Table of Contents - VMware · 2020-02-10 · Table of Contents Lab Overview - HOL-1928-HCI ... the fastest growing hyper-converged systems worldwide, are the standard for simplifying

Table of ContentsLab Overview - HOL-1928-HCI - VxRail Getting Started .................................................... 2

Lab Guidance .......................................................................................................... 3Key Solution Benefits ............................................................................................ 10

Module 1: Getting Started............................................................................................... 13Introduction........................................................................................................... 14Conclusion............................................................................................................. 18

Module 2 - Monitoring and maintaining the logical and physical health of the VxRailcluster............................................................................................................................. 19

Monitoring and maintaining the logical and physical health of the VxRail cluster 20Conclusion............................................................................................................. 50

Module 3 - Adding a node to an existing VxRail Cluster.................................................. 51Adding a node to an existing VxRail Cluster.......................................................... 52Conclusion............................................................................................................. 57

Module 4 - Defining fault domains in the cluster configuration.......................................58Defining fault domains in the cluster configuration .............................................. 59Conclusion............................................................................................................. 64

Module 5 - Deduplication and Compression.................................................................... 65Deduplication and Compression Overview............................................................ 66Conclusion............................................................................................................. 71

Module 6 - VxRail Encryption .......................................................................................... 72Encryption............................................................................................................. 73Conclusion............................................................................................................. 77

Module 7 - Creating and Managing Snapshots ................................................................ 78Creating and Managing Snapshots........................................................................ 79Conclusion............................................................................................................. 84

Module 8 - Upgrading infrastructure software................................................................. 85Upgrading the VxRail Manager Software............................................................... 86Conclusion............................................................................................................. 93

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Lab Overview -HOL-1928-HCI - VxRail

Getting Started

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Lab GuidanceNote: It may take more than 90 minutes to complete this lab. You shouldexpect to only finish 2-3 of the modules during your time. The modules areindependent of each other so you can start at the beginning of any moduleand proceed from there. You can use the Table of Contents to access anymodule of your choosing.

The Table of Contents can be accessed in the upper right-hand corner of theLab Manual.

This lab introduces VxRail 4.5 and VMware Virtual SAN. In this lab, you will learn andexplore the following

• How to verify the set-up and configuration of VxRail Appliance and vSAN Cluster• How to upgrade the hardware or add a node to an existing cluster• How to upgrade the software used to power the VxRail cluster• How to use VxRail Manager services to monitor the health of the appliance and

learn how to execute corrective procedures, also exploring the new VxRail models• How to use features available with VxRail 4.5 and vSAN 6.6

Lab Module List:

Module 1: Getting Started (10 Minutes) - Basic

• Connecting to vCenter• Current configuration verification• Synchronize storage providers• Access VxRail Manager

Module 2: Monitoring and Maintenance (10 minutes) - Intermediate

• Use of the VxRail Manager services to monitor the health of the appliance andexecute corrective procedures

• Disk Replacement• Node Shutdown• Cluster Shutdown

Module 3: Cluster Expansion - Adding nodes (10 minutes) - Basic

• Verify cluster state after initial configuration• Navigation through vSphere Web Client screens to verify cluster state after initial

configuration• Execution of the procedures to add a node to the existing VxRail Cluster

Module 4: High Availability options for Rack and Datacenter failures - (5 Minutes) Basic

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• Fault Domains

Module 5:Space efficient options - (5 Minutes) Basic

• Data Deduplication and Compression

Module 6: Data Security (5 Minutes) - Basic

• Data at Rest Encryption

Module 7: Data Protection (5 Minutes) - Basic

• Snapshots

Module 8: Upgrading Infrastructure Software (10 minutes) - Intermediate

• Download a new SW bundle and execute the upgrade procedure

Lab Captains:

• Rafael Silva - Sr. Solution Engineer, USA

This lab manual can be downloaded from the Hands-on Labs Document site found here:

http://docs.hol.vmware.com

This lab may be available in other languages. To set your language preference and havea localized manual deployed with your lab, you may utilize this document to help guideyou through the process:

http://docs.hol.vmware.com/announcements/nee-default-language.pdf

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http://docs.hol.vmware.com

http://docs.hol.vmware.com/announcements/nee-default-language.pdf

Location of the Main Console

1. The area in the RED box contains the Main Console. The Lab Manual is on the tabto the Right of the Main Console.

2. A particular lab may have additional consoles found on separate tabs in the upperleft. You will be directed to open another specific console if needed.

