Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices GuideContactingNexsan NexsanHeadquarters 900E...

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Nexsan UnityVMware Best Practices Guide

Nexsan 900 E. Campbell, CA 95008 | p. 866.263.9726 | www.nexsan.com

Document release date: 1/19/2018, Rev. B

Firmware Version: Unity 2.0

Copyright © 2010—2018Nexsan, Inc. All rights reserved.

TrademarksNexsan® is a trademarkor registered trademarkof Nexsan, Inc. The Nexsan logo is a registered trademarkof Nexsan, Inc.

All other trademarksand registered trademarksare the property of their respective owners.

PatentsThis product is protected byone or more of the following patents, and other pending patent applicationsworldwide:

United StatespatentsUS8,191,841, US8,120,922;

United Kingdom patentsGB2466535B, GB2467622B, GB2467404B, GB2296798B, GB2297636B

About this documentUnauthorized use, duplication, or modification of this document in whole or in part without the written consent of Nexsan Corporation is strictlyprohibited.Nexsan, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to this manual, as well as the equipment and software described in this manual, at any timewithout notice. This manual may contain links to web sites that were current at the time of publication, but have since been moved or becomeinactive. It may also contain links to sites owned and operated by third parties. Nexsan is not responsible for the content of any such third-partysite.

Contents

Contents iii

Chapter 1: Recommendations and requirements 9VAAI overview 10Unity recommendations 11

Block size and record size requirements 11Network recommendations 13

IP network infrastructure 14Recommended settings for NFS protocol 15Recommended settings for iSCSI protocol 18Virtual machine recommendations 19

Chapter 2: Setting up VMware 21Creating the virtual machines 22Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode 23Adding the software iSCSI adapter 26Configuring datastore heartbeating 28Configuring the central swap datastore 29Configuring the VMware failover solution 31

Chapter 3: Setting up Unity for VMware 33Enabling LACP 33

Understanding link aggregation 33Requirements and guidelines for implementing LACP 34Enabling LACP using the nxadmin CLI 34Troubleshooting LACP 35

Enabling jumbo frames 35Adding a storage pool 36

Step 1: Adding volumes to the storage pool 37Step 2: Allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage pool 38Step 3: Verifying settings 39Step 4: Viewing configuration results 40

Adding a LUN 41Setting the LUN name and block size 41Configure space usage settings for the LUN 43Enabling data replication and configuring snapshot scheduling 44Verifying settings 45

Contents

Viewing progress 45Adding a file system Using the SetupWizard 46

Step 1: Creating a file system and configuring space usage 47Step 2: Configuring the access method 49Step 3: Assigning access permissions 51Step 3: Enabling data replication 52Step 5: Verifying settings 54Step 6: Viewing configuration results 55

Adding an iSCSI target 56Step 1: Specifying the IQN and public alias for the iSCSI target 56Step 2: Verifying configuration settings 57Step 3: Viewing configuration results 57

Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUN 58Enabling FTP support 58

Chapter 4: Monitoring and troubleshooting 61Viewing and recording performancemetrics with the PerformanceMonitor 62

Starting the PerformanceMonitor 62Filtering live performancemetrics 63performance 63

63Viewing a 64Deleting a 64

Monitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSI performance on VMware 64Monitoring NFS performance on VMware 65Using Unity snapshots in VMware 66

Taking amanual LUN snapshot 66Rolling back the data to a snapshot 67

Glossary 69

Index 81

Contents

Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices Guide Unity iv

This guide provides general guidelines and requirements for integrating Unity in a VMware environment, andprovides configuration procedures for optimal performance.

About this document

AudienceThis guide has been prepared for the following audience:

IT system administrators

Engineers

Technicians

ConventionsHere is a list of text conventions used in this document:

Convention Description

underlinedblue

Cross-references (both internal and to the titles of other documents), hyperlinks, URLs,and email addresses.

boldface Text that refers to labels on the physical unit or interactive items in the graphical userinterface (GUI).

monospace Text that is displayed in the command-line interface (CLI) or text that refers to file ordirectory names.

monospacebold

Text strings that must be entered by the user in the command-line interface or in text fieldsin the graphical user interface (GUI).

italics Systemmessages and non-interactive items in the graphical user interface (GUI)References to Software User Guides

Notes, Tips, Cautions, and WarningsNote Notes contain important information, present alternative procedures, or call attention to certain items.Tip Tips contain handy information for end-users, such as other ways to perform an action.

CAUTION: In hardwaremanuals, cautions alert the user to items or situations whichmay causedamage to the unit or result in mild injury to the user, or both. In softwaremanuals, cautions alert theuser to situations whichmay cause data corruption or data loss.

WARNING: Warnings alert the user to items or situations which may result in severe injuryor death to the user.

Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices Guide Unity vi

About this document

Contacting NexsanNexsan Headquarters

900 E Hamilton Ave, Suite 230

Campbell, CA 95008 USA

Support (US): +1 866-463-9726

Support (Worldwide): +1 760-690-1111

E-mail: [email protected]

Nexsan Canada

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Nexsan Shipping

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Escondido, CA 92029 USA

Nexsan UK

Units 33–35, Parker Centre, Mansfield Road

Derby, DE21 4SZ United Kingdom

Support (Europe): +44 (0)1332 291600

Related documentationThe following Nexsan product manuals contain related information:

Nexsan Unity Hardware ReferenceGuide

Nexsan UnityHardwareMaintenanceGuide, Unity Next Generation

Nexsan Unity Software User Guide

Nexsan Unity nxadmin Command-line Interface ReferenceGuide

Nexsan Unity nxcmdCommand-line Interface ReferenceGuide

Nexsan Unity Snapshots and Replication Guide

Nexsan Unity Storage Expansion ReferenceGuide

Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices Guide

Nexsan Unity NFS Interoperability

Nexsan Unity Networking Best Practices Guide

Nexsan Unity Performance Best Practices Guide

Nexsan Unity Microsoft Best Practices Guide

Safety noticesAlways observe the following precautions to reduce the risk of injury and equipment damage:

Computer components and disk drives are sensitive to static discharge. Take precautions to dischargeany electrostatic charge from your person before and while handling components with your hands or anytools. Use an anti-static wrist-strap.

The system only be installed in a clean, dry environment. The operating temperature is 10º to 35º C (50º to95º F), with operating relative humidity at 20 to 95%, non-condensing.

Do not install hardware in an enclosed cabinet or other small area without ventilation.

Nexsan Unity www.nexsan.com vii

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mailto:[email protected]

https://www.nexsan.com/

Ensure correct liftingmethods are used when handling hardware. Special care should be taken whenremoving hardware from its packaging and positioning it into its required location. When lifting hardware,two people at either end should lift slowly with their feet spread out to distribute the weight. Always keepyour back straight and lift with your legs.

When installing the system as a rack-mounted component, ensure that all Nexsan-suppliedmountingfixtures are secure. All bolts and screws should be fully tightened. Failure to comply with this may result inthe unit not being fully supported in the rack and could lead to the product falling from the rack causingpersonal injury or falling onto other rack components.

Ensure that the rack is sufficiently stable by having wall anchors and/or stabilizing legs, and that the floorsupporting the rack has sufficient strength for the overall weight loading.

Only a fully-trained Service Engineer is authorized to disassemble any other part of the hardware, and thenonly when the hardware is powered off.

The system has multiple power connections; as a result, youmust remove all power leads to completelyisolate the power and always use the IEC power cords which are supplied with the system.

CAUTION: All Nexsan Unity Storage Systems are hot-pluggable. However, new expansions mustbe powered on AFTER you connect it to the existing system.

Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices Guide Unity viii

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1:Recommendations and requirements

This section provides specific recommendations and requirements to help you prepare for integrating Unity ina VMware environment, and provides information on VAAI hardware acceleration. Unity version 3.0 supportsVAAI for NFS.VMware is certified for use with Unity for the following implementations:

NAS support with VMware ESX 4.1 U2.

NAS support with VMware ESXi 5.0U1 and 5.0.

NAS support with VMware ESXi 5.1.

Note The examples provided in this document are based on VMware ESXi 5.1.

VAAI overview 10Unity recommendations 11Network recommendations 13Recommended settings for NFS protocol 15Recommended settings for iSCSI protocol 18Virtual machine recommendations 19

Nexsan Unity www.nexsan.com 9


VAAI overview

VAAI hardware acceleration allows the VMware ESX/ESXi host to perform VM and storagemanagementoperations faster and consume less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.

Leave VAAI enabled on all LUNs unless advised otherwise by Nexsan support staff.

Unity includes a built-in VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration) plug-in to provide hardware acceleration onUnity when integrated into a VMware ESX/ESXi environment. VAAI hardware acceleration functionalityenables the VMware ESX/ESXi host to offload specific virtual machine and storagemanagement operationsto Unity. With storage hardware assistance, the VMware ESX/ESXi host performs these operations fasterand consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.Unity supports these 4 VAAI primitives:

Full Copy: This feature enables the storage arrays tomake full copies of data within the array without theneed for the VMware ESXi server to read and write the data. Instead of the server having to read and writeeach block of data, the server sends a single SCSI (Extended Copy) command for a set of contiguousblocks to instruct the storage array to copy the blocks from one location to another. The command acrossthe network is small, and the actual work is performed on the storage array. This can be especially helpfulwhen cloning a virtual machine, performing a StorageMotion, or deploying virtual machines from atemplate.

Block Zeroing: This feature enables storage arrays to zero out a large number of blocks to speed up virtualmachine provisioning. Instead of sendingmultiple redundant write commands over the network, the serveruses the SCSI Write Same command to instruct the storage device to write the same data to a number ofblocks. Instead of having the host wait for the operation to complete, the storage array returns to therequesting service as though the process of writing zeros has been completed. This can be especiallyhelpful when thick-provisioning virtual disks.

Hardware assisted locking: This feature provides an alternatemeans of protecting data in VMFS clusterfile system environments. When a host accesses a common datastore, instead of having to lock and entirelogical unit (which prevents any other hosts from accessing), the host has the ability to lock only the data itis accessing at the block level, leaving the rest of the logical unit accessible by other hosts. This alsoimproves the scalability of large ESXi servers sharing a VMFS datastore.

Block Unmap: This feature allows vSphere 5.0 environments using array-based thin provisioning to reclaim“dead space” by notifying the storage system of when blocks are no longer in use (such as after migratingor deleting virtual machines) and to pause virtual machines when disk space is exhausted, allowingAdministrators to allocate additional space to the datastore or migrate an existing virtual machine withoutcausing the virtual machine to fail.

Youmust configure and enable VAAI hardware acceleration functionality on your VMware ESX/ESXi tosupport for the VAAI plug-in to work. In VMware, the VAAI plug-in is visible at the datastore level. Refer to theVMware documentation for further details.To enable the VAAI plug-in on Unity, see Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUN onpage 58.

VAAI overview

Nexsan Unity VMware Best Practices Guide Unity 10

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Unity recommendationsTo use Unity in a VMware environment, make sure to review these requirements and recommendations:

Enable LACP—see Enabling LACP on page 33

Enable jumbo frames—see Enabling jumbo frames on page 35

Use SAS drives

When you create pools, we recommend to:assign enough FASTier devices to enhance the performance of pools, with the same number of readand write cache devices (minimum of one read cache and one write cache)—see Step 2: AllocatingFASTier cache devices to the storage pool on page 38

create an even number of pools for load balancing across the two controllers (minimum of two pools).

For the procedure, see Adding a storage pool on page 36.

When you create LUNs, we recommend to:set the block size tomatch what your application uses—see Block size and record size requirementsbelow

use thick provisioning;

disable snapshot scheduling;

enable VAAI.

For the procedure, see Adding a LUN on page 41.Note If you already created LUNs but the VAAI plugin is not enabled for these LUNs, follow the stepsmentioned in Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUN on page 58.

When you create shares, we recommend to:set the record size tomatch what your application uses—see Block size and record size requirementsbelow

disable snapshot scheduling.

For the procedure, see Adding a file system Using the SetupWizard on page 46.Note The VAAI plugin is not supported for Unity shares.

Block size and record size requirementsLUNs have a default block size of 8 KB. This is the default choice for transactional workloads. Large-blockstreaming workloads require a higher block size, such as 128 KB, to obtain better streaming readperformance. Generally speaking, if you know the block size that your application typically uses, set UnityLUN block size tomatch.Note A LUN’s block size cannot bemodified once the LUN is created.File Systems have a default record size of 128 KB. However, this record size is somewhat dynamic and Unitywill write in smaller blocks if the application would seem to benefit from it. It is not recommended to changethe default record size of shares except in very specific circumstances where the application is database-driven and the database record size is precisely known.Note The share’s record size can bemodified at any time.Refer to this table for recommended block/record size according to the application used.

Chapter 1: Recommendations and requirements


1


Application / Data type Recommended block size

Windows / Linux Boot 64 k

Microsoft Exchange 2010 DB 32 k

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Log 128 k

Oracle OLTP 8 k

SQL Server 64 k

Video Streaming 128 k

To define the block size, see Setting the LUN name and block size on page 41.

Unity recommendations


1

Network recommendationsTo ensure that the network configuration where the NFS and iSCSI traffic will run has been designed toachieve high availability and no single point of failure:

Isolate the storage traffic from other networking traffic. You can configure this utilizing VLAN, networksegmentation, or dedicated switches for NFS and iSCSI traffic only.

On Unity, configure at least two physical 10GbE (dual-port) NICs per head, bundled into a single channelusing the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) with a largemaximum transmission unit(MTU) and jumbo frames (9000 bytes). If you are working with a cluster configuration, configure at leasttwo 10GbE (dual-port) NICs per head, and also use an IP network multipathing (IPMP) configuration incombination with LACP.

With IPMP configuration you will achieve network high availability, and with link aggregation you will obtaina better network performance. These two technologies complement each other and can be deployedtogether to provide benefits for network performance and availability for virtual environments.

For picking an outbound port based on source and IP addresses, use LACP L3.

For switch communicationmode, use the LACP activemode, which will send and receive LACPmessages to negotiate connections andmonitor the link status.

