Configuring and Installing the PS Series Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere and PS Series Abstract This document describes the benefits of the Dell™ PS Series Multipathing Extension Module (MEM) for VMware® vSphere® that provides MPIO for highly available access to the PS Series SAN.
Revisions Revisions Date Description November 2011 Initial release February 2012 General availability updates September 2012 Updated Storage Heartbeat recommendation for vSphere 5.1 September 2013 Updated to reflect firmware 6.0 and vSphere 5.5 June 2015 Updated to include Virtual Volume support July 2017 Updated to include web client UI changes to vSphere Update Manager, and MEM 1.5 November 2019 vVols branding update The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
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Executive summary Executive summary Dell™ PS Series arrays optimize resources by automating performance and network load balancing. They also offer all-inclusive array management software, host software, and free firmware updates. High availability is an important requirement of any system in the data center. This availability is especially critical if that system is a component in the virtual infrastructure where a virtualized datacenter is built.
Introduction 1 Introduction VMware vSphere offers many enhancements to the software iSCSI initiator beyond basic iSCSI SAN connectivity. The most significant of these enhancements is the API support for third-party multipathing plugins. This provides a framework that enables the MEM to intelligently route and efficiently load balance iSCSI traffic across multiple NICs.
Deploying the MEM 2 Deploying the MEM Deploying the MEM consists of two steps: 1. Configuring a vSwitch for iSCSI multipathing 2. Installing the MEM The entire process of creating the multipathing-compatible vSwitch and installing the MEM is quick and efficient. Once deployed, it provides both new and existing ESXi hosts with increased performance to PS Series storage resources. 2.
Deploying the MEM The MEM achieves its performance gains by creating multiple iSCSI connections to each PS Series group member that has a datastore volume. Assuming the MEM default settings are in use, and depending on the configuration of the environment, there will be up to six iSCSI connections to a datastore volume. This is a significant increase, when compared with the VMware Fixed path policy, which utilizes one iSCSI connection per volume.
Deploying the MEM connection per member, resulting in creating two or three iSCSI connections per volume. This balances the bandwidth and throughput from an individual ESXi host with that of an individual PS Series member. Note: The vSphere 6.0 feature Virtual Volumes changes the way the iSCSI connections are made between the host and the volumes. See section 7, Using MEM with Virtual Volumes, for details. 2.
Configuring an iSCSI vSwitch for multipathing 3 Configuring an iSCSI vSwitch for multipathing The MEM utilizes the same multipathing vSwitch as the VMware native Round Robin multipathing. Therefore, if the ESXi hosts are already configured for Round Robin, this step can be omitted. However, if the ESXi hosts are configured for Fixed Path, remove the iSCSI initiator and associated vSwitch before continuing. The MEM setup.
Configuring an iSCSI vSwitch for multipathing Using NICs 'vmnic2,vmnic3' Using IP addresses '192.168.0.215,192.168.0.216' Using netmask '255.255.255.0' Using MTU '9000' Using prefix 'iSCSI' for VMKernel Portgroups Using SW iSCSI initiator Enabling SW iSCSI initiator Adding PS Series Group IP '192.168.0.200' with CHAP user 'CHAPuser' to Send Targets discovery list. The following command line can be used to perform this configuration: setup.pl --configure --server=10.124.6.
Configuring an iSCSI vSwitch for multipathing 3.2 Unattended mode configuration While setup.pl scripts interactive mode is extremely helpful, using it to configure all the hosts in a cluster is not efficient. Instead, passing the values of the various parameters to the setup.pl script provides a more efficient means of configuring several hosts. At the end of the interactive mode configuration, the resulting command-line questions and answers are presented as shown in the example below. setup.
Installing the MEM 4 Installing the MEM The MEM can be installed using the command-line tools (CLI or vMA) or with vSphere Update Manager (VUM). The command-line tools are used in the example in this section. See appendix B for installation instructions using VUM. Setup.pl is a Perl script wrapper around a number of VMware CLI commands. It provides administrators with a similar installation process, regardless of the vSphere version. Note: Prior to installation, setup.
Verification of MEM iSCSI session creation 5 Verification of MEM iSCSI session creation By default, the MEM claims existing and new PS Series volumes and then creates the additional iSCSI session used by the MEM to route the iSCSI data. To verify these additional sessions, perform the following steps: 1. From the vSphere Web Client, click the storage icon, and on the vCenter object pane on the left, select a datastore. 2. For that datastore, select the Manage tab, and click Settings. 3.
Verification of MEM iSCSI session creation This can also be verified from the array web GUI on the Connections tab of the volume. The following example shows two iSCSI sessions have been established from each of the VMkernel ports on the ESXi host to the volume.
Advanced iSCSI connection configuration parameters 6 Advanced iSCSI connection configuration parameters The few configuration parameters that are needed with the MEM are used to alter the runtime behavior of the EqualLogic Host Connection Manager (EHCM) that manages the iSCSI sessions to the PS Series volumes. For information on all of the parameters, refer to the EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module Installation and User Guide.
Advanced iSCSI connection configuration parameters 6.2 Decreasing the default values In large configurations, reduce the number of iSCSI connections if the limits of the array firmware are exceeded. This can be achieved by: • • • Reducing the number of volumes: By increasing the size of a given volume, more virtual machines can reside on it, thereby reducing the total number of volumes needed.
Advanced iSCSI connection configuration parameters For example: esxcli equallogic param set --name=membersession --value=1 To query the current EHCM values, use the following syntax: esxcli equallogic param list 17 Configuring and Installing the PS Series Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere and PS Series | TR1074
Using MEM with Virtual Volumes 7 Using MEM with Virtual Volumes VMware introduced the Virtual Volumes (vVols) feature with vSphere 6.0. It enables per-VM granularity for many storage-related tasks, as opposed to per-volume granularity. While vVols do not require MEM, the inclusion of MEM in a PS Series vVol environment provides more efficient routing of I/O, reduced latency, and increased bandwidth utilization.
Summary 8 Summary Through its intelligent routing and load balancing, the MEM can provide a reduction in network latency and an increase in bandwidth to PS Series storage arrays. Through automated setup and host connection management, the MEM also reduces the steps for deployment and ongoing management of advanced vSphere iSCSI configurations.
Example iSCSI vSwitch configurations A Example iSCSI vSwitch configurations This appendix provides some examples of the additional parameters used with the setup.pl configuration script. A detailed list of all the parameters and their usage can be found in the EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module Installation and User Guide. A.
Installing the MEM with VMware Update Manager B Installing the MEM with VMware Update Manager Note: vCenter Update Manager is only capable of installing the MEM. vMA or vCLI will need to be utilized to configure the MPIO iSCSI vSwitch for the MEM. VMware Update Manager (VUM) has the ability to install and upgrade third-party packages to the ESXi hosts. This enables administrators to not only manage the patching and updating of ESXi hosts but also to update third party packages installed on the ESXi hosts.
Installing the MEM with VMware Update Manager B.2 Step 2: Creating an extension baseline 1. Continuing from the Manage tab, select Host Baselines, and click New Baseline… to start the New Baseline wizard. 2. Provide the baseline with a suitable name and optional description, select the baseline type Host Extension, and click Next shown in the following example: 3. From the list of extensions, select Dell EqualLogic iSCSI MEM 1.x.x, and click Next.
Installing the MEM with VMware Update Manager 5. The Patches and extensions page lists the patches and extensions to be applied. Click Next to continue. 6. On the Advanced options page, there is the option to schedule the deployment for a future time and date. Click Next to continue. 7. On the Host remediation options page, there are options for altering the behaviors of the virtual machines during the install.
Using the setup.pl script to configure Round Robin MPIO C Using the setup.pl script to configure Round Robin MPIO MEM is dependent upon the vStorage APIs for Multipathing which are only available with the appropriate licensing. For vSphere environments with licensing which do not include these APIs, it is recommend that the vSphere native Round Robin Multipathing be used.
Software and firmware versions D Software and firmware versions Table 1 lists the software and firmware used for the preparation of this document. Software and firmware versions Vendor Model Software revision VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0 6.0 and 6.5 Dell Dell PS Series SAN 6.0 or above Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere 5.x 1.4 Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere 6.x 1.
Technical support and resources E Technical support and resources Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support. Storage technical documents and videos on provide expertise that helps to ensure customer success on Dell EMC storage platforms. E.1 Related resources Table 2 lists the referenced or recommended resources related to this document. The VMware documents listed in this table are available at the VMware Documentation site.