3. Your lab starts with 90 minutes on the timer. The lab can not be saved. All yourwork must be done during the lab session. But you can click the EXTEND toincrease your time. If you are at a VMware event, you can extend your lab timetwice, for up to 30 minutes. Each click gives you an additional 15 minutes.Outside of VMware events, you can extend your lab time up to 9 hours and 30

minutes. Each click gives you an additional hour.

Alternate Methods of Keyboard Data Entry

During this module, you will input text into the Main Console. Besides directly typing itin, there are two very helpful methods of entering data which make it easier to entercomplex data.

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Click and Drag Lab Manual Content Into Console ActiveWindow

You can also click and drag text and Command Line Interface (CLI) commands directlyfrom the Lab Manual into the active window in the Main Console.

Accessing the Online International Keyboard

You can also use the Online International Keyboard found in the Main Console.

1. Click on the Keyboard Icon found on the Windows Quick Launch Task Bar.

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Click once in active console window

In this example, you will use the Online Keyboard to enter the "@" sign used in emailaddresses. The "@" sign is Shift-2 on US keyboard layouts.

1. Click once in the active console window.2. Click on the Shift key.

Click on the @ key

1. Click on the "@ key".

Notice the @ sign entered in the active console window.

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Activation Prompt or Watermark

When you first start your lab, you may notice a watermark on the desktop indicatingthat Windows is not activated.

One of the major benefits of virtualization is that virtual machines can be moved andrun on any platform. The Hands-on Labs utilizes this benefit and we are able to run thelabs out of multiple datacenters. However, these datacenters may not have identicalprocessors, which triggers a Microsoft activation check through the Internet.

Rest assured, VMware and the Hands-on Labs are in full compliance with Microsoftlicensing requirements. The lab that you are using is a self-contained pod and does nothave full access to the Internet, which is required for Windows to verify the activation.Without full access to the Internet, this automated process fails and you see this

watermark.

This cosmetic issue has no effect on your lab.

Look at the lower right portion of the screen

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Please check to see that your lab is finished all the startup routines and is ready for youto start. If you see anything other than "Ready", please wait a few minutes. If after 5minutes you lab has not changed to "Ready", please ask for assistance.

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Key Solution BenefitsDell EMC VxRail Appliances, the fastest growing hyper-converged systems worldwide,are the standard for simplifying and modernizing VMware environments, regardless ofwhere an organization starts or ends their IT transformation. The only HCI appliancespowered by Dell EMC PowerEdge platforms and fully integrated and pre-tested withVMware vSAN seamlessly extend existing VMware environments, simplifyingdeployment and enabling IT organizations to leverage in-house expertise andoperational processes. Tight integration with VMware technologies ensures that VxRailAppliances across the infrastructure can be easily managed from a central location.VxRail accelerates the adoption of HCI and creates certainty in IT transformation.

VxRail Appliances are the standard for transforming VMware environments. Quickly andeasily integrate into existing VMware eco-systems, removing IT lifecycle complexitywhile simplifying deployment, administration and management. As such they are anintegral infrastructure option for modernizing and automating IT via IT Transformation,Digital Transformation and Workplace Transformation.

For more information on VxRail please visit: http://www.dellemc.com/vxrail

Extend and simplify VMware environment

Managed through the well-known VMware vCenter Server, VxRail Appliances provideexisting VMware customers an experience you are familiar with allowing you toseamlessly integrate VxRail into your existing IT infrastructure.

VxRail Appliances are fully loaded with integrated Dell EMC mission-critical data servicesincluding replication, backup, and cloud tiering at no additional charge and are theindustry's only hyper-converged appliance featuring kernel-layer integration betweenVMware vSAN and the vSphere hypervisor, delivering unique and unmatchedperformance and efficiency. As a fully optimized and supported VMware-based solution,the appliances also integrate with VMwares cloud management platform and end-usercomputing solutions. VxRail is also a foundational infrastructure platform which makes itsimple to introduce advanced VMware SDDC offerings like NSX, vRealize Automation,and vRealize Operations.

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http://www.dellemc.com/vxrail

The following image describes the software that is included with each and every VxRail.

Start small and grow

The Dell EMC VxRail Appliance allows you to start small with as few as three nodes -and grow incrementally, scaling capacity and performance easily and non-disruptivelyup to 64 nodes per cluster. Single-node scaling and storage capacity expansion providea predictable, pay-as-you-grow approach for future scale up and out as your businessand user requirements evolve without up-front planning.

