OpenStack Question

ViPR supports EMC VNX, VMAX, Isilon, and VPLEX storage devices, and NetApp natively in the current 1.1 release.  HDS native support will be added in the just-announced upcoming ViPR 2.0 release. Native ViPR support means ViPR interacts with the arrays’ SMI-S providers or with the array directly via published APIs.  EMC does extensive quality, interoperability, and scale testing in this case.  Additionally, the depth of technical support coverage is more when we natively interact with the array.

Openstack Cinder is an open source driver that ViPR is able to discover and integrate with providing new possibilities to quickly bring third-party arrays supporting the OpenStack driver under ViPR control.  EMC does test ViPR compatibility with OpenStack Cinder but not the interoperability or scale testing done with natively supported storage arrays.  Additionally, the functionality available via Openstack may not be at the same as that provided via native support; it’ll vary by vendor. Additionally, as implied by the very nature of open source code, if someone hits a bug in the Cinder plugin, we may have to depend on the Openstack community to provide a fix.

Decisions to support arrays natively or via Openstack plugin are determined by customer demand and the availability of suitable public interfaces. I hope this helps.