Intelligent storage management solution using VMware vSphere 5.0

Copyright IBM Corporation, 2012

Intelligent storage management solution using VMware vSphere 5.0 Storage DRS

A technical report of the storage management solution using SDRS on the IBM Storwize

V7000 Unified storage system

Udayasuryan Kodoly IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement

April 2012


Table of contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 1 Executive summary .................................................................................................................. 1

Intended audience ....................................................................................................................................1 Scope .......................................................................................................................................................2

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................ 2 Solution components ............................................................................................................... 2

VMware vSphere ......................................................................................................................................2 IBM Storwize V7000 Unified overview .....................................................................................................3

Value proposition of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system .............................3 IBM Storwize V7000 data protection features ...................................................................4

Solution architecture ............................................................................................................... 5 Material list for solution setup in the lab ...................................................................................................6 Basic configuration requirement for the solution ......................................................................................7

iSCSI or FC based VMFS data store configuration ...........................................................7 Lab vSphere 5.0 iSCSI configuration screen captures ......................................................8 Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI configuration screen captures ......................... 11 NFS data store configuration .......................................................................................... 13 Create file set on a specific file system for the NFS data store ...................................... 13 Creating NFS share (export) with the newly created file set .......................................... 16

Data store clusters ................................................................................................................................ 18 Data store cluster constraints ......................................................................................... 19 Best practices before creating the data store clusters .................................................... 19 Steps to create a data store cluster ................................................................................ 20

Profile-Driven Storage ........................................................................................................................... 28 Create user-defined storage capabilities ........................................................................ 28 Create a VM storage profile ............................................................................................ 31 Assign the user-defined VM storage profiles to the data stores ..................................... 34 Using the VM Storage Profile.......................................................................................... 35 Checking compatibility .................................................................................................... 37

Guiding Storage DRS recommendations for the solution ..................................................................... 38 Affinity and anti-affinity rules ........................................................................................... 39 Intra-VM VMDK affinity rule ............................................................................................ 39 Intra-VM VMDK anti-affinity rule ..................................................................................... 41 Inter-VM anti-affinity rule ................................................................................................. 42 Different VMFS block sizes ............................................................................................. 42 SDRS data store maintenance mode ............................................................................. 43

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 45 Appendix A: Glossary ............................................................................................................ 46 Appendix B: Materials used in the lab setup ........................................................................ 47 Appendix C: Resources ......................................................................................................... 48 About the author .................................................................................................................... 49


Trademarks and special notices ........................................................................................... 50


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Abstract This technical paper provides essential technical information about the advanced storage management solution for VMware virtual infrastructure using VMware vSphere 5.0 Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (Storage DRS) feature on the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system.

Storage DRS (SDRS) is a new vSphere 5.0 feature that provides intelligent virtual machine (VM) placement across storage by making load-balancing decisions based on the current I/O latency and space usage and moving virtual machine disks (VMDKs) in a nondisruptive manner between the data stores in the data store cluster.

Storage DRS selects the best data store to place the virtual machine or VMDKs in the selected data store cluster of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified file systems.

Executive summary IBM Storwize V7000 Unified is a virtualized storage system to complement virtualized server environments that provides unmatched performance, availability, advanced functions, and highly scalable capacity never seen before in midrange disk systems. The Storwize V7000 Unified system consolidates block and file workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management and reduced cost. Storwize V7000 Unified is a virtual storage that offers greater efficiency and flexibility through built-in solid-state drive (SSD) optimization, and thin provisioning technologies. The Storwize V7000 Unified systems advanced functions also enable nondisruptive migration of data from an existing storage, simplifying implementation and minimizing disruption to users.

The VMware vSphere 5.0 Storage DRS feature aggregates storage resources of several storage volumes and file systems of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system in to a single pool and simplifies storage management at scale. The feature intelligently places workloads on storage volumes and file systems during provisioning based on the available storage resources. It performs ongoing load balancing between storage volumes and file systems to ensure space and avoids I/O bottlenecks as per predefined rules that reflect business needs and changing priorities with vSphere Storage DRS. The important benefits of Storage DRS on a vSphere 5.0 virtual infrastructure are as follows.