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Flexibility and choice

As the world's most configurable appliances, Dell EMC VxRail provides extreme flexibilitywith purpose-built appliances that are designed to address any use case, including bigdata, analytics, 2D/3D visualization, or collaboration applications. VxRail Appliances,built with the latest PowerEdge servers based on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, delivermore predictable high performance with up to 2x more IOPS while cutting responsetimes in half. The VxRail Appliance family offers GPU optimized, storage dense, highperformance computing, and entry level options - to give you the perfect match for yourspecific HCI workload requirements.

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Module 1: Getting Started

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IntroductionConnecting to your vSphere Client - You will now connect to the vSphere Web Clientsession which you will use throughout the lab.

Click on the Google Chrome icon located on the Windows Taskbar or on the Desktop.

Select the vSphere bookmark

Login to the vSphere Web Client

Login to the VMware vSphere Web Client using the following credentials:

User name: [email protected]

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Password: Password123!

Verify the Current Configuration under vCenter ServerManagement

We will now verify the configuration of the new VxRail Appliance, checking the resourcesthat are currently under the management of the vCenter Server.

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Hosts and Cluster

Click on Hosts and Clusters button at the Navigator pane on the left

Verify the current configuration

1. Click on vcenter01.demo.local on the Navigator pane

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2. Select the Summary tab

3. Observe on the Navigator pane that under the vCenter Servervcenter01.demo.local there is one datacenter, vlab-dc, and one cluster, vlab-cluster. vlab-cluster is the VxRail cluster.

4. Note that the vCenter on this lab environment is running version 6.5 Build 8024368.

Synchronize the Storage Providers

1. Select vcenter01.demo.local on the Navigator pane

2. Select the Configure tab on the main pane

3. Select Storage Providers

4. Click on the Synchronize button

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ConclusionCongratulations on completing Module 1.

Proceed to any module below which interests you most.

• Module 1 - Getting Started (10 minutes)• Module 2 - Monitoring and maintaining the logical and physical health (15

minutes)• (10 minutes)• Module 4 - Defining fault domains in the cluster configuration (10 minutes)• Module 5 - Deduplication and Compression (10 minutes)• Module 6 - VxRail Encryption (10 minutes)• Module 7 - Creating and managing snapshots (10 minutes)• Module 8 - Upgrading infrastructure software (10 minutes

How to End Lab

To end your lab click on the END button.

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Module 2 - Monitoringand maintaining thelogical and physicalhealth of the VxRail

cluster

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Monitoring and maintaining the logicaland physical health of the VxRailclusterIn this module you will navigate through VxRail Manager interface to become morefamiliar with the options available to monitor the health indicators of the VxRail Cluster,and how these functions can simplify the management of your environment. You willalso have the opportunity to execute a few hardware maintenance simulations.

Make sure you are connected to the VxRail Manager

Make sure you are connected to the VxRail Manager Interface. If not, Click on theGoogle Chrome icon located on the Windows Taskbar or on the Desktop

Select the VxRail Manager bookmark to open up the VxRailManager Web Interface

If asked to acknowledge the security exception, click on the Advanced link, and thenclick on Proceed to vxm.demo.local; otherwise go directly to the Log On page

Log On to VxRail Manager

1. Use the following credentials to login to VxRAil Manager:

• User name: [email protected]• Password: Password123!

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2. Click Authenticate

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Temporary - Unmute Cluster health status

We will have to temporary unmute the cluster's health status. If you have the orangenotice in the vxrail main page please perform the following steps:

1. Click on Config on the right tab

2. in the Config page select general and scroll down to "Cluster Health Monitoring"

3. Select On to turn Health Monitoring

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4. Click Apply

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Navigate through the VxRail Manager Dashboard Page

The VxRail Manager dashboard shows system health and support resources at a glance,including expansion status, overall system health, support, community activity, andevent history.

Here is a brief explanation of the information sections in the dashboard:

• VxRail Upgrade status

When a new upgrade package is downloaded or installed, the status of the upgrade taskwill be displayed in the dashboard.

• Cluster Expansion

When a new node is detected by VxRail Manager, the node information will be displayedin the upper left portion of the screen. You should already see the nodeEMCVLAB40000000 in your dashboard.

Note: this node will be employed in the next lab module.

• Overall System Health

The Overall System Health area shows the high-level system status of your VxRailAppliance. Status is shown as one of the following:

• Healthy: System normal. There are no major problems to address.

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• Error: An error has occurred. There is an issue that should be addressed whenpossible.

