back to article Nuclear subs seek virtual SAN, says VMware

VMware says it's been asked to consider how nuclear submarines might use its virtual SAN. Duncan Epping, the company's chief technologist storage and availability, told today's VMware User Group UserCon in Sydney, Australia, that Virtzilla's been asked to create “an architecture” for use in a such a sub, but couldn't offer any …

  1. M7S
    Coat

    Isnt this a bit complex for just wanting to shoot a torpedo?

    Don't you just want to use a simple command...

    ...ping

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Isnt this a bit complex for just wanting to shoot a torpedo?

      Perhaps... But when your far from land and without broadband, you need to ensure five-nines availability for the porn stash - after all those boats carry a load of semen seamen!

      ping... ping... ping ping.. ping Ping PIng ..... PIIIIINNNNG! Arrrgghhh!!

    2. I am the liquor

      Re: Isnt this a bit complex for just wanting to shoot a torpedo?

      ping -c 1 Vasily

    3. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Isnt this a bit complex for just wanting to shoot a torpedo?

      Yes . . .

      One. Ping. Only.

  2. Your alien overlord - fear me
    Paris Hilton

    SAN - Submarine Area network ?

    Paris - because I hear she goes down (like a sub !!! )

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The trouble with VSAN is there's always some great improvement coming just around the corner, there's never a good time to install. Its just not mature enough for us old folks who like tried and tested file systems.

    1. Lost_Signal

      Version

      Full disclaimer vSAN Tech Marketing here (@Lost_Signal on twitter).

      Would it help if the version numbers were reduced to x.x.y releases for major features so you can feel like it's a "mature release" but you get the new hot goods?

      While vSAN does have file system, I'd like to point out that it does NOT have or use a clustered file system. It's an object storage layer built on top of local file systems (Disk groups). This allows for retooling under the hood, and scaling to the moon while maintaining low overhead and incredible resiliency.

      The alternative is you buy a storage product either at the beginning of it's life cycle (Bleeding edge!) or at the end (Your deploying SAS based SSD's while everyone else is talking about NVMe). I'd argue with vSAN you have a lot more flexibility in that you can choose your hardware (Stay a version behind, or deploy the new 3D XPOINT now!), you can choose your software vintage (The 6.0 branch of ESXi, or the 6.5 branch) depending on what you are comfortable deploying.

      If you like a slower release cadence, and a more "fixed" storage array like consumption model have you looked at Dell-EMC VxRAIL, or HDS's UCP-HC. They both add extra lifecycle management on top of vSAN, and have their own vendor specific QE cycles added to the mix with hand holding hardware/software single number support. With 2 (maybe more?) OEM appliance offerings, and 15 server vendors and hundreds of certified devices you've got a LOT of options (depending on what your looking for).

  4. anthonypoh

    Have you guys never seen the film Battleships?!? That's how you shoot torpedoes and ballistic missiles!! =P

    On another note... it's vSAN..... little "v"....!!

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Let's hope it's not like the F35's logistics system.

    Mostly written in C/C++ and needing to call home (IE the Pentagon) to get an authorization to do something.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Roach Motel

    This is what vSphere and vSAN have become.

    Management/monitoring are a top priority I read yet the statement of "we need to fix availability and security" is a loud and clear validation that VMware do not understand what's important to customers.

    Note to VMware:

    VMs are transient. Storage has mass. Once a byte of data lands in your media, potentially to stay there forever, you have to secure it, protect it and ensure it's always available and immutable.

    Start paying attention to these things if you want people to take you seriously.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "asked to consider" is probably code for "they told us they didn't want it and told us why it wasn't suitable"

    VMware have been deaf to reality for some years now and have an unnatural cheery outlook despite their obvious (to outsiders) decline into oblivion.

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