Best practices for using vSphere 4 with celerra

1© Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Best practices for using VMwarevSphere 4 with EMC Celerra

Yossi MesikaAaron PattenCelerra Unified Storage Group

October 2009


Configuring Celerra with VMwarevSphere 4

– NFS– iSCSI– FC– CIFS

Performance & storage considerations

Architecting vSphere 4 solutions using advanced Celerra features

– Backup – SnapSure– DR & VMware Site Recovery Manager -

Replicator– Storage Efficiency & Management – Virtual

Provisioning, Data Deduplication

Conclusion

Q&A

Agenda


Configuring EMC Celerra with VMwarevSphere 4

A range of storage protocols all supported by the same Celerrasystem

Datastores – presented to the ESX hosts

– VMFS, NFS, or RDM volumes*– Over NFS, iSCSI, or FC– VMs with/without their data

– Network shares – presented to the virtual machines

– Over NFS or CIFS– Home directories, ISO repository, VM

template library repository, etc.


Celerra– Celerra file system

Mount on Data Mover using the uncached option

– NFS export to present file system to ESX (root access)

ESX/ESXi– NFS settings for Celerra NFS

ESX NFS read/write buffer size to 64KB

• SendBufferSize, ReceiveBufferSizeMaxVolumes (default 8, max 64)

• http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2239VMkernel port for IP storage I/O path

– NFS datastore to access the Celerrafile system

Configuration - NFS

If needed, file systems can also be mounted directly on the VM guest OS using the guest OS NFS client


Celerra– Celerra file system– iSCSI LUN & target

CHAP security optionalPresent LUNs to ESX via LUN masking

ESX/ESXi– VMkernel port for IP storage I/O path– Configure ESX iSCSI initiator– VMFS datastore to access iSCSI

LUNsOr– RDM volume to provide a VM a way

to access an iSCSI LUN

Configuration - iSCSI

If needed, iSCSI LUNs can also be presented to the VM guest OS using the guest OS iSCSI initiator (eg. MS iSCSI initiator)


NetworkGbE connection (10GbE also supported)

Dedicated or segmented using VLAN tagging

Timeout settings – ESX (NFS)HeartbeatFrequency - 12

HeartbeatMaxFailures - 10

HeartbeatTimeout - keep at default, 5

Timeout settings – Guest OSSCSI timeout registry setting –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Disk/TimeOutValue

VM swap file location

Configuration – NFS and iSCSIFurther considerations


Configuration - Fibre Channel

Celerra– FC LUN & target

Present LUNs to ESX through CelerraFC portsLeveraging CLARiiON Fibre Channel features and best practices

ESX/ESXi– Configure FC HBA on ESX

Discover FC target & LUNs– VMFS datastore on FC LUNsOr– RDM volume to provide a VM a way

to access an FC LUN directly






– Backup – SnapSure– DR & VMware Site Recovery Manger -



Conclusion

Q&A

Agenda


Performance and Storage Considerations Multipathing/Failover - NFS

Static Link Aggregation on ESX– Single VMkernel port on a single

vSwitch– Multiple NICs, NIC teaming with IP

Hash load balancing policy– Dynamic LACP when using the Cisco

Nexus 1000V vDS

Cross-stack Etherchannel on switch

Dynamic Link Aggregation on Celerra

– Configure multiple IP (can be on same subnet)

Multiple datastores required

ESX / ESXi

Celerra

0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3

NIC1

NIC2

Static LACP

StandbyData Mover

ActiveData Mover

Dynamic LACP

Cross-stack

Etherchannel

on switch

* Important: timeout settings


VMware’s native iSCSI multipathsoftware

– Fixed or NMP/Round-Robin

PowerPath/VE– Optional multipathing upgrade– Required for dynamic load balancing

and automatic failback– Over NICs or iSCSI HBAs

Cross-stack Etherchannel on switch

A single vSwitch– Two VMkernels on same subnet– Each should be binded to a single NIC

iSCSI Hardware initiator– Same as Fibre-Channel

SP B

VMkernelsESX / ESXi

Celerra

0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3

NIC1

StandbyData Mover

ActiveData Mover

NIC2

Cross-stack

Etherchannel

on switch

Performance and Storage Considerations Multipathing/Failover - iSCSI

* Important: timeout settings


Performance and Storage ConsiderationsConfiguration for storage layout

Do not present storage to ESX cluster as one big SCSI disk or one big file system