Reduce IT costs and improve agility with rapid and simpler VM provisioning.

Increase manageability at scale by automated monitoring and remediation.

Improve application performance by avoiding storage resource bottlenecks.

Meet application service level agreements (SLAs) during unavoidable congestion by using storage I/O control.

Intended audience This technical report is intended for:

Customers and prospects looking to implement advanced storage management solution for the VMware virtual infrastructure using Storage DRS with the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system.

Users and management seeking information to implement advanced storage management solution for the VMware virtual infrastructure using Storage DRS with the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system.


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Scope This technical report provides:

Detailed and advanced storage management solution implementation for the VMware virtual infrastructure using Storage DRS with IBM Storwize V7000 Unified.

Detailed design and implementation guide; configuration best practices. Reproducible test results that simulate common failure scenarios resulting from operational

problems and unplanned outages.

This technical report does not: Discuss any performance impact and analysis from a user perspective Replace any official manuals and documents from IBM and VMware on the products used in the

solution

Prerequisites This technical paper assumes familiarity with the following prerequisites:

Basic knowledge of VMware virtualization technologies and products: VMware vCenter Server 5.0 VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Basic knowledge of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system

Solution components This section briefly describes the essential components used in this solution.

VMware vSphere In order for Storage DRS to function correctly, the environment must meet the following VMware vSphere basic product requirements.

VMware vCenter Server 5.0

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

VMware vCenter Cluster (recommended)

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus License

Shared Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) or Network File System (NFS) data store volumes

Shared data store volumes accessible by at least one ESXi host inside the cluster

Data stores must be visible in only one data center

All hosts associated with the data store cluster must run ESXi 5.0 or higher versions.


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IBM Storwize V7000 Unified overview The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system is a virtualizing Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage system that supports both block protocols and file protocols. This unified system includes the IBM Storwize V7000 file module and the Storwize V7000 storage system.

The file module is a clustered system that consists of two units, providing file systems for use by network-attached storage (NAS). The file module uses the Storwize V7000 storage system to provide the file module with volumes. Other volumes, which are block volumes, are provided on the SAN to be presented to hosts.

The Storwize V7000 storage system consists of a drive enclosure called the control enclosure. Both regular and SSDs are supported. The control enclosure contains disk drives and two node canisters that are managed as a single clustered system. Expansion enclosures contain drives and are attached to the control enclosure. Expansion canisters include the serial-attached SCSI (SAS) interface hardware that enables the node hardware to use the drives of the expansion enclosures.

Figure 1: IBM Storwize V7000 Unified configuration

Value proposition of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system

The following features are the outstanding value proposition of IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system

Simplified management and intuitive GUI.


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More control with less space, cooling, and energy costs, aids rapid implementation and deployment compared to storage solutions offerings from the competitors.

Virtualization of existing storage infrastructure can improve administrator productivity up to two times.

Improve space utilization from 33% to 50% compared to competitors storage solutions and up to 75% less capacity needed with the space-efficient IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager.

Increase storage performance up to 200% using IBM System Storage Easy Tier technology.

Dynamic migration helps speed time-to-value from weeks or months to days, eliminates the cost of add-on migration tools and provides continuous availability of applications by eliminating downtime.

The thin provisioning feature allows obtaining only the required disk capacity.

The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system consolidates block and file storage in a single system for simplicity and greater efficiency.

IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center for Disk Select Performance Optimization technology can reduce service times of resource-constrained application by an average of 48% and up to a maximum of 90%.

IBM Systems Director Storage Control, based on Tivoli Storage Productivity Center, can be utilized for mid-size clients to integrate storage management with server and network management at 50% lower HW costs (single server instead of two servers) and lower skills to learn (single UI).

IBM Active Cloud Engine provides automated policy-based management of files to reduce costs through the use of tiered storage and improve data governance.

Clustered systems support the needs of your growing business while enabling you to buy additional hardware only as needed.

IBM Storwize V7000 data protection features

The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system provides the following data protection features.

Remote replication functions create exact copies of data at remote locations for appropriate disaster recovery solution.

