Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in User's Guide
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Contents Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in Overview ..................................................................... 5 Installation Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Recommended Configurations .............................................................................................................................. 6 Downloading the vCenter Plug-in ...............................
Formatting Virtual Disks ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Decision-Making Schemes .................................................................................................................................... 36 Creating a Virtual Disk .........................................................................................................................................
Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in Overview 1 The Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Management Plug-in Installation and User Guide is a VMware vCenter Server 4.x Plug-in that provides integrated management of Dell MD Storage Array series from a vSphere Client. The vCenter Plug-in allows administrators to have a single management interface (vSphere Client) to manage all of their day-to-day storage needs along with their VMware infrastructure.
Installation Prerequisites To install and use the vCenter Plug-in, the following prerequisites must be met. The VMware vCenter 4.
Table 1. Configuration Worksheet Example vCenter Server Names VCENTER-4 DNS Names IP Addresses vCenter-4.domain.com 192.168.51.217 vCenter Administrator Name: administrator Password: password Application Server Name: App-Server DNS Name: IP Address: app-server.domain.com 192.168.51.225 Dell MD Storage Array 1 Name: MD3600-01 IP Addresses: Password: 192.168.51.89 192.168.51.90 Dell MD Storage Array 2 Name: MD3600-02 IIP Addresses: Password: 192.168.51.91 192.168.51.
Configuring the Application Server and the vCenter Plug-In 2 After the application server and the vCenter Plug-in were installed, verify that the vCenter Plug-in was successfully registered with the vCenter server. Open the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server. On the menu bar, select Plug-ins->Manage Plug-ins. The Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Management Plug-in is listed as Enabled.
Configuring Storage Administrator Roles By default, all defined vCenter user IDs have no rights to Dell MD Storage Arrays. When a user requires either read permissions or read/write permissions to access the vCenter Plug-in, the user’s role must be modified to permit access to the vCenter Plug-in. Creating and a Role 1 In the Administration area on the vSphere Client Home page, as shown in Figure 2, click on the Roles icon. The list of roles and usages appears. Figure 3.
Figure 4. Add New Role Window 4 In the Name text box, type the name of the new role. 5 On the Privileges list, select the access permissions to assign to this role. NOTE: The administrator role is not editable and, therefore, if the administrator user will be used to manage storage, a new role must be created that has all of the privileges added to it. The administrator user must then be added to this role as the following procedure details.
Adding a User ID to a Role 1. 2. From the Home screen, select Hosts and Clusters and then select the vCenter server element and select the Permissions tab. See Figure 5. Right-click and select Add Permission to define the users who are members of the Role. Figure 5. Assign Storage Administrator Role 3. 4. 5. From the wizard, click Add and select the User ID (s) that require access to the storage arrays. Then select the modified Role from the drop down box and click OK to apply changes.
No Access If users are not members of a role that has either the Read Only or Read Write Storage Administrator permission, they cannot view any statistics from the vCenter Plug-in. If they attempt to access a vCenter Plugin feature they receive the User is not authorized to use this plug-in message as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6.
Creating a New User Login 1 Connect the vCenter client directly to the ESX/ESXi host to be configured. 2 Select the User & Groups tab from Home->Inventory->Inventory window. 3 Right-click and select Add. 4 Supply the relevant information for the new user and make sure to select 'Grant shell access to this user' option. 5 Click OK to save changes. 6 After logging in as this new user, use the >su - command to assume super user role.
vCenter Plug-in Security Accepting and Installing the Trusted SSL Certificate The vCenter Plug-in uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to communicate securely between the vSphere client and application server. During the vCenter Server installation process, a SSL certificate was generated for the vCenter Server system. If this certificate has not been added to the system's Trusted Root Certification Authorities store, you will see a Security Alert dialog box appear, as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7.
Figure 8. Install Certificate Dialog Box 3 Click Next from the Certificate Import Wizard message box. See Figure 9. Figure 9.
4 Select the Place all certificates in the following store radio button 5 Click Browse 6 Highlight the Trusted Root Certification Authorities folder. See Figure 10. Figure 10.
7 Click OK 8 Click Next 9 Click Finish 10 A Security Warning message box will be displayed. Verify the information and click Yes to add the certificate to the trust store. See Figure 11. Figure 11. Security Warning Message Box NOTE: The subject name of the system, in the certificate must match the system name of the vCenter Server during the vSphere Client login screen or you will continue to receive a warning message stating the certificate does not match the site name.
Enhanced IE Security When Microsoft's Enhanced IE Security is installed on the vSphere client system, the enhanced security configuration blocks content from the web site. The warning message shown in Figure 12 appears. Click Add to establish a trust relationship with the application server. Figure 12.
