Storage to cloud

Question

we have a working Netapp with ESXi (VMWare 5.5) setup. With multiple VMs running on 3 ESXi Systems but they are residing entirely on Netapp Storage.

We are thinking of moving this entire setup to private Cloud. This cloud is currently owned by one of our departments and are ready to give us space(in terms of storage) and ESXis(VMI Cluster) to run our VMs on a rental basis. So immediate advantage for us is more space, more.network speed, DR Setup and not anymore worry about the hardware.

Ofcourse it is in discussion phase but I still would like to ask you experts following questions.

1. Netapp Storage is all about data plus its configuration (Snapshot, User Quota Policies, Export Rules etc.). When we talk about storage space in cloud, then how are we going to control/administrate the configuration parts listed above? Or will this not be anymore possible to administrate? And the Cloud administrators take this control in their hands and we have to be dependant on them for every configuration changes? This is very important factor.

2. Will VMs running on Netapp Storage be migrated without much efforts? Is there any documented method for this?

Your view on this will be really helpful.

Thanx in advance.

Regards,

Admin

Answer 1

On point #1, a common way to provide multi-tenant administrator access on NetApp is to create a separate SVM [1] (Storage Virtual Machine) that a tenant administrator can use to manage volume capacity, snapshots, quotas, etc.

For #2, a common migration path for moving VMware VMs is to use Storage vMotion [2]. The private cloud provider can remap the ESXi hosts in your environment to be managed under their vCenter Server first. Then from there, they will have the ability to (non-disruptively, in most cases) move the VMs from your old NetApp datastores to new datastores on their array. They can do the same for vMotioning these VMs over to their managed ESXi hosts.

[1] https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/concepts/storage-virtualization-concept.html

[2] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-AB266895-BAA4-4BF3-894E-47F99DC7B77F.html