the software is support for Microsoft Hyper-V Live Migration.  We are the first array to support the new capabilities and again, there's more about this in the podcast.  I also have a guest blog from one of our engineers below that goes into more details. 

So with that, here's the podcast:

If you're browser has issues using the embedded player, click here to listen to the podcast with a different player. Here's a link to download the MP3 (right click and save the file).

By Matthias Popp, HP StorageWorks Architect, Storage Systems Integration

Migrating a running server across data centers, servers and storage?

Are you tired of planning weekend downtime for storage system upgrades, server patches or network changes in your data center?  Are you getting the same "Not this weekend ..." response from your business managers and users?

HP worked with Microsoft to enable Live Migration of virtual machines (VMs) in Hyper-V R2 - not just between servers but also between your storage systems and hence between your data centers!

The latest release of HP StorageWorks Cluster Extension EVA orchestrates the interaction between Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Failover Clustering and Hyper-V Live Migration to move running Server VMs between servers and storage in one single step.

The newest version of Cluster Extension checks the disk array replication process and prepares for a Live Migration and swaps the replication direction when the VM's target server is connected to the remote disk array. All automatic with no further administrator interaction. You decide when to Live Migrate and Cluster Extension makes sure the data can be accessed. Simple as that.

Since your servers and storage are distributed between data centers, the same configuration and software is used for disaster protection. No need to learn additional tools. Use the ones you have! 

Finally a simple solution to proactive maintenance with no downtime!

The new Live Migration support in Cluster Extension configurations will make a radical impact on your IT and business teams.  Clustering software manages unexpected failures at any time and Live Migration enables maintenance during the work day.  The IT team can now do server and storage maintenance during working hours. They no longer have to plan for downtime way ahead of a change.  The IT management doesn't have to budget for expensive weekend and night working hours.  Get your server and storage patched now, because you can!

The following paper explains the configuration and will soon be updated for Windows 2008 R2 and Hyper-V R2 Live Migration support: Disaster Tolerant Virtualization Architecture with HP StorageWorks Cluster Extension and Microsoft Hyper-V^TM white paper 

Visit the HP booth at Microsoft's Tech·Ed Europe in Berlin next week for a demonstration and visit Microsoft's blog  for more info about the webcast Building Effective and Highly Available Disaster Recovery Solutions Using Microsoft Virtualization