©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1
ApplicationNotesNovember2015
QNAP Plugin for VMWare vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
Notices
Thisusermanualdetails instructions forusing theQNAPEnterpriseStorageNAS.Please read theinstructionscarefully,andenjoythepowerfulfunctionsoftheQNAPEnterpriseStorageNAS.
• TheQNAPEnterpriseStorageNASishereafterreferredtoastheESNASortheNAS.• Theproductyoupurchasedmaynotsupportcertainfunctionsdedicatedtospecificmodels.
LegalNotices
Allthefeatures,functionality,andotherproductspecificationsaresubjecttochangewithoutpriornoticeorobligation.Informationcontainedhereinissubjecttochangewithoutnotice.QNAPandtheQNAPlogoaretrademarksofQNAPSystems,Inc.Allotherbrandsandproductnamesreferredtoaretrademarksoftheirrespectiveholders.Further,the®or™symbolsarenotusedinthetext.
Disclaimer
InformationinthisdocumentisprovidedinconnectionwithQNAPproducts.Nolicense,expressorimplied,byestoppelsorotherwise,toanyintellectualpropertyrightsisgrantedbythisdocument.Except asprovided inQNAP's termsand conditionsof sale for suchproducts,QNAPAssumesnoliabilitywhatsoever,andQNAPdisclaimsanyexpressorimpliedwarranty,relatingtosaleand/oruseof QNAP products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose,merchantability,orinfringementofanypatent,copyrightorotherintellectualpropertyright.
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3
TableofContents
Overview..............................................................................................................................................4
WhatisVAAI?...............................................................................................................................4
OverallBenefits............................................................................................................................4
VAAIforiSCSIsupports4features....................................................................................................4
VAAIforNAS(NFS)supports3features............................................................................................4
VAAIforiSCSI........................................................................................................................................5
VAAIiSCSI-BlockCopy.................................................................................................................5
VAAIiSCSI-BlockZeroing.............................................................................................................6
VAAIiSCSI-HardwareassistedLocking........................................................................................7
VAAIiSCSI-ThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim........................................................................8
VAAIforNAS(NFS)...............................................................................................................................9
VAAINAS-Fullfileclone..............................................................................................................9
VAAINAS-SpaceReserve..........................................................................................................10
VAAINAS-Extendedstatistic.....................................................................................................11
InstallationandVerification...............................................................................................................12
VAAIforiSCSI..............................................................................................................................12
VAAIforNAS(NFS).....................................................................................................................13
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4
Overview
WhatisVAAI?
VMwarevStorageAPIsIntegration(VAAI)isasetofAPIsprovidedbyvSpherethatallowstheESXihoststooffloaddataprocessingofcertainstorage-relatedservicestostoragesystems.TheQNAPESNASwillprocessthedatainsteadoftheESXihosts.
OverallBenefits
TheintegrationofQNAPNASwithVMwareVAAIofferscustomersthechancetodeployavirtualizedenvironmentwithoptimizedperformance.Additionally,itwilloffloaddataprocessingtotheNASreleasingadditionalresourcesforESXihostsincertaintasks.
VAAIforiSCSIsupports4features
• Fullcopy(hardware-assistedcopy) • Blockzeroing(hardware-assistedzeroing) • Hardware-assistedlocking • Thinprovisioningandspacereclamation
VAAIforNAS(NFS)supports3features
• FullFileClone • SpaceReservation • ExtendedStatistic
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VAAIforiSCSI
VAAIiSCSI-BlockCopy
BlockCopyenablestheQNAPstoragetomakefullcopiesofdatawithintheNASwithoutneedingtohavetheESXihostreadandwritethedata.
• WithoutVAAI: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithoutVAAI,itwillhave to read thedata fromtheNAS,andwritebackthedatatotheNAStocopythe data. This process consumes memory,networkbandwidth,andCPUfromtheESXihost,decreasingtheresourcesavailable fortheVMs.
• WithVAAI: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithVAAI,itwillsendacommandtotheNAS,andwaitfortheresult.ThisprocessoffloadstheworktotheNAS,andleavestheresourcesallocatedtoVMsunchanged.Thecopyprocessisdonedirectly by the NAS. CPU, memory, andnetworkbandwidtharenotusedinthecopyprocedure.
