The NetApp V-Series product line is a storage virtualization solution that enables IT teams to take advantage of the unique features and functionality NetApp offers while leveraging existing SAN investments. The V-Series product line is unique in its ability to unify block and file access to storage array products from Hitachi, HP, IBM, Fujitsu, and—most recently—EMC.

This article provides a quick introduction to the V-Series product line plus five real-world examples of how IT teams have deployed V-Series systems to enhance their traditional SAN environments.

The History of the V-Series Product Line
The V-Series project started in 2003 when an aspiring group of NetApp engineers extended a FAS controller to storage LUNs from a storage array connected through a SAN. Though the "back end" was different—the V-Series system aggregates LUNs that are RAID protected by the storage arrays—the front end brought all of the rich file system access features of Data ONTAP® to the combined solution.

This virtualization solution was originally introduced in 2003 as a Hitachi-branded gFiler™ appliance and was eventually productized directly by NetApp as the V-Series product line.

While the initial gFiler appliances offered only network-attached storage (NAS) functionality for HDS storage arrays, the V-Series product line was expanded to support Fibre Channel and iSCSI protocols for arrays from all major storage providers.

V-Series Benefits
Deploying V-Series systems in SAN host environments brings the power of Data ONTAP to traditional SANs. The V-Series system functions as both a NAS gateway and a SAN virtualization engine that provides a rich set of storage features and unifies block and file access into a single platform.

V-Series systems are identical to NetApp FAS storage systems in their support for:

• A complete suite of front-end protocols, including CIFS, NFS, iSCSI, and FCP
• Space-efficient NetApp Snapshot™ functionality that writes only changed blocks to disk
• NetApp replication software, including SnapMirror®, SnapVault®, SyncMirror®, and NDMP
• All host-side attach software, including SnapDrive®, SnapManager® for Oracle®, SnapManager for Exchange Server, and SnapManager for SQL Server

The benefits for traditional SAN environments are significant. Due to the unique NetApp approach to snapshots, for example, Snapshot copies can be created very frequently with virtually no performance impact. NetApp also eliminates the redundancy inherent in traditional backups, shortens backup windows by eliminating the need to identify changed data, and provides 100% backup validation. To learn more, check out The Core NetApp DNA and The Value of Information for Backups.

In addition, the V-Series product line enables the use of NetApp host-based manageability software, which not only reduces backup and recovery time when compared to traditional storage array solutions, but also allows application owners to recover their own data with minimal storage administrator involvement.

How is V-Series Different from Using NetApp FAS Storage?
V-Series and FAS products use the same hardware controller and run the same Data ONTAP operating system. The key difference between a V-Series system front ending a storage array and a FAS system with NetApp disks is that the V-Series controller no longer runs RAID 4 or RAID-DP™. Instead, the V-Series system offloads the raid protection to the storage array. V-Series storage pools are large RAID 0 stripes of back-end LUNs.

Supported Storage Arrays
The V-Series product line supports storage subsystems from Hitachi, HP, IBM, Fujitsu, and now EMC. Customer demand for unified storage and simplified management in existing EMC environments drove NetApp to invest in supporting the EMC CX array. A V-Series/EMC system was first demonstrated at SNW 18 months ago, and today EMC CX arrays have been fully qualified by NetApp and are now listed on the public V-Series support matrix.

A detailed and current list of supported arrays can be found on the NOW™ site. The support matrix currently includes IBM DS8000 and DS4000 families, Fujitsu Eternus, HDS Tagmastore, AMS, Thunder, Lightning, and the rebranded equivalent arrays from HP. NetApp has committed to continuing to expand the list of arrays supported behind the V-Series product line and to provide additional virtualization functionality.

Real-World Examples
The following are a series of examples of how real-world customers leverage the V-Series product line with a variety of traditional storage arrays. Although each example references a specific vendor's storage array, these approaches could easily be implemented with any supported array.

V-Series and EMC CX Arrays: Centralized Backup for Over 100 Remote Sites
A leading retailer had standardized its central data center on EMC CX storage arrays, but wanted to implement a centralized backup strategy to support over 100 remote offices running Windows® file sharing and home directories. When NetApp first met this customer, each remote site was backed up to local tape, with support provided by either part-time local administrators or corporate-based administrators.

