VMware vSphere 7 Update 3 With NVMe/TCP Support

By vSphere Team, VMware, Inc.

VMware, Inc. announced support of the NVMe/TCP storage protocol with the release of vSphere 7 Update 3!

NVMe/TCP allows vSphere customers a fast, simple and cost-effective way to get the most out of their existing storage investments. With this release, the company continues to enable support for the latest technology innovations in hardware, with vSphere cloud compute platform.

NVMe/TCP accelerates application performance
More businesses rely on IT for competitive advantage. From the production of goods and services to customer support, software can help companies provide differentiation. As businesses rely more on modern applications – from AI/ML to big data and advanced analytics – demands on IT have grown. In turn, IT has looked to innovations to ensure the applications have the resources they need, as every microsecond counts.

These modern applications often require high performance storage. In response, IT has procured SSDs to achieve higher IO/s and lower latency. However, storage interfaces, networking and the protocols running on the storage network can be a barrier to storage devices achieving their potential, particularly in disaggregated architectures.

NVMe, or nonvolatile memory express, is a storage access protocol and transport protocol for flash and next-gen SSDs that delivers high throughput and fast response times for a variety of traditional and modern workloads. While all-NVMe server-based storage has been available for years, the use of non-NVMe protocols for storage networking can add latency. To address this performance bottleneck, NVMe-oF extends NVMe’s performance and latency benefits across network fabrics, including Ethernet.

We’ve heard from customers that they would like to run NVMe/TCP because:

• TCP/IP is ubiquitous 

• Well understood – TCP is probably the most common transport 

• High performance – TCP delivers performance scalability 

• Suited for large scale deployments and longer distances 

• Actively developed – maintenance and enhancements are developed by major players 

• Inherently supports in-transit encryption 

VMware partners first with Dell on bringing NVMe/TCP to VMware vSphere
The company partnered with Dell Technologies, Inc. to bring the first vSphere-supported NVMe/TCP storage solution to market.

These NVMe/TCP storage solutions provide:

• Performance storage connectivity – comparable to FC at a fraction of the cost 

• Less complexity than existing solutions 

• Leverage existing investments in Ethernet 

• Automation of the SAN configuration process for accelerated operations and lower Opex with SmartFabric Storage Software

As organizations continue to shift toward a software-defined-data-center (SDDC) and leverage multi-cloud infrastructure, new and improved technologies will be needed to enable this transition. Working with VMware on an end-to-end NVMe/TCP ecosystem including the vSphere 7 Update 3 release, Dell PowerStore storage platform and their newest software product, SmartFabric Storage Software (SFSS), will help customers implement these next gen IT infrastructures. With SFSS and NVMe/TCP, Dell and VMware are bringing the concept of software-defined networking to storage connectivity and will be able to support connectivity automation all the way out to the edge. Because of its ability to support self-discovery across multiple hybrid models while enabling either the existing FC or converged management models, NVMe/TCP and SFSS represent the future of storage networking.

NVMe/TCP vSphere support extends to Lightbits Labs storage with Intel
As a VMware Technology Alliance Partner and early design partner, Intel Corp. and Lightbits Labs, Inc. collaborated with VMware on development and testing of the vSphere NVMe/TCP feature. Lightbits’ LightOS optimized on Intel’s platform breadth of high-performance technologies for the data center such as Xeon Scalable processors, Optane Persistent memory and Intel Ethernet 800 Series Network Adapters is a VMware certified Day 0 software-defined storage solution for vSphere 7 Update 3 release. Lightbits’ storage solution, running on Intel technologies, combined with vSphere with inbox support for NVMe/TCP delivers an end-to-end NVMe solution. Organizations with private clouds and hybrid clouds, as well as cloud service providers can now realize the performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency benefits of a combined solution from VMware, Lightbits and Intel.

Committed to building robust storage ecosystem
The company has a large ecosystem of storage partners that certify their systems for vSphere. We look forward to partnering with other vendors over time to support our customers’ need for flexibility and choice, including NVMe/TCP. Our firm actively works with hardware vendors to certify our products, including vSphere, for the latest technologies as soon as they become available. Also, our company continues to work with its partners to enhance our other storage offerings, such as VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes.

Next steps:

• Started with vSphere, check out the vSphere 7 Quick Start Guide (registration required)
• Take a technical deep dive at TechZone
• Try a Hands-On Lab

Resources:
Blog: Announcing vSphere 7 Update 3    
Blog: vSphere 7 Update 3 - What's New
Video: vSphere 7 Update 3 - What's New Technical Overview