VMware ESX 4 on Dell PowerEdge Systems Deployment Guide
Notes and Cautions NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. ____________________ © 2009–2012 Dell Inc. Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™, and PowerVault™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel® and Xeon® are registered trademarks and Core™ is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 VMware License Offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ESX Architecture Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 vSphere 4 Architecture Overview Supported Configurations Important Information . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Supported vSphere 4 Configuration Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Configuring ESX 4 Using Dell Fibre Channel SAN . . . . . . .
Contents
Introduction This document is a companion guide to the VMware ESX 4 guides. This document helps you to deploy ESX 4 on Dell PowerEdge systems and provides specific information on recommended configurations, best practices, and additional resources. NOTE: For information on deploying ESXi 4, see VMware ESXi 4 on Dell PowerEdge Systems Deployment Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
ESX Architecture Overview ESX allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously in virtual environments on a single physical system. These virtual environments, referred to as virtual machines (VMs), can be created and managed faster than conventional systems. The VMs do not interact directly with the physical hardware.
vSphere 4 Architecture Overview Figure 2. vSphere Components vSphere Client/vSphere CLI Storage Interconnect Fabric License Server PowerEdge System as ESX Host Ethernet Fabric vCenter Server Database External Storage for VMs vSphere infrastructure consists of the following components: • ESX — Allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single system. • vCenter Server — Runs on Windows-based operating systems and monitors and manages VMs and copies of ESX.
• vCenter Server Database — Stores all the configuration data about vSphere. It is recommended that you use a production database such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for the vCenter Server database. • License Server — Authorizes ESX hosts and vCenter Server as per the purchased license keys and licensing agreement. It is recommended to install the license server on the vCenter Server host. This can also reside on a separate host. NOTE: A license sever is not required for ESX 4 hosts.
Supported Configurations This section provides information about currently shipping systems only. NOTE: For a complete list of Dell-supported systems, see VMware ESX/ESXi 4 on Dell PowerEdge Systems and Storage Compatibility Matrix at support.dell.com/manuals. NOTE: SAS/SATA drives mentioned under Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 also include SSDs. Table 1 lists the currently shipping modular-based Dell PowerEdge systems that support ESX. Table 1.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M620 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon E5-2600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to two 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M420 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to two 1.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M910 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 6500 series, Intel Xeon 7500 series, or Intel Xeon E7-2800/4800/8800 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Two 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M710 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Four 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M610 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Two 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R720 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon E5-2600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to sixteen 2.5 inch or eight 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R620 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon E5-2600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to ten 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R420 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to eight 2.5 inch or four 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R910 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 7500 series or Intel Xeon E7-4800/8800 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to sixteen 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R810 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 6500 series, Intel Xeon 7500 series or Intel Xeon E7-2800/4800/8800 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to six 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R710 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Eight 2.5 inch or six 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R515 Configuration Processors AMD Opteron 4100/4200 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Up to twelve 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R415 Configuration Processors AMD Opteron 4100/4200 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Four 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R310 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 3400 series or Intel Core i3 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Up to four 3.5 inch or 2.
Table 3 lists the currently shipping tower-based Dell PowerEdge systems that support ESX. Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems PowerEdge T710 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Up to sixteen 2.5 inch or upto eight 3.
Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge T610 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Eight 2.5 inch or 3.
Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge T410 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Six 3.
Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge T310 Configuration Processor Intel Xeon 3400 series or Intel Core i3 series Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Four 3.
Important Information • 28 Intel Xeon 3400 series-based systems (PowerEdge T110, PowerEdge R210, PowerEdge T310, and PowerEdge R310) running ESX version higher than ESX 4.0 Update 1 may crash with a purple screen when the Power Management option is set to Active Power Controller in the BIOS. To avoid this issue, ensure that the minimum required BIOS version on your system is: – 1.3.4 for PowerEdge T110 – 1.3.4 for PowerEdge R210 – 1.3.6 for PowerEdge T310 – 1.1.
• For information on Qlogic CNA driver, see Drivers and Tools under the vSphere 4 section at downloads.vmware.com. • Dell systems shipped with Core i3 series processors support only Unregistered Dual In-Line Memory Module (UDIMM). • On Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) enabled systems installed with ESX, it is recommended that you populate all processor nodes with similar memory modules to enable balanced distribution of memory across nodes.
Supported vSphere 4 Configuration Solutions This section discusses the vSphere 4 configurations with Dell PowerEdge systems using Fibre Channel SAN and iSCSI SAN. Configuring ESX 4 Using Dell Fibre Channel SAN Figure 3 shows a vSphere 4 configuration using Fibre Channel SAN. If you use Fibre Channel storage, you can have a single Fibre Channel HBA connected to a Fibre Channel switch that provides paths to both storage processors (SPs) on the Fibre Channel storage system.
Figure 3. Configuring vSphere 4 Using Dell Fibre Channel SAN vSphere Client vCenter Server Ethernet Fabric ESX Hosts ESX Hosts Redundant Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Dell Storage Dell Storage Fibre Channel Environment Setup With ESX To setup a Dell storage: 1 Install and set up the Dell Fibre Channel storage system. 2 Configure zoning at the Fibre Channel switch level. 3 Create RAID groups. 4 Create and bind LUNs to RAID groups.
Configuring vSphere 4 Using iSCSI SAN Figure 4 shows a typical vSphere 4 configuration using iSCSI SAN. The iSCSI SAN provides a cost-effective solution. It is recommended that you use two iSCSI initiators on the ESX host connected to two separate Ethernet switches to provide redundant paths to the storage processors on the storage unit. Figure 4.
Setting up iSCSI Environment With ESX Basic steps involved in an iSCSI setup are: 1 Configure your software iSCSI initiator on the ESX host. 2 Install and configure your Dell-supported iSCSI storage device. 3 Create a virtual machine file system (VMFS) datastore on the iSCSI target LUNs. For more information about the iSCSI SAN environment, see the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide at vmware.com/support/pubs.
• Determine the most appropriate local disk partitioning scheme for ESX. For more information, see "Disk Partitioning for ESX" on page 35. • If you are using the DRS or HA feature, determine the hosts that are part of such a cluster and allocate shared storage accordingly. • Determine the appropriate networking configuration for Service Console, VMs, and VMkernel. Virtual local area networks (VLANs) can be used to efficiently isolate traffic.
Disk Partitioning for ESX Table 4 lists the recommended disk partitioning for ESX. When installing ESX, choose the Manual Partitioning option and follow the guidelines in Table 4 to create the disk partitions. Table 4. Recommended Disk Partitioning Mount Point Type Recommended Size Notes swap swap 1 GB This is for the Service Console only and not for ESX. /boot ext3 1.1 GB Holds the boot kernel image. / ext3 10 GB Holds the Service Console and ESX kernel.
Tips for Configuring VMotion To use the VMotion feature, follow the guidelines listed below: • Set up a Gigabit ethernet migration network and a VMkernel port group between all the copies of ESX configured for VMotion. • Create consistent network labels for each of the network port groups to which VMs are attached. For information on the VMotion configuration setup, see the VMware documentation at vmware.com/support/pubs.
• For information on Configuration Maximums, see Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4 at vmware.com/support/pubs. • For Dell|EMC-supported storage configurations of ESX and vCenter Server, see EMC Support Matrix (ESM) at emc.com/interoperability. • To ensure processor compatibility across systems for VMotion, see the VMware VMotion and 64-Bit Virtual Machine Compatibility Matrix for VMware vSphere 4 and Dell PowerEdge Systems at support.dell.com/manuals.
ESX 4 Deployment Guide