Consider Automatic Volume Management (AVM) or Manual Volume Management (MVM) to layout storage

Avoid using same set of storage object for different applications I/O characteristics

– Helps take advantage of advanced storage related software

File systems and LUNs should be sized according to anticipated I/O workload

– Use of Automatic file system extension and VMFS volume growth with dynamic LUN growth mitigates risk

Consider Spreading load across multiple physical disks for capacity and expansion for application data volumes

– Celerra Striped Volumes


Performance and Storage ConsiderationsManaging data for I/O-Intensive OS/Application

Follow I/O best practice recommendations for a physical server

Align application data disks at Virtual Machine Level for ESX 4– In all storage protocols– NFS datastores with Celerra will be aligned– Use VMware vSphere Client to create VMFS datastores– Recommendations for aligning guest OS partitions:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_partition_align.pdf (dated)http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929491 (recent)Partition alignment

• 1MBAllocation Unit Size (Windows)

• Per application recommendation, or ,if none exist, a multiple of 8KB

Must separate file systems or LUNs for OS/app and application data

Use RDM, or present the entire datastore (as a virtual disk) to the VM









Conclusion

Q&A

Agenda


Basic vSphere Backup with Celerra SnapSure

SnapSure provides a read-only or read-write, point-in-time view of a Celerra file system

– File system-level or iSCSI LUN view– Simple file undelete for user data (CIFS)– Crash consistent local backup of entire

VMs– Foundational technology used by Celerra

Replicator

Celerra

Snapshot

Logical point-in-time

copyProductionfile system


Full VM Restore from NFS Datastore using SnapSure Checkpoint

Enable “showChildFsRoot” option on DataMover

– By default the .ckpt directory is hidden– Enable from Celerra Manager or CS

command line

vCenter datastore browser will now show file system checkpoints

– Data can be copied out of checkpoint for restore or backup operations

– Image level restore of VMs (VMDK)– Does not allow granular access of VM

guest file system

Restore of entire NFS file system from checkpoint


Avamar - Optimized Backup for VMwarevSphere and Celerra

File level restore of VM guest OS– Agent in guest OS – files and applications protected (Guest OS/files restore)– Agent in ESX SC – VMs protected (image level restore of VM)– Agent in VCB server – file and image level restore of Windows and Linux VMs

Source data deduplication– Duplicate data never traverses congested shared resources– Significantly reduces contention for shared resources– Deduplicates within and across VMDK files

Ideal for the protection of VMware environments– Enables fast, secure backups over existing virtual infrastructure– Permits greater server consolidation and maximum value from VMware


vSphere Data Replication with CelerraReplicator

Out of box replication solution for CelerraSupports local or remote replication of VMware datastores on NFS and iSCSIProduction data available during replicationLeverages Celerra SnapSure for checkpoint creationSends only changed data over the wireCan be paired with SRM 4 over iSCSI or NFS for automated DR

Point-in-Time Asynchronous File System and iSCSI LUN Replication

R2 sitenetwork

IPnetwork

Celerra

FS/VDMor LUNCopy

FS/iSCSIsnaps

Celerra

ProductionFS/VDMor LUN

FS/iSCSIsnaps

ESXESXESXESX

R2 sitenetworkR1 sitenetwork


vSphere Data Replication with CelerraReplicator (cont.)