• Benefits: n ReducestheloadingonESXihosts n Fastervirtualmachinecloning n Fastertemplatedeployment n FasterstoragevMotion
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VAAIiSCSI-BlockZeroing
BlockZeroingallowstheQNAPNAStozerooutalargenumberofblockstospeeduptheprovisioningofVMs.
• WithoutVAAI: When an ESXi host creates and initializes avirtual disk without VAAI, it has to writenumerous zeroes to the NAS to create theinitialized file. This process consumesmemory,networkbandwidth,andCPUfromtheESXihost,decreasingresourcesavailableforVMs.
• WithVAAI: When an ESXi host creates and initializes avirtualdiskwithVAAI,itwillsendacommandto the NAS, and waits for the result. Thisprocess offloads the work to the NAS, andleaves the resources allocated for VMsunchanged.TheblockinitializationprocessisdonebytheNASdirectlyandCPU,memory,andnetworkbandwidtharenotused.
• BenefitsofBlockZeroing n ReducestheworkloadonESXihosts. n Fasterallocationofvirtualmachinecapacity.
• Effectiveusagen CreateThickProvisionedEagerZeroedvirtualdisks. n CreateVMswithThickProvisionedEagerZeroedvirtualdisks.
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VAAIiSCSI-HardwareassistedLocking
Hardware Assisted Locking improves efficiency on large clusters by locking only required blocksinsteadofanentireLUN.Whenread/writeoperationsoccurfromoneESXiserver,itwillkeeptherestoftheLUNisavailabletobeaccessed,increasingefficiency.
• WithoutHardwareAssistedLockingWhenanESXihostaccessesadatastoreonan iSCSI LUN, the iSCSI LUN is locked andotherESXihostshavetowaitfortheLUNtobereleased.ThemoreESXihoststhatsharethe same datastore, the lower theperformancewillbe.
• WithHardwareAssistedLockingWhenanESXihostaccessesadatastoreonaniSCSILUN,therequiredblocksarelocked,andtheiSCSILUNremainsaccessibletootherESXihosts.Moreconcurrentoperationscanbe achieved while maintaining a goodperformancelevel.
• BenefitsofHardwareassistedLockingn EnablestheQNAPNAStoscaletomoreVMs n EnablesmoreESXihostswithoutincurringaperformancepenalty.
• Effectiveusagen LargeVMwareclusterswithshareddatastores.
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VAAIiSCSI-ThinProvisioningandSpaceReclamation
Pre-allocatingcapacityforiSCSILUNscanleadtoinefficientstorageusage.ThinProvisioningallowsallocation of storage capacity as it is needed. This capacitywill only be usedwhen data, VirtualMachines,orvirtualdisks,arestoredontheLUN.
SpaceReclaimallowsspacetobereleasedwhenVMorvirtualdisksaredeletedormigratedtootherLUNs.Itavoidswastingcapacityafterdatahasbeenremoved.
• WithoutThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim: WithoutThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim,spaceallocationisdoneduringLUNcreation,and cannot be released until the LUN isdeleted.Ifanadministratorcreatesa100TBLUN,the100TBwillbereservedfortheLUNand cannot be used for other applications.WhendataisdeletedfromtheLUN,theNASwill not show the free space, as the is stillallocated.
• WithThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim: With Thin Provisioning and Space Reclaim,thespaceallocationisdoneonlywhendataiswritten,and itcanbereleasedwhendata isdeleted. The free space on the NAS willdynamically increase and decrease as the VMs are created and deleted. The storagemanagement ismuchmoreflexibleandrequires lessphysicalcapacity, increasingefficiencyandlowersthetotalcostofstorage.
• BenefitsofThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaimn Moreaccuratereportingofrealdiskspaceusage. n Betterandmoreefficientstoragemanagement n Lowercostofstorage. n Usecapacityonlywhenneeded n PurchaseHardDrivesonlywhenneeded
• Effectiveusagen VMcreation/deletion n Snapshotcreation/deletion
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VAAIforNAS(NFS)
VAAINAS-Fullfileclone
SimilartotheFullCopyinVAAIiSCSI,itenablestheQNAPstoragetomakefullcopiesofdatawithintheNASwithoutneedingtohavetheESXihostreadandwritethedata.
• WithoutFullFileClone: When an ESXi host copies data withoutVAAI,itwillhavetoreadthedatafromtheNAS, andwrite the data back to the NAS.This process consumes CPU,memory, andnetwork bandwidth from the ESXi host,decreasing the resources available for theVMs.