• Warning: System needs attention. There are some issues that require attentionsuch as a disk space limit has been reached or an online support heartbeatcannot be sent.

• Critical: Immediate action required. There are events that must be addressedimmediately to prevent downtime or data loss.

Note: A Critical status message may be displayed during the execution of the labs. Thiscan be ignored.

• VxRail Community

VxRail community shows the most recent articles and other content from the onlineVxRail community.

• Support

Support displays status and links to support resources, including:

• Last Heartbeat: The last time an EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) heartbeatwas sent (only shown if ESRS is enabled).

• Chat with Support: Link to start a chat session with a support representative.• Open a Service Request: Link to open a new service request ticket for support.

The access to ESRS (EMC Secure Remote Services) is not allowed in this virtual labenvironment which explains the heartbeat message in the support area.

• Event History

Event history displays the most recent system events.

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Navigate to VxRail Manager - System Events

1. Click on Events tab within VxRail Manager

The VxRail Manager Events tab displays a list of current events.

The events list can be sorted by ID, Severity, or Time.

New critical events are displayed in red.

If a physical component is listed in the 'Event Details', the 'Component ID' field will havea link to the Health > Physical screen to facilitate visualization and identification of thecomponent.

A csv file with the event messages can be created, and exported/downloaded by theweb browser.

Next we will navigate to the VxRail Manager Health Tab

1. Select HEALTH on the vertical bar within VxRail Manager

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2. Select the Logical tab at the top of the screen.

This screen displays CPU, memory, and storage usage for your entire cluster, individualappliances, and individual nodes. The color-coded status for storage IOPS, CPU usage,and memory usage indicates the following:

• Red: Over 85% used.• Yellow: 75 to 85% used.• Green: Less than 75% used.

Observe that in the storage information display, VxRail Manager provides a summary oftotal provisioned and used capacity which can be used to identify over-provisioninglevels.

Note on the upper part of the screen that you can select to display information either forthe 'Cluster' as a whole or for a specific node. The product serial numbers of the hosts(PSNT) are used to identify the hosts.

Select one of the VxRail Appliances

You may need to scrowdown the page to see the VxRail Manager Applianceinformation with Health > Logical tab.

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1. Click on the appliance serial number EMCVLAB1000000

VxRail Manager Logical System Health - ESXi NodeComponents

Scroll down to the ESXi Nodes area

Note that in this screen we have the host name associated with the PSNT selected,node6001-dev.demo.local in our example.

This view provides the status of the host components.

By clicking on the '>' expand sign we can obtain more information about thecomponents.

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This is a fast way to check the status of the host components.

VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Summary View

1. Scroll up and click Physical tab

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The Physical tab of the VxRail Manager Health window displays information about thehardware components of your appliance. A graphical representation of the appliances inyour cluster makes it easy to navigate for event and status information.

Click on the first appliance image to expand theinformation

1. Make sure you are on the Physical tab view.

2. Click on the Appliance image

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Physical node information

You can view an appliance's status and information such as ID, serial number, servicetag, and individual appliance components. You can drill down to see status andinformation for appliance components such as disks, compute nodes, NIC ports, andpower supplies.

In the upper left part of the screen you can see that the service tag of our first applianceis 5HB4YK2. This is a P570 Model.

In the main part of the screen we have a detailed view about the front end and back endcharacteristics of the appliance.

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In case of problems with any of the "Customer Replaceable" hardware components,the failed component is highlighted to facilitate identification.

Front View of the node

The front view provides disk drive information.

To simplify serviceability, VxRail has pre-defined slots for the capacity drives as well ascache drives of each disk group.

In the P570 models we can have up to 4 Disk Groups per node with a maximum of 5capacity disks per group.

The first 20 slots that we see in the front view image are reserved for capacity drivesand the last 4 slots are reserved for cache drives.

We can observe that we only have 3 capacity disks in our first disk group.

Hover the mouse over the front view and click on the diskthat is on slot 0

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Scroll down to the disk information display

Observe that the disk type is HDD, and the capacity available for use is 1.09TB

Hover the mouse over the front view image again and clickon slot 20 this time

This is the cache drive of disk group 1

Observe that this is an SSD drive

Note that the 'Remaining Write Endurance' is displayed for all flash drives.

Monitoring of the wear level of the flash drives is done automatically by VxRail Manager.In case the endurance of any flash drive falls below a pre-determined threshold, thesystem will send alert messages to the support center, in addition to logging an event.