Note To configure LACP onUnity, see Enabling LACP on page 33.

CAUTION: RISK OF OUTAGEDo not join Unity with Active Directory to Domain Controllers hosted on VMware. DomainControllers used with Unity and Active Directory must either be a physical device or hostedexternally to Unity. See the Nexsan Unity User Guide or NexsanOnline Help for details.



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IP network infrastructureWe recommend that you use 10GbE IP switches with all interfaces working in 10GbE speed in full duplexmode, with MTU (jumbo frame) and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). On VMware, the default NICteaming configuration is using active and standby interfaces mode.Note Some third-party IP switches support a newer technology called virtual port-channel. This technology isa supported solution and also provides more redundancy of network paths as well as better performance andbandwidth for your virtualized environment.

► IP network recommendations:OnVMware ESXi hosts, ensure that you have at least one dual 10GbE NIC working with 9000MTU jumboframe.

Use at least two physical IP network switches.

Ensure that you have at minimum a link aggregation of two or more 10GbE NICs attached with a physicalIP network switch, configured and working with port-channel group or even virtual port-channeltechnologies.

Ensure that your 10GbE IP network is properly configured and working with high availability and loadbalancing (without point of failure).

Ensure that your physical IP switches or routers are not congested or saturated.

Ensure that your storage network provides adequate throughout as well as low latency between initiatorsand targets.

Isolate the traffic through different VLANs or even network segmentation. Also, work with a differentVMware vSwitch.

To achieve best performance, as well as load balance the I/O traffic between paths and failover, configureVMware to work in port bindingmode.

► NIC teaming recommendations:If you are working with a virtual port-channel configuration, or with more physical network cards which aremembers of a port-channel group, use the VMware NIC teaming configuration that includes:

Load Balancing: Route based on IP hash

Network Failover Detection: Link status only

Notify Switches: Yes

Failback: Yes

This image shows an example of two virtual switches, each connected to two physical adapters. Eachadapter must be connected to Unity. This example combines port-channel, LACP, and virtual port-channel.

Network recommendations


1

Recommended settings for NFS protocolYoumust change the NFS and TCP/IP advanced settings prior to starting the tests or putting your VMwareservers in production. These options are extremely important to ensure high availability of the NFS datastoresin a failover/failback situation.This table shows the recommended NFS settings for VMware vSphere 5.1 on Unity.Table 1-1: Recommended NFS settings

Option Value

NFS.HeartbeatFrequency 20

NFS.HearbeatMaxFailures 10

NFS.HeartbeatTimeout 5

NFS.HeartbeatDelta 12

NFS.SendBufferSize 264

NFS.ReceiveBufferSize 256

NFS.MaxVolumes 256

Figure 1-1: Advanced settings for NFS

This table shows the recommended TCP/IP settings for VMware vSphere 5.1 on Unity.



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Table 1-2: Recommended TCP/IP settings

Option Value

NET.TcpipHeapMax 128

NET.TcpipHeapSize 32

Figure 1-2: Advanced Settings for TCP/IP

► To change NFS and TCP/IP parameters:1. Go to the VMware vCenter 5.x server.

2. Select a VMware server.

3. Select theSoftware tab.

4. Click onAdvanced Settings.

5. Select Net for TCP/IP orNFS for NFS.

Note This configurationmust be performed in all VMware host members of the cluster. A reboot of eachVMware host will be needed in order to activate the new settings.If you are working with a virtual port-channel configuration, or with more physical network cards which aremembers of a port-channel group, use the VMware NIC teaming configuration that includes:

Load Balancing: Route based on IP hash

Network Failover Detection: Link status only

Recommended settings for NFS protocol


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Notify Switches: Yes

Failback: Yes

The image below provides an example for an Intel Corporation 10GbE switch.Figure 1-3: vSwitch properties—NIC teaming



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Recommended settings for iSCSI protocolThis section provides the recommended settings for VMware vSphere 5.x using the iSCSI protocol.This table shows the recommended iSCSI settings for VMware vSphere 5.1 on Unity.Table 1-3: Recommended iSCSI settings

Option Value

MaxOutstandingR2T 8

FirstBurstLength 16777215

MaxBurstLength 16777215

MaxRecvDataSegLen 16777215

Figure 1-4: Advanced settings for iSCSI

Refer to these sections to configure the iSCSI protocol:

Recommended settings for iSCSI protocol


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Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode on page 23

Adding the software iSCSI adapter on page 26

Virtualmachine recommendationsWe recommend these best practices for VMware virtual machines:

Work with VMware version 8minimum.

For raw devices and for LUNs with more than 2 TB, use raw devicemapping (RDM).

If you are using Unity with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy, use RDM in physical compatibility mode.

OnUnity, it is highly recommended to host all storage pools on the same controller. The VAAI plugin doesnot work across controllers so operations like cloning or vMotion will not benefit from VAAI if the pools arelocated on different controllers.

Install the VMware Client Tools. For more information on these tools and to install them, refer to theVMware documentation.

When working with theMicrosoft Windows platform, ensure that you have the latest service pack as wellas all recommended patches installed.

Make sure that your virtual machine is working with the right partition alignment.

Work with a central swap datastore for all virtual machines. By default VMware creates a virtual swap filethat usually is equal to the amount of memory allocated to each virtual machine. Reallocate the virtualmachine swap file to a central VMware datastore; see Configuring the central swap datastore on page 29.

To achieve better performance for virtualized applications as well as management of your virtualenvironment, work with amulti-pool design with multiple datastore repositories in VMware vSphere 5.x.

To configure virtual machines, see Setting up VMware on page 21.



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Virtual machine recommendations


Chapter 2

Chapter 2:Setting up VMware

To use Unity in a VMware environment, youmust perform these tasks. Make sure to review allrecommendations and requirements before starting, as described in Recommendations and requirements onpage 9.Note It is assumed that you already installed vSphere ESXi, vSphere Client, and vCenter Server. For furtherinformation, refer to the VMware documentation.

Creating the virtual machines 22Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode 23Adding the software iSCSI adapter 26Configuring datastore heartbeating 28Configuring the central swap datastore 29Configuring the VMware failover solution 31



Creating the virtualmachinesThis section provides general guidelines andmain steps to configure vSphere client in preparation for hostingUnity.

► To create a virtual machine:1. Create a datacenter. For details, refer to the VMware documentation.

2. Add a host to the datacenter. For details, refer to the VMware documentation.

3. Add storage:a. Select the storage adapter: choose theAdd Software iSCSI Adapter option.

b. Assign a network adapter (NIC) to the storage adapter. VMware creates a virtual network adapterbased on the physical network adapter.

c. Scan the environment to discover the volumes.

4. Add datastores (The volumes must be configured as datastores before they can be used by the VM). Ifusing VMware for failover, you need two datastores. Volumes must be initialized first.

5. Choose one of these storage types:For LUNs, select Disk/LUN.

For shares, select Network File System.

6. Configure network settings:a. Configure host Ethernet port for iSCSI or Fibre Channel (select VMkernel for the connection type).

b. Configure host Ethernet ports for VMs (vSwitch—vSphere distributed switch—by default, it is calledVM Network.)

7. Create a VM:a. Select the host, the destination storage (from the datastore created earlier),

b. Select the guest operating system.

c. Create a virtual disk.

d. For LUNs, we do not recommend to select Thin Provisioning. Make sure that your LUN onUnity hasthe same setting; see Setting the LUN name and block size on page 41.

8. Install the guest operating system on the virtual machine. For details, refer to the VMwaredocumentation.

Creating the virtual machines


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Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode► Before you begin:Make sure to read Recommended settings for iSCSI protocol on page 18.

► To configure VMware vSphere 5 iSCSI in port binding mode with Unity:1. Create a new vSwitch with at least two VMkernel ports and two 10GbE interfaces, each one working

with 9000MTU (jumbo frames) and VMware port binding configuration.This example shows iSCSI-1 and iSCSI-2 VMkernel ports, while the 10GbE interfaces are vmnic2and vmnic3.

Figure 2-1: vSphere standard switches

Chapter 2: Setting up VMware


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2. For each VMkernel port, enable theOverride switch failover order option. Make sure that only one10GbE adapter is enabled per port group. Additional cards must bemoved toUnused Adapters.a. Select the ESXi host.

b. Select theConfiguration tab.

c. Select Networking and then select Properties... on your iSCSI vSwitch.

d. Select the iSCSI port group, click onEdit.

e. Select theNIC Teaming tab.

f. Enable theOverride switch failover order option.

g. Click OK.

Figure 2-2: VMkernel port properties: iSCSI-1

Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode


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3. Repeat these steps on the second VMkernel port.Figure 2-3: VMkernel port properties: iSCSI-2

This example shows two 10GbE adapters and two different VMkernel ports. Both 10GbE adapters (vmnic2and vmnic3) are being balanced across two different port groups, with the following configuration:

The iSCSI-1 port group has vmnic2 adapter enabled and vmnic3 adapter unused.

The iSCSI-2 port group has vminc3 adapter enabled and vmnic2 adapter unused.

NoteWhenworking with a port binding configuration, each port groupmust have only one active adapter. Allother adapters must bemoved toUnused Adapters. Do not use standby mode.

► What's Next:Proceed to Adding the software iSCSI adapter on the next page.



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Adding the software iSCSI adapterOnce the port group configuration is ready (see Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode on page 23), add theVMware iSCSI software adapter.For additional information, see Recommended settings for iSCSI protocol on page 18.

► To add the iSCSI adapter:1. Open a connection with your VMware vCenter server, select the ESXi host.

2. Select theConfiguration tab.

3. Under theHardware option, select Storage Adapter, then click Add.

4. Select Add Software iSCSI Adapter and click OK. A new iSCSI vHBA is created.

5. UnderStorage Adapter, select your new iSCSI vHBA, then click Properties. The iSCSI InitiatorProperties screen opens.

6. Select Configure and enter an iSCSI alias name for this vHBA. Click OK.

7. On the same screen, for binding the port groups to the software iSCSI adapter as well as active vmknic-basedmultipathing for iSCSI software, select theNetwork Configuration tab.

Figure 2-4: iSCSI initiator properties

8. Click Add, and then select iSCSI-1 and iSCSI-2 port groups. Click OK.

9. Create a storage pool on Unity; see Adding a storage pool on page 36.

10. Add a LUN to the storage pool on Unity; Adding a LUN on page 41.

Adding the software iSCSI adapter


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11. Create and assign an iSCSI target to the LUN onUnity; Adding an iSCSI target on page 56.

12. On the VMware ESXi host, open iSCSI Initiator Properties, select theDynamic Discovery tab, andclick Add.

13. In theAdd Send Target Server screen, add the iSCSI IP address of the 10GbE link aggregationinterface. Click OK to close.

14. Rescan the adapters to discover the iSCI LUN you created on Unity. The LUN should be available for thetwo active paths' members of the port binding configuration.

Figure 2-5: iSCSI LUN paths

15. Make sure that the iSCSI LUN is visible and accessible by the ESXi host.Figure 2-6: Datastores view



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Configuring datastore heartbeatingWith VMware vSphere 5.0, a new feature called Datastore Hearbeating provides better host managementwhen network issues arise. A hearbeating datastore can be any datastore shared across VMware hosts. Thisfeature allows VMware hosts to exchange heart beats using shared VMFS datastores.Note To enable datastore heartbeating on a VMware HA cluster with two nodes, youmust have at least twoshared datastores.

► To enable the datastore heartbeating feature:1. Right-click your VMware cluster profile.

2. Select theDatastore Heartbeating option on the left panel.

3. Choose theSelect only my preferred datastores option on the right panel.Figure 2-7: Datastore heartbeating

4. Select the datastore from the list.

5. Click OK.

Configuring datastore heartbeating


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Configuring the central swap datastoreBy default, VMware creates a virtual swap file that is usually equal to the amount of memory allocated to eachvirtual machine. The vSwap file is located by default with the virtual machine files. It is used in case the ESXhost is over-committing physical memory, and it is also used during vMotion activity. During those times, I/Ooperations are significantly increased on the storage, which could affect the virtual machines overallperformance. For this reason, we recommend changing the location of the swap file to a central swapdatastore.This procedure provides examples for a cluster. For further information on swap files and datastores, refer tothe VMware documentation.

► To configure the datastore:1. Select your cluster in the VMware vSphere 5.x client.

2. Select theConfiguration tab.

3. Select Virtual Machine Swapfile Location.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select the vSwap datastore that was configured with Datastore Heartbeating for vSphere HA; seeConfiguring datastore heartbeating on the previous page.

Figure 2-8: Cluster settings—swapfile location

6. Click OK.

7. Right-click the virtual machine that will have the swap file relocated to a different datastore.

8. Click theOptions tab, then select Swapfile Location.



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9. Choose theStore in the host's swapfile datastore option and click OK.Figure 2-9: Virtual Machine properties—swapfile location

Configuring the central swap datastore


2

Configuring the VMware failover solutionVMware provides two types of failover solutions:

High Availability—guard against physical server failures. The VM reboots on the secondary server if theprimary server is down. There is downtime while the system performs failover.

Fault Tolerance: There is no disruptive transition during failover. Fault tolerance is build upon HighAvailability.

High Availability (HA)Themain configuration steps are:1. Create a cluster.

2. Add hosts to the cluster.

3. Enable High Availability.

Fault Tolerance (FT)Themajor guidelines are:

HA must be enabled first.

The Protected Virtual machinemust be configured for a single processor.

Both hosts must be configured to see the same shared storage.

ESXi versions must have identical patch levels.

Themain configuration steps are:1. Configure the vMotion NIC.

2. Configure FT logging.

3. Enable FT.

To configure HA and FT, refer to the VMware documentation.



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Configuring the VMware failover solution


Chapter 3

Chapter 3:Setting up Unity for VMware

To use Unity in a VMware environment, youmust perform these tasks. Make sure to review allrecommendations and requirements before starting, as described in Recommendations and requirements onpage 9.