• WithFullFileClone: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithVAAI,itwillsendacommandtotheNAS,andwaitfortheresult.Thisprocessoffloadstheworkto the NAS, and leaves the resourcesallocated to the VM unchanged. The copyprocess isdone in theNAS.CPU,memory,andnetworkbandwidtharenotused.
• BenefitsofFullfileclone n ReducestheloadingofESXihosts
• Effectiveusagen vCenterCloning n StoragevMotion(coldclone) n DeployVMsfromtemplates
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VAAINAS-SpaceReserve
Historically, vSphereonly supportedbuilding thinprovisionedvirtualdisksonNFS.By supportingSpaceReserve,apre-allocatedvirtualdisk(thickprovisionedeagerzeroed) ispossiblewithQNAPNFSdatastores,byoffloadingthefilecreationontotheNAS.
• WithoutSpaceReserveWithoutSpaceReserve, it isnotpossibletocreateThickProvisionedvirtualdisksonan NFS datastore, only Thin Provisionedvirtualdisksareavailable.
• WithSpaceReserve: WithSpaceReserve,itispossibletocreateThick Provisioned virtual disks on NFSdatastores.
• BenefitsofSpaceReserve n Bettervirtualdiskread/writeperformance(thinprovisiondisksvsthickprovisiondisks)
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11
VAAINAS-Extendedstatistic
ExtendedStatisticenablesvSpheretoqueryspaceutilization details for virtual disks on QNAP NFSdatastores.Thisincludesthesizeandsuagedetailsofavirtualdisk.
TheextendedstatisticsareusedbyVMwareduringspecific operations including Space Reserve, andClone.
TheextendedstatisticscanalsoberetrievedfromtheESXihostcommandline:
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 12
InstallationandVerification
VAAIforiSCSI
VAAIiSCSIisenabledinVMwarebydefaultanddoesnotrequireanyinstallation.
• GUIVerificationToVerify that the storage supportsVAAI, simplyopen the storage configuration in vSphereClient, and select the datastore. The column “Hardware Acceleration” (VAAI) will showsupported.
• CLIVerificationviaSSHorESXishell
ThescreencaptureaboveshowsVAAIfeaturessupportedbytheQNAPiSCSILUN.
PleaserefertoVMwaredocumentationfordetailsonenabling/disablingVAAIinVMware.
DisablingtheVAAIfunctionalityinESXi/ESX(1033665):http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1033665
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VAAIforNAS(NFS)
VAAINFSrequiresinstallationoftheVAAIpluginoneachESXihosts.
IftheESXiserversarenotconnectedtotheinternet:
• DownloadtheVAAINASpluginfrom:http://www.qnap.com/utility• InstallthepluginbyfollowingtheprocedureforinstallingpatchesonanESXi5.x/6.xhostfrom
thecommandline:http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2008939n Upload the patch to a datastore on your ESXi 5.x/6.x host using theDatastore
BrowserfromvCenteroradirectconnectiontotheESXi5.x/6.xhostusingthevSphereclient.Migrate or power off the virtualmachines running on the host and put the host intomaintenancemode.Thehostcanbeputintomaintenancemodefromthecommandlinewith:
n Navigatetothedirectoryonthedatastorewherethepatchfilewasuploadedtoandverifythatthefileexists:
Where Datastore is the datastore name where the patch file was uploaded,and DirectoryName isthedirectoryyoucreatedonthedatastore.
n Installorupdateapatchonthehostusingthese esxcli commands:ToInstallbyusinglocalsetup:
Where PatchName.zip isthenameofthepatchfileyouuploadedtothedatastore.
# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
# cd /vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName
# ls
# esxcli software vib install -v
"/vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName/PluginName.vib"
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ToUpdatebyusinglocalsetup:
n VerifythattheVIBsareinstalledonyourESXihost:
Forexample:
n Afterthepatchhasbeeninstalled,reboottheESXhost:
n Afterthehosthasrebooted,exitmaintenancemodeandpoweronthevirtualmachines:
# esxcli software vib update -v
"/vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName/PluginName.vib"
# esxcli software vib list
# reboot
# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit
©2015 QNAP Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 15
• Verify from vSphere client that “Hardware Acceleration” is supported as in the followingscreenshot
Note:Duringtheinstallation,ifapreviousversionofthepluginwasinstalled,itwillbelistedasVIBsRemoved:
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