FlashCopy and snapshot functions create instant copies of data to minimize data loss.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack continuously protects your data.

Tivoli Storage Productivity Center for Replication helps improve the efficiency of storage replication through automation.

Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager improves recovery point objectives by more than 95%.


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Solution architecture

Figure 2: Intelligent storage management solution architecture for IBM Storwize V7000 Unified

Figure 2 illustrates the architecture of the intelligent storage management solution for the VMware vSphere 5.0 virtual cloud infrastructure build on the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system for typical enterprise cloud virtual environment. This solution is made up of VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 hosts, VMware vSphere vCenter 5.0 servers, and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage.

There are two separate VMware vSphere 5.0 High Availability (HA) clusters configured for this solution in the lab validation environment. In the lab, each VMware vSphere 5.0 HA cluster is active with VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 hosts running Microsoft Windows and Linux VMs. VMs of each cluster, resides on either VMFS (SAN) data store cluster or the NFS (NAS) data store cluster provisioned on the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system.

VMFS (SAN) data store cluster: The VMFS (SAN) data store cluster consists of block-based data stores created using either iSCSI or Fibre Channel (FC) protocols.

NFS (NAS) data store cluster: The NFS (NAS) data stores consists of file-based data stores created using the NFS protocol.


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In the lab solution setup, the VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 hosts in each cluster setup can access both: the VMFS (SAN) data store cluster and the NFS (NAS) data store cluster to host several VMs.

Material list for solution setup in the lab Table 1 lists the hardware and software used in this solution architecture.

Infrastructure components

Vendor Quantity Details

Servers running VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

IBM (IBM System x 3650 M3)

4

For more information, refer to the VMware compatibility guide at: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php Example: ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/rack/x3650m3/specs.html

Storage system

IBM

1

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified

ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000/index.html

Network (Ethernet) Switch

Cisco Catalyst 6509

1

SAN Switch

IBM System Storage SAN24B-4 Express

1

ibm.com/systems/networking/switches/san/b-type/san24b-4/express/index.html

Network adapter

(Per ESXi host and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system)

Two 10 Gbps

Two 1 Gbps

Software

IBM IBM Storwize V7000 Unified file module Version 1.3

IBM IBM Storwize V7000 Unified control enclosure version 6.3

VMware VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 or higher

VMware VMware vCenter Server 5.0 or higher

Table 1: List of hardware and software material used in the lab to set up the solution


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Basic configuration requirement for the solution After correctly configuring the new virtual cloud infrastructure using the VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 hosts, and vSphere vCenter server 5.0, the solution requires at least one VMFS (SAN) data store or NFS (NAS) data store configured on each vSphere ESXi 5.0 host on the configured vSphere 5.0 HA cluster. These data stores must be provisioned on the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified system.

In the lab solution setup, both NFS- and VMFS-based data stores configured on all the vSphere ESXi 5.0 hosts are configured on both the clusters.

iSCSI or FC based VMFS data store configuration

For proper iSCSI or FC configuration with VMware ESXi, refer to the IBM Redbooks, IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3 at: ibm.com/redbooks/redbooks/pdfs/sg247938.pdf


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Lab vSphere 5.0 iSCSI configuration screen captures

Figure 3: Lab vSphere 5.0 ESXi iSCSI configuration


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Figure 4: Lab vSphere 5.0 ESXi iSCSI initiation General property page


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Figure 5: Lab vSphere 5.0 ESXi iSCSI target Dynamic Discovery page


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Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI configuration screen captures

Figure 6: Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI host configuration

Figure 7: Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI host overview page


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Figure 8: Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI host mapped volumes

Figure 9: Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI host port definitions page


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NFS data store configuration

This section describes the steps to configure the NFS data store.

Create file set on a specific file system for the NFS data store

First step is to create an appropriate file set on a specific file system for the NFS data store configuration.

You can find more information about that file set at:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/storwize/unified_ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.storwize.v7000.unified.doc%2Fmng_filesets_topic_welcome.html

Perform the following steps to create a file set.