3 Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in Features vCenter Plug-in Features The following vCenter Plug-in features enable the integrated management of Dell MD Storage Arrays: Array Manager view Copy services management A configuration wizard for ESX/ESXi host storage Virtual disk management of storage arrays Datastores to virtual disk details Event log viewer for storage array events Automatic and manual storage array configuration backup Configuring Storage Arrays To use the vCenter P
Clicking the icon will open the Storage Array Manager view where you can manage Dell storage arrays. The Storage Array Manager view displays a list of known storage arrays and lets additional storage arrays be added or removed. See Figure 14. Figure 14. vCenter Plug-in Array Manager View Adding a Storage Array 1 In the Commands area of the vCenter Plug-in Array Manager view, click Add Array. 2 A dialog box appears with the DNS Name or IP Address text boxes and the Password text box. See Figure 15.
Removing a Storage array 1 In the vSphere Client Storage array Manager View, click Remove Arrays. The Remove Arrays Properties dialog box appears. 2 Select the storage array to be removed, and click OK. Editing System Properties Changing a Storage Array Password 1 Open the Storage Array Manager View. See Figure 14. 2 In the left pane, click the name of the storage array. The storage array properties are displayed in the right pane. 3 In the right pane, click Edit Array Properties link.
5 Click OK to enable automatic configuration backups. Figure 16. Automatic Save Configuration Message Box NOTE: The automatic backup script files are located under C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-In\jetty\savecfg directory. Initiate A Manual Save Configuration To perform a manual save configuration, perform the procedure below: 1 Open the Storage Array Manager View. See Figure 14. 2 In the left pane, click the name of the storage array.
4 Click OK Internet Explorer will launch a File Download dialog box. See Figure 18. Figure 18. Internet Explorer File Download Dialog Box 5 Click Save A Save As dialog box will be displayed. See Figure 19. Figure 19. Save As Dialog Box 6 Select the location and file name to save the backup configuration script as.
ESX Host SAN Configuration 4 This vCenter Plug-in allows for an ESX host to be automatically configured to use a Dell MD Storage Array by detecting the installed Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) within the ESX host and configuring new hosts on the storage array with the Worldwide Names (WWNs) of the HBAs from the ESX host. The default ESX multipathing mode for Dell MD Storage Arrays is Most Recently Used (MRU).
This example shows a fully redundant fabric configuration. If an FC switch or HBA fails, Figure 21 the alternate switch still connects to both storage controllers in the storage array. If a storage controller also fails Figure 22, the ESX host can still access the remaining controller, and all virtual disks fail over to that controller. A complete loss of access to storage occurs if any other element fails. Figure 21.
Figure 22. Double Failure This method works well to maintain the in-case of a hardware failure; however, MRU only maintains one active path for each HBA group. Therefore, if you have an ESX host with four HBAs, only one HBA is active at a time. To achieve higher I/O throughput from the ESX host to the storage array, it is recommended that you group the HBAs in pairs and create virtual hosts for each pair of HBAs.
Figure 23. Quad HBA Port Configuration NOTE: The intent of this configuration is to pair the HBAs so that no group of HBA ports would be contained on a single HBA card (if dual port cards are being used).
Figure 24 shows how an 8 port HBA configuration can be configured. Figure 24. 8 HBA Port Configuration Networking Configuration for Software iSCSI Storage To configure the network for software iSCSI storage, create an iSCSI VMkernel port and map it to a physical network interface card (NIC) that handles iSCSI traffic. Depending on the number of physical NICs that you use for iSCSI traffic, the networking setup can be different. Connecting to a Dell MD3600i Storage Array with VMware ESX 4.1.
ESX Host Configuration Wizard 5 To use the Automatic Host Configuration utility, navigate to Hosts and Clusters within the vSphere client and select the ESX host to be configured; Right select the ESX host, and select the Configure ESX Host to Storage Array option from the pull-down menu. See Figure 25. Figure 25.
This launches the Configure ESX Host to Storage Array wizard. See Figure 26. From this wizard, you can see how the current ESX host is configured to the storage array (if it is already configured). You can also add a host or host group, rename a host or host group, remove a host or host group and automatically configure the ESX host to another storage array. Figure 26.
Figure 27. iSCSI Configure ESX Host to Storage Array View Figure 28.
NOTE: To detect the SAS HBA addresses, the LSI SAS SMI-S provider must be upgraded to the version included with the install and as described in section Installing the SAS Provider Upgrade. When the provider is not upgraded, the list of address does not appear and the icon above the servers will be red. See Figure 28. Figure 29. Commit Changes The ESX host has now been configured to the storage array. The next step is to create new virtual disks on the storage array to be used by the ESX host.
Storage Array Summary Clicking on a storage array from the array manager view displays a summary of the selected storage array. See Figure 30. This includes information on the status of the storage array, the number of controllers, the number of failed controllers, the number of drive trays, number of physical drives, physical drive types, hot spares, and capacity usage. The storage array event log is also accessible from this tab by clicking on the View Event Log link. See section Figure 43.
Create Disk Group Selecting the Virtual Disks tab shows a logical view that displays how storage capacity is allocated. This view also allows you to create new disk groups and virtual disks. Additionally, existing virtual disks and disk groups can be modified or deleted here. To create a new disk group, click Create Disk Group. Figure 31. Storage Array Virtual Disks The Create Disk Group link launches a wizard to walk you through creating a new disk group (Figure 26).
