EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite
EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) for Windows Suite is a set of tools for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft applications administrators. The suite includes: ESI for Windows and ESI PowerShell Toolkit, ESI hypervisor support and system adapters, ESI SharePoint Adapter, ESI Exchange Integration, ESI SQL Server Adapter, ESI AppSync Adapter, ESI RecoverPoint Adapter, ESI Service and ESI Service PowerShell Toolkit, ESI SCOM Management Packs, and EMC Hyper-V VSS Requestor.
ESI for Windows and ESI PowerShell Toolkit
ESI for Windows has a GUI that is based on Microsoft Management Console (MMC). You can run ESI as a stand-alone tool or as part of an MMC snap-in on a Windows platform.
ESI also provides storage provisioning and discovery with the ESI PowerShell Toolkit. Getting started with the ESI PowerShell toolkits provides installation and setup information.
ESI for Windows enables you to view, provision, and manage block and file storage for Microsoft Windows, Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint sites. ESI supports the EMC Symmetrix VMAX series, EMC VNX series, EMC VNXe series, and EMC CLARiiON CX fourth generation (CX4) series of storage systems. ESI also supports EMC AppSync and Linux hosts.
ESI requires that you install the corresponding adapters for specific system and application support. Prerequisites provides specific details about the prerequisites for storage systems and applicable adapters.
The ESI PowerShell Toolkit provides ESI storage provisioning and discovery capabilities with corresponding PowerShell cmdlets.
ESI hypervisor support
In addition to physical environments, ESI also supports storage provisioning and discovery for Windows virtual machines (VMs) running on Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and VMware vSphere. The Hyper-V Adapter is installed with ESI core installation and the Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere Adapters are installed by default as part of the ESI installation. These adapters require no additional installation or setup.
The storage options in ESI vary depending on what is supported on the hypervisor:
For Hyper-V virtual machines, you can create virtual hard disks (VHD and VHDX files) and pass-through SCSI disks. You can also create host disks and cluster shared volumes.
For VMware vSphere virtual machines, you can create virtual hard disks (VMDK files) and raw device mapping (RDM) disks. You can also create SCSI disks and view datastores. SCSI disks require the use of existing SCSI controllers.
For XenServer virtual machines, you can create virtual hard disks (VHD files) and storage repositories. Before adding or removing virtual disks using ESI, the virtual machine running on the XenServer must have xs-tools installed. Otherwise, you must shut down the virtual machine before adding or removing virtual hard disks.
Storage system adapters
When you install ESI, you can select which adapters to install. ESI provides adapters for most supported storage systems, including VMAX, VNX, VNXe, VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer. Most of these adapters require no additional setup. However, the VMAX adapter requires some additional setup as described in Installing and setting up the VMAX Adapter.
ESI also has adapters for Linux hosts and for monitoring the health of VPLEX systems in SCOM. The Linux Adapter overview and VPLEX Adapter overview has more details.
Application and replication adapters
ESI also provides the following application
and replication adapters:
SharePoint Adapter
The ESI SharePoint Adapter enables you to view and manage SharePoint storage, farms, sites, and content databases. The SharePoint Adapter overview has more details.
SQL Server Adapter
The ESI SQL Server Adapter enables you to view local and remote Microsoft SQL Server instances and databases and to map the databases to EMC storage. ESI supports the SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn feature, so you can view the primary SQL Server replica and up to four secondary replicas.
You can use SQL Scripts to create and configure SQL Server databases from an ESI host. For SQL Server 2012, creating databases on file shares using SMB 3.0 and VNX storage systems is supported in this release. The SQL Server Adapter overview has more details.
Exchange Adapter
Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server, calendaring software, and contact manager program that runs on Windows Server. ESI Exchange integration enables storage administrators to integrate Exchange with supported EMC storage systems. The ESI Exchange Integration includes the Microsoft Exchange Adapter, the ESI Exchange High Availability (HA) Extension, the ESI Exchange SCOM Management Packs, and the ESI Exchange HA Extension. You can connect and manage Exchange storage with an ESI host controller. The Exchange Integration overview has more details.
AppSync Adapter (Replication)
The ESI AppSync Adapter provides simple, self-service application protection with tiered protection options and proven recoverability. This adapter supports multiple SQL Server instances on the same host. The ESI AppSync Adapter overview has more details.
RecoverPoint Adapter (Replication)
The ESI RecoverPoint Adapter provides local and remote data protection. If a disaster occurs, RecoverPoint can recover lost data from any point in time. You can use this adapter to connect to existing RecoverPoint/SE or RecoverPoint/EX systems and manage and view replication service clusters for replication. The ESI RecoverPoint Adapter overview has more details.
ESI Service and ESI Service PowerShell Toolkit
The ESI Service is the communications link between ESI and the ESI SCOM Management Packs. The ESI Service can be used with or without the ESI SCOM Management Packs. You can use the ESI Service to view and report on all registered EMC storage systems and storage-system components connected to the ESI host system.
The ESI Service PowerShell Toolkit is also installed as part of the ESI Service. Use this toolkit to set up the ESI Service.
ESI SCOM Management Packs
The ESI SCOM Management Packs for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) enable you to manage EMC storage systems with SCOM by providing consolidated and simplified dashboard views of storage entities. The management packs support the same VMAX family, VNX, and CX4 series of storage systems that are supported in ESI. The ESI SCOM Management packs also support EMC VPLEX systems and Symmetrix DMX 4 storage system. The VPLEX Adapter overview and ESI Service and ESI SCOM Management Packs overview has more details.
EMC Hyper-V VSS Requestor
EMC Hyper-V VSS Requestor is a backup utility that processes VSS requests to create point-in-time copies (shadow copies) of Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines for the EMC VMAX and VNX series of storage systems. EMC Hyper-V VSS Requestor Release Notes provides installation and setup instructions for this utility.