1. Click the Files icon and then click the File Sets option from the po-pup menu from the GUI, as shown in the Figure 10.

Figure 10: Selecting the File Sets option


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2. Click New File Set, as shown in the Figure 11.

Figure 11: Create New File Set option

3. Provide appropriate parameters to create the new file set and click OK, as shown in Figure 12.


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Figure 12: New file set parameters

4. Validate the file set creation status and click Close, as shown in the Figure 13.

Figure 13: File Set creation status information


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Creating NFS share (export) with the newly created file set

Perform the following steps to define NFS share export on the newly created file set.

1. Click shares on the pop-up menu, as shown in the Figure 14.

Figure 14: Shares option to initiate NFS share creation

2. Click New Share, as shown in the Figure 15.

Figure 15: Clicking the New Share option


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3. Select NFS share and provide the appropriate parameters for the new NFS share. In this

example, the newly created file set path, NFS share name, and appropriate NFS client option are updated, as shown in the Figure 16. Click OK.

Figure 16: NFS share configuration with parameters

After the appropriate NFS share has been created for the newly created file set, it is time to create and configure the NFS data store in the ESXi host using vCenter.


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The NFS data store created in the lab setup is shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17: NFS data store configured in the lab setup

Data store clusters The data store clusters form the basis of vSphere 5.0 Storage DRS and it can be described as a collection of data stores aggregated into a single unit of consumption from an administrator perspective. An administrator no longer needs to be concerned about individual data stores. Data store clusters are managed rather than individual data stores.

Administrators can use data store cluster, during the provisioning process or during a manual VM migration to the storage destination.

Note:

The provisioning process not only refers to the creation of a virtual machine, but also to adding a disk to an existing virtual machine, cloning a virtual machine, or performing a Storage vMotion operation.


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Data store cluster constraints

A data store cluster has the following constraints:

VMFS- and NFS-based data stores cannot be part of the same data store cluster. Maximum of 32 data stores per data store cluster Maximum of 256 data store clusters per vSphere vCenter Server 5.0 Maximum of 9000 VMDKs per data store cluster

Best practices before creating the data store clusters

The following best practices need to be followed before creating the data store clusters.

Set Storage DRS to manual and review the recommendation before accepting them. All data stores in the cluster must use the same type of disk (SAS, SATA, or Near line

SAS) All data stores in the cluster must group with disks with similar characteristics (RAID 5

with RAID 5, mirror or replicated with mirror or replicated, 15K rpm with 15K rpm and so on).

Do not use SDRS on thinly provisioned VMFS data stores due to the risk of reaching an out-of-space situation.

Do not mix mirror or replicated and nonreplicated or generic data stores in a data store cluster.

All data stores in an SDRS cluster must either be all VMFS (iSCSI or FC) or all NFS data stores.

Data stores cannot be shared between different sites. All data store hosts within a data store cluster must be ESXi 5 hosts.


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Steps to create a data store cluster

This section illustrates the steps for creating the data store cluster. The example shows the screen capture of the lab test creation of the data store cluster, VMFS_iSCSI_DatastoreCluster (Gold).

1. Go to the vSphere vCenter Server 5.0 home page.

2. Click Datastores and Datastores Clusters, as shown the Figure 18.

Figure 18: Datastores and Datastore Clusters option


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3. Right-click the cluster and then click New Datastore Cluster menu option, as shown in the Figure 19.

Figure 19: New Datastore Cluster menu to create the data store cluster


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4. Enter an appropriate name for the data store cluster and select the Turn on Storage DRS check

box, (as shown in the Figure 20) and click Next.

Figure 20: General data store cluster creation page


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5. Select the No Automation (Manual Mode) option and click Next (as shown in the Figure 21).

Figure 21: SDRS automation page


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6. Accept the default settings (as shown in the Figure 22) and click Next.

Figure 22: SDRS Runtime Rules page


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7. Select the hosts and the clusters in the solution to add to the new data store cluster (as shown in

the Figure 23) and click Next.

Figure 23: Selecting the hosts and clusters


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8. From the Show Datastores list, select Connected to some hosts to view all the configured data

stores and select the appropriate data stores to form the new data store cluster (as shown in the Figure 24) and click Next.