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VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Disk drivereplacement simulation

From the same disk information window we can initiate a drive replacement procedure.

1. Click on the Replace Disk link

Note that in this virtual lab we will execute a simulated drive replacement procedure,for illustration only.

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Hardware Replacement dialog will appear

1. Click on Continue

Pre-check for Hardware Replacement

A pre-check is executed to ensure that the hosts are in the appropriate state and thatthe cluster health allows the execution of the procedure.

After the pre-check is complete, click on Continue

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In a real environment VxRail performs a disk clean-up and displays a status bar showingprogress.

At the end of the cleanup the disk will be ready to be replaced.

Because we are in a virtual environment, this cleanup procedure will fail.

Please Click on Cancel

Click Confirm on the 'Abort Disk Replacement' pop-up dialog box

Click Done

VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Back view - Nodeinformation

1. Hover the mouse over the graphics and click on the node in the Back View

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Details about the node will be displayed

Under node information we can obtain the BIOS firmware revision, ESXi and VIBversions, Boot device information, and BMC firmware revision.

The easy access to this information can facilitate serviceability.

VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Back view -Network Interface Controller Information

1. Hover the mouse over the graphics and click on the Network interface card.

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This screen will provide us with the MAC addresses, link speed and status of the ports.

VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Back view -Power Supply information

1. Hover the mouse over the graphics and click on the Power Supply

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This screen will provide us with the serial number, revision number and part number.

VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Back view - NodeShutdown

The node shut down procedure can be quite useful when replacing certain hardwarecomponents or performing other maintenance procedures.

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This procedure perform a series of checks to ensure that the host and the cluster are ina state that will allow the execution of a clean procedure.

1. For a simulation Hover the mouse over the graphics and click on the Node

2. Click on the Shutdown link

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Shut Down Node dialog will display

Leave unchecked the box: "Move powered-off and suspended virtual machines to theother hosts"

Click Confirm on the 'Shut Down Node' pop-up dialog box.

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Shut Down Node pre-check

Like in the disk replacement procedure, a pre-check is executed to ensure that the hostsare in the appropriate state and that the cluster health allows the execution of a nodeshutdown procedure, noting that in the case of a node shutdown additional verificationshave to be executed.

After the pre-check is complete, click Continue

The procedure will put the host in maintenance mode and then shut it down.

Wait for the message indicating that the node is powered off before proceeding

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During host maintenance procedures VxRail Manager mutes the health monitoring.When this happens, an alert is displayed in orange on the top of the screen.

Node Shut Down Status

Once completed the node information will display that the node is powered off

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VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Enabling SystemHealth Monitoring

We will have to unmute the System Health Monitoring before proceeding to the nextexercise.

1. Click on the Config icon

2. Select the General tab on top of the screen

3. Scroll down to Cluster Health Monitoring

4. Select the option On for Health Monitoring

5. Click Apply

Ignore alert messages about maintenance activity in progress. The orange barshould disappear.

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VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Cluster shutdownprocedure

There are situations in which the shutdown of the entire cluster is required; for example,when the appliances are being physically relocated.

For these situations VxRail manager provides a cluster shutdown function that simplifiesand automates the time of this entire process. This can be quite useful, especially whenthe cluster has a large number of hosts.

On the same Config > General view, scroll down to Shut Down Cluster

Click Shut Down button

Click Confirm on the 'Shut Down Cluster' pop-up dialog box

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Shut Down Cluster Dialog will Display

The confirmation for shut down cluster will display. Press Confirm.

Cluster Shut Down Pre-check

As we saw in the previous exercises, a pre-check has to be executed to ensure that thecluster and nodes are in the proper state for a normal shutdown.

One check in particular is that all customer virtual machines have been shut down, toensure a graceful shutdown and a clean restart afterwards.

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After the Pre-check is complete, click the Shut Down button

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VxRail Manager Physical System Health - Enabling SystemHealth Monitoring

After the previous host maintenance procedure, it will be necessary to unmute theSystem Health Monitoring.

Scroll up to Cluster Health Monitoring

Select the option On for Health Monitoring

Click Apply

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How to End Lab


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Module 3 - Adding a nodeto an existing VxRail

Cluster

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Adding a node to an existing VxRailClusterIn this module you will learn how to add a node to your VxRail cluster, which is a verysimple process. One of the core benefits provided by VxRail is to allow a configuration tostart small, at the right cost to satisfy the current demands, and then grow theconfiguration as needed, in small increments.

