Skip to main content
Contact Us
Register
Pure Technical Services

Note on vVol support of NVMe-oF in vSphere 8.0 and the Pure VASA Provider

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF

Currently viewing public documentation. Please login to access the full scope of documentation.

Why is Pure Storage not involved in the launch?

We are not supporting NVMe-oF with vVols at release of the feature by VMware, but we were involved in the development and review of the specification (VASA 4.0) with VMware but we opted to not be official design partners.

Why is Pure Storage not a design partner?

We were approached and we decided to decline. We did this for a few reasons

  1. Pure had other vVol priorities.
  2. In order to be a design partner we have to meet their release schedule
  3. A lot NVMe prerequisites were not met on our side yet, so it was not merely a vVol project

What is the other priority?

ActiveCluster and vVols. Overall, adoption of NVMe-oF has been low, but it is likely overall inevitable. With that being said, AC + vVols is an immediate and long-running need that can deliver immediate adoption and support business needs. Furthermore, we found it far more important to be a design partner on stretched storage + vVols over NVMe-oF. NVMe-oF support is mostly academic–there is not a lot of room to truly differentiate there.

With ActiveCluster (stretched storage) with vVols there is a lot. We wanted to ensure the value of AC shone through the specification (VASA 6.0) and being an end-to-end design partner was the way to do so. We could not do both at once, so we opted to truly focus on AC + vVols. We demoed this at VMware Explore 2022 and will GA it at VMware Explore 2023.

We are also design partners on VASA 5.0 which is a redesign of certificate and vVol datastore ACL management to be delivered in 1H of 2023 (CY).

What about NVMe-oF + vVols?

We are working with the platform team to complete the foundational NVMe-oF feature prerequisites and our scheduling the VASA work. We do not have a fully committed timeline yet, but as of Sept 2022, we are targeting completion in 12-18 months (this is a goal not a commitment). That timeline seems to generally match the adoption of NVMe-oF for the average customer.

What if I have a deal that requires this/a customer who wants it sooner?

Please open an RFE with the opportunity so we can prioritize.