Release Notes

Host based connectivity and high availability
5 Best Practices for Implementing VMware vSphere in a Dell PS Series Storage Environment | TR1091 | v1.3
This script sets all PS Series volumes to Round Robin and the IOPS value to 3. This script can be copied into
the console or an SSH session to make it easier. This script must be run on each ESXi host accessing
PS Series storage.
esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp=VMW_PSP_RR --satp=VMW_SATP_EQL ; for i
in `esxcli storage nmp device list | grep EQLOGIC|awk '{print $7}'|sed
's/(//g'|sed 's/)//g'` ; do esxcli storage nmp device set -d $i --psp=VMW_PSP_RR
; esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set -d $i -I 3 -t iops ; done
Use the next command to set the default so that new PS Series volumes inherit the proper setting. To be
effective, this new rule requires a reboot of the ESXi host. Until then, if you add more PS Series (EQL)
volumes, re-run the script above on all ESXi hosts accessing PS Series storage.
esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s "VMW_SATP_EQL" -V "EQLOGIC" -M "100E-00" -P
"VMW_PSP_RR" -O "iops=3"
To verify that the correct settings are in effect, use:
esxcli storage nmp device list
The output should look similar to the following:
naa.6090a098703e5059e3e2e483c401f002
Device Display Name: EQLOGIC iSCSI Disk (naa.6090a098703e5059e3e2e483c401f002)
Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_EQL
Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_EQL does not support device
configuration.
Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_RR
Path Selection Policy Device Config:
{policy=iops,iops=3,bytes=10485760,useANO=0;lastPathIndex=3:
NumIOsPending=0,numBytesPending=0}
Note: The storage array type VMW_SATP_EQL is used to indicate the PS Series volume and that the Path
Selection Policy is VMW_PSP_RR for Round Robin. In addition, the policy=iops,iops=3 verifies that the
number of I/Os between path change has been set to three.
2.5.3 Virtual Volume related settings
In general, following best practices not specific to VMware
®
vSphere
®
Virtual Volumes™ (vVols) is
appropriate. However, additional requirements must be adhered to when implementing vVols:
• The VMware vCenter and the Dell EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) virtual appliances:
- Must be installed on an HA-enabled vSphere cluster
- Must be installed on a non-vVol shared storage datastore
- Must not be migrated (Storage vMotion
®
) to a vVol datastore
• The vSphere cluster HA settings must be modified to set a higher starting priority to vCenter and VSM
over other VMs.
• NOOPTimeout settings (as described in section 2.5.4.2)
Additional information on vVol configuration and options can be found in the VMware vSphere Virtual
Volumes on Dell PS Series paper.