Note: Starting with VxRail software version 4.5.150 the first 3 nodes in a cluster mustbe identical (previous versions require the first 4 nodes to be identical). AdditionallyVxRail clusters must be entirely all flash or entirely hybrid.

Connect to the VxRail Manager Web Browser



If asked for Acknowledge security exception, click on the Advanced link, and then clickon Proceed to vxm.demo.local; otherwise go directly to the Log On page


Use the following credentials

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• Username: [email protected]• Password: Password123!

Click Authenticate

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Navigate through the VxRail Manager Dashboard Page

When we power on a new ESXi node that is connected to the same network as theVxRail cluster, this node is automatically discovered by VxRail manager. The informationthat a new node has been detected is displayed on the VxRail manager dashboard.

1. Click Dashboard on the vertical bar

2. Select the node to be added to the cluster

3. Click on Add Nodes

Note: Up to 6 nodes can be selected at a time for cluster expansionprocedure.

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Enter the vSphere Credentials

Enter the following credentials:

• Username: [email protected]• Password:Password123!

Click Next

Allocate new IP addresses for your cluster

During the installation of this system we provisioned 4 IP addresses to each network,but only configured 3 hosts.

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Because we have an extra IP available in each network we can proceed without anychanges.

However, if only 3 IP addresses were provisioned, we would have to explicitly enter anew IP address for each the 3 networks being maintained in this step, Management,vMotion and vSAN.

Click Next

Final Steps - Validation and Building of the Node

The final steps of the node expansion process is to Validate the configuration andConfirm the Build request.

The Cluster Expansion process can be Monitored on the VxRail Manager Dashboardwhile in progress. Upon completion, the Cluster Expansion section in the Dashboarddisappears, and the health and other information about the new node can be observedas already demonstrated in the previous Cluster Monitoring andMaintenance module.

We will NOT carry out the Validate and Build steps because of resource constraints inthe virtual Lab. In a production VxRail cluster, a node can take between 7-10 minutes tobe added.

Click Cancel now

Conclusion

In this module we demonstrated the process to perform the cluster expansion.

Please proceed to the next lab module

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How to End Lab


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Module 4 - Defining faultdomains in the cluster

configuration

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Defining fault domains in the clusterconfigurationWhen Fault Domains are enabled vSAN ensures that each protection component isplaced in separate fault domains. Fault domains enablement is necessary when trying toprotect against rack, room, floor and local site failures. The purpose of thismodule is to increase your level of familiarity with the fault domain definition.

Connecting to vSphere Web Client

You will now connect to the vSphere Web Client.







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Navigate to Fault Domains & Stretched Clusterconfiguration page

Navigate to Fault Domains & Stretched Cluster configuration page.

1. Select the vlab-cluster within your Hosts and Clusters page

2. Click on the Configure tab

3. Scroll down to Fault Domains & Stretched Cluster

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4. Click on the + sign

Add hosts to the Fault Domains

In the New Fault Domains configuration enter the following information:

1. In the Name field, type FD01

2. Select a host to be inserted in the Fault Domain. In this first example, selectnode6001-dev.demo.local

3. Click OK

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Repeat the process for all hosts, creating three different fault domains(FD01 to FD03)

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Three Fault Domains Defined

At the end of the configuration you will have three Fault Domains defined (you mayneed to click on the Refresh icon for the fault domains you have just created to bedisplayed).

In our example we only have three hosts, but consider a larger configuration with 16hosts and 4 racks; in this case, we would be able to allocate 4 hosts to each of the 4fault domains that we have defined, and place the hosts of each FD in their own Rack,providing then an efficient way to protect against rack failures. Without the FaultDomain definition, each host would be its own Fault Domain.

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How to End Lab


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Module 5 - Deduplicationand Compression

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Deduplication and CompressionOverviewThe De-duplication and Compression feature is enabled in this vSAN Cluster.

In this module we will check the space savings obtained from de-duplication andobserve the object types created for metadata management.

We will not enable/disable the de-duplication feature because it requires a rollingreformat of all the disks.









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Navigate to the Manage General VSAN settings page

Once logged in to vCenter Web Client navigate to Hosts and Clusters

1. Select the vlab-cluster within your Hosts and Clusters page

2. Click on the Configure tab

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3. Scroll down to vSAN General Settings

Observe in the vSAN is Turned ON area that the state of Deduplication andcompression feature is Enabled

Let's go to the next step.

We will not execute the enable / disable function because it requires a diskreformat that can take more than 20 minutes in this lab environment.