By standardizing on a unified data management system and leveraging NetApp replication technology, the IT team realized it would be able to leverage its existing SAN investment to centralize backups across its remote locations.

NetApp solution:

• Central data center: V-Series system fronting EMC CX arrays
• Remote locations: NetApp FAS270s for file sharing and home directories
• Replicate FAS270s to the central V-Series system using NetApp SnapVault software
• Centralize tape backups at the central data center and eliminate remote tape

Benefits:

• Reduced hardware and admin costs due to the elimination of remote tape
• Rapid online file recovery both locally and from the central data center
• Tape restores kept to an absolute minimum
• Standardized backup schedules and processes company-wide

V-Series and HP XP12000 Arrays: Simplifying Backup and Application Testing
Another NetApp customer using a V-Series system supports its SQL Server environment with storage from two HP XP12000 arrays. The IT team wanted to simplify storage provisioning and implement a more flexible storage model for its SQL Server environment.

Introducing the V-Series product line into this traditional SAN environment and creating a virtualized storage environment enabled the IT team to do the following:

• Create a storage pool that is synchronously mirrored between the two HP XP12000 arrays. An entire array can be offlined without any impact on SQL Server database availability. A separate pool of storage that is not synchronously mirrored to another array is also available for other applications.
• Eliminate the need to take SQL Server databases offline for backups. The IT team uses NetApp SnapManager for SQL Server to streamline backups. Transferring these backups to tape is performed from the V-Series controller and no longer a host function.
• Significantly improve restore times. Restoring data from online disk-based storage is much faster and more reliable than the previous restores from tape.
• Reduce the cycle time for testing and development. Databases can be cloned in minutes rather than hours using NetApp FlexClone™ technology.
• Simplify storage provisioning by expanding/contracting volume sizes on the fly.

V-Series and HDS Lightning Arrays: Rapid Recovery with NetApp Snapshot Copies
Major disasters rarely happen. But when they do, NetApp features enable dramatically reduced recovery times. Data center hardware often needs to be refreshed at end of lease or upgraded when larger application servers are required. For example, during a host replacement in an HDS environment where V-Series systems were deployed, a small server was replaced with a larger server to handle an unexpected increase of processing needs. The host data was provisioned from a V-Series system serving FCP LUNs. Due to a host administrator error, the LUNs were accidentally destroyed as presented from the V-Series.

In this situation, the most recent backup was five days old, and the application was a critical path of a larger corporate project. Prior to the introduction of the V-Series product line, the only option for recovery would have involved going back to tape and five days of log replay. Using NetApp Snapshot copies, however, the recovery took only a few minutes, and the company's Oracle Databases were back online with in the hour.

V-Series and IBM DS8000/DS4000 Arrays: Outsourced Disaster Recovery
Another example of how V-Series systems are used can be seen at a company that provides outsourced disaster recovery (DR) services. This provider has deployed IBM DS8000 and DS4000 storage arrays as part of its IT infrastructure.

Introducing a V-Series system at the disaster recovery site has expanded the company's range of customers. Now an IT department running either FAS storage with NetApp disks or a V-Series system with any storage array can replicate to V-Series systems at the outsourced disaster recovery site.

V-Series and HDS Lightning Arrays: Business Continuance for Oracle
A final example involves an existing SAN supporting Oracle applications running on Solaris™ hosts with storage served from an HDS Lightning array and local storage. The company needed to replicate all of its data to a different state in the event of a complete site outage, but did not want to duplicate its existing HDS environment at a disaster recovery site.

Instead, the IT team inserted a V-Series system into its environment and migrated its SAN-based Oracle application and Windows shares to the V-Series environment. This enabled replication anywhere on the customer's Ethernet network. Data from the V-Series front end on the HDS Lightning solution at the primary location was mirrored using NetApp SnapMirror software to an IBM-branded NetApp FAS system at the remote site. All planning, implementation, migration, and testing were completed using NetApp Professional Services.

Using a non-HDS replication strategy enabled the IT team to keep costs down and still achieve their disaster recovery objectives.

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