Figure 24: The Select Datastores page


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9. Validate the selected configuration and click Finish (as shown in the Figure 25).

Figure 25: Ready to Complete page

In the lab test environment, the test team created the following data store clusters.

iSCSI (SAN) based VMFS_iSCSI_DatastoreCluster (Gold) (provided screen captures for the steps to create a data store cluster example)

NFS (NAS) based NFS_NAS_DatastoreCluster (Silver) NFS (NAS) based NFS_NAS_DatastoreCluster (Bronze)


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Profile-Driven Storage vSphere 5.0 introduces Profile-Driven Storage which allows rapid and intelligent placement of virtual machine based on predefined storage profiles. This feature automates matching the SLA requirements of virtual machines with appropriate data stores or data store clusters. The predefined storage profiles usually represent a storage tier and are created through a vCenter feature called VM Storage Profiles.

In the lab solution setup, characteristics such as RAID level and performance are considered to define different tires. The following list of storage tiers are used in the lab solution setup.

Gold, RAID-5, SAS Drive 15000 rpm, iSCSI VMFS data stores, Copy Services enabled

Silver, RAID-5, SAS Drive 15000 rpm, NFS data stores, NDMP backup enabled, Active Cloud Engine enabled

Bronze, RAID-5, Near Line SAS 7200 rpm, NFS data store, NDMP backup enabled, Active Cloud Engine enabled

In the lab solution setup, these VM storage profiles are user-defined and manually associated.

Create user-defined storage capabilities

This section describes the steps to create user-defined storage capabilities.

1. On the vSphere vCenter 5.0 window, click the VM Storage Profiles icon, as shown in the Figure 26.


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Figure 26: vSphere vCenter 5.0 VM storage profiles

2. Click Manage Storage Capabilities to add user-defined storage capabilities (or business tags), as shown in the Figure 27. Here is how the user-defined storage capability Gold is created in the lab solution setup.


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Figure 27: Adding storage capability


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3. In the lab solution setup, the test team created storage capabilities as Gold, Silver, and Bronze,

as shown in the Figure 28.

Figure 28: Solution lab setup showing user-defined storage capabilities

Create a VM storage profile

This section illustrates the steps to create a VM storage profile.

1. Click Create VM Storage Profile in the VM Storage Profiles view. Enter a name and description, as shown in Figure 29.


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Figure 29: Creating a new VM storage profile

2. Select the storage capabilities for the newly created profile, as shown in the Figure 30.


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Figure 30: Manually assigning storage capabilities with VM storage profile

In the lab solution setup, three VM storage profiles are created for each tier of storage, as shown in the Figure 31.

Figure 31: Lab solution setup of VM storage profiles


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Assign the user-defined VM storage profiles to the data stores

This section illustrates the steps to manually assign the newly created VM storage profiles to the data stores within the data store clusters.

1. Right-click the data store within the data store cluster and click Assign User-Defined Storage Capability, as shown in the Figure 32.

Figure 32: Manually assigning the user-defined storage capability

2. Select the predefined storage tier capability for the selected data store within the data store cluster (as shown in the Figure 33) and click OK.

Note: Make sure to manually assign the same storage capability to all individual data stores within the data store cluster. A data store cluster must not have data stores with different types of storage capabilities.


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Figure 33: Selecting the appropriate user-defined storage capability from the list

3. In the Summary tab of the data store, a new window named, Storage Capabilities now displays both the options: System Storage Capabilities (VASA) and User-defined Storage Capabilities. Click the bubble icon next to the capability to view additional details, as shown in the Figure 34.

Figure 34: Storage capability summary tab

Using the VM Storage Profile

At this point, the VM profile is created and the user-defined capabilities are added to the data store. Use the profile to select the correct storage for the VM, as shown in the Figure 35.


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Figure 35: Applying the VM storage profile

The profile is automatically attached to the VM during the deployment phase. Validate if the data store on which the VM is placed has the same capabilities as the profile. If it does, then the VM is said to be compliant. If not, the VM is said to be non-compliant, as shown in the Figure 36.

