HP StoreVirtual Storage VSA Installation and Configuration Guide Abstract This guide provides information about installing and configuring the HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere and the HP StoreVirtual VSA for Microsoft Hyper-V. Included are network configuration best practices to ensure the best performance for the SAN using the VSAs. The intended audience is system administrators responsible for managing HP StoreVirtual Storage using VSAs.
© Copyright 2010, 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.
Contents 1 Planning for the VSA...................................................................................5 Planning the virtual network configuration....................................................................................5 Planning the clustered storage configuration.................................................................................5 2 Installing the HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere....................................6 Supported versions of VMware...................
7 Support and other resources......................................................................29 Contacting HP........................................................................................................................29 Subscription service............................................................................................................29 Rack stability..........................................................................................................................
1 Planning for the VSA Careful planning of the virtual network configuration, the VSA configuration, and the configuration of the clusters and volumes for data storage ensures that you can take full advantage of the features and benefits of the HP StoreVirtual Storage. Planning the virtual network configuration Before you install the VSA on the network, plan the virtual network configuration, including the following areas: • Design and configuration of the virtual switches and network adapters.
2 Installing the HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere The VSA is pre-formatted for use with HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere. If you are using an evaluation copy, and you want to continue using the VSA after the trial period has ended, you must purchase a license key. After you apply the license key, your configuration can be used as is in a production environment, or reconfigured if necessary. Supported versions of VMware VMware vSphere 5; ESXi Server version 5.x for LeftHand OS 9.
NOTE: If a prior version CMC is installed on a management computer on the network, the VSA for vSphere installer updates the CMC to the current version in the same location. The user-specified location entered in the installer wizard is ignored. NOTE: server. You cannot run concurrent installations of VSA with the same VSA name on one ESX After the installation is complete, open the CMC and find the VSAs as storage systems in the CMC.
1. 2. 3. Begin the installer one of the following ways: • Insert the HP StoreVirtual Management Software DVD in the DVD drive. • Double-click the executable that you downloaded to start the installation. Click Install VSA for VMware vSphere to begin the wizard. In the Meta Launcher command line window that opens, enter 1 to run the installer CLI, or enter 2 to run the installer GUI. Both versions require the same information and perform the same installation. • 4. 5. 6.
Table 3 Relationship of disk size to datastore block size (continued) Block Size Max VMDK 4 MB 1024 GB 8 MB 2048 GB To configure the data disk: 1. In the VI Client, navigate to the Inventory Panel. 2. Click Add at the bottom of the Hardware tab. 3. Select Hard Disk as the type of device to add and click Next. 4. Select Create a new virtual disk and click Next. 5. In the Disk Capacity section, designate a capacity that is suitable for the amount of storage available on your ESX Server. 6.
NOTE: If VMware Tools show out of date or Unmanaged, then they are running correctly. These statuses are not a problem, because the tools are available and running. VMware tools are updated with each LeftHand OS software upgrade. 3. 10 Optional: If you want the name of the VSA for vSphere to match the host name in the CMC, in the inventory panel, right-click the VSA for vSphere and select Rename and enter the host name.
3 Installing the HP StoreVirtual VSA for Microsoft Hyper-V The HP StoreVirtual VSA for Microsoft Hyper-V is pre-formatted for use with Microsoft® Windows® Server Hyper-V™. Install the VSA for Hyper-V on a Windows server configured with redundant RAID. If you are using an evaluation copy and want to continue using the VSA for Hyper-V after the trial period has ended, you must purchase a license key.
Best practices HP recommends installing Hyper-V Server on top of a redundant RAID configuration with a RAID controller that has battery-backed cache enabled. Do not use RAID 0. Unsupported configurations • Running VSA for Hyper-Vs on top of existing HP StoreVirtual Storage is not recommended. • The hot adding or removal of virtual hard disks and pass-through disks is not supported. See the Microsoft Linux Integration Services User Guide.
Table 5 Configuring the VSA for Hyper-V using the installer wizard (continued) Installer Step Definition Virtual machine Information for creating the virtual machine, including the following: • Name for the virtual machine in Hyper-V • Type of hard drives, virtual or physical • Check box to power on the VSA for Hyper-V after it is installed Hard drives, either One of two windows opens, depending on which type of drives were selected in the Virtual virtual or physical machine window.
