Comparative Analysis of EMC ViPR and Huawei OceanStor DJ Software-Defined Storage Solutions

Regarding software-defined storage (SDS), each vendor has its own definition and understanding based on its domain expertise and technological accumulation, similar to the cloud computing concept with many opinions. However, I believe that regardless of how vendors differentiate their definitions, they should align with SDS requirements such as programmability, policy‑driven operation, resource‑pool virtualization, separation of data and control planes, and service automation. In fact, these requirements are also IDC's definition of SDS.

IDC's definition of SDS coincides with ONF's concept of software‑defined networking (SDN) (OpenFlow). The core idea of SDN is the separation of data and control planes, supporting heterogeneity, service orchestration, and automation. Only in this way can storage automation, templating, and data intelligence be achieved through software‑level service catalogs and policies.

Last month I conducted a technical interest questionnaire in the article "Considerations for Data Deduplication in the Big Data Era". From the limited feedback, participants are more concerned with storage and cloud computing. I thank everyone for their feedback and suggestions and will make corresponding adjustments.

Today I write an article about storage. Using VMware SDDC as a starting point, I compare and analyze two industry‑available commercially delivered pure‑software SDS products that truly achieve control‑data separation: EMC ViPR and Huawei OceanStor DJ.

SDDC Reference Architecture

SDDC reference architecture also adopts a similar control‑and‑data plane separation concept. Currently SDDC integrates VIPR and NSX products. The management layer acts as an independent plane that governs the entire data center, similar to storage network management software. The infrastructure layer includes various physical infrastructures that carry data workloads.

EMC released ViPR in 2013, and ViPR 2.0 incorporated ScaleIO, providing OpenStack Cinder support for heterogeneous storage, packaging ViPR and ECS on commercial hardware. This year at the EMC World conference, ViPR 3.0 was announced, enhancing cloud integration and third‑party storage takeover capabilities. In contrast, Huawei DJ was released later, but it already has commercial deployments in finance, telecom, and automotive sectors, integrating with the enterprise management software eSight to achieve unified management and service automation. Below we analyze these two products from system architecture, ecosystem cooperation, technical advantages, and solution perspectives.

System Logical Architecture

ViPR integrates all storage (including third‑party) into a single storage pool, treating virtual storage arrays as the system management objects while retaining the characteristics of the underlying physical storage. It can be deployed across multiple sites and data centers in a distributed manner, offering unified block, file, and object storage services. ViPR also provides multi‑tenant metadata services and self‑service deployment, metering, and monitoring.

Control plane is responsible for discovering, configuring, and managing storage devices, including multi‑tenant, self‑service portal, metering, and provisioning. ViPR partitions discovered physical storage or pools into multiple virtual storage arrays and provides storage services on demand. Based on virtual storage pools, it implements volumes, NFS/CIFS file systems, and advanced protection services (snapshots, clones, replication, etc.), and offers interfaces for cloud platform integration.

Data plane handles actual data read/write. The control plane only provides a service catalog view and management; the actual data flow passes directly through the data plane to the underlying storage hardware, so ViPR does not become a performance bottleneck. It currently supports NAS and Object conversion protocols, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Atmos, EMC VNX, Isilon, NetApp file access, HDFS, etc.

OceanStor DJ is built on x86 hardware architecture, supporting file, block, and (planned) object storage services, and integrates third‑party data protection, disaster recovery, and value‑added features. Its architecture is similar to ViPR, using policy and customizable templates for scheduling, orchestration, and automation. Through heterogeneous storage takeover (presented as Huawei storage volumes) and OpenStack storage standard interfaces, it achieves resource pooling, unified storage management, and SAN switch integration.

EMC ViPR and Huawei OceanStor DJ have similar architectures, adopting data‑plane and control‑plane separation. Based on virtual storage pools, they implement volumes, NFS/CIFS file systems, and advanced protection services (snapshots, clones, replication, backup, etc.), and provide OpenAPI interfaces for cloud platform integration.

DJ supports Huawei storage, FusionStorage, and third‑party devices (HDS, EMC, HP, etc.). Compared with ViPR, DJ fully follows the OpenStack architecture, using Cinder, Malina interfaces for third‑party storage management, without proprietary interfaces like ViPR.