Figure 36: Storage selection with appropriate VM storage profile

Notice the way that the data stores are now split into (Compatible and Incompatible) in the lab solution test environment. Compatible data stores are those which have the same storage capabilities as those defined in the Gold profile.

Note: It is also possible to deploy the Gold VM onto one of the incompatible data stores.


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Checking compatibility

To check individual VMs, go to the Summary tab of the VM and validate the new VM Storage Profiles window, which will indicate whether the VM is compliant or not, as shown in the Figure 37.

Figure 37: VM Storage Profiles window

Also check the VM storage profile view to validate the storage compliance all the VMs, as shown in the Figure 38.

Figure 38: VM Storage Profiles view


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Guiding Storage DRS recommendations for the solution Fundamentally, when creating a virtual machine, it is required to select the destination storage for the virtual machine.

In the lab solution test environment, both the vSphere 5.0 HA clusters are connected to at least one data store cluster, as shown in the Figure 39.

Figure 39: VM destination storage selection page


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After selecting the data store cluster, vCenter displays initial placement recommendations for SDRS, which needs to be applied by the administrator (as shown in the Figure 40).

Figure 40: VM initial placement recommendation page

Affinity and anti-affinity rules

By default, SDRS applies an intra-VM affinity rule (VMDK affinity), storing all files that belong to a virtual machine to one data store. The SDRS supports three kinds of rules that are enforced during the initial placement and during ongoing migrations for load balancing.

Intra-VM VMDK affinity rule is used to keep a VMs VMDKs together on the same data store.

Intra-VM VMDK anti-affinity rule is used to keep a VMs VMDKs on a different data store.

Inter-VM VM anti-affinity rule is used to keep VMs on different data stores.

Intra-VM VMDK affinity rule

SDRS applies a VMDK affinity rule to each virtual machine by default. This default rule is commonly referred to as the intra-VM affinity rule, as shown in the Figure 41.


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Figure 41: Intra-VM VMDK affinity

The user can change the data store cluster settings so that VMs in the cluster do not have an intra-VM VMDK affinity rule set by default (as shown in the Figure 42).

Figure 42: Overriding the intra-VMDK affinity rule


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If an existing virtual machine is moved into a data store cluster, the application of an intra-VM affinity rule depends on the disk layout configuration of the virtual machine and the method of introduction.

Note: A virtual machine can be moved into a data store cluster by either Storage vMotion or by adding the data store(s) containing its disk to a data store cluster.

Table 2 shows the application of the default SDRS intra-VM affinity rule. Be aware of the result of these actions when migrating to a data store cluster.

Disk layout source Method Rule activate Disk layout destination

All VMDKs on a single data store

Storage vMotion Yes All VMDKs on a single data store

VMDKs on multiple data stores

Storage vMotion Yes All VMDKs on a single data store

All VMDKs on a single data store

Add storage Yes All VMDKs on a single data store

VMDKs on multiple data stores

Add storage No VMDKs on multiple data stores

Table 2: Applying the default intra-VM affinity rule

Intra-VM VMDK anti-affinity rule

The intra-VM VMDK anti-affinity rule keeps the specified VMDKs belonging to a virtual machine on separate data stores, as shown in the Figure 43.

Figure 43: VMDK anti-affinity rule


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This rule can be useful for separating log and data disks of database VMs.

Recommendation: It is recommended to apply this rule sparingly as it might affect the opportunities available for SDRS to find appropriate locations to place the virtual machine and still be able to load balance workloads inside the data store cluster.

Inter-VM anti-affinity rule

The inter-VM anti-affinity rule keeps the specified virtual machines on different data stores as shown in the Figure 44.

Figure 44: VM anti-affinity

The benefit of this rule is to help maximize the availability of a collection of related virtual machines. In this rule, the availability of a set of critical virtual machines is increased by not allowing SDRS to place the critical virtual machines on the same data store (for example, VMs running web servers in a load-balance cluster or VMs running domain controllers).

Recommendation: Similar to the intra-VM anti-affinity rules, apply VM anti-affinity rules sparingly. Anti-affinity rules place limitations on SDRS and reduce the possibilities it has to reach a steady and balanced state.