This section includes these steps:Enabling LACP 33Enabling jumbo frames 35Adding a storage pool 36Adding a LUN 41Adding a file system Using the SetupWizard 46Adding an iSCSI target 56Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUN 58

Enabling LACPLACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) allows multiple individual Ethernet links to be aggregated togetherto form a single logical channel. LACP allows a network device to negotiate an automatic bundling of links bysending LACP packets to the peer (directly connected device that also implements LACP).LACP is typically used for two purposes:1. Load balancing: bundling two or more links together provides increased throughput and a level of load

balancing for when the speed of individual Ethernet lines is limited.

2. Redundancy: links in a LACP aggregation provide an automatic fallback should one of the links fail,providing enhanced resilience. All traffic is routed from the failed link to the remaining links.

Unity supports both active and passive LACP modes:Activemode: places a port into an active negotiating state in which the port initiates negotiations with otherports by sending LACP packets.

Passivemode: places a port into a passive negotiating state in which the port responds to LACP packetsthat it receives but does not initiate LACP packet negotiation.

This section explains how to enable and configure LACP onUnity.

Understanding link aggregationLink aggregation does NOT work by passing packets across all the links in an aggregate group in a round-robin fashion. When a packet arrives, LACP calculates the source and destination address hash (which canbe L2, L3, or L4 policies, with L4 being the default), and automatically assigns any given source-destination



pair to one of the links in the aggregate. As a result, a single TCP connection can never achieve speedssurpassing the throughput of a single link.For example, while youmight aggregate 4x 1Gbps links into a single aggregate, you'll never get more than1Gbps in any single data transfer. Even in the case of multiple sessions at the same time frommultipleclients, 50/50 load balancing is almost never achieved in real-life implementations; around 70/30 is morecommon.For more information about LACP, see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation

Requirements and guidelines for implementing LACPThis section lists network and infrastructure requirements for implementing LACP, as well as guidelines/bestpractices for configuring the Ethernet switch(es) for LACP.

LACP only operates point-to-point between two partner devices connected together: for example, Unityand the Ethernet switch(es).

LACP must be enabled at both ends of the link to be operational. Refer to the Ethernet switchmanufacturer's documentation for information on setting up LACP on the Ethernet switch(es).

The link between Unity and the Ethernet switch(es) must be Full-Duplex.

Both Unity and the Ethernet switch(es) must be running at the same speed (1Gbps or 10Gbps).

The Ethernet switch(es) must support the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Standard.

To prevent a single point-of failure in your configuration, make sure to connect each controller node to adifferent Ethernet switch, as illustrated in this diagram.

Enabling LACP using the nxadmin CLIUnity provides the nic command in Unity's menu-based nxadmin CLI for enabling andmonitoring LACP onUnity.

► Before you begin:Enabling LACP over the network will cause disconnection. Perform these steps through KVM console, orthrough IPMI console. For complete details on using the nxadminmenu and CLI commands, refer to theNexsan Unity Command-line Interface ReferenceGuide.

Youmust not enable LACP on nx99 otherwise you will lock yourself out of the system.

CAUTION: On a clustered system, youmust enable LACP on each controller node individually.Before you enable LACP on a controller node, however, youmust transition any Pool ResourceGroups and/or the SystemManagement component to the second controller in the system. Youmust then repeat this process to enable LACP on the second controller.

► To enable and configure LACP on Unity:1. Access the nxadmin CLI.

2. When the NestOS AdminMenu displays, type 5 (Run a Command), and then press Enter.


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3. At the command: prompt, type one of these command to enable LACP onUnity, in either active orpassivemode:

Activemode:nic modify-aggr -L active nx0

Where nx0 represents the primary interface on Unity. You can also enable LACP on the secondaryinterface, if available: to enable LACP on the secondary interface, replace nx0 with nx1.

Passivemode:nic modify-aggr -L passive nx0

Where nx0 represents the primary interface on Unity. You can also enable LACP on the secondaryinterface, if available: to enable LACP on the secondary interface, replace nx0 with nx1.

4. Press Enter. Unity disconnects from the network.

5. Configure the Ethernet switch to set the ports that you want to combine into a logical channel. Unitycomes back online once LACP negotiation is complete.

6. Test and confirm network connectivity to Unity.

Troubleshooting LACP

► To detect that LACP is enabled on the switches and not on Unity:Verify that LACP is enabled on the switches as passive or active; see Enabling LACP using the nxadminCLI on the previous page.

Verify Unity network interface LACP status.

► To verify the network interface LACP status:1. At the command: prompt, type:

nic show-aggr -L

2. Press Enter.You will see similar results as displayed below when the protocol is up.

Enabling jumbo framesEnabling on Unity can significantly increase network throughput while consuming fewer CPU cycles on thesystem.

► Before you begin:Youmust make sure to enable jumbo frames on the switch(es) that Unity is connected to, as well as on allclient systems that access Unity.

Youmust make sure that the 10GigE interface is set as the primary interface (nx0) on Unity (for example:ixgbe1, ixgbe2, etc.).

Chapter 3: Setting up Unity for VMware


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Enabling jumbo frames over the network will cause disconnection. Perform these steps through a KVM orIPMI console. Client systems and applications on the network will temporarily lose connection to Unityduring the reboot and switchover operations. Make sure that client systems with an active connection toany file systems on Unity are disconnected; alsomake sure to quiesce any applications with an activeconnection to Unity.

We recommend that IPMI settings be configured for Unity if you are connected to Unity with a system on aseparatemanagement network.

► To enable jumbo frames on Unity:1. Access the nxadmin CLI.

2. Type this command to set theMTU for the nx0 interface to 9000 bytes (jumbo frames) and press Enter:nic set-linkprop -p mtu=9000 nx0

3. Repeat these steps for any other network interfaces on Unity (such as, nx1); for example:nic set-linkprop -p mtu=9000 nx1

4. Restart the system or the controller node:a. Typemenu and press Enter.

b. When the NestOS AdminMenu displays, type 2 (Shutdown and Reboot Menu), and press Enter.

c. Type 1, and press Enter. The system or controller node reboots; this process may take some time tocomplete.

5. Once the system or controller node reboots, test and confirm network connectivity to Unity.

6. Repeat these steps on the second controller node after you transition cluster resources back to the nodeyou finished configuring.

Adding a storage poolUnity provides the Storage Pool SetupWizard to guide you through the process of creating a storage pool.

► To start the Storage Pool Setup Wizard:1. Under the site node, click theStorage Pools node to select it.

2. Perform one of these actions:

To... Do this

use the Storage Pool's context menu a. Click the context menu button on the Storage poolnode.

b. When the node context menu opens, click Add aStorage Pool.

use the Storage Pool's Properties panel a. Click theProperties tab at the bottom of the screen toexpand the Properties panel.

b. Click Adda Storage Pool. button on the Propertiespanel.

The Storage Pool SetupWizard starts. The wizard includes 4 steps that youmust complete in the orderpresented to successfully create a storage pool.This section includes these steps:

Adding a storage pool


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Step 1: Adding volumes to the storage pool belowStep 2: Allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage pool on the next pageStep 3: Verifying settings on page 39Step 4: Viewing configuration results on page 40Note Step 2: Allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage pool on the next page is only displayed if Unityis configured with FASTier cache devices. If not, there are only 3 steps in the Storage Pool SetupWizard. Formore information about FASTier cache devices, please contact your Nexsan reseller or Nexsan SupportRepresentative.

Step 1: Adding volumes to the storage poolInStep 1 of the Storage Pool SetupWizard, you add volumes to the storage pool and specify a name for thepool. The panel for step 1 displays the site where Unity adds the new storage pool, as well as the storagesystems that are connected to Unity.

► To add volumes to the storage pool:1. In the devices/volumes list on the right side of the panel, expand each device (if there aremultiple

devices allocated to this site) to display their volumes; to expand a device and display its volumes, clickthe arrow button preceding the device name.

2. Select the volumes that you want to add to the pool.To select multiple entries in the list, hold down SHIFT or CTRL and click the left mouse button.To add all underlying volumes of a device to the storage pool, select the device.Depending on the RAID configuration, youmay not be able to combine volumes from different storagesystems to create the storage pool; for more information, seeUnderstanding performance limitationswhenmixing volumes with different RAID levels and/or drive sizes in theUnity Software User Guide.

Figure 3-1: Storage Pool SetupWizard, step 1: add volumes to the storage pool

3. Drag your selection to the drop area indicated on the panel. As soon you drop the volumes in the droparea, the Storage Pool SetupWizard prompts you to specify a name for the new pool and assign the poolto a Pool Resource Group (either Pool Resource Group 1 or 2).

Figure 3-2: Storage Pool SetupWizard, step 1: specify a pool name



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4. Type a name for the storage pool.The namemust start with an (upper-case or lower-case) alphabetic or numeric character; and, with theexception of the hyphen (-), and period (.), the name can only contain alphanumeric characters, withoutspaces.These characters are NOT allowed:” / \ _ [ ] : ; | = , + * ? < >

These names are reserved by the system:mirror, spare, and log; as are names that begin with thispattern: c[0-9].

5. From theResource Group drop-down, select the Pool Resource Group that you want to assign thestorage pool to. Pool Resource Groups act as the virtual access point for the data (shares and/or LUNs)in storage pools. Specifically, end users and client systems on the network access their data in thestorage pools using the corresponding Pool Resource Group’s virtual IP address. Each Pool ResourceGroup is hosted on one of the two controller nodes in the cluster.

6. Once you type the name for the storage pool and assign it to a Pool Resource Group, click OK. The newpool appears under the site node in the Storage Pool SetupWizard, with the volumes that you added tothe storage pool appearing on a revolving bar directly below the pool.

7. Verify the new storage pool and your volume selections; if you are satisfied with your selections, clickthe right arrow on the panel to continue to Step 2: Allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage poolbelow.

Notes:You can rename the storage pool or change the Pool Resource Group it’s assigned to by dragging the poolback up to the drop area; the Storage Pool SetupWizard prompts you for a new name and Pool ResourceGroup to assign the storage pool to.

You can add additional volumes and/or devices to the storage pool by dragging them directly into the pool.

You can delete the new storage pool by dragging all its volumes back to the list of devices/volumes on theright side of the panel.

Step 2: Allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage poolStep 2 is only displayed if Unity has FASTier cache devices installed. The wizard displays the total number ofFASTier read, write, and read/write SSD cache devices available on Unity.

► General guidelines for assigning FASTier cache devices:You assign a read/write cache device as either read cacheOR write cache.

The Unity only uses read cache devices once the RAM cache on the system is full. Read cache devicesare filled only as files are read. This means that the Unity uses read caching only on the second fileaccess.

Write-only cache devices aggregate smaller writes in one large write. They are particularly useful for manysmall, synchronous writes. Asynchronous writes will see no improvement.

Note Make sure to review the FASTier cache requirements for VMware—seeUnity recommendations onpage 11.



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Figure 3-3: Storage Pool SetupWizard, step 2: allocate FASTier cache devices

► To configure and allocate FASTier cache devices to the storage pool:1. Specify the number of read cache devices that you want to allocate to the storage pool by typing or

selecting a value in theUse FASTier device(s) for read box .

2. For the Unity 5000, specify the number of write cache devices that you want to allocate to the storage

pool by typing or selecting a value in theUse FASTier device(s) for write box .For example, on an Unity with 2 FASTier read cache devices and 2 FASTier read/write cache devices:

You can allocate all 4 cache devices as read cache, OR

You can allocate 3 cache devices as read cache, and 1 cache device as write cache, OR

You can allocate 2 cache devices as read cache, and 2 cache device as write cache.

As you select the number of read and write cache devices to allocate to the storage pool, the Summarysection on the wizard panel automatically updates to display how your selections impact cacheassignment on the system.

3. When you finish allocating FASTier cache devices to the storage pool, click the right arrow on the wizardpanel to continue to Step 3: Verifying settings below.

Step 3: Verifying settingsStep 3 of the Storage Pool SetupWizard summarizes the settings you selected for your pool and initiates thepool creation process when you click Start. Review the summary carefully before applying configurationsettings.

► To change a configuration setting:Click the back arrow to navigate back to the corresponding configuration step.Or

Click the corresponding step identifier at the top of the Storage Pool SetupWizard panel. For example, ifyou want to rename the pool, click Step 1.



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Figure 3-4: Storage Pool SetupWizard, step 3: verifying settings

If you are satisfied with the settings, click theStart button at the bottom of the panel. The Storage Pool SetupWizard automatically proceeds to Step 4: Viewing configuration results below, where you can view progressas Nexsan Unity creates the new storage pool and applies your configuration settings. If you configured datareplication for the storage pool, Nexsan Unity also creates a replica of the storage pool on the remote Unity.

Step 4: Viewing configuration resultsStep 4 of the Storage Pool SetupWizard displays progress as Unity creates the new pool.The Storage Pool SetupWizard displays error events that the system encounters during the pool creationprocess. You can view more details about an error event by expanding the corresponding entry.

Figure 3-5: Storage Pool SetupWizard, step 4: viewing progress

► To view more details for an error event:Click the plus (+) sign corresponding to the error event.Unity's informs you when it successfully creates the storage pool, and prompts you to add a file system orLUN to the pool.

Figure 3-6: Add a share or LUN prompt

Choose one of these options:Click theAdd a file system button to add a file system to the storage pool. This launches the file systemSetupWizard.

Click theAdd a LUN button to add a LUN (block device) to the storage pool. This launches the LUN SetupWizard.

Click No if you do not want to add a file system or a LUN. This closes the Storage Pool SetupWizard.



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Adding a LUNThis section describes the process for adding a LUN to a storage pool on Unity, including guidelines for LUNmanagement, and steps for setting up CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication.You add a LUN to a storage pool using the LUN SetupWizard; before starting the LUN SetupWizard, reviewthe guidelines provided in the subsequent sections.

► Before you begin:If you intend to use CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication, youmust addCHAP users to the site.

You can add one or more iSCSI targets to the storage pool(s) where you intend to add LUNs. You cancreate a separate target for each LUN or assignmultiple LUNs to a single target; see Adding an iSCSItarget on page 56.

The LUN SetupWizard guides you through the process of adding a LUN to a storage pool.