Checking Space Savings

You will now check the space savings from Deduplication and Compression.

1. Navigate to Storage tab within the Navigator panel

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2. Select the VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore

Select Summary view to check deduplication savings

1. On the Navigator pane, ensure that the VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore is selected

2. On the main view, select Monitor

3. Select vSAN

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The Deduplication and Compression Overview section provides the capacity figuresvia Used Before and Used After charts.

Let us study the numbers on the right side of the main pane reported as USEDBEFORE and USED AFTER.

Before data reduction we were using near 177 GB in our virtual cluster. After dedup andcompression was enabled, and after running a "dedup friendly" workload, the amount ofused capacity has reduced to approximately 15 GB, this is a reduction of ~12X andreported as a ratio.

We want to note that the ratio of data reduction is totally dependent on the applicationdata.

It is also important to observe that Deduplication and Compression reserves about 5%of the total raw capacity to store the deduplication metadata. In our virtual lab theDeduplication and compression overhead is 7.62 GB and our total allocated area is143.95 GB.

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How to End Lab


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Module 6 - VxRailEncryption

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EncryptionNative support for Data at Rest Encryption (DARE) was introduced with vSAN 6.6, and isavailable on VxRail release 4.5.

Encryption can be enabled on both Hybrid and All Flash models.

In this module we will illustrate a few concepts and components needed to enable thenative Data at Rest Encryption.

We highly recommend reading the VMware's Data at Rest Encryption guide that isavailable for download at https://storagehub.vmware.com/export_to_pdf/vsan-data-encryption-at-rest

Encryption at VM level versus at vSAN storage level -Capacity considerations

The core benefit of implementing Data at Rest Encryption at the storage level is that wecan provide a higher level of data security without losing the benefits of data reductionfeatures, such as deduplication and compression.

When encryption occurs within a virtual machine at the host level, the chances offinding duplicate data blocks are significantly reduced. Also, data that might have oncebeen easily compressible, is likely to be no longer as compressible.

By moving the encryption to the storage system, encryption can be done after datareduction services are applied, as data is being written to persistent media, preservingthe ability to optimize the use of the storage capacity.

Main components participating in vSAN Encryption

There are three parties participating in vSAN Encryption domain of trust:

1. Key Management Server (KMS) or a KMS Cluster

2. vCenter

3. vSphere Hosts with vSAN enabled (vSAN host)

VMware vCenter and vSphere hosts can only use a KMS after establishing a trust withthe KMS. A digital certificate must be provided to the KMS from the vCenterenvironment.

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https://storagehub.vmware.com/export_to_pdf/vsan-data-encryption-at-rest

https://storagehub.vmware.com/export_to_pdf/vsan-data-encryption-at-rest

Key Management Server - KMS

A Key Management Server (KMS) has to be available to provide standards-compliantlifecycle management of encryption keys.

Tasks such as key creation, activation, deactivation, and deletion of encryption keys areperformed by Key Management Servers.

vCenter Server provides a central location for Key Management Server configurationthat is available to be used by either vSAN Encryption or VM Encryption.

Certificates used to establish the trust with the KMS are persisted into the VMwareEndpoint Certificate Store (VECS).

These certificates are shared by both vSAN Encryption and VM Encryption. To ensureproper trust between the hosts and the KMS, certificates and the KEK_ID (Key EncryptionKey) are pushed to vSphere hosts for vSAN Encryption.

Using the KEK_ID and KMS configuration, hosts can directly communicate with the KMScluster without a dependency of vCenter being available.

The KMS should be external to the vSphere-VSAN cluster being encrypted.

Choosing a KMS Server solution that provides a resilient and available KMSinfrastructure is an important part of the vSAN Encryption design.

A list of Key Management Server solutions compatible with vSAN Encryption and VMEncryption can be found in the VMware site. Key Managers are provided by 3rd partyvendors and at the time of this writing, two vendors are on the hardware compatibilitylist for Key Managers: HyTrust and Dell/EMC Cloudlink (https://www.emc.com/collateral/handouts/h14453-cloudlink-secure-vm-pb.pdf)

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Enable vSAN Encryption

Once the trust is established between the KMS and vCenter, a vSAN cluster (with vSANEnterprise Licensing) may use vSAN Encryption.

After the KMS has been configured, vSAN Encryption is easily enabled through thecluster management UI in the vSphere Web Client, by configuring vSAN's generalsettings.

vSAN Encryption is a configuration option that affects the entire cluster, and requires alldisks to be reformatted.