4 Getting started with HP StoreVirtual Storage Installing the CMC Install the CMC on the computer or virtual machine that you use to administer the HP StoreVirtual Storage. You administer the entire network of VSAs from this CMC. To obtain the CMC, download the CMC installer from the following website: http://www.hp.com/go/StoreVirtualDownloads Prerequisite For the CMC installation, 63 MB disk space and 64 MB RAM during runtime. Installing the CMC in Microsoft Windows 1. 2. 3. Start the CMC installer.
2. Click Find Systems on the Getting Started Launch Pad. In the Find Systems window, use these features to control the list of systems: • Clear Auto Discover by Broadcast to prevent the entire subnet of systems from appearing in the navigation pane. • Add individual IP addresses of systems that you want to appear in the navigation pane. Figure 1 Editing Find Systems to control the systems displayed 1. Clear Auto Discover by Broadcast 2.
Virtual NICs Figure 2 Configuring the hardware 1. Configure RAID and the network from these categories Configuring RAID Configure RAID after powering on the VSA. If you power off the VSA and add disks, you must re-configure RAID when you power on the VSA. RAID and the VSA for Hyper-V Server If you create the VSA for Hyper-V Server with one disk, RAID will be automatically configured.
Figure 3 Adding additional disks to RAID in the VSA for Hyper-V Server RAID and the VSA for vSphere Server If you have trouble configuring RAID now, you may have made a mistake when configuring a virtual disk earlier. On the ESX Server, verify that the VSA has at least one virtual disk. The first virtual disk must be configured on SCSI 1:0. Additional disks must be configured sequentially on SCSI 1:1 through 1:4.
Troubleshooting Table 7 Troubleshooting installation—HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere Problem Solution You want to reinstall the VSA 1. 2. 3. 4. Close your CMC session. In the VI Client, power off the VSA. Right-click and select Delete from Disk. Copy fresh files into the virtual machine folder from the downloaded .zip file or distribution media. 5. Open VMware and begin again. You cannot find the VSA with the CMC, and cannot recall Open the Configuration Interface.
Documentation available For detailed instructions about using the CMC and the VSA, see the following resources. You can find these documents on the HP StoreVirtual Management Software DVD and on the Manuals page of the HP Business Support Center website: http://www.hp.com/support/StoreVirtualManuals • HP StoreVirtual Storage Online Help All User Guide content is contained in the HP StoreVirtual Storage Online Help, available from the menu bar under Help→Help Topics.
5 Designing a virtual SAN The VSA enables full featured use of the LeftHand OS software in a virtualized environment. When deployed correctly, HP LeftHand SANs are scalable, highly available, and fully redundant. Figure 4 Example of a virtual SAN using the VSA Designing your virtual SAN The design of your virtual SAN affects both its performance and its reliability for production use.
is not accessible from more than one physical server. (Note that the LeftHand OS software consumes a small amount of the available space.) ◦ For ESX Server, the first virtual disk must be connected to SCSI address 1:0. ◦ For Hyper-V Server, the first virtual disk must be connected to the first SCSI Controller. • All virtual disks for the VSA for vSphere must be configured as independent and persistent to prevent VM snapshots from affecting them.
• Use of any Hyper-V Server configuration that Microsoft does not support. • Booting physical servers off of a VSA cluster. • Extending the data virtual disk(s) (ESX Server SCSI 1:x or in Hyper-V, the first SCSI Controller) of the VSA while in a cluster. • Co-location of a VSA and other virtual machines on the same physical platform without reservations for the VSA CPUs and memory in ESX. • Co-location of a VSA and other virtual machines on the same VMFS datastore or NTFS partition.
network adapters. Platforms that will host VSAs and other virtual machines should have four ethernet (minimum 1 GB) network adapters so that two adapters can be dedicated to the VSA and iSCSI traffic. Virtual network design The virtual switch or virtual network that is used for VSA should be at least a redundant Gigabit network, if possible.
systems in the cluster. See “Using VSAs with HP StoreVirtual Storage” (page 23) for information about storage capacity and platforms in a cluster. The following steