Dell EMC SC Series and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes Best Practices Abstract Best practices for deploying and configuring VMware® vSphere® Virtual Volumes™ (vVols) with Dell EMC™ SC Series storage.
Revisions Revisions Date Description February 2016 Initial release April 2016 Updated for Key Customer release August 2016 Updated for DSM 2016 R2 September 2017 Updated requirements November 2019 Updated link; vVols branding update Acknowledgements Author: Jason Boche The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
Table of contents Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 1 Introduction to Virtual Volumes ................................................................................
Table of contents A 6.3 Renaming .........................................................................................................................................................25 6.4 Deletion .............................................................................................................................................................25 Technical support and resources ................................................................................................................
Introduction to Virtual Volumes 1 Introduction to Virtual Volumes Delivery of virtual machine and cloud storage through VMware® vSphere® Virtual Volumes™ (vVols) changes how storage is managed. Traditional shared storage management has matured over the years. Consolidating virtual machines onto a minimal number of datastores has been successful past through present and will continue to be a successful paradigm for years to come.
Site preparation, requirements, and recommendations 2 Site preparation, requirements, and recommendations When deploying Virtual Volumes, it is strongly encouraged to adhere to the following requirements and recommendations: 2.1 Requirements • • • • • • • • • • • • 2.2 Dell SCOS 7.0 and supported SAN fabric such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI (VMware vSphere® software ISCSI only).
Site preparation, requirements, and recommendations Note: Dell Storage Manager is an enterprise application. To maintain Virtual Volumes functionality and data availability, DSM, the VASA Provider, and its metadata must be made highly available by leveraging an external database. If the VASA Provider is impacted by a planned or unplanned outage (including network and database availability), vVol related operations will be impacted.
Deployment 3 Deployment The basic steps required to deploy Dell Storage Manager and Virtual Volumes are covered in the Dell Storage Manager Administrator’s Guide and online help. Some of the steps will be highlighted here for the purposes of providing more depth or differentiation in methods available to complete a step. It is assumed at this point that a Dell EMC SC Series SAN, Dell Storage Manager, and VMware vSphere are online and available for Virtual Volumes deployment. 3.
Deployment Likewise, administrator or volume manager level credentials will need to be created on the SC Series array. Create SC Series user credentials After the credentials are established on both DSM and SC Series array, launch the DSM Client, log in using the VASA Provider credentials, and use the Add Storage Center workflow to manage SC Series arrays where Virtual Volumes will be created. This is a good opportunity to validate the credentials as well as the health of the SC Series array and DSM.
Deployment 3.2 Register VMware vCenter Server in DSM Register a vCenter Server in DSM by following the steps in the Dell Storage Manager Administrator’s Guide. Optionally, the VASA Provider can also be registered at this time. The DSM username and password will be the VASA Provider credentials created in DSM earlier.
Deployment 3.3 Register the VASA Provider If not completed during the vCenter Server registration, register the VASA 2.0 Provider in DSM by following the steps in the Dell Storage Manager Administrator’s Guide. Although the VASA Provider may be registered in the VMware vSphere® Web Client, the preferred method is through DSM as outlined in the previous section.
Deployment 3.4 Protocol endpoints When servers with a VMware ESXi 6.0 operating system are presented to SC Series arrays, protocol endpoints are created and presented to each of the vSphere hosts with LUN ID 256 (or next sequentially available up to 1,023). One protocol endpoint per controller is created per host. SC Series arrays support up to 50 protocol endpoints per controller. Each vSphere host supports up to 256 protocol endpoints for environments with multiple arrays hosting Virtual Volumes.
Configuration and management 4 Configuration and management The foundational tasks involved with implementing Virtual Volumes in an environment may be performed only once or very seldom. This includes the registration of vCenter servers in DSM, creation of protocol endpoints, registration of the VASA Provider, and the creation of storage containers. This section will identify configuration and management options post deployment. 4.
Configuration and management After the VASA Provider is registered and a storage container is created, vSphere hosts will recognize the protocol endpoints created and presented by DSM as protocol endpoints rather than just 512 Byte devices. Protocol endpoints are visible in the vSphere Web Client after the storage container is created and presented to the hosts The storage container becomes the pool of storage where various Virtual Volumes are created.
Configuration and management 4.2.1 vSphere Web Client To change the PSP to Round Robin or Fixed using the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the Protocol Endpoints view.