ViPR Architecture and Main Features

ViPR is a pure‑software product deployed on VMware virtual machines, running on a cluster of 3‑5 ESX hosts as a vApp. Users create Virtual Storage Pools (VSP) within ViPR, specifying storage attributes (software features, RAID, path count, etc.). ViPR matches VSP attributes to aggregate physical storage arrays and, based on tenant requests, maps to the appropriate array and pool to satisfy resource demands.

A single ViPR instance can manage multiple physical data centers located in different cities, consolidating them into one virtual storage center.

ViPR can automate storage disaster recovery; the virtual block controller integrates with VPLEX and RecoverPoint physical block nodes, enabling Continuous Remote Replication (CRR) between virtual arrays for data protection.

DJ Architecture and Main Features

OceanStor DJ is also a pure‑software product, supporting physical or virtual deployment, single‑node or multi‑node HA (3+ nodes). DJ’s architecture consists of Storage Function Virtualization (SFV) and SDS layers.

SFV supports generic physical hardware, x86 servers, and hypervisor‑based virtual servers. The OceanStor OS platform functions like an NFV pipeline, providing hardware abstraction and resource pooling. Core storage functions and value‑added features (NAS, object, replication, backup, DR) resemble NFV network functions, while DJ’s SDS platform acts like MANO or a cloud marketplace.

DJ provides data protection requiring at least two primary‑secondary storage arrays deployed at two sites, both managed by the same DJ cloud platform.

Primary‑secondary replication volumes are created by DJ’s extended OpenStack Cinder module, which, based on LUN size, capabilities, AZ, etc., creates corresponding DR volumes. DPS calls the OM service to create, start, or cancel replication relationships, translating commands to Cinder interfaces, which invoke the appropriate driver to execute DR tasks.

OceanStor DJ offers a powerful Data Protection Service (DPS) engine; after a tenant submits a data protection request (backup, DR, etc.), the DPS engine automatically matches required resources and fulfills the request, fully abstracting underlying data interactions from the tenant.

Tenants submit backup service requests via the ManageOne service center; DPS matches and schedules tasks (selecting backup storage, policies, network), and the backup driver invokes backup software to perform snapshot‑based backups.

Business Automation Provisioning Process

ViPR uses a service catalog and policy‑driven storage allocation. When a user logs into the ViPR portal and requests storage (e.g., High Performance), ViPR checks the policy linked to the VSP, selects the optimal storage array and pool.

Then it automatically selects storage ports based on performance, creates zones, places devices in a storage group with FAST policy, executes the workflow on the array, and confirms host‑to‑storage connectivity.

The host treats these devices as High Performance and reads/writes directly. Users can perform data protection, DR, expansion, or deletion via the ViPR portal according to their options.

OceanStor DJ uses a service catalog defining various storage services or features (resource pool, thin provisioning, tiered storage, migration policies, QoS, etc.) that users can customize.

When a tenant submits a storage request, the scheduling layer finds suitable storage devices based on service type. The scheduler automatically matches requirements to device capabilities and selects the best storage.

System administrators plan storage pools based on type, purpose, capacity, and configure the service catalog. Tenants view the catalog, select and reserve desired services, and DJ automatically provisions and attaches storage to hosts.

Interface Open Capability

ViPR provides RESTful northbound and southbound APIs, enabling integration with third‑party applications (e.g., AppSync) and management software. Through OpenStack, SMI‑S, XML, proprietary storage takeover interfaces, and REST APIs, it discovers and manages physical storage, supporting third‑party arrays for automatic connection, discovery, and SAN management.

ViPR integrates with VMware, Hyper‑V, and OpenStack. It also supports VASA, vCenter Orchestrator, and vCenter Operations, allowing vCenter administrators to obtain end‑to‑end visibility from VM to physical storage.

DJ is fully integrated into the OpenStack architecture, seamlessly interfacing with OpenStack cloud platforms, enhancing storage capabilities, business automation, and data protection. Technically it can replace OpenStack’s storage module and provide stronger storage, automation, and protection.