► To start the LUN Setup Wizard:1. Under the site node, click theStorage Pools node to select it and display its child nodes.

2. Click the storage pool to which you want to add a LUN.

3. Click the LUNs node to select it.

4. Perform one of these actions:Expand theProperties tab for the LUNs node, and click Add.

Note Enabling data replication and configuring snapshot scheduling on page 44 is only displayed if your Unitydeployment includes the Snapshots feature, the Data Replication feature, or both features. To purchase theSnapshots or the Data Replication feature, please contact your Nexsan reseller or Nexsan SupportRepresentative.This section includes these steps:Setting the LUN name and block size belowConfigure space usage settings for the LUN on page 43Enabling data replication and configuring snapshot scheduling on page 44

Setting the LUN name and block sizeThis step of the LUN SetupWizard prompts you to specify a name for the new LUN, set the block size for theLUN, as well as define client-specific (initiators) settings.



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Figure 3-7: LUN SetupWizard, Step : Setting the LUN name and block size

► To define the LUN:1. Type a name for the LUN in the LUN Name field.

The namemust start with an (upper-case or lower-case) alphabetic; and, with the exception of thehyphen (-), and period (.), the name can only contain alphanumeric characters, without spaces.These characters are NOT allowed:” / \ [ ] : ; | = , + * ? < >

2. In the LUN Blocksize section, adjust the block size for the LUN, if needed.To ensure optimal I/O performance, set the LUN’s block size to the same value as the typical I/O blocksize of the host application. Aligning the volume block size to the typical I/O block size from theapplication can significantly improve application performance.Table 3-1: Recommended block size for the application used

Application / Data type Recommended block size

Windows / Linux Boot 64 KB

Microsoft Exchange 2010 DB 32 KB

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Log 128 KB

Oracle OLTP 8 KB

SQLServer 64 KB

Video Streaming 128 KB

Notes:YouCANNOTmodify the LUN’s block size once the LUN is created.

Themaximum block size for Unity is 128 KB.

3. Click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue to Configure space usage settings for the LUN onthe facing page.

Adding a LUN


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Configure space usage settings for the LUNThis step of the LUN SetupWizard prompts you to specify space usage settings for the LUN.This table illustrates how Unity distributes disk space to LUNs for a storage pool of 10 TB.Table 3-2: Distribution of disk space to LUNs

Total available space in storage pool: 10 TB

Space usage settings LUN 0 (Thin-provisioned) LUN 1 (Thick-provisioned)

Reservation 4 TB 6 TB

Virtual volume size 20 TB N/A

Physical capacity 4 TB 6 TB

Virtual volume size asseen by initiators

20 TB 6 TB

Figure 3-8: LUN SetupWizard, Step : Configuring space settings for the LUN

► To configure space usage for the LUN:1. Specify a virtual volume size for the LUN. This determines the disk space that clients see when they

connect to the LUN; see Thin Provisioning on page 1.Select the relevant capacity unit from the drop-down list; and type a value in the box.Notes:

Once you set the virtual volume size for a LUN, you cannot decrease it; however, you can increase itat any time.

The virtual volume size cannot be less than the reserved space.

You cannot switch to Thick Provisioning after the LUN is created.



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2. Select the relevant capacity unit from the drop-down list; and then type a value in the box.When you reserve space for a LUN, Unity allocates the specified amount of disk space in the storagepool to the LUN. If you add another LUN to the storage pool, the space available to the new LUN is thedifference of the total disk space in the storage pool minus any reservations that you set for other LUNson the system.For example, in a storage pool with 2 LUNs and 10 TB of available disk space, if a reservation of 6 TB isallocated to one LUN, then the second LUN has 4 TB of disk space available to it.Note If you for the LUN, youMUST reserve a fixed amount of disk space.

3. Select the relevant capacity unit from the drop-down list; and type a value in the box. Thick Provisioningwill use the specified amount of physical disk space.Notes:

You cannot switch to Thin Provisioning after the LUN is created.

Once you set theminimum volume size for a LUN, you cannot decrease it; however, you canincrease it as needed.

If you intend to use snapshots with a Thick-provisioned LUN, keep inmind that each snapshotconsumes disk space equivalent to the total size of the snapshot, so pleasemake sure to plan yourspace consumption requirements accordingly.

For LUNs hosted in a VMware environment, we recommend to use Thick-provisioned LUNs.

4. Click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue to .

Enabling data replication and configuring snapshot schedulingThis step of the LUN SetupWizard prompts you to enable data replication for the LUN, if data replication isconfigured for the storage pool, and also to configure the snapshots schedule and auto-deletion settings forsnapshots.NoteWedo not recommend enabling snapshots scheduling when using LUNs in a Hyper-V environment. Youcan takemanual snapshots and rollback data to a snapshotNoteWedo not recommend enabling snapshot scheduling when using LUNs in a VMware environment. Totakemanual snapshots and rollback data to a snasphot, see Using Unity snapshots in VMware on page 66.

Figure 3-9: LUN SetupWizard, Step 4: Enable data replication and configure snapshots

Adding a LUN


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► To enable data replication for the LUN:1. Select theEnable Data Replication for the file system option. This option is disabled if you have not

yet configured data replication for the storage pool. If you enable this option, Unity replicates the LUN tothe remote site during the next scheduled data replication.

2. If you do not enable snapshot scheduling, click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue .

Verifying settingsThis step of the LUN SetupWizard summarizes the settings you selected for your LUN. Review the summarycarefully before applying the configuration settings.

► To change a LUN configuration setting:Click the back arrow to navigate back to the corresponding configuration step.Or

Click the corresponding step identifier at the top of the LUN SetupWizard panel. For example, if you wantto rename the LUN, click Step 1.

Figure 3-10: LUN SetupWizard, Step 6: Verify Settings

If you are satisfied with the configuration settings, click theStart button at the bottom of the panel. The LUNSetupWizard automatically proceeds to Viewing progress below.

Viewing progressStep of the LUN SetupWizard displays progress as Unity creates the new LUN.



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Figure 3-11: LUN SetupWizard, Step : Viewing configuration results

The LUN SetupWizard displays error events that the system encounters during the LUN creation process.You can view more details about an error event by expanding the corresponding entry.

► To view more details for an error event:Click the plus (+) sign corresponding to the error event.

Unity informs you when it successfully creates the LUN. It also asks you if you want to create another LUN inthe storage pool.

Click Yes if you want to create a new LUN; the LUN SetupWizard scrolls back and resets all configurationsettings to their defaults.

Click No if you do not want to create a LUN. This closes the LUN SetupWizard.

Adding a file system Using the SetupWizardUnity provides the File System SetupWizard to guide you through the process of creating a file system.

► To start the File System Setup Wizard:1. Under the site node, click the Storage Pools node to select it and display its child nodes.

2. Click the storage pool to select it and display its child nodes.

3. Click the File Systems node to select it.


To... Do this

use the File Systemcontext menu

a. Click the context menu button on the File Systems node to openthe node context menu.

b. When the node context menu opens, click Add.

use the File SystemProperties panel

a. Click theProperties tab at the bottom of the screen to expand theFile System Properties panel.

b. Click theAdd button on the File System Properties panel.

Adding a file system Using the SetupWizard


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► To start the File System Setup Wizard:1. Under the site node, click the Storage Pools node to select it and display its child nodes.

2. Click the storage pool to select it and display its child nodes.

3. Click the File Systems node to select it.


To... Do this

use the File Systemcontext menu

a. Click the context menu button on the File Systems node to openthe node context menu.

b. When the node context menu opens, click Add.

use the File SystemProperties panel

a. Click theProperties tab at the bottom of the screen to expand theFile System Properties panel.

b. Click theAdd button on the File System Properties panel.

The File System SetupWizard starts. The wizard includes the following steps that youmust complete in theorder presented to successfully create a file system.This section includes these steps:Step 1: Creating a file system and configuring space usage belowStep 2: Configuring the access method on page 49Step 3: Enabling data replication on page 52Step 4: Configuring your archive settings on page 1Step 5: Verifying settings on page 54Step 6: Viewing configuration results on page 55Note Step 3: Enabling data replication on page 52 is only displayed if your Unity deployment includes Unity’sData Protection feature. For more information about Snapshots and Data Replication, please contact yourNexsan reseller or Nexsan Support Representative.

Step 1: Creating a file system and configuring space usageStep 1 of the File System SetupWizard prompts you to specify a name for the file system, enableCollaboration Features and linking, and configure space usage settings for the file system. You can changespace usage settings for the file system once the file system is created and added to the storage pool.

► To create a file system:1. Enter a name for the file system in the File System Name field.

The namemust start with an (upper-case or lower-case) alphabetic or numeric character; and, with theexception of the hyphen (-), and period (.), the name can only contain alphanumeric characters, withoutspaces.These characters are NOT allowed:” / \ [ ] : ; | = , + * ? < >

2. Specify theReserved space.



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3. Specify theQuota.

4. Click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue.

NoteWeb, desktop, andmobile access can be independently disabled at any time.

Reserved spaceYou can reserve a set amount of disk space in the storage pool for the exclusive use of the file system. Unityautomatically allocates the specified amount of disk space in the storage pool to the file system. If you addanother file system to the storage pool, the space available to the new file system is the difference of the totaldisk space in the storage pool minus any reservations that you set for other file systems on the system.For example, in a storage pool with 2 file systems and 10 TB of available disk space, if a reservation of 6 TB isallocated to one file system, then the second file system has 4 TB of disk space available to it.To reserve space for the file system in the storage pool, move the slider left or right to set the desired amount.You can also type a value in the box to the right of the slider.QuotaA usage quota allows Unity to dynamically expand a file system’s storage capacity when the file system runsout of disk space. You can set a fixed quota limit to prevent the file system’s storage capacity from increasingbeyond a certain size, or you can set the quota toUnlimited to allow the file system’s storage capacity to growin relation to the storage pool’s available disk capacity.To limit the quota for the file system, clear theUnlimited check box, and thenmove theQuota slider left orright to decrease or increase the quota limit. You can also type a value in the box to the right of the slider.Note The quota limit cannot be less than the reserved space, nor can it exceed the total available space in thepool.



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Table 3-3: Distribution of disk space to file systems when setting reservations and quotas for file systems

Total available space in storage pool: 10 TB

Space usage settings File System 1 File System 2 File System 3

Reservation 5 TB 2 TB Not specified

Quota Unlimited 3 TB Not specified

Total available space 8 TB2 TB reserved for FileSystem 2. Since thequota is set to Unlimited,the total available spaceincreases as newstorage is allocated tothe pool.

3 TBTotal available spacecannot exceed setquota limit.

3 TB7 TB reserved for FileSystem 1 and File System 2

Figure 3-12: File System SetupWizard, Step 1: Setting the file system name and space usage

Step 2: Configuring the access methodStep 2 of the File System SetupWizard prompts you to select theAccess Method for the file system.Notes:

WARNING: To control Mobile orWeb access to the file system, youmust set Windows or Linux filesystem permissions. CIFS share permission settings do NOT apply to Mobile, Web, NFS, or FTP access.

CAUTION: To prevent a user from inadvertently deleting a folder youmust manually remove that ability bymodifying the advanced permission settings on each folder. By default, file system permissions are set toanonymous access for all users. This means that by default all users have the ability to create and delete toplevel folders, which in turn will cause that folder to be deleted on all other systems.

A file system that you expose using the CIFS sharingmethod can also be accessed by UNIX/Linux-basedsystems using a CIFS client implementation for UNIX (such as, Samba).

A file system that you expose using the NFS sharingmethod can also be accessed by Windows-basedsystems using an NFS client implementation forWindows (available inMicrosoft Services for UNIX)

You cannot expose a file system toWindows-based systems over the CIFS protocol if Unity is connectedto an LDAP Directory service; the CIFS sharing option is not available in LDAP Directory serviceimplementations.

If you configured LDAP Directory service as the user authenticationmode for Unity: exposing a file systemover the CIFS protocol in an LDAP environment is only supported with anonymous read and/or anonymousread/write access enabled for the share.

A file system that you expose using the FTP sharingmethod can be accessed by UNIX/Linux-based andWindows-based systems using the FTP protocol. FTP sharing is only supported for Nexsan Unityauthentication. It must be enabled at the site level beforehand; see "Enabling FTP support" (page 58).

If the file system will be accessed over IIS, do not enable case-sensitivity for the share.



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► To configure the sharing method:1. To select a sharemethod, perform one of these actions:

To expose the file system toWindows-based systems over the CIFS protocol, select theEnableCIFS option. This option is selected by default if Unity is joined to aMicrosoft Active Directorydomain.

Tomake the file system a hidden CIFS share, Select theCIFS option, and then select theMake thisa hidden CIFS share option.When you configure a file system as a hidden CIFS share, the file system is not visible toWindows-based clients on the network; Windows-based clients interpret a hidden share as an administrative filesystem on the network, and prevent its display when you browse file systems on Unity.To access a hidden (CIFS) share on Unity from aWindows-based client, youmust specify theshare’s full path on Unity, including the $ character appended to the end of the share’s name; forexample:\\<Pool Resource Group Virtual IP>\<Storage Pool>\\<FileSystemName>$

Where <FileSystemName> is the name of the hidden (CIFS) share on Unity.

To expose the file system to UNIX/Linux-based systems over the NFS protocol, select theEnableNFS option. This option is selected by default if Unity is connected to an LDAP Directory service, or itthe system is configured to use Unity authentication.

To expose the file system to bothWindows and UNIX/Linux-based systems, select both theCIFSandNFS options for amixed-mode operation.

To expose the file system over the FTP protocol, select the FTP option. This option is only availablewhen using local authentication.



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Step 3: Assigning access permissionsStep 3 of the File System SetupWizard prompts you to select the users and groups that will access the filesystem, and configure their access permissions. The panel displays all user and group accounts in theMicrosoft Active Directory domain or LDAP Directory service that Unity is connected to; or, if the system isconfigured to use Unity authentication, all users and groups that you defined on the system.Note This step is optional; you can give users and groups access to the file system and change their accesspermissions later, after you add the file system to the storage pool; to skip this step and continue to Step 3:Enabling data replication on the next page, click the forward arrow on the panel.

