Learning about vSphere Flash Read Cache

I'm looking at vSphere Flash Read Cache in case that Pernix FVP does not release an update for vSphere 6.5 (after being bought by Nutanix). Using vFRC is a bit different right off the bat, since it doesn't do write acceleration, but since I already have the required vSphere licensing and hardware, there is no cost to enable.

The biggest problems I see so far are:

1) not a lot of reported users, at least that I could find, although it's been kept as a feature by VMware since it was announced so there has to be quite a few. However, I didn't find lots of operational blogs, just feature announcement types.
2) more rigid implementation steps compared to Pernix FVP, which takes some reading to figure out

Biggest differences with Pernix FVP apart from the obvious:

• Instead of enabling per cluster, you have to enable it per disk on the VMs, and have to choose the block size. This means you have to use something like vSCSIstats to determine your workload, and then you will only be able to accelerate the block sizes that match, which is never 100% of storage i/o. You can change the block size of a running VM; this can be enabled/disabled while the VM is running as well.
• Implementing this requires VMs to be running HW v10 – I know lots of admins that don't religiously update their VM hardware after an upgrade, so this should be called out. 
• There have been no updates in functionality since the v1.0 release in vSphere 5.5. Good news is VMware continues supporting it, and the SSD model I'm interested in is listed in the HCL for 6.5 http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=vfrc&productid=36248&deviceCategory=vfrc&details=1&releases=273&deviceTypes=18&partner=454&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc 

Known KB’s
There are two known issues, and they are easily avoidable as patches were released already, so just make sure you are running latest before enabling

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2114498&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=381661788&stateId=0%200%20381669816
https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2072392&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=381647699&stateId=0%200%20381651933 

Documentation
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-65/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-07ADB946-2337-4642-B660-34212F237E71.html 
http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/vmware-vsphere-flash-read-cache-faq.pdf << particularly useful
http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/vmware-vfrc-performance-vsphere55-white-paper.pdf  << cool read

Blog posts

http://cormachogan.com/2014/02/14/a-closer-look-at-vsphere-flash-read-cache-vfrc/ 
http://nolabnoparty.com/en/vmware-vflash-read-cache-setup/ 
http://everything-virtual.com/vmware-study-guides/vcap-dca-study-guide/configure-and-manage-vsphere-flash-read-cache/ 
http://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-and-how-to-configure-vmware-vsphere-flash-read-cache-vfrc/ 
http://www.vladan.fr/vmware-vflash-read-cache-vfrc/ 

Testing SSD-enabled VMware products in the nested home lab

So here's a little project for December.

I use 3 solutions at work that rely on SSDs, or offer them as an option. The solutions are:

PernixData FVP
Stormagic SVSAN
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN)

I want to run them on my home lab. However, my home lab is one 32gb desktop. I do have a 500GB SSD and normal spinning disk on it, so at least there is SSD performance available, but I may need to get creative.

So, my little experiment will be to created two or three "SSD enabled" hosts and test if the products will install and run. I leave here the links for requesting the product trials:

https://get.pernixdata.com/FVPTrial
http://www.stormagic.com/60-day-free-trial/
https://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san/vsan-hol.html

I will blog my experience with each one, including any tricks I had to use to make the nested hosts work properly. I obviously can't really run any production on these; this basically is a lab for me to test installation, upgrades and what happens if I switch from vsphere 5.x to v6. I obviously will google and tweet questions as needed.