Planning for Hyper-V PowerVault MD3000i and MD3000 Storage Arrays www.dell.com/MD3000 www.dell.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Table of Contents Planning for Hyper-V on the Dell PowerVault MD3000/MD3000i Storage Arrays ........................4 Disclaimer .................................................................................................................................4 Supported Hardware and Software...........................................................................................4 Planning for Hyper-V Virtualized Configurations...........................................................
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Table of Figures Figure 1 Dell PowerVault MD3000 Storage Array Configuration ..................................................8 Figure 2 Dell PowerVault MD3000i Storage Array (IP SAN) ........................................................9 Figure 3 Dell PowerVault MD3000 Storage System (SAS) Cabling Configuration .....................14 Figure 4 Dell PowerVault MD3000i Storage Array Network Configuration .................................14 Figure 5 Virtual Storage Configuration.....
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Planning for Hyper-V on the Dell PowerVault MD3000/MD3000i Storage Arrays This document provides information about planning to implement Microsoft Hyper-V technology with the Dell PowerVault MD3000/MD3000i storage arrays. Hyper-V provides the software infrastructure and management tools in the Windows Server 2008 operating system to create and manage a virtualized server computing environment.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111228 You also can check the Dell-supported hardware for Microsoft Hyper-V contained in the Dell Solutions Overview Guide for Microsoft Hyper-V. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/HyperV/en If you need additional information, go to the following website. http://www.dell.com/hyperv Both the Dell PowerVault MD3000/MD3000i storage arrays are supported with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Release 2 running the Hyper-V role.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V AMD Virtualization Technology (AMD-V) • Hardware-enforced data execution prevention (DEP) must be available and enabled. The Intel XD bit must be enabled (execution disable bit). The AMD NX bit must be enabled (no execute bit). Install the updates that you need. To receive a current list of all of the updates, go to: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430893.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Planning the SAS Direct Attach Installation with the Dell PowerVault MD3000 Storage Array The Dell PowerVault MD3000 storage array, with SAS host interface connectivity, can connect with up to four servers. The configuration that you choose depends on the number of servers you have, whether you are connecting to servers or a cluster node, and the level of data redundancy that your configuration requires.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Figure 1 Dell PowerVault MD3000 Storage Array Configuration • RAID level An appropriate RAID level should be chosen based on your applications. RAID 1 or higher provides some level of redundancy that is useful in the case of failed physical disks. Each RAID level works best with certain applications. Consider the RAID level when you configure the Dell PowerVault MD3000 storage array.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Figure 2 Dell PowerVault MD3000i Storage Array (IP SAN) Physical Network Infrastructure A fully redundant IP SAN is characterized by multiple physical independent iSCSI data paths between the servers and the storage array. Make sure that each data path is on a separate subnet. iSCSI Sessions In the case of an iSCSI target like the Dell PowerVault MD3000i storage array, establish multiple sessions to the storage subsystem from each server.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Power Connect the MD3000i power supplies to separate power sources. This connection ensures that if one component fails due to a power issue, the alternative path continues to work. Security To secure data across an IP SAN, implement a physically independent network for the iSCSI data traffic, and isolate it from other Ethernet traffic.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V gigabit Ethernet networks are designed to always have auto negotiation enabled. If a particular application requires a specific speed or duplex mode, you can accomplish this by changing the advertisement options of the switch. Spanning Tree Protocol Disable the spanning-tree protocol (STP) on the switch ports that connect end nodes (iSCSI initiators and storage array network interfaces).
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Note: PowerConnect switches default to flow control being off. The Dell PowerVault MD3000i storage array auto-configures to the switch when the flow control is turned on. Unicast Storm Control A traffic “storm” occurs when a large outpouring of IP packets creates excessive network traffic that degrades network performance. Many switches have traffic storm control features that prevent ports from being disrupted by broadcast, multicast, or unicast traffic storms on physical interfaces.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V disks among the controllers and modify them to balance I/O access so as to balance controller utilization. Layer 3 Optimization Differentiated Services (DiffServ) provides a good method for managing your network traffic. Some switches have a proprietary implementation of this that is called Quality of Service (QoS). DiffServ uses the Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) to distinguish between service levels of each IP connection.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Figure 3 Dell PowerVault MD3000 Storage System (SAS) Cabling Configuration Connecting the Dell PowerVault MD3000i Storage Array For the iSCSI-based Dell PowerVault MD3000i storage array, you must have two NICs for I/O to the storage array for each server. Set up the management ports (out of band) for managing the MD3000i storage array because they are required for the initial configuration.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V The Module Disk Storage Manager comes with the device-specific module (DSM) for Microsoft multipath I/O (MPIO). MPIO provides load balancing between the two ports of one RAID controller module. For best performance, make sure that load balancing is enabled and active. Load balancing lets you use up to 2 Gb/s for each virtual disk on the Dell PowerVault MD3000i storage array.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V • Assign the virtual disks to the parent server, and create a file system and a virtual hard drive (VHD) for the virtual machine. • Assign an unformatted physical disk directly to the virtual machine (pass-through physical disk).
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Note: For the best performance in production environments, use fixed-size VHDs because they eliminate the overhead created by expanding the VHD in a normal production environment. Size each LUN to support the target VHD. To avoid warning messages generated by the parent partition about the physical disk running out of capacity, allocate an additional 200 MB to the LUN, and leave this additional 200 MB as empty space on the virtual disk.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Directly-mapped iSCSI Virtual Disks to the Virtual Machine (Dell PowerVault MD3000i Storage Array) You can easily transfer the virtual disk from a physical server to the virtual machine. However, transferring the virtual disk reduces the number of servers connected to the Dell PowerVault MD3000i storage array. Every virtual machine uses exactly one server partition. VSS-based backup from the parent does not include the directly mapped iSCSI LUNs of the child partition.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V • Avoid having a single point of failure in your communications network. Connect cluster-nodes through a network that uses redundant switches or similar hardware. Note: You can connect cluster nodes with a single network. However, it is best to use a redundant communications network. • All cluster disks must be basic disks. Dynamic disks are not supported.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Figure 6 Dell PowerVault MD3000 SAS Storage Array Configuration in a Clustered Environment November 09 Page 20
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Figure 7 Dell PowerVault MD3000i iSCSI Storage Array Configuration in a Clustered Environment November 09 Page 21
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Contact Information Go to: http://www.dell.com/ Or call 1-800-WWW-DELL. Appendix A: System Troubleshooting For information about troubleshooting MD3000 storage arrays, refer to the “Troubleshooting Problems” chapter of the Dell™ PowerVault™ Modular Disk Storage Manager User’s Guide. Go to: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md3000/en/index.htm Appendix B: References Cisco, undated. Flooding Control http://www.cisco.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124518.aspx Microsoft, 2008. Microsoft Storage Technologies – iSCSI http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/iscsi/default.mspx (FAQs and more information on Microsoft iSCSI) Microsoft Download Center, 2007. Microsoft iSNS Server 3.0 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0dbc4af5-9410-4080-a545f90b45650e20&displaylang=en Microsoft Exchange Team Blog, 2007.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Appendix C: Terminology Bandwidth – The amount of data that the storage array can process over time. Bandwidth is measured in megabytes per second (MB/s). Child partition – A partition that is associated with the parent partition. The child partition is subordinate to the parent partition. Initiator – The system component that originates an input/output (I/O) command over an I/O bus or network.
PLANNING FOR HYPER-V Signature – An embedded code that identifies the device. The signature is used when passing information between devices. Target – The storage destination. In this document, the target is the MD3000i storage array. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol – A suite of protocols that includes Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP).
