I have a lot of sympathy for Chad's and Chuck's recent posts here and here on Oracle support for VMWare but I would have a lot more sympathy for them if EMC did not have such a track-record for using the support matrix as a marketing weapon.
EMC's continued refusal to certify another controller in front of their arrays, be it NetApp, HDS or IBM; makes their current spat with Oracle quite amusing from where I'm sitting. I know many customers who have requested that EMC certify NetApp v-class in front of various EMC arrays, this always met with an unequivocal NO with dark mutterings as there being issues. If you challenge EMC as to what the issues are, you generally get a lot hand-wafting and nothing more.
Now, we know that various EMC arrays work behind NetApp because there's an increasing number of customers who are doing so without EMC's certification but certification would be nice or at least an open discussion to as to what the problems are?
The support matrix should not be used as a marketing and sales tool; it should be used to genuinely add value to the customer/vendor relationship. So guys put your own houses in order before throwing stones!
Now, Martin, I know this makes some nice controversial reading, but it’s logically flawed: if you think about it for even a moment, you’ll realize that the two situations are quite different.
Oracle’s database runs on dozens and dozens of different operating environments. It has singled out one and only one hypervisor (VMware) that it refuses to support.
Notice that in this model, the “vendor on top” in the stack provides support for what’s underneath.
When it comes to storage virtualization, the same principle holds: HDS provides support for customers using their UPS-V with other vendors storage; same for IBM SVC, same for NetApp, same for EMC Invista — all of these external virtualization products are “on top of” what lies underneath, so they’re the first stop for support.
Hope this makes sense to you …
— Chuck
Okay Chuck, you’ve never sat in sales call where there are dark mutterings about issues with NetApp/SVC/USP on top of EMC kit. When challenged, EMC never ever reveal what the problems are, they just point blank refuse to certify it.
And yes, we’d expect the storage virtualisation vendor to be the first port of call for support but we would quite like to know that our vendors will work with each other to help resolve their customer’s issues.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about FUD! And both Oracle and yourselves have shown yourselves to be masters of that particular art. Sometimes even working in conjunction…it is a little amusing to see EMC/VMware on the receiving end of the FUD.