Figure 3-13: File System SetupWizard, Step 3: Assign access permissions

► To assign access permissions:1. From theDomain drop-down list, select the domain server(s) where the users or groups that you want to

give access permissions to exist.Note The panel displays theDomain drop-down list if Unity is integrated with aMicrosoft WindowsActive Directory domain or an LDAP Directory service. In amultiple domain environment, theDomaindrop-down list contains all the domains on the network.



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2. In theName text box, type the name of the user or group than you want to give access to the file system,and then, click the Find button to display the specified user or group.If needed, you can use the Find Now function to display specific users and/or groups. For example, todisplay the userBob:a. Select theStarts with option from the pick list next to the Name text box.

b. TypeBO (or bo) in theName text box.

c. Click the Find Now button. Unity displays all users and/or groups with user and/or group namesthat start with the letters b and o in theSearch results grid (on the bottom-left of the panel).

You can also use theAdvanced Search function and set more specific search criteria.

3. In theSearch results grid, select the user or group that you want to give access permissions to byhighlighting the relevant user or group in the grid.Hold down SHIFT or CTRL and click the left mouse button to highlight multiple entries in the grid.You can also search for specific users or groups in the grid, or filter the list of users or groups, by enteringa user or group name in the text box located above theName column.

4. Drag your selection to theAccounts with Access list on the right-hand side of the panel.

5. For each user and/or group that you add to theAccounts with Access list, select the relevant check boxin theRead,Write, or Full column corresponding to the level of access that you want to give to the userand/or group.If you want to give all users and groups the same access to the file system, select the corresponding top-level check box in theRead,Write, or Full column heading.

6. (Optional) Disable share inheritance for the selected user, if required. When a user has inheritanceenabled, that user can access files and folders created by other users, according to the user's accesspermissions (Read, Write, or Full). Disabling inheritance will prevent the user from accessing files andfolders created by other users. This setting can be disabled at a later time; see Disabling accessinheritance for shares on page 1.

7. Click the forward arrow on the panel to continue to Step 3: Enabling data replication below.

Step 3: Enabling data replicationThis step is only displayed if your Unity includes the Snapshots or Data Replication feature, or both features.Notes: Data Replication is not possible if n-Way Sync is enabled. If you do not want to enable snapshotscheduling, click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue.NoteWedo not recommend enabling snapshot scheduling when using shares in a VMware environment. Totakemanual snapshots and rollback data to a snasphot, see Using Unity snapshots in VMware on page 66.



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► To configure snapshot scheduling for the file system:1. Select theEnable scheduling option to enable snapshots scheduling.

2. Adjust the snapshots schedule according to your preference. The default schedule for snapshots is oncea day at 1 AM, with the start date set to the current date on Unity. This means that Unity will take anautomatic snapshot of the file system at 1 AM every day starting on the current date.a. Specify the start date for the schedule by clicking theStart date field and selecting a date from the

calendar.

b. Specify the time when you want Unity to take snapshots. The default time is 1 AM.

c. Specify a recurrence pattern for the schedule by typing a value in theRecur every field; then, selectthe recurrence type from the drop-down list:Minutes(s), Hour(s), Day(s),Week(s), orMonth(s).

For example, if you want Unity to take a snapshot every two hours, type 2 in theRecur everyfield and select Hour(s) from the recurrence type drop-down list.

If you selectWeek(s) from the recurrence type drop-down list, youmust then select the day ordays of the week that you want Unity to take automatic snapshots on.

If you selectMonth(s), youmust then select themonth or months of the year, as well as thecalendar dates that you want Unity to take automatic snapshots on.

3. Configure auto-deletion settings for the file system:a. Select theEnable scheduling option to enable snapshots scheduling (if not already enabled); this

enables the options underAuto-deletion Settings.

b. Select theKeep a limited number of auto-snapshots option (selected by default) if you wantUnity to only keep the specified number of automatic snapshots on the system—the default is 7snapshots. This means that, after 7 snapshots, when Unity takes the 8th scheduled automaticsnapshot of the share, it automatically delete the oldest automatic snapshot on the system. Unitydoes not delete manual snapshots when you enable this option; only scheduled automaticsnapshots are processed. Change the default value if needed.

c. Select theEnable the auto-deletion of snapshots option if you want Unity to automatically deleteautomatic scheduled snapshots when the storage pool is 80% full. Unity deletes snapshots—starting with the oldest automatic snapshot on the system—until used disk space capacity in thestorage pool falls below the 80% threshold. Unity does not delete manual snapshots when youenable this option; only scheduled automatic snapshots are processed.Note The snapshot auto-deletion threshold is configurable at the storage pool-level.Note The snapshot auto-deletion function can only be set on the primary dataset. When a snapshotis deleted on the primary dataset, its replica will be deleted during a subsequent replication session.

4. Click the right arrow on the wizard panel to continue.Note If you enable snapshots scheduling, and you set the current date (or today’s date) as the start datefor the schedule, Unity takes an automatic snapshot of the file system immediately after you set theschedule. Thereafter, Unity takes an automatic snapshot of the file system according to the scheduleyou specify. For more information about the Snapshots feature, see .

Step 5: Verifying settingsStep 5 of the File System SetupWizard summarizes the settings you selected for your file system andcreates the file system in the storage pool when you click Start. Review the summary carefully beforeapplying the configuration settings.



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Click the corresponding step identifier at the top of the File System SetupWizard panel. For example, ifyou want to rename the share, click Step 1.

If you are satisfied with the settings, click theStart button at the bottom of the panel.

Step 6: Viewing configuration resultsStep 6 of the File System SetupWizard displays progress as Unity creates the new file system.The File System SetupWizard displays error events that the system encounters during the file systemcreation process. You can view more details about an error event by expanding the corresponding entry.


Unity informs you when it successfully creates the file system. It also asks you if you want to create anotherfile system in the storage pool.Choose one of these actions:

Click Yes if you want to create a new file system ; the File System SetupWizard scrolls back to Step 1:Creating a file system and configuring space usage on page 47 and resets all configuration settings to theirdefaults.

Click No if you do not want to create a file system. This closes the File System SetupWizard.

The new file system appears in the Unity tree view under the File System node. You can now access the filesystem from aWindows-based (CIFS) system and/or mount the share on a UNIX/Linux-based (NFS)system, depending on the sharingmethod you selected.



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Adding an iSCSI targetUnity provides the Target SetupWizard to guide you through the process of adding a Target to a storage pool.Note For complete details onmanaging iSCSI targets on Unity, refer to the Nexsan Unity Software UserGuide.

► To start the Target Setup Wizard:1. Under the site node, click theStorage Pools node to select it and display its child nodes.

2. Click the storage pool that you want to add a target to.

3. Select the iSCSI Targets node.

4. Perform one of these actions:Click the context menu button on the iSCSI targets node to open the node context menu, or

Expand the Properties panel for the iSCSI targets node.

5. Click Add.

The Target SetupWizard guides you through the process of adding a target to a storage pool.This section includes these steps:Step 1: Specifying the IQN and public alias for the iSCSI target belowStep 2: Verifying configuration settings on the facing pageStep 3: Viewing configuration results on the facing page

Step 1: Specifying the IQN and public alias for the iSCSI targetStep 1 of the Target SetupWizard prompts you to specify the iSCSI target’s IQN and public alias.

IQN: an IQN (iSCSI qualified name) is the unique identifier of a device in an iSCSI network. iSCSI usesthe form iqn.date.authority:uniqueid for IQNs. For example, Unity uses this IQN to identify iSCSI targets:iqn.1999-02.com.nexsan:<site name>:<pool name>:<unique ID>

This name indicates that this is an iSCSI device from Nexsan, which was registered as a company inFebruary of 1999. The naming authority is simply the DNS name of the company reversed; in this case,com.nexsan. Following this is the site name, the storage pool namewhere the target exists, and a uniqueID that youmust specify to identify the target.Note IQN is always forced to lower case by Unity, in accordance with RSF conventions.

Public alias: this is a symbolic name that you can assign to a target on the Unity. The public alias is seenby some iSCSI initiators; it can help you identify the target. You can change a target’s public alias at anytime.

Figure 3-14: Target SetupWizard, Step 1: Specifying the iSCSI target’s IQN and public alias

Adding an iSCSI target


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► To specify the IQN and public alias for the iSCSI target:1. Type a unique ID in the text box next to the IQN: field. The ID must start with an (upper-case or lower-

case) alphabetic or numeric character; spaces are not allowed.

2. Type a public alias for the target in thePublic alias text box. The public alias can contain up to amaximum of 16 characters, and it must start with an (upper-case or lower-case) alphabetic character;with the exception of the underscore (_), hyphen (-), and period (.), the public alias can only containalphanumeric characters.

3. Once you specify the IQN and public alias for the target, click the forward arrow on the panel to continue

Step 2: Verifying configuration settingsThis step of the Target SetupWizard summarizes the settings you selected for the new iSCSI target andcreates the target in the storage pool when you click Start. Review the summary carefully before applying theconfiguration settings.

Figure 3-15: Target SetupWizard, Step 2: Verify Settings


Click the corresponding step identifier at the top of the Target SetupWizard panel. For example, if youwant to change the IQN for the target, click Step 1.

If you are satisfied with the configuration settings, click theStart button at the bottom of the panel. The TargetSetupWizard automatically proceeds to Step 3: Viewing configuration results below, where you can viewprogress as Unity creates the new iSCSI target.

Step 3: Viewing configuration resultsThe last step of the Target SetupWizard displays progress as Unity creates the new iSCSI target.The Target SetupWizard displays error events that the system encounters during the target creation process.You can view more details about an error event by expanding the corresponding entry.

Figure 3-16: Target SetupWizard, Step 3: Viewing progress




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Unity informs you when it successfully creates the target. It also asks you if you want to create another targetin the storage pool:Click Yes if you want to create a new target; the Target SetupWizard scrolls back to Step 1: Specifying theIQN and public alias for the iSCSI target on page 56 and resets all configuration settings to their defaults.

► What's Next:Proceed to discovering the devices in VMware; see Step 12On the VMware ESXi host, open iSCSI InitiatorProperties, select the Dynamic Discovery tab, and click Add. on page 27.

Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUNYoumust configure and enable VAAI hardware acceleration functionality on your VMware ESX/ESXi tosupport for the VAAI plug-in on Unity to work; for more information, please refer to the VMwaredocumentation. If you already created LUNs but the VAAI plugin is not enabled for these LUNs, follow thesteps mentioned in this section.Note The VMware VAAI plug-in is always disabled by default when you create a LUN.

► To enable the VAAI plug-in for a LUN:1. In Unity’s tree view, click the Site node.

2. Click theStorage Pools node.

3. Click the node corresponding to the storage pool where the LUN for which you want to enable the VAAIplug-in exists.

4. Click the LUNs node.

5. Click the node corresponding to the LUN that you want to enable the VAAI plug-in for.

6. Expand the LUN’s Properties panel.

7. Select theProperties tab.Figure 3-17: LUN’s properties panel—LUN Properties tab

8. Check the Enable the VMware VAAI plugin option to enable the VAAI plug-in for the LUN.

9. Click theApply button.

Enabling FTP supportA file system that you expose using the FTP sharingmethod can be accessed by UNIX/Linux-based andWindows-based systems using the FTP protocol. It must be enabled at the site level before you can exposefile systems over FTP. Enabling FTP support opens port 21 by default.If a user has access (either via anonymous access or explicit permission), that user can access the filesystem via FTP.Note Enabling FTP support will create additional folders in the /var/opt/nest/users/ directory. It isrecommended to leave these folders untouched for proper FTP behavior.

► Limitations of FTP sharing:FTP sharing is only supported for Nexsan Unity authentication in the user interface.

Only nxadmin and site administrators can enable FTP at the site level. Pool administrators can enable FTPat the file system level if FTP is enabled at the site level.

FTP support is not supported for IP restrictions.

You cannot browse a replicated file system over FTP.

Enabling VMware VAAI hardware acceleration for a LUN


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FTP support is enabled for the primary site only; it is not replicated to the remote site. Youmust enable itmanually on the remote site.

► To enable FTP support for the site:1. In Unity's tree view, click theSite node.

2. Expand the Site node's properties panel.

3. Select the FTP tab.Figure 3-18: Site properties panel: FTP tab

4. Select theEnable FTP support for this site option.

5. Click Apply.

► Related topics:Modifying a file system’s sharingmethod on page 1Step 2: Configuring the access method on page 49



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Enabling FTP support


Chapter 4

Chapter 4:Monitoring and troubleshooting

This section provides procedures tomonitor performance for NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel protocols. It alsogives troubleshooting tips for known issues when working with Unity in a VMware environment.

Viewing and recording performancemetrics with the PerformanceMonitor 62Monitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSI performance on VMware 64Monitoring NFS performance on VMware 65Using Unity snapshots in VMware 66



Viewing and recording performancemetrics with the PerformanceMonitorUnity displays real-time performance information for Unity in graphical format in Unity’s PerformanceMonitor.The PerformanceMonitor provides a visual display of built-in performance counters on Unity. It featuresmultiple graph views that enable you to visually examine real-time performancemetrics for Unity.The PerformanceMonitor collects and displays this performance data and then displays the data it collects ingraphical format:

Site CPU usage: current (real-time) performance counter values for CPU usage for each controller at thespecified time interval, and then displays the data as percentage values in graphical format.

Site Memory usage : current (real-time) performance counter values for memory usage for each controllerat the specified time interval, and then displays the data as percentage values.

Network statistics: current (real-time) performance counter values for the site network I/O at the specifiedtime interval. This includes read and write I/O statistics for each controller. Unity aggregates the networkperformance statistics and displays them as percentage values.

Device I/O statistics: current (real-time) performance counter values for device I/O at the specified timeinterval. This includes read and write I/O statistics for all disks and storage systems connected to Unity.You can filter the graphical representation to only show I/O statistics for the disks/devices currentlyallocated to a specific storage pool on the system, including the devices reserved for the Unity’s operatingsystem pool, and the system pool (on Clustered systems).Each slot of Unity storage device and each storage device volume is represented in a different color.