Different VMFS block sizes

Recommendation: Avoid mixing data stores with different block sizes.


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SDRS data store maintenance mode

Storage DRS offers data store maintenance mode, which automatically evacuates all virtual machines and virtual disk drives from the selected data store to the remaining data store in the data store cluster, as shown in the Figure 45.

Figure 45: Entering SDRS data store maintenance mode


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You can click Apply Recommendation to formally take the data store to the maintenance mode, as shown in the Figure 46.

Figure 46: SDRS Maintenance Mode Migration Recommendations page

Caution: SDRS cannot migrate the VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) enabled virtual machines. The workaround is to temporarily turn off FT for the FT virtual machine, perform migration, then re-enable FT. Similarly, virtual machine templates cannot perform Storage vMotion and they introduce problems for placing data stores in the maintenance mode.


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Summary vSphere Storage DRS continuously monitors storage space and I/O utilization across the Storwize V7000 Unified storage system resources (both volumes and file systems) and intelligently aligns storage resources to meet your business growth objectives such as.

Specifying how storage resources of the Storwize V7000 Unified system are allocated to virtual machines with rules and policies

Giving IT autonomy to business organizations by assigning dedicated Storwize V7000 Unified storage infrastructure to business units while still achieving higher storage utilization through pools of storage volumes

Empowering business units to build and manage virtual machines within their Storwize V7000 Unified storage while giving central IT control over the Storwize V7000 Unified storage resources.

VMware Storage DRS continuously balances the Storwize V7000 Unified storage resources and storage I/O load and avoids resource bottlenecks to meet application service levels, and increases manageability of storage at scale.

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified is a virtualized storage system designed to consolidate block and file workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability.

This paper is not intended to be a definitive implementation or solutions guide for VMware vSphere 5.0 virtual infrastructure solutions using the Storage DRS feature with the Storwize V7000 Unified storage system. Many factors related to specific customer environments are not addressed in this paper. You can contact IBM for support from one of the IBM virtualization solutions experts for any deployment requirement.


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Appendix A: Glossary

Storwize V7000 Unified Is a virtualized storage system designed to consolidate block and file workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage also offers improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in solid-state drive (SSD) optimization, thin provisioning, and nondisruptive migration of data from existing storage. The system can virtualize and reuse existing disk systems, offering a greater potential return on investment.

VMware vSphere Is one of the industry-leading virtualization platforms for building cloud infrastructures. vSphere accelerates the shift to cloud computing for existing data centers, while also underpinning compatible public cloud offerings, paving the way for the only hybrid cloud model.

VMware ESXi Are bare-metal embedded hypervisors. They are enterprise software hypervisors from VMware for servers that run directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system.

VMware vCenter Server Delivers centralized management, operational automation, resource optimization, and high availability to IT environments.

Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) Is an aggregate of storage resources of several storage volumes in to a single pool and simplifies storage management at scale. Intelligently place workloads on storage volumes during provisioning based on available storage resources.

VMware High Availability (HA) Provides easy to use, cost-effective high availability for

applications running in virtual machines.

VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Provides continuous availability for applications in the event of server failures, by creating a live shadow instance of a virtual machine that is in virtual lockstep with the primary instance.


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Appendix B: Materials used in the lab setup The following table lists the materials used in the lab setup.

Infrastructure components

Vendor Quantity Details

Servers

IBM (IBM System x3650 M3)

4

IBM System x3650 M3

Intel Xeon processor (Intel VT) E5506 2.13 GHz

Memory: 128 GB in the cluster

Storage system

IBM

1

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified

ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000/index.html

Network (Ethernet) Switch

Cisco Catalyst 6509

1

SAN Switch

IBM System Storage SAN24B-4 Express

1

ibm.com/systems/networking/switches/san/b-type/san24b-4/express/index.html

Network adapter

(Per-ESXi host and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system)

