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After the acquisition of PernixData by Nutanix (six months ago) the future of Pernix products is not clear at all. Actually is not possible buy neither FVP or Architect anymore, the PernixPro program has been closed (or “merged” into the Nutanix NTC) and no new version is available to support VMware vSphere 6.5. See Some clarifications on PernixData FVP to get the answer of some possible concerns.

Existing support contract are still honored, support and download pages are still working…

Also there is a “new” patch to fix an issue described in KB 1357 (customers that have custom SATP claim rules which specify the use of PernixData PSPs, such as PRNX_PSP_RR, a race condition could result in unresponsive VMs). Latest version of FVP is actually 3.5.0.1.

But the product it’s not updated yet for latest version of vSphere (and will interesting see if some future patch of vSphere 5.5 or 6.0 may also break the integration). There will be new releasese and also support for vSphere 6.5, but there isn’t an official timeline.

Neither it has been redesigned to work with the VAIO (VMware vSphere APIs for IO) framework introduces in vSphere 6.0.

VAIO offers partners the ability to put their technology directly into the IO stream of a VM through a filter that intercepts data before it is committed to disk. VAIO is a Software-based data services controlled by Storage Policy-Based Management that enables secure filtering of a VM’s IO safely in the kernel according to a policy.

VAIO

So it’s che cleanest way to add host caching features without add too much kernel modules or depends too much from vmkernel kernel interfaces. Of course it’s not the only way to add caching, and PernixData (but also other products) demostrate it. But I think that VAIO is a cleanest (not necessary better) way to add this future, also to mitigate possible risks during patching.

Actually there is a list of solutions designed and certified for VAIO.

If your support contract with Pernix is close to the end and you don’t want to renew it, or you are going to plan an upgrade to version 6.5 in the next days and you still need some host caching functions, maybe it’s time to look at a replacement for FVP. Otherwise you can wait the new release with vSphere 6.5 support.

SanDisk

SanDisk FlashSoft 4 was the first host-based caching software to achieve VMware Ready™ certification for guaranteed compatibility, reliability and support. It also introduces support for VMware-supported datastores, virtual disk acceleration, improved performance and stability, and integrated management through the vSphere web client GUI.

But with the acquisition of SanDisk from Western Digital the future of FlashSoft is not so clear. Version 4.0 has already the support for VMware vSphere 6.0 and VAIO, but lot of links in SanDisk web site are not working anymore.

Infinio

Infinio Accelerator 3.0 is a software-based server-side cache that provides high performance to any storage system in a VMware environment. It increases IOPS and decreases latency by caching a copy of the hottest data on serverside resources such as RAM and flash devices. Native inline deduplication ensures that all local storage resources are used as efficiently as possible, reducing the cost of performance. Results can be seen instantly following the non-disruptive, 15-minute installation that doesn’t require any downtime, data migration, or reboot.

Infinio Accelerator requires VMware vSphere ESXi 6 U2 (Standard, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus) and VMware vCenter 6 U2, but also works con vSphere 6.5. Infinio works with any VMware supported datastore, including a variety of SAN, NAS, and DAS hardware supporting VMFS, Virtual Volumes (VVOLs), and Virtual SAN (vSAN).

Also you can try it for 30 days: just download the product from this link.

PrimaryIO

PrimaryIO is an emerging provider of performance optimization solutions for business-critical applications, that on March 2016 has announced the general availability (GA) of Application Performance Acceleration (APA) V1.0 solution for VMware vSphere® 6.

PrimaryIO APA V1.0 is a VMware Certified solution that provides operability with VMware vSphere APIs for IO Filtering to enable enhanced I/O performance of virtualized tier-1 applications, such as Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB and MySQL. PrimaryIO APA V1.0 is probably the first product born directly on the VAIO framework and seems very promising.

It has also a cluster wide caching where one host can use the SSD cache from another host in a better way. Also the pricing seems very interesting.

Also you can test the product using this link.

Samsung

Samsung AutoCache 3.1 is an I/O caching solution designed to increase virtual machine (VM) density and accelerate business-critical applications in servers by eliminating bottlenecks. I/O bottlenecks are eradicated by transparently moving copies of frequently accessed data to SSDs for quicker access. AutoCache first writes data to the SSDs and then copies it to disk drives, enabling the system to handle bursts of high-write requests at SSD speeds instead of slow disk speeds. The technology requires no guest OS agents and supports virtually all types of SSDs, including NVMe, SATA and SAS SSDs.

AutoCache was acquired in 2014 by Samsung with the acquisition of Proximal Data.

A free trial (with less than 30 days) it’s available at this link.

Virtunet Systems

Virtunet Systems VirtuCache is kernel mode software installed in the VMware kernel that caches frequently accessed data from our customer’s existing storage appliance (both reads and writes), to any high speed media (SSD or RAM) that our customer installs in the same host. Subsequently by serving up more and more data from the in-host SSD (or RAM), VirtuCache improves storage throughput and reduces latency from our customer’s existing storage infrastructure without requiring a storage appliance or storage networking upgrade. By alleviating the storage IO bottleneck, VirtuCache allows higher VM to host ratios and improves performance of applications installed in VMs.

Actually support VMware vSphere 5.x and 6.x, but note that it’s not using VAIO.

There is a 30 days evaluation license, to just test the product.

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.