HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide
Table Of Contents
- HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for Fibre Channel
- 3 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for iSCSI
- 4 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for FCoE
- 5 Configuring the Host for a Fibre Channel Connection
- Installing the HBA and Drivers
- Installing Virtual Machine Guest Operating System
- Multipath Failover Considerations and I/O Load Balancing
- Performance Considerations for Multiple Host Configurations
- ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x Additional Feature Considerations
- Storage I/O Control
- vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
- HP 3PAR VAAI Plugin 1.1.1 for ESX 4.1
- HP 3PAR VAAI Plugin 2.2.0 for ESXi 5.x
- UNMAP (Space Reclaim) Storage Hardware Support for ESXi 5.x
- Out-of-Space Condition for ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.x
- Additional New Primitives Support on ESXi 5.x
- VAAI and New Feature Support Table
- VAAI Plugin Verification
- 6 Configuring the Host as an FCoE Initiator Connecting to a FC target or an FCoE Target
- 7 Configuring the Host for an iSCSI Connection
- Setting Up the Switch, iSCSI Initiator, and iSCSI target ports
- Installing iSCSI on VMware ESX
- Installing Virtual Machine Guest Operating System
- Creating a VMkernel Port
- Configuring a Service Console Connection for the iSCSI Storage
- Configuring the VMware SW iSCSI Initiator
- iSCSI Failover Considerations and Multipath Load Balancing
- Performance Considerations for Multiple Host Configurations
- ESX/ESXi Additional Feature Considerations
- 8 Allocating Storage for Access by the ESX Host
- 9 Booting the VMware ESX Host from the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
- 10 Support and Other Resources
- 11 Documentation feedback
- A Appendix
ESX/ESXi Handling SCSI Queue Full and Busy Messages from the HP 3PAR StoreServ
Storage Array
VMware ESX Releases through ESX 3.5 Update 3
The default behavior of an ESX 3.5 update 3 and older servers to Queue Full and Busy SCSI
messages from the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage is to treat them as valid commands and to continue
sending data. When continued outstanding commands are being sent to an HP 3PAR StoreServ
Storage port, the port cannot recover and stops responding for attached hosts.
This type of action is critical where QLogic HBAs are used on the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
because, when the storage port stops responding, the QLogic driver on the HP 3PAR StoreServ
Storage has to issue a reset of the affected port.
The time in which the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage port is at full capacity and the reset time of the
port does not trigger a failover in the ESX host, since the ESX host never detects the port going
away. This results in a virtual machine crash. There are two solutions:
• Upgrade to ESX 3.5 Update 4 or later.
• Control the IO that each array port receives by manipulating the HBA queue depth (see
“Modifying the Tuneable Parameters for Queue Depth Throttling in ESX 3.x” (page 87)).
VMware ESX Release 3.5 Update 4 through ESX 4.x, ESXi 5.0 and 5.0 updates, and ESXi 5.5
As of VMware ESX release 3.5 update 4, and including ESX 4.0 GA and ESX 4.1 (with all ESX
4.x updates), ESXi 5.0 (with all updates), and ESXi 5.5, an algorithm has been added that allows
ESX to respond to Queue Full and Busy SCSI messages from the storage array. The Queue Full or
Busy response by ESX is to back off of I/O for a period of time, thus helping to prevent overdriving
of the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage ports. This feature should be enabled as part of an ESX - HP 3PAR
StoreServ Storage deployment.
The Queue Full and Busy LUN-throttling algorithm is disabled by default. To enable the algorithm,
complete the following steps:
1. From the VI/vSphere client, select the ESX host. In the Configuration tab, select Advanced
Settings for software, and then select Disk.
2. Scroll to find and adjust the following HP-recommended settings:
QFullSampleSize = 32
QFullThreshold = 4
With the algorithm enabled, no additional I/O throttling scheme on ESX 3.5 update 4 and newer
ESX release is necessary. Consult the additional information regarding the ESX Queue Full/Busy
response algorithm found in KB 1008113, which is available on the VMware Knowledge Base
website:
VMware
VMware ESXi Release 5.1
The Advanced Settings parameters QFullSampleSize and QFullThreshold are required to enable
the adaptive queue-depth algorithm.
In ESXi releases earlier than ESXi 5.1, these parameters are set globally; that is, they are set on
all devices seen by the ESXi host. In VMware ESXi 5.1, however, these parameters are set in a
more granular fashion, on a per-device basis.
VMware patch ESXi510-201212001, dated 12/20/2012 (KB 2035775), restores the ability to
set the values of these parameters globally. The patch is available on the VMware Knowledge
Base website:
VMware
50 Configuring the Host for a Fibre Channel Connection