Configuration and management 4.2.2 esxcli The following esxcli command reveals a protocol endpoint is using the VMW_PSP_MRU Path Selection Policy: [root@tssrv251:~] esxcli storage nmp device list -d naa.6000d31000ed1f010000000000000025 naa.6000d31000ed1f010000000000000025 Device Display Name: COMPELNT Fibre Channel Disk (naa.
Configuration and management 4.2.3 PowerCLI PowerCLI can also be used to manage the Path Selection Policy for protocol endpoints. Of the three methods covered here, PowerCLI is going to be the fastest and most consistent across an environment. The following PowerCLI reveals a protocol endpoint is using the VMW_PSP_MRU Path Selection Policy: Get-Cluster -Name "New VVol Cluster" | Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun | where {$_.Vendor -eq “COMPELNT” CapacityMB -lt 1 –and $_.
Configuration and management 4.3.2 PowerCLI The following PowerCLI changes the default PSP for the VMW_SATP_ALUA SATP to Round Robin on all hosts in a cluster: $Cluster = Get-Cluster -Name "New VVol Cluster" ForEach ( $VMHost in ( Get-VMHost -Location $Cluster | Sort-Object Name ) ) { Write-Host "Working on host `"$($VMHost.Name)`"" -ForegroundColor Green $EsxCli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $VMHost $EsxCli.storage.nmp.satp.list() | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "VMW_SATP_ALUA" } $EsxCli.storage.nmp.satp.
Configuration and management naa.6000d31000ed1f010000000000000026 Host Id: naa.6000d31000ed1f010000000000000026 Array Id: com.dell.storagecenter:StorageArray.60703 Type: SCSI Accessible: true Configured: true Lun Id: naa.
Configuration and management 4.5 Storage container expansion Aside from leveraging vSphere SPBM, there is very little to managing storage containers or protocol endpoints on a day-to-day basis. One exception might be expanding the storage container for growth. Storage containers can be grown by right clicking on the storage container from the Servers view in DSM and choosing Expand Datastore. Much like VMFS datastore expansion, storage containers can expanded on the fly.
Configuration and management 4.7 Storage container deletion If a storage container must be deleted, the most efficient and preferred method to perform this is through DSM from the Servers view. Before a storage container can be deleted, all supported child Virtual Volumes must first be removed or migrated using the vSphere Web Client. Deleting a storage container from the Servers view in DSM 4.8 Debugging and logging VASA Provider debug logging is enabled by default in Dell Storage Manager.
Configuration and management 4.8.1 Dell Storage Manager • • 4.8.2 vCenter Server • • • 4.8.3 vCenter Server and VASA Provider registration interaction: vmware-sps/sps.log vCenter Server log: vpxd/vpxd.log vSphere Web Client log: vsphere-client/logs/vsphere_client_virgo.log ESXi • • • • 22 Jboss server logs: C:\Program Files (x86)\Compellent Technologies\Compellent Enterprise Manager\msaservice\wildfly-8.2.1.Final\standalone\log\server.
Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) 5 Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) VM Storage Policies combine with Virtual Volumes to provide a software defined approach to storage management on a granular per-VM basis. Virtual machines, applications, and services are tied to a VM Storage Policy during initial deployment or storage migration. In turn, Virtual Volumes are provisioned with storage capabilities provided by the storage container which support the VM Storage Policy.
Virtual Volume operations 6 Virtual Volume operations Virtual Volumes differ from traditional SC Series volumes in that certain operations available with traditional volumes are not available with vVols.
Virtual Volume operations 6.2 Snapshots Snapshots created through vSphere with the vSphere Web Client or PowerCLI result in SC Series arraybased snapshots of the type “Managed”. SC Series arrays support up to 16,000 snapshots depending on the controller model. These snapshots will be maintained with no expiration on the array until they are deleted through vSphere. Unmanaged snapshots of a Virtual Volume occur outside of vSphere.
Technical support and resources A Technical support and resources Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support. Storage technical documents and videos provide expertise that helps to ensure customer success on Dell EMC storage platforms. A.1 Related resources Referenced or recommended Dell EMC publications: • • Dell Storage Manager Administrator’s Guide Dell EMC SC Series: VMware vSphere 5.x–6.x Best Practices https://downloads.dell.