Figure 32. Create Disk Group Dialog Box Formatting Virtual Disks Before you format virtual disks with VMFS datastores, you must plan how to set up storage for the ESX/ESXi systems, including deciding on the number of virtual disks to use and the size of the virtual disks.
Decision-Making Schemes When the storage characterization for a virtual machine is not available, you can use either the predictive scheme or the adaptive scheme to decide on the virtual disk size and number of virtual disks to use. Using the Predictive Scheme to Make virtual disk Decisions 1 Create several virtual disks with different storage characteristics. 2 Build a VMFS Datastore on each virtual disk. Label each Datastore according to its characteristics.
Creating a Virtual Disk After a new disk group was created, you can create new virtual disks from the free capacity in the disk group. To create a new virtual disk, perform these steps: 1 Click Create Virtual Disk link. The Create Virtual Disk wizard appears. See Figure 33 Figure 33. Create Virtual Disk Dialog Box 2 In the Name text box, type the virtual disk name. 3 From the Disk Group drop-down list, select the disk group to use for the new virtual disk.
Figure 34. Create Snapshot Dialog Box 2 Change one or more of the snapshot attributes: Snapshot Name – the name of the new snapshot virtual disk. Snapshot Repository Name – the name of the new repository virtual disk. Percent of Base Virtual Disk – the percentage of the base virtual disk to use for the repository. Disk Group – the name of the disk group in which to place the repository virtual disk.
Creating a Virtual Disk Copy When the Virtual Disk Copy premium feature is enabled on a storage array managed by the vCenter Plug-in, the Virtual Disk Copy tab appears next to the Mappings tab. This tab allows the management of virtual disk copies on the selected storage array. See Figure 35. Figure 35. Virtual Disk Copy Management From this tab, all virtual disk copy operations are displayed along with the current status of all virtual disk copies.
Figure 36. Create Virtual Disk Copy Dialog Box 1 Click Next to select the target virtual disk for the virtual disk copy and select the copy priority to use. Figure 37.
After the virtual disk copy is established, it can be managed from the Virtual Disk Copy tab. To stop a copy operation that is occurring, select the copy set to modify and click Stop in the Commands area. To recopy an existing in the , click the copy set, and click the Recopy link. To delete a copy set, select the copy set to modify, and click the Remove Copy link.
Figure 39.
Mapping a Virtual Disk After creating new virtual disks, use the Mappings tab to present the virtual disks to the ESX host for use. See . From this view, you can manage hosts, host groups, and virtual disk mappings. To present a new virtual disk to an ESX host, click the Add Mapping link to start the Add Mapping wizard. Figure 40. Virtual Disk Mapping View 1 Select the host group or host to which to map the new virtual disk. 2 Select the virtual disk number to use and virtual disk to be mapped.
Figure 41. Storage Adapters Rescan From this view, the user can also verify that the correct number of paths have been configured. By rightclicking on one of the devices listed under the storage adapter and selecting Manage Paths, a window opens and shows the number of paths for the target device. There should be 4 paths to each device with two Active and two Standby as shown in Figure 42. Figure 42.
Datastores View After datastores are created on storage array virtual disks, the Datastores View tab can be used to understand the mapping of datastores to storage array virtual disks. The intent of this view is to provide you with a quick status and view of the datastores and their underlying storage virtual disks. Use this view to identify the storage array where the datastore resides and the associated storage array virtual disk.
Figure 44. Event Log Viewer Manually Unregistering the vCenter Plug-in If the vCenter Plug-in needs to be removed, the following procedure can be used when it is not possible to uninstall the vCenter Plug-in from the application server. 1 Start a web browser and navigate to the IP address of the vCenter server with /mob appended to the IP address (example: http://192.168.51.21/mob). 2 Click the content link to navigate to the available ServiceContent.
Figure 45. Manual Unregister Extension Uninstall the vCenter Plug-in The vCenter Plug-in can be uninstalled using the supplied uninstaller located on the application server at C:\Program Files\Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Management Plugin\Uninstall Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-In\Uninstall Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Management Plug-in.
Troubleshooting vCenter Plug-in Issues 6 This section describes how to open and read vCenter Plug-in log file, provides answers to some frequently asked questions, and describes and, describes how to resolve some common problems you might encounter with the vCenter Plug-in.
2 Verify that the cimserver/Pegasus server service is started on the application server. If the cimserver/Pegasus server service is stopped, start it. 3 Verify that the Jetty6-Service is started on the application server. If the Jetty6-Service is stopped, start it. NOTE: If the vCenter Plug-In will be installed on the same system as an active vCenter Server, and VMware Update Manager is installed, the port number 8084 for the plug-in must be changed from the default to an unused port number.
The vCenter Plug-in Displays Incorrect Error Messages Incorrect error codes might appear because of the limited return codes from the SMI-S Provider. When you troubleshoot incorrect error codes, make sure you include all detailed information about the errors. Please send your feedback to support@dell.com.
7 Getting Help Contacting Dell For customers in the United States, call 800-WWW-DELL (800-999-3355). NOTE: If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area.