Notes:Read I/O refers to the bandwidth of all read I/O operations sent to the storage pool(s) or device(s) (includingmetadata requests), expressed as kilobytes per second (KB/s).

Write I/O refers to the bandwidth of all write I/O operations sent to the storage pool(s) or device(s)(includingmetadata requests), expressed as kilobytes per second (KB/s).

For historical performance data, the time interval is 10 seconds by default and then data is aggregated fordisplay in the historical view.

This section includes these topics:Starting the PerformanceMonitor 62Filtering live performancemetrics 63performance 63

Starting the Performance MonitorThis section explains hot to start the PerformanceMonitor to display real-time performance information forUnity.

► To start the Performance Monitor:In the Unity toolbar, select thePerformance Monitor option from the Toolsmenu.

The PerformanceMonitor opens in a new browser tab or window, depending on your internet browser’sconfiguration settings. The PerformanceMonitor includes a graphical chart for each of these performancemetrics:

Viewing and recording performancemetrics with the PerformanceMonitor


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Table 4-1: Performancemetrics and typesFigure 4-1: PerformanceMonitor—Live view

When the PerformanceMonitor opens, only the graphical chart for CPU performance is expanded. You canopen, or expand, the graphical chart for another performancemetric by clicking its corresponding title bar.Similarly, click the title bar of an expanded graphical chart to close, or collapse, it.By default, the sampling interval is set to every 10 seconds. This means that the PerformanceMonitorcollects performance statistics at 10 second intervals, and updates the graphical charts in real-timeaccordingly. The time line at the bottom of each graphical chart indicates the current sampling interval. Youcanmodify the sampling interval for the PerformanceMonitor from the .

Filtering live performance metricsThis procedure provides an example on how to filter I/O performancemetrics for a specific pool.

► To filter performance information:1. Start the PerformanceMonitor; see Starting the PerformanceMonitor on the previous page.

2. Select the Live tab (opened by default).

The graphical chart automatically adjusts to display performance statistics for the selected component.

performanceThe PerformanceMonitor allows you to for Unity. You can record performancemetrics during a specific timeperiod, and then review the later for analysis. This mechanism can help you diagnose system bottlenecks.This section includes these topics:

below

Viewing a on the next page

Deleting a on the next page

Unity records all performance datametrics by default.

► To create a :1. Start the PerformanceMonitor; see Starting the PerformanceMonitor on the previous page.

2. Select the tab. The panel opens.

3. Click theNew button at the top. This displays the New popup.Figure 4-2: New popup

4. Specify a name for the , and then specify its start date, start time, duration, and the sampling interval.The New popup updates the total file size of the recording as you change the duration and interval.Note The is saved to Unity—not to system disk drives.

5. Click OK. The new appears in the grid on the panel with a status of Running.

Figure 4-3: PerformanceMonitor— viewTheState column in the grid indicates Running for a that is currently in process, and Finished for a that hascompleted.

Chapter 4: Monitoring and troubleshooting


4


► To stop a that is currently in process:1. Select the in the grid.

2. Click theStop button. The button changes toResume for the selected snapshot and the state changestoStopped.

► To resume a that was stopped:1. Select the in the grid.

2. Click theResume button.

Viewing a

You can view that are:currently in process (identified by theRunning value under theState column in the grid on the Recordingspanel) and

completed (identified by the Finished value under theState column).

► To view a recording:1. Start the PerformanceMonitor; see Starting the PerformanceMonitor on page 62.


3. In the grid, select the that you want to view.

4. Click theView button at the top. The opens with the CPU Usage graphical chart displayed.

5. Expand the graphical charts for the other metrics to view recorded data.

Deleting a

This section explains how to delete a performance .

► To delete a :1. Start the PerformanceMonitor; see Starting the PerformanceMonitor on page 62.


3. In the grid, select the that you want to delete. This can be a currently in process or a previous .

Monitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSI performance on VMwareThis section provides examples on how to use ESXTOP command tomonitor VMware Fibre Channel andiSCSI LUNs as well as datastore and HBA performance and throughput.ESXTOP is a VMwaremonitoring tool that is used at the ESXi host level to monitor performance and resourceusage of the virtual environment. This tool allows you to identify potential bottlenecks, I/O performanceissues, and network degradation as well as throughput levels.Note For interpreting VMware ESXTOP statistics, read VMware DOC-9279 at the following URL:http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9279.

► To monitor VMware Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUNs:1. Open a SSH connection.

2. Type esxtop and then press n .

3. Press s 2 to change the update time to every 2 seconds.

Monitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSI performance on VMware


4

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9279

4. Press Enter.

► To monitor virtual HBAs:1. Open a SSH connection.

2. Type esxtop and then press f to choose different monitoring options.

3. Press d for disk view option (HBA mode).


5. Press Enter.

6. Make sure the virtual HBAs (vmhbas) are correctly balancing the I/O.

Monitoring NFS performance on VMwareThis section provides examples on how to use ESXTOP command tomonitor NFS datastores’ utilization andperformance as well as the IP network. For a definition of ESXTOP, seeMonitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSIperformance on VMware on the previous page.

► To monitor NFS datastores:1. Open a SSH connection.

2. Type esxtop and then press u .




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4. Press Enter.

► To monitor virtual machines:1. Open a SSH connection.

2. Type esxtop and then press v .


4. Press Enter.

Using Unity snapshots in VMwareFor LUNs or shares hosted on VMware, youmust perform specific steps when creating snapshots and rollingback data to these snapshots. If you follow the procedures mentioned in theNexsan Unity Software UserGuide, the operationmay not work and data loss may occur.

Taking a manual LUN snapshotYou can takemanual snapshots of a LUN at any time, even if you have scheduled (automatic) snapshotsenabled. This mechanism allows you to record a copy of the contents of a LUN at any point in time. Forinstructions on taking automatic snapshots, see theNexsan Unity Software User Guide.

► To take a manual snapshot:1. Power off all virtual machines hosted on the LUN.

2. In Unity’s tree view, click theSite node.


4. Click the storage pool containing the LUN for which you want to take a snapshot.

5. Click the LUNs node.

6. Click the LUN for which you want to take a snapshot.

Using Unity snapshots in VMware


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7. Click the Take a Snapshot button. Unity displays the Take a Snapshot dialog box.Figure 4-4: Take a Snapshot dialog box

To... Do this

specify a name for themanual snapshot

a. Clear theAutomatically assign a name option (selected by default)and type a name for the snapshot in theSnapshot name field. Whensetting a name for amanual snapshot, the same naming restrictionsapply as when you specify a name for a LUN.

b. Click theOK button to set the name and close the Take a Snapshotdialog box.

Unity immediately takes a snapshot and adds it to the snapshots grid.

To let Unityautomatically assign aname to themanualsnapshot

a. Make sure theAutomatically assign a name option is selected(default selection).

b. Click theOK button to close the Take a Snapshot dialog box.

Unity immediately takes a snapshot of the LUN and adds themanualsnapshot to the snapshots grid. The snapshot is assigned a default namethat is prefixed with manual_ and includes the date and time themanualsnapshot is recorded; for example: if you take amanual snapshot onMay15, 2013 at 1:01PM, Unity assigns this name to the snapshot: manual_2013-06-15-130101

8. Rescan the datastores:a. Right-click the IP address of each datastore.

b. Select Rescan for datastores.

c. Click OK when prompted to confirm the action.

9. Power on the virtual machines hosted on the LUN.

Rolling back the data to a snapshotThe rollback function reverts a file system’s/LUN's contents to what they were at the time the snapshot wastaken, including all file- and folder-level permission settings and access-level attributes. This function alsoautomatically deletes all snapshots that are newer than the snapshot that you roll back to, including all manualsnapshots of the file system/LUN and snapshots that have browsing enabled.

CAUTION: Unity rolls back all the data in the file system to the contents of the snapshot. Thisincludes all file- and folder-level permission settings and file system-level access attributes as theywere when the snapshot was recorded. Additionally, Unity deletes all snapshots that are newer thanthe snapshot that you roll back to, including all manual snapshots of the file system and snapshotsthat have browsing enabled.

► To roll back the data to a point-in-time snapshot:1. Power off all virtual machines hosted on the share/LUN.

2. In Unity’s tree view, click the Site node to display its child nodes.


4. Click the storage pool containing the file system/LUN that you want to roll back.



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5. When the storage pool’s child nodes are displayed, click its File System or LUNs node.

6. Click the file system/LUN containing the snapshot that you want to roll back to.

7. Select theSnapshots tab to display a grid that lists all the snapshots—both automatic (scheduled) andmanual snapshots—that exist on the system for the share/LUN.

8. Highlight the snapshot that you want to roll back to by selecting the snapshot in the grid.

9. Click theRollback button. Unity displays a confirmation dialog box.Figure 4-5: Snapshot Rollback Confirmation dialog box

10. TypeYes in the text box.

11. Click theYes button.

12. Rescan the datastores:a. Right-click the IP address of each datastore.

b. Select Rescan for datastores.

c. Click OK when prompted to confirm the action.

13. Power on the virtual machines hosted on the LUN.

Using Unity snapshots in VMware


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Glossary

110Gb Ethernet

A 10 gigabit per second (Gb/s) Ethernetconnection using either fiber-optic cables ortwisted-pair copper wires.

10Gb iSCSIAn iSCSI connection that runs on a 10GbEthernet network.

AActive Directory

Microsoft Active Directory® is a directoryservice that stores directory information on anetwork andmakes this information available tonetwork users and administrators. AD storesinformation about user accounts, such asnames, passwords, phone numbers, and so on,and enables other authorized users on the samenetwork to access this information.

Anti-static wrist-strapAn antistatic device used to preventelectrostatic discharge (ESD) by safelygrounding a person working on electronicequipment. Also called an ESD strap or agrounding bracelet.

Asynchronous data replicationUse asynchronous data replication allows you toreplicate data between two Unitys —a primaryand a remote (or secondary) system—over aLAN orWAN connection. The asynchronousdata replication function provides off-sitedisaster recovery protection. It delivers high-performance asynchronous replication of yourdata over both LAN andWAN networks,providing protection from site-specific andregional disasters. The Unity asynchronous datareplication function uses snapshot-basedreplication technology: when you initiate datareplication, the asynchronous data replicationfunction takes a snapshot of the data on theprimary and sends either the entire contents upto the snapshot to the remote. In the case of aninitial data replication; or, only the changes sincethe last replication—in the case of an incrementalupdate. Because the asynchronous datareplication function takes a snapshot of thesource data (on the primary system), the dataalways remains accessible to clients duringreplication. Additionally, the asynchronous datareplication function keeps track of data transfersduring replication by checkpointing the datastream. If data replication is interrupted—due to anetwork disconnect issue—the asynchronousdata replication function automatically restartsreplication from themost recent checkpoint. Theasynchronous data replication function includesfeatures that reduce bandwidth consumptionduring data replication, and consequentlyminimize the infrastructure cost of data

Glossary


replication and disaster recovery. Specifically,the asynchronous data replication function onlyreplicates the data that changed since the lastreplication—which significantly reducesreplication time and bandwidth requirements,particularly where only small parts of large fileschange or where only sharemetadata haschanged on the primary site.

Automatic replicationIn asynchronous replication, an automaticreplication refers to a scheduled replication thatoccurs according to a schedule you define. Youcan configure a separate replication schedule foreach storage pool on the Unity appliance.

BBit

The smallest unit of digital data, representing a 0or a 1. Abbreviated “b”.

Boot driveThe device from which a computer’s operatingsystem is loaded. Typically, an internal harddisk drive (or one of several partitions on such adrive) is used for this purpose, but any attachedstorage device—such as an optical disc drive, aUSB flash drive, a SATADom, or other attachedstorage—can be used.

CCHAP authentication

iSCSI initiators and targets prove their identity toeach other using the Challenge HandshakeAuthentication Protocol (CHAP). You can useCHAP authentication to restrict iSCSI access toLUNs on the Unity appliance to servers(initiators) that provide the correct user nameand password (or secret) combination. TheUnity appliance’s iSCSI implementationprovides several layers of CHAP authentication.

CIFS(Common Internet File System) The protocolused inWindows environments for shared

folders.

ClusteringProvides both high-availability and loadbalancing, using the Unity Storage System'sredundacy features, including dual controllersand RAIDs. See also Active/Active Clustering

Command-line interfaceA means of interaction between a human userand a computer program, or between twoprograms, where the user (or client) passescommands in the form of a line of text to acomputer program. The Nexsan Unity applianceoffers a command-line interface. Abbreviated“CLI”.

ControllerThe controller in the Unity appliance acts as theinterface between the Unity appliance andnetwork clients. The Unity appliance has twocontroller nodes, represented by the Clustersnode in Unity™, for which you can configure bothcluster and network settings. Can also bereferred to as Controller Node or Node.

DDHCP

(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Acommunication protocol that lets networkadministrators manage centrally and automatethe assignment of Internet Protocol (IP)addresses in a network.

DIMMDual In-lineMemory Module. The type ofrandom-access memory (RAM) that the NexsanUnity appliance uses.

Directory ServiceA directory service is the software system thatstores, organizes and provides access toinformation in a directory. A directory servicecalled a naming service, maps the names ofnetwork resources to their respective networkaddresses. With the name service type ofdirectory, a user does not have to remember the

Glossary


physical address of a network resource;providing a namewill locate the resource. Eachresource on the network is considered an objecton the directory server. Information about aparticular resource is stored as attributes of thatobject. Information within objects can bemadesecure so that only users with the availablepermissions are able to access it. In LDAP, thename is called the Distinguished name (DN) andis used to refer to a collection of attributes(relative distinguished names) whichmake upthe name of a directory entry.

DNS(Domain Name System) A program or computerserver that implements a name-service protocol.It maps a human-recognizable identifier to asystem-internal, often numeric, identification oraddressing component (usually an IP address).

EElectrostatic discharge (ESD)

The sudden andmomentary electric current thatflows between two objects at different electricalpotentials caused by direct contact or inducedby an electrostatic field. Potentially harmful toelectronic components.