DJ offers RESTful/Open API northbound interfaces and integrates with OpenStack, VMware VASA, ManageOne, eSight, and third‑party management software (CA, vCenter, etc.), providing RESTful (OpenStack API) and SMI‑S southbound interfaces for third‑party storage integration.

DJ collaborates with major backup vendors such as Veritas and CV, implementing a Data Protection Engine (Smaug) that integrates via RESTful interfaces with third‑party backup software, enabling tenants to perform self‑service backup and recovery.

Visualization Management Capability

ViPR versions integrate Storage Resource Management (SRM) and Service Assurance Suites (SAS) to manage the entire ViPR data center.

SRM provides resource utilization, capacity planning, change management, performance analysis, and reporting, supporting VNXE3200, XtremIO, HDS, HP, IBM XIV, NetApp, etc. SAS offers end‑to‑end service level assurance; ViPR manages virtual storage.

DJ is mainly used for storage resource management and scheduling; in data centers it is orchestrated by the ManageOne service center. eSight serves as an operations component integrated into the system. ManageOne is a cloud data center management suite comprising service automation (SC), service assurance (OC), and device management (eSight) components.

eSight provides unified data‑center management and monitoring, compatible with heterogeneous devices, offering consolidated operations. As a monitoring component, it is integrated into ManageOne. OceanStor DJ focuses on storage virtualization and service delivery; it can be sold independently or integrated into Huawei Cloud Management Platform within FusionSphere.

Simple Summary:

Currently many vendors decouple storage hardware and software, adopt x86 platforms, and provide heterogeneous storage takeover capabilities akin to SDS, but only solutions that truly separate control and data planes align with the software‑defined concept, allowing direct integration without altering existing networks and avoiding performance bottlenecks. Exposing northbound interfaces preserves advanced heterogeneous storage features within an overall SDS solution.

Architecture Comparison

Both ViPR and DJ use data‑plane and control‑plane separation, achieving service catalog and business automation provisioning. However, deployment methods and architectural implementations differ. ViPR uses typical virtualization deployment, OpenStack (Cinder, Malina, Swift) and proprietary interfaces for third‑party storage management; DJ supports single‑node, HA physical and virtual deployments without virtualization platform constraints, offering flexibility. DJ relies entirely on OpenStack interfaces for third‑party storage, so any storage supporting OpenStack can integrate, though support breadth depends on the storage’s implementation.

Third‑Party Array Management

ViPR collaborates with NetApp via private interfaces to manage FAS storage; private interfaces offer efficiency and feature advantages but require custom adaptation for upgrades, increasing cost. DJ relies on OpenStack and heterogeneous storage takeover (treated as Huawei devices); the technology is more open, though currently supports fewer third‑party arrays than ViPR.

Data Protection Capability

ViPR integrates VPLEX, AppSync, RecoverPoint, and other value‑added features, showing clear advantages in active‑active and DCP scenarios. DJ offers a basic data protection suite (eBackup, storage replication, third‑party backup software like CV) and value‑added features, giving it strengths in backup, especially when integrated with FusionSphere OpenStack to provide cloud backup and disaster recovery.

Automation Capability

ViPR and DJ have similar capabilities in business templates, service catalog, and resource management, but ViPR has an edge in automatic mounting of resources, supporting AIX, AIX VIO, Linux, Windows, ESXi, whereas DJ currently limits automatic mounting to Linux and ESXi.

Openness

Both platforms are relatively open, supporting third‑party operations and management integration. ViPR mainly partners with VMware for solutions and enhancements, supporting VASA, vCenter, Microsoft System Center, etc. DJ, built on OpenStack, naturally integrates with OpenStack and also supports VASA, vCenter, ManageOne, giving DJ a certain advantage in openness.

Service and Operations Capability

ViPR primarily offers NAS, SAN, HDFS, object, and disaster recovery services. DJ mainly provides SAN, NAS, and data disaster recovery; object services are under development. Regarding management and operations, ViPR integrates SRM and SAS for service provisioning, resource management, and quality assurance; DJ can flexibly integrate OpenStack, ManageOne, eSight for business automation, cloud backup, DR, and resource monitoring.

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