Replicator supports iSCSI, NFS and VDMs– Guest OS images, as well as the application data, can be replicated– The replica can be presented to the same ESX host

Allows one VM to use the production LUN, and another VM on the same ESX Server to access the replica

– Natively, the replica will be crash-consistent– Application-consistent replica can be created through the use of EMC Replication

Manager*

ESX / ESXi

x86 architectureVMware: Virtualization layer

SOFT

WA

RE

HA

RD

WA

RE Replica of

Windowsapp data

Windowsapp data

Linuxapp data

* VMFS and NFS support with Replication Manager version 5.2 SP2


Consideration for vSphere Data Replication with Celerra Replicator

Celerra iSCSI– ESX iSCSI software and hardware initiator

Replication granularity entire VMFS volumeSupport for Replication Manager with VMFS and RDM volumes

– VM iSCSI software initiator Replication granularity VM virtual disk Replica presented to a different VM (same or different ESX Server)

Celerra NFS– Replication granularity is entire NFS volume– Support for Replication Manager* with NFS datastores for application consistency

* VMFS and NFS support with Replication Manager version 5.2 SP2


vSphere Disaster Recovery with CelerraReplicator and Site Recovery Manager 4.0

Celerra and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager integration

Celerra Replicator controlled by VMwarevCenter Site Recovery Manager

Define Celerra and VMware business continuity/disaster recovery workflows for discovery, testing, and failover over NFS and iSCSI

BenefitsSimplifies and automates disaster recovery by automating workflow management of Celerra Replicator

Provides central management of recovery plans from VMware vCenter Server

Turns manual recovery processes into automated recovery plans

Makes disaster recovery rapid, reliable, manageable, affordable

over NFS and iSCSI

Production

ESX servers

Recovery

Celerra Replicator

Celerra Celerra

VMware Site Recovery Manager

failback

ESX servers ESX serversESX servers


vSphere DR with SRM and Celerra ReplicatorEMC Celerra VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Failback Plug-in

• What does it do?• Provides a way to automate a site

failback for a site that was failed over using VMware SRM

• What problems does it solve?• Site failback following a failover

without this tool must be done manually

• How is it deployed?• Via VMware VI Client extensions• Available on Powerlink with Celerra

• Currently supports automated fail-back with iSCSI

* Failback for SRM 4.0 and NFS coming soon!


Celerra-based Virtual Provisioning to maximize storage utilization

Virtual Disk format in vSphere– Thick or thin (VMFS only)

Both can be used to maximize utilization (thin on thin)

With Virtual Provisioning– Storage allocated only when needed– File system/LUN can be extended

when its utilization raises– Virtual Machines are presented with

upper size storage limit

In this model– No need to over-provision

vSphere Storage Efficiency With CelerraVirtual Provisioning

Unused Storage

5G 10G 15G 10G

40G file system

Unallocated Storage

5G 10G 15G 10G

40G file system

IMPORTANT (especially for thin on thin)• Monitor usage from both vCenter Server and Celerra• Set event notification for LUN/file system full condition• Set alarm for datastore full in vCenter Server


Considerations for using Celerra Virtual Provisioning with vSphere

Enable thin provisioning where it makes the most sense

– ESX 3.5 was not “thin friendly” for many storage operations

– Thin provision at array

vSphere includes enhanced thin provisioning support

– Storage operations now maintain thin nature of VMs

VMware features (3.5)Thin

friendlyVM creation YesCold migration No vCenter cloning NoStorage VMotion NoDeploy from template NoConverter cloning (resize option)

Yes

VMware features (4.0)Thin

friendlyVM creation YesCold migration Yes vCenter cloning YesStorage VMotion YesDeploy from template YesConverter cloning (resize option)

Yes


vSphere Storage Efficiency With Celerra Data Deduplication

Based on Key EMC Technologies

EMC Avamar, RecoverPoint

Up to 40 percent storage savings for unstructured file share datasets

File A

File A

File A

File B

File BActiveFile

File CFile B

File A

File C

File A

File A

File A

File C

File B

File B

Increased primary storage efficiency

– Up to 40 percent space savings– Reduces total drive count

Works best on file systems mounted or mapped by VMsover NFS and CIFS

– Single instancing and compression eliminates duplicate data from file systems

– Excellent deduplication ratios with unstructured user data

Targets non-active files– Will not affect VMDK files









Conclusion

Q&A

Agenda


The choice of storage with ESX / ESXi is largely driven by preferenceDespite key differences all alternatives enable the full use of the vSphere 4 feature set

Feature FC SAN iSCSI NFS

ESX boot Yes Yes (Hardware initiator only) No

Virtual machine boot Yes Yes Yes

Raw device mapping Yes Yes N/A

LUN extension Yes Yes Yes

Replication Yes 1 Yes 1 Yes1

Replication type Application-consistent 2 Application-consistent 2 Application-consistent 2