EthernetA local area network (LAN) architecture using abus or star topology and supporting data transferrates of 10, 100, and 1000Mbps. It is one of themost widely implemented LAN standards. The802.11 protocols are often referred to as“wireless Ethernet.”

Event logA record of system events that tracksinformational, warning, and error events, suchas when significant milestones are reached orwhen errors occur during activity.

Expansion ControllerA module of Unity Storage Expansions thatconnects via SAS to a Unity Storage ExpansionController Node.

FFailover

The capability of a system to switch overautomatically to a redundant or standby systemupon the failure or abnormal termination of thepreviously active system. In Nexsan Unityappliances, failover describes one ControllerNode taking over the host connections andstorage pool control of the other Controller Nodewhen that controller fails.

FASTier™Nexsan’s proprietary cache system that usesSSD or NVDIMM technology to increaserandom I/O performance of SATA and SAS diskdrives.

FCCThe Federal Communications Commission; thefederal agency that regulates electromagneticemissions.

Fibre ChannelA gigabit (Gb) speed network technologyprimarily used for storage networking and thecurrent standard connection type for storagearea networks (SANs). Despite its name, FibreChannel signaling can run on both twisted-paircopper wire and fiber-optic cables.

Fibre Channel portAny entity that actively communicates over aFibre Channel network. Usually implemented ina device such as disk storage or a Fibre Channelswitch. Depending on the system, the FibreChannel ports on Nexsan Unity StorageExpansions can support 2Gb/s, 4Gb/s, or 8Gb/sconnections.

Fibre Channel switchA network switch compatible with the FibreChannel protocol. Allows the creation of a FibreChannel network, which is currently the corecomponent of most storage area networks(SANs).


Glossary


Fibre Channel targetA storage system end-point on the Unityappliance that uses Fibre Channel connectivity.Each storage pool can have one or multiple FibreChannel targets. Fibre Channel targets can beseen by all ports on the Unity appliance.

File SystemA system or subfolder which has been exposedon the network via CIFS protocol and/or theNFS protocol.

FirmwareSoftware stored in read-only memory (ROM) orprogrammable ROM (PROM), thereforebecoming a permanent part of a computingdevice.

Full replicationIn asynchronous replication, full replicationrefers to a replication operation that sends all thedata on the primary Unity appliance to theremote Unity appliance. Only the initialreplication, when you first set up asynchronousdata replication between two systems, is a fullreplication. All successive replications areincremental.

GGateway

An internetworking system that joins togetherthe different subnets of a network or twonetworks that use different base protocols. Anetwork gateway can be implementedcompletely in software, completely in hardware,or as a combination of both.

GbGigabit. Approximately one billion(1,000,000,000) bits.

Gb/sGigabits (Gb) per second. Used to describe thespeed of network data transmission.

Gigabit interface converterA standard for transceivers, commonly usedwith Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet and Fibre Channel,

with a hot-swappable electrical interface.Gigabit interface converter ports can support awide range of physical media, from copper tooptical fiber, at lengths of hundreds ofkilometers.

Graphical user interface (GUI)A type of user interface that allows users tointeract with electronic devices using imagesrather than text commands. Nexsan UnityStorage Expansions use a graphical userinterface for system configuration

HHost

A computer, server, or other device whichaccesses the shares in a Nexsan Unityappliance storage system. The host can beconnected to the storage system with a FibreChannel connection, an iSCSI connection, or aSAS connection.

HTTPThe Hypertext Transfer Protocol is anapplication protocol for distributed, collaborative,hypermedia information systems. HTTP is thefoundation of data communication for theWorldWideWeb. Hypertext is structured text thatuses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodescontaining text. HTTP is the protocol toexchange or transfer hypertext.

HTTPS(HTTP Secure) Communications protocol forsecure communication over a computernetwork, with especially wide deployment on theInternet. Technically, it is not a protocol in itself;rather, it is the result of simply layering theHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on top ofthe SSL/TLS protocol, thus adding the securitycapabilities of SSL/TLS to standard HTTPcommunications.

Glossary


II/O

Input/Output. The communication between aninformation processing system (such as acomputer or a Nexsan storage system’sController Node), and the outside world (eitheran operator or another information processingsystem). Inputs are the signals or data receivedby the system, and outputs are the signals ordata sent from it.

IDMUMicrosoft Identity Management for UNIX. IDMUmakes it easy to integrate users of Windowsoperating systems into existing UNIXenvironments. It provides manageabilitycomponents that simplify networkadministration and account management acrossboth platforms. IDMU allows you tomanageuser accounts and passwords onWindows andUNIX systems using Network InformationService (NIS). IDMU also allows you toautomatically synchronize passwords betweenWindows and UNIX operating systems.

Incremental replicationIn asynchronous replication, incrementalreplication refers to a replication operation thatsends only the data that changed since the lastreplication (whether that one was full orincremental).

InitiatorAn application or production system end-pointthat is capable of initiating an iSCSI sessionwith an iSCSI target, sending iSCSI commandsand I/O requests. Initiators are also identified byunique addressingmethods.

IP(Internet Protocol) The network layer for theTCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernetnetworks.

IP address(Internet Protocol address) A numerical labelassigned to each device (such as a computer,

printer, or Nexsan Unity Storage Expansion) ona computer network that uses TCP/IP forcommunication.

IPMI(Intelligent Platform Management Interface) TheIPMI interface allows you to performadministrative tasks to remotely manage theUnity appliance in the event that you are unableto connect to the Unity appliance using aconventional method: through Unity™ or from thenxadmin CLI.

IQN(iSCSI qualified name) Unique identifier of adevice in an iSCSI network. iSCSI uses theform iqn.date.authority:uniqueid for IQNs. Forexample, iqn.1999-02.com.nexsan:<sitename>:<pool name>:<unique ID>. This nameindicates that this is an iSCSI device fromNexsan, which was registered as a company inFebruary of 1999. The naming authority issimply the DNS name of the company reversed;in this case, com.nexsan. Following this is thesite name, the storage pool namewhere thetarget exists, and a user-defined unique ID toidentify the target.

iSCSI(Internet Small Computer System Interface) Atransport protocol that provides for the SCSIprotocol to be carried over a TCP/IP network.

iSCSI TargetA storage system end-point on the Unityappliance that processes iSCSI commands andI/O requests from an initiator. Each storage poolon the Unity appliance can have one, or multiple,iSCSI targets, with amaximum of 256 targetsper storage pool (0 to 255). In turn, each targetcan have amaximum of 256 LUNs (0 to 255).Each target on the Unity appliance is identifiedby a unique addressingmethod (IQN).

iSCSI Target public aliasThis is a symbolic name that you can assign to atarget on the Unity appliance. The public alias isseen by some iSCSI initiators; it can help youidentify the target. The public alias for a storage


Glossary


pool’s default target—that is, the target that theUnity appliance creates for a storage pool whenyou first add a LUN to the storage pool—is thepool name. You can change a target’s publicalias at any time.

iSNS(Internet Storage NameService) Protocoldesigned to facilitate the automated discovery,management, and configuration of iSCSIdevices on a TCP/IP network. You canconfigure iSCSI targets to use an iSNS server.

LLACP

Link Aggregation Control Protocol allowsmultiple individual Ethernet links to beaggregated together to form a single logicalchannel. LACP allows a network device tonegotiate an automatic bundling of links bysending LACP packets to the peer (directlyconnected device that also implements LACP).

LAN(Local area network) A computer network thatlinks devices within a small geographic area,such as a building or group of adjacent buildings.

LDAP(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). LDAPis a protocol used to communicate with adirectory service. It defines operations to refer toan entity in the directory, to describe theattributes of an entity, and the security featuresthat can be used to authenticate to the directoryand control access to the entities within thedirectory. The protocol is carried directly overTCP for connection-oriented transport (receipt ofdata is acknowledged) and User DatagramProtocol (UDP) for connectionless transport (noacknowledgment upon sending or receivingdata).

LED(Light Emitting Diode) LEDs are used forindicator lights on the front and back of NexsanUnity Storage Expansions.

LUNA LUN is a term used to describe a block ofstorage on the Unity Appliance. Uniquelynumbered, this creates what is referred to as aLogical Unit Number, or LUN. LUNs can beexposed over iSCSI and Fibre Channel. Whenassociated with an iSCSI target, a LUN forms aunique iSCSI block device that can be accessedby one or more iSCSI initiators. When exposedto the common Fibre Channel target on the Unityappliance, a LUN forms a block device identifiedby a unique HBA port WWN that can beaccessed by one or more FC initiators.

LUN maskA LUN mask uses authentication tomake aLogical Unit Number accessible to selectedstorage targets.

MManagement target

Each storage pool on the Unity appliance has aManagement target (mgmt) assigned to it by thesystem, by default. Themanagement targetallows a VSS (Volume Snapshot Service orVolume Shadow Copy Service) host to createandmanipulate shadow copies (point-in-timesnapshots) of the data in LUNs on the Unityappliance. The VSS host connects to a storagepool’s Management target via iSCSI to view,create, andmanage snapshots of the LUNs inthe storage pool. You can assign a CHAP(Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol)user to theManagement target to restrict accessto LUN snapshots in a storage pool, to specificVSS hosts.

Manual replicationIn asynchronous replication, an offline, ormanual, replication is a replication process thatyou start manually on a storage pool. Withoffline replication, you can replicate the data inthe storage pool to the remote Unity appliance,or to a USB storage device attached to theprimary Unity appliance.

Glossary


MbMegabit. Approximately onemillion (1,000,000)bits.

Mb/s(Megabits (Mb) per second) Used to describethe speed of network data transmission.

MPIO (Multipathing I/O)MPIO is designed to providemultiple paths toSAN storage. It provides connection failover andload balancing benefits to strengthen thestability of a network storage environment.

NNAS

(Network-attached storage) File-level computerdata storage connected to a computer networkproviding data access to clients on the network.Network-attached storage uses specializedhardware, software, or both, and is often aspecialized device built from the ground up forstoring and serving files.

NDMP(Network DataManagement Protocol) Protocolused to transport data between networkattached storage (NAS) devices and backupdevices. This removes the need for transportingthe data through the backup server itself, thusenhancing speed and removing load from thebackup server.

NetBIOS(Network Basic Input/Output System) API thatallows applications on separate computers tocommunicate over a local area network.NetBIOS offers 3 services: Name service (UDPport 137), Datagram distribution service (UDPport 138). and Session service (TCP port 139).

NFS(Network File System) A protocol allowing auser on a client computer to access files over anetwork in amanner similar to how local storageis accessed. Used inmost UNIX environmentsfor folder or device sharing.

NIS(Network Information Service) One of the threeUNIX directory services supported by the Unityappliance. NIS is a client–server directoryservice protocol for distributing systemconfiguration data such as user and host namesbetween computers In a UNIX networkenvironment. It was originally called YellowPages or YP. A NIS/YP systemmaintains anddistributes a central directory of user and groupinformation, host names, e-mail aliases andother text-based tables of information in acomputer network.

NMP(Network Management Protocol) Suite ofnetwork protocols that define the processes,procedures and policies for managing,monitoring andmaintaining a computer network.NMP conveys andmanages the operations andcommunications performed on a computernetwork.

NTP(Network Time Protocol) A protocol designed tosynchronize the clocks of devices over anetwork.

OOffline replication

In asynchronous replication, an offline, ormanual, replication is a replication process thatyou start manually on a storage pool. Withoffline replication, you can replicate the data inthe storage pool to the remote Unity appliance,or to a USB storage device attached to theprimary Unity appliance.

OU(Organizational Unit) A useful type of directoryobject that is contained within domains is theorganizational unit (OU). OUs are ActiveDirectory containers into which you can placeusers, groups, computers, and other OUs. AnOU cannot contain objects from other domains.AnOU is the smallest scope or unit to which youcan assign Group Policy settings or delegate


Glossary


administrative authority. Using OUs, you cancreate containers within a domain that representthe hierarchical, logical structures in yourorganization. You can thenmanage theconfiguration and use of accounts and resourcesbased on your organizational model. OUs cancontain other OUs. You can extend a hierarchyof OUs as necessary tomodel yourorganization's hierarchy within a domain. UsingOUs helps youminimize the number of domainsthat are required for your network. You can useOUs to create an administrativemodel that youcan scale to any size. A user can haveadministrative authority for all OUs in a domainor for a single OU. An administrator of an OUdoes not have to have administrative authorityfor any other OUs in the domain.

PPCIe

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. Acomputer expansion card standard designed toreplace the older Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI), PCI-eXtended (PCI-X), andAccelerated Graphics Port (AGP) standards.

PoolA storage pool is a user-defined virtual groupingof volumes on the Unity appliance. Pools allowyou to organize your storage into logical groups;expose file systems as shares to CIFS clients(Windows-based systems) and NFS clients(UNIX/Linux-based systems); and replicate allthe data in the pool, or just a subset of it, fordisaster recovery. Unity™ allows you to createas many storage pools as there are availablevolumes (RAID sets) on the system. If the Unityappliance has both internal storage (E5100™)and a Unity5100X™ Unity Storage Expansionconnected externally via SAS, you can createstorage pools by combining volumes from boththe NST5100™ Storage and the Unity5100X™—provided the RAID level configurations are thesame on both storage systems (or, enclosures).

Power supply unit (PSU)A module that regulates electrical power to thecomponents of Nexsan Unity StorageExpansions.

PrimaryIn asynchronous replication, a primary siterefers to a Unity appliance that contains the datato be replicated (to a remote, or secondary,Unity appliance). a Unity appliance can be theprimary site in a replicated environment and alsoperform double-duty as the remote datareplication site for another Unity appliance.

Public aliasThis is a symbolic name that you can assign to atarget on the Unity appliance. The public alias isseen by some iSCSI initiators; it can help youidentify the iSCSI target. The public alias for astorage pool’s default target is the pool name.You can change a target’s public alias at anytime.