Two 10 Gbps

Two 1 Gbps

Software

IBM IBM Storwize V7000 Unified file module Version 1.3

IBM IBM Storwize V7000 Unified control enclosure version 6.3

VMware VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

VMware VMware vCenter Server 5.0

Table 3: Materials used in the lab setup


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Appendix C: Resources The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper:

IBM Systems on PartnerWorld

ibm.com/partnerworld/systems

IBM Redbooks

ibm.com/redbooks

IBM Publications Center

www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/public/applications/publications/cgibin/pbi.cgi?CTY=US

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Storage

ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/storwize_v7000

IBM Documentation

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified 1.3.0 Information Center

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/storwize/unified_ic/index.jsp

Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3

ibm.com/redbooks/redbooks/pdfs/sg247938.pdf

Implementing the Storwize V7000 and the IBM System Storage SAN32B-E4 Encryption Switch

ibm.com/redbooks/redbooks/pdfs/sg247977.pdf

VMware documentation

VMware vSphere Basics

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-

50-basics-guide.pdf

vCenter Server and Host Management Guide


501-host-management-guide.pdf

vSphere Storage Guide


501-storage-guide.pdf


49

About the author Udayasuryan Kodoly is a Storage Technology Specialist in IBM Systems and Technology Group (ISV Enablement) Organization. Uday has several years of experience on designing, architecting storage solutions, and developing solution best practices on various NAS and SAN appliance data protection (backup) solutions. Uday is an expert on virtualization technologies and the virtual machine data protection strategies. Presently, Uday is working on enabling various ISV backup, disaster recovery, and virtualization solutions for IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified systems.

You can reach Uday at [email protected].


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Trademarks and special notices Copyright IBM Corporation 2012.

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Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here.

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Intended audience 1Scope 2VMware vSphere 2IBM Storwize V7000 Unified overview 3Value proposition of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system 3IBM Storwize V7000 data protection features 4Material list for solution setup in the lab 6Basic configuration requirement for the solution 7iSCSI or FC based VMFS data store configuration 7Lab vSphere 5.0 iSCSI configuration screen captures 8Lab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI configuration screen captures 11NFS data store configuration 13Create file set on a specific file system for the NFS data store 13Creating NFS share (export) with the newly created file set 16Data store clusters 18Data store cluster constraints 19Best practices before creating the data store clusters 19Steps to create a data store cluster 20Profile-Driven Storage 28Create user-defined storage capabilities 28Create a VM storage profile 31Assign the user-defined VM storage profiles to the data stores 34Using the VM Storage Profile 35Checking compatibility 37Guiding Storage DRS recommendations for the solution 38Affinity and anti-affinity rules 39Intra-VM VMDK affinity rule 39Intra-VM VMDK anti-affinity rule 41Inter-VM anti-affinity rule 42Different VMFS block sizes 42SDRS data store maintenance mode 43AbstractExecutive summaryIntended audienceScope

PrerequisitesSolution componentsVMware vSphereIBM Storwize V7000 Unified overviewValue proposition of the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage systemIBM Storwize V7000 data protection features

Solution architectureMaterial list for solution setup in the labBasic configuration requirement for the solutioniSCSI or FC based VMFS data store configurationLab vSphere 5.0 iSCSI configuration screen capturesLab IBM Storwize V7000 Unified iSCSI configuration screen capturesNFS data store configurationCreate file set on a specific file system for the NFS data storeCreating NFS share (export) with the newly created file set

Data store clustersData store cluster constraintsBest practices before creating the data store clustersSteps to create a data store cluster

Profile-Driven StorageCreate user-defined storage capabilitiesCreate a VM storage profileAssign the user-defined VM storage profiles to the data storesUsing the VM Storage ProfileChecking compatibility

Guiding Storage DRS recommendations for the solutionAffinity and anti-affinity rulesIntra-VM VMDK affinity ruleIntra-VM VMDK anti-affinity ruleInter-VM anti-affinity ruleDifferent VMFS block sizesSDRS data store maintenance mode

SummaryAppendix A: GlossaryAppendix B: Materials used in the lab setupAppendix C: ResourcesAbout the authorTrademarks and special notices

Documents

Intelligent storage management solution using VMware vSphere 5.0