Virtual Machine as initiator Yes (NPIV) Yes No

Security N/A CHAP UNIX_Auth

1 Replication Manager (RM) can be leveraged.2 With RM. Otherwise, replication is crash-consistent.

Best Practices of using VMware vSphere with EMC CelerraSummary of findings


Application Solutions

Exchange SQL Server SharePoint Oracle SAP

Use Case SolutionsInfrastructure Backup Management Disaster recovery Client/VDI

Product SolutionsUnified storage AvamarReplication DeduplicationSmarts RSA

Best Practices of using VMware vSphere with EMC CelerraAccelerated deployment with best practices


Best Practices of using VMware vSphere with EMC Celerra


Thank You!

Join us for other Virtualization EMC Live webcasts every Thursday at 11:00 AM ET: EMC Solutions for VMware Webcast Series: VirtualizeEverything!

• Introduction to Using EMC Celerra with VMware vSphere 4 - Applied Best Practices: http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h6337-introduction-using-celerra-vmware-vsphere-wp.pdf

• VMware ESX Using EMC Celerra Solutions Guide: http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/technical-documentation/h5536-vmware-esx-srvr-using-celerra-stor-sys-wp.pdf

• EMC Celerra Family: http://www.emc.com/products/family/celerra-family.htm

Would you like to see specific topics in this webcast series?Let us know … [email protected]


Additional References


VMware with Celerra References

Introduction to Using EMC Celerra with VMware vSphere 4 – Applied Best Practices Guidehttp://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h6337-introduction-using-celerra-vmware-vsphere-wp.pdf

VMware Infrastructure deployment with EMC Celerra Unified Storage –Applied Best Practices Guidehttp://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/White_Paper/h6370-vmware-infrastructure-deployment-celerra-wp.pdf

Deploying VMware View in the Enterprise EMC Celerra NS-120 – Reference Arch http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/technical-documentation/h6488-deploying-vmware-ref-arch.pdf

Implementing Virtual Provisioning on EMC CLARiiON and Celerra with VMware Virtual Infrastructure – Applied Technologyhttp://www.emc.com/collateral/software/white-papers/h6131-implementing-vp-with-clariion-celerra-vmware-infrastructure-wp.pdf

EMC Avamar Backup Solutions for VMware ESX Server on Celerra NS Series – Applied Technologyhttp://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h5897-avamar-backup-vmware-esx-ns-series-wp.pdf

* Please contact your EMC representative for Powerlink references


Additional ReferencesVMware I/O multipathing for NFS and iSCSI

A “Multivendor Post” to help our mutual NFS customers using VMwarehttp://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/06/a-multivendor-post-to-help-our-mutual-nfs-customers-using-vmware.html

A “Multivendor Post” to help our mutual iSCSI customers using VMwarehttp://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-multivendor-post-on-using-iscsi-with-vmware-vsphere.html

Source:

Virtual Geek & The Virtual Storage Guy – joint blog posts by Chad Sakac (EMC) & Vaughn Stewart (Netapp)


VMware ESX using EMC Celerra Storage Systemshttp://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/technical-documentation/h5536-vmware-esx-srvr-using-celerra-stor-sys-wp.pdf

VMware ESX server using EMC CLARiiON Storage Systemshttp://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/solution-overview/h2529-vmware-esx-svr-w-symmetrix-wp-ldv.pdf

Using EMC Symmetrix Storage in VMware Virtual Infrastructure Environments http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/solution-overview/h2529-vmware-esx-svr-w-symmetrix-wp-ldv.pdf

Additional ReferencesVMware on EMC storage Solutions Guides (a.k.a. TechBooks)


Additional ReferencesCelerra Simulator

Download to experience VMware vSphere 4 with Celerra first hand https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-4092

Note: Registration to the EMC Community is required (open to all ; will give you access to a range of Celerra and EMC material)

Further information on using the Celerra Simulator with VMwarehttp://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/04/new-celerra-vsa.html

Source:Virtual Geek–blog post by Chad Sakac (EMC)

Best practices for using vSphere 4 with celerra

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