RRAID 10

RAID 10 provides very high performance andredundancy. In a RAID 10 implementation, datais simultaneously mirrored and striped. RAID 10can, under certain circumstances, supportmultiple drive failures. It is ideally suited forsituations where both high performance andredundancy are important. RAID 10implementation on Unity has some uniquerequirements, and please refer to"Understanding storage pools, volumes, andstorage enclosures".

RAID 5RAID 5 provides redundancy by writing data andparity information across three or more drives,thereby increasing performance. You need atleast 3 disk drives for a RAID 5 implementation.RAID 5 can withstand a single disk failurewithout losing data or access to data. It is ideallysuited for transaction processing, databaseapplications, file and print servers.

Glossary


RAID 6RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5, but with better faulttolerance. RAID 6 stripes blocks of data andparity across an array of drives like RAID 5,except that it calculates two sets of parityinformation for each parcel of data. Thissignificantly improves fault tolerance: RAID 6can withstand the failure of any two drives in thearray without losing data or access to data.RAID 6 is ideally suited for the sameapplications as RAID 5, but in situations whereadditional fault tolerance is required. Werecommend adding Nexsan FASTier cachedevices to a RAID 6 implementation to improvewrite performance.

Random-access memory (RAM)A memory chip that allows stored data to beaccessed at any time in any order. Commonlyused in computers as main operatingmemory.Values in random access memory are oftenvolatile; information is lost if power is removedfrom themodule.

Read-only memory (ROM)A memory chip that stores values but cannot bechanged by normal program instructions. Valuesin read-only memory are nonvolatile; they areretained even when the unit is powered down.

RemoteIn asynchronous replication, a remote orsecondary site represents the system to whichdata from the primary Unity appliance isreplicated. In a deployment where asynchronousreplication is not implemented, a remote Unityappliance represents a site that is beingmanaged remotely from another Unity applianceor site.

ReplicaA duplicate of a file system on a Nexsan Unityappliance copied onto another Nexsan Unityappliance. At the time of replication, replicascontain all of the data on the original volume.Replicas can be promoted to full file systems,after which replication between the two filesystems is no longer possible.

ReplicationA function of Nexsan Unity appliances thatallows the user to make replicas of a volumeonto another Nexsan Unity appliance to protectdata in the event of a disaster, or as part of abackup and restore architecture.

SSAN

(Storage area network) An architecture thatprovides for attachment of remote computerstorage devices to servers in such a way thatthe devices appear as locally attached to theoperating system.

SAS(Serial Attached SCSI) A serial version of theSCSI interface. A point-to-point architecture thatuses a disk controller with four or more channelsthat operate simultaneously. Each full-duplexchannel, known as a SAS port, transfers data at1.5Gb/s, 3Gb/s, or 6Gb/s in each direction. SASalso supports Serial ATA (SATA) drives, whichcan bemixed with SAS drives in a variety ofconfigurations.

SATA(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) Aconnection standard for fixed and removablehard disk drives.

Scheduled replicationIn asynchronous replication, a scheduledreplication refers to an automatic replication thatoccurs according to a schedule you define. Youcan configure a separate replication schedule foreach storage pool on the Unity appliance.

SCSI(Small Computer System Interface) A collectionof standards and proposed standards forinput/output (I/O) communication, primarilyintended for connecting storage subsystems ordevices to hosts.


Glossary


SecondaryIn asynchronous replication, a remote orsecondary site represents the system to whichdata from the primary Unity appliance isreplicated. In a deployment where asynchronousreplication is not implemented, a remote Unityappliance represents a site that is beingmanaged remotely from another Unity applianceor site.

SFP(Small Form-factor Pluggable) A type of gigabitinterface converter (GBIC) in a compact formfactor. The Fibre Channel ports or 10Gb iSCSIports on Nexsan storage devices are SFPs.

SMB(Server Message Block) CIFS—also referred toas SMB—is used by Windows-based systems toshare files and printers across the network. Usethis sharingmethod if your environment consistsmainly of Windows-based systems.

SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol) TheSNMP agent included in the Unity applianceallows you to send SNMP traps to a NetworkManagement Station—such as, HP OpenView orCA Unicenter—when a Critical, Error, and/orWarning event is generated by a sourcecomponent of the Unity appliance.

SSD(Solid State Disk) A high-performance storagedevice that contains nomoving parts.

SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) A commonly usedprotocol for transmitting private documents viathe Internet. SSL works by using a public key toencrypt data that is transferred over the SSLconnection. The SSL protocol secures thefollowing data: I/O, serial port, and VSIPcommunication; it does not apply to audio andvideo transmission.

Storage poolA storage pool is a user-defined virtual groupingof volumes on the Unity appliance. Pools allow

you to organize your storage into logical groups;expose file systems as shares to CIFS clients(Windows-based systems) and NFS clients(UNIX/Linux-based systems); and replicate allthe data in the pool, or just a subset of it, fordisaster recovery. Unity™ allows you to createas many storage pools as there are availablevolumes (RAID sets) on the system. If the Unityappliance has both internal storage (E5100™)and a Unity5100X™ Unity Storage Expansionconnected externally via SAS, you can createstorage pools by combining volumes from boththe NST5100™ Storage and the Unity5100X™—provided the RAID level configurations are thesame on both storage systems (or, enclosures).

SubnetA subnetwork, or subnet, is a logically visiblesubdivision of a TCP/IP network. All computersin a subnet have IP addresses with the sameprefix. Addresses in the same subnet arereachable without going through a router, andthus can be reached by broadcast.

Subnet maskA means of restricting IP addresses on a subnetto a specific range.

Synchronous data replicationUse the synchronous data replication feature tosynchronously replicate a storage pool betweentwo Nexsan storage systems connected toUnity via SAS (or Fibre Channel). Thesynchronous data replication feature essentiallymirrors all the data contained in a storage poolbetween a source Nexsan storage system and atarget Nexsan storage system—both of whichare connected to the sameUnity appliance viaSAS (or Fibre Channel). You designate thestorage system to use as the source (thesystem onwhich you create the storage pooland store your data) and the target, where thesource data is mirrored. Synchronous replicationensures that a copy of the data, which isidentical to the source copy, is created at thetime the source copy is updated. In synchronousreplication, an I/O-update operation is notconsidered done until completion is confirmedon both the source and target. An incomplete

Glossary


operation is rolled back on both the source andtarget, ensuring that the target is always anexact mirror image of the source.

TTCP/IP

(Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol) The set of communications protocolsused for the Internet and other similar networks.TCP provides reliable delivery of messagesbetween networked computers. IP uses numericIP addresses to join network segments.

Thin ProvisioningThin Provisioning allows you to dynamicallyallocate disk space to a client system (initiator)connected to the a LUN on the Unity appliance.With Thin Provisioning, you can flexibly allocatedisk space (on an LUN) to the client system(initiator), in order to expand the storagecapacity available to the client system at anytime. Thin Provisioning allows you to specify thesize of the virtual volume that initiators on thenetwork see when they connect to a LUN,irrespective of the actual space that you reservefor the LUN in the storage pool.

UUnity

A Web-based interface for managing UnityStorage Systems, providing a hierarchical viewof all system components. Includes wizard-based and CLI-based configuration tools forcreating storage pools, file systems, shares,replication sites, and for performing otherstoragemanagement tasks on the system.

VVolume

A volume represents a virtual subset of theaggregated disk space available on Unity. Unitypresents the disk space available as volumes.The total number of volumes available on Unity

internal disk storage, as well as on storagesystems attached externally to Unity, dependson the RAID level (5, 6, or 10) and RAID setsthat you specify during initial setup. Forexample, on a Unity system with 15 disk drivesinstalled in the front bay of the system, a RAID 5configuration with 2 RAID sets results in 2volumes with 7 disks drives in each volume, and1 hot spare assignment for the array.

VSS(Volume Shadow Service) The Unity appliance'sVSS Hardware Provider enables a VSS host tocreate andmanipulate shadow copies (point-in-time snapshots) of the data in LUNs on theUnity appliance. The VSS Hardware Providersupports Windows Volume Snapshot Service(or Volume Shadow Copy Service). The VSSHardware Provider serves as the interfacebetweenWindows Volume Shadow CopyService running on a host system and the Unityappliance.

WWAN

(Wide Area Network) A computer network thatspans a relatively large geographical area.Typically, aWAN consists of two or more localarea networks (LANs).

WizardA graphical user interface type that presents auser with a sequence of dialog boxes that leadthe user through a series of well-defined steps.


Index

AAccess permissions

shares 51Accessing an hidden share 50Active mode 33Adding

volumes 37Adding a LUN 41Adding a share 46Adding a storage pool 36Adding an iSCSI target 56Adding VMware iSCSI software 26Adding volumes to a pool 37Advanced settings for NFS 15Advanced Settings for TCP/IP 16Allocating cache devices to a pool 38Applications 12, 42Auto-deletion 52Automatically assing a name 67

BBefore adding LUNs 41Block size 11Block Unmap 10Block Zeroing 10

CCache devices 38Central swap datastore 19, 29CIFS sharing 49, 55Configuring datastore heartbeating 28Configuring LACP 34Configuring the central swap datastore 29

Configuring the VMware failoversolution 31

Configuring vSphere in port bindingmode 23

CPU 62Creating a recording 63Creating a storage pool 36Creating a virtual machine 22

DData replication 52

LUN 44Data Replication 41, 45, 47Data type 12, 42Datacenter 22Datastore heartbeating 28Datastores 22, 65Deleting a recording 64Device I/O 62Dynamic discovery 27

EEnable snapshot scheduling 52Enabling datastore heartbeating 28Enabling FTP support 58Enabling jumbo frames 35Enabling LACP 35Enabling LACP on the NST appliance 33Enabling VMWare VAAI hardware

acceleration 58ESXTOP 64-65Ethernet port 22Ethernet switches for LACP 34-35

Index


FFailback 17FASTier cache devices 38FASTier devices 11Fault Tolerance 31Fibre Channel performance 64Filtering live performance metrics 63FTP 58Full-Duplex 34Full Copy 10

HHardware acceleration 10Hardware assisted locking 10HearbeatMaxFailures 15HeartbeatDelta 15HeartbeatFrequency 15HeartbeatTimeout 15Hidden share 50High Availability 31Host 22

Iinitiators 14IP network infrastructure 14IPMI console 34, 36IPMP 13IQN 56iSCCI target

Adding 56Specifying IQN and public alias 56

iSCSI 13, 18, 23iSCSI Initiator Properties 27iSCSI LUN paths 27iSCSI performance 64iSCSI software 26

JJumbo frames 13, 35

KKVM console 34

LLACP 13, 33

configuring 34monitoring 35Requirements and guidelines 34Understanding link aggregation 33

LDAP 49, 51Link aggregation 33Linux 12, 42Live performance metrics 63Load balancing 11, 14, 16, 33Logical Unit Number (LUN) 41LUN 22

Adding a target 56Enabling VMWare VAAI hardware

acceleration 58LUN block size 11LUN name 42

MManual snapshots 66MaxVolumes 15Memory 62Microsoft Active Directory 50-51Microsoft Exchange 12, 42Monitoring Fibre Channel and iSCSI

performance on VMware 64Monitoring LACP 35Monitoring NFS performance on

VMware 65MTU 13

NNestOS Admin Menu

Shutdown and Reboot menu 36NET.TcpipHeapMax 16NET.TcpipHeapSize 16Network Configuration tab 26Network Failover Detection 16Network performance 62Network requirements 13NFS 13, 15, 22NFS performance 65NFS sharing vii, 9, 49, 55, 61, 65nic

modify-aggr 35set-linkprop 36show-aggr 35

NIC 13-14, 22Notify Switches 17NST appliance requirements 11

Index


nx0 35nx1 35

OOracle OLTP 12, 42Override switch failover order 24

PPassive mode 33Performance metrics 63Performance Monitor

Starting 62Performance snapshot 63Physical compatibility mode 19Pools

creating a storage pool 36port-channel group 14Port binding mode 14, 23, 27Primitives 10Public alias 56

QQuota 48

RRaw device mapping 19ReceiveBufferSize 15Recommendations

iSCSI 18NFS 15Virtual machines 19

Recommended block/record size 12Record size 11Recording

Creating 63Deleting 64Stopping 63Viewing 64

Recurrence 52Redundancy 33Requirements

block size 11network 13NST appliance 11

Requirements and guidelines forimplementing LACP 34

Reserved space 48Resource Group 38

Rollback function 67

SSAS drives 11SendBufferSize 15Setting

reservation 43, 49Setting up VMware 21Share

adding 46Rollback function

point-in-time snapshot 67

Share name and space usage 47Share record size 11Sharing method

FTP 58Size of block 12, 42Snapshot

Rollback function

point-in-time snapshot 67

Taking a snapshot 66Taking performance snapshots 63

Snapshotsscheduling 44, 52

Space usage for a LUN 43Space usage for a share 48SQL Server 12, 42Starting the Performance Monitor 62Stopping a recording 63Storage adapter 22Storage pool

creating a storage pool 36Store in the host's swapfile datastore 30Swapfile location 29

TTaking a snapshot 66Targets 14TCP/IP 15Thick provisioning 11, 22Troubleshooting LACP issues 35

UUnderstanding link aggregation 33Unlimited quota 48


Index


VVAAI plug-in 10Verifying

settings 39, 45, 54Video Streaming 12, 42Viewing a recording 64Viewing performance on VMware 64Virtual HBAs 65Virtual machine

creating 22monitoring 66recommendations 19swapfile location 30

Virtual Machine Swapfile Location 29Virtual network adapter 22virtual port-channel 14Virtual volume size 43VLAN 13VMkernel 22-23VMware failover 31VMware setup for NST appliances 21VMWare VAAI hardware acceleration 58vSphere 21, 23vStorage APIs for Array Integration 10, 58vSwitch 22vSwitch properties 17

WWindows 12, 19, 42

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Document Reference: 20180119PM033627

This product is protected byone or more of the following patents, and otherpending patent applicationsworldwide:

United StatespatentsUS8,191,841, US8,120,922;

United Kingdom patentsGB2466535B, GB2467622B, GB2467404B,GB2296798B, GB2297636B

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