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A common recommendation is to enable encryption before loading applications to thesystem in order to avoid the overhead of the reformatting.

When encrypting a system that is already in use consider the following options:

1. Erase disks before use - This wipes any data from the disk before encryptionoccurs.

2. Allow Reduced Redundancy - vSAN will reduce the protection level during theenable/disable process. This reduces overhead of the reformatting process.

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How to End Lab


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Module 7 - Creating andManaging Snapshots

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Creating and Managing SnapshotsVMware's Snapshots provide the ability to capture a point-in-time state of a VirtualMachine. This includes the VM's storage, memory and other devices such as VirtualNICs.

Using the Snapshot Manager in vSphere Web Client, administrators can create, revert ordelete VM snapshots. A chain of up to 32 snapshots per VM is supported.

This module briefly demonstrates the Snapshot functionality.









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Create a Snapshot of the VxRail Manager virtual machine

At the Navigator pane of your vSphere Web Client session

1. Right click the VxRail Manager VM

2. Click Snapshots

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3. Click Take Snapshot

Note: Starting with vSAN 6.0 U2, you have the ability to take32 snapshots of a singleVM.

Naming your Snapshot

A name is automatically generated with a timestamp to facilitate the identification of animage when reverting, but this name can be modified at will.

You can choose to include the VM's memory as part of the snapshot operation. However,when the memory content is part of the snapshot, the time to perform the snap iselongated.

Click OK

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The 'Create virtual machine snapshot' task should complete in seconds.

Revert VM to Snapshot image

At the Navigator pane of your vSphere Web Client Session

Right-click the VxRail ManagerVM

Click Snapshots

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Click Manage Snapshots

You will now revert the VM image to the state that was when we took the snapshotsession. The revert image process will suspend the VM. You will power on and reconnectlater.

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How to End Lab


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Module 8 - Upgradinginfrastructure software

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Upgrading the VxRail ManagerSoftwareThis is the last module. In this module you will install updates for the system softwareinstalled on your VxRail Appliance.

The software that makes the VxRail Appliance includes VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter,vSAN and VxRail Manager.

Connect to the VxRail Manager Web Browser



If asked for Acknowledge security exception, click on the Advanced link, and then clickon Proceed to vxm.demo.local; otherwise go directly to the Log On page


Use the following credentials


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Click Authenticate

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Initiating a Software Upgrade Procedure

When a new software version is available for upgrade, CONFIG in the left navigation bardisplays a highlighted number.

In this virtual lab, to expedite the process, we executed the initial step of theupgrade which is to load the composite bundle.

We will re-initiate now the upgrade process, but will not have to wait for thefile download.

1. Click CONFIG on the vertical panel at the left of the screen2. Select System on the top horizontal bar3. Select Internet upgrade

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Enter Support Account Login

Enter the following credentials:


Click login

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The page will be refreshed.

Verify Components included in the upgrade bundle

The page should display that VxRail is ready to upgrade your cluster.

Note that VxRail Manager is the only component included in our bundle.

1. This is an upgrade from VxRail Manager 4.5.100 to 4.5.150.

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2. Click Continue

Enter credentials

Root privileges are required to continue.

Enter the credentials for the VxRail Manager upgrade

1. vCenter Server Administrator Account

• Username:[email protected]

<<<< Please note here that the domain in this case is vsphere.local >>>>

• Password:Password123!

2. VxRail Manager account

• Username:root• Password:Testvxrail123!

3. Click Submit.

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Conclusion

Monitor progress

The time to execute this upgrade will vary depending on the amount of resourcesavailable in the lab infrastructure. It will likely take more than 5 minutes for the lab tocomplete. In a production VxRail environment, the upgrade of VxRail Manager takes afew minutes to complete and is followed by a reboot of the VxRail Manager VM.

This is the last step of the lab. You can either conclude the lab now or wait forthe completion

If you decide to wait for the the completion of the upgrade process:

• Monitor the progress bar• Refresh the browser periodically after it loses connection to vxm.demo.local• Log in again after the connection is re-established

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How to End Lab


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ConclusionThank you for participating in the VMware Hands-on Labs. Be sure to visithttp://hol.vmware.com/ to continue your lab experience online.

Lab SKU: HOL-1928-01-HCI

Version: 20200210-210714

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http://hol.vmware.com/

Documents

Table of Contents - VMware · 2020-02-10 · Table of Contents Lab Overview - HOL-1928-HCI ... the fastest growing hyper-converged systems worldwide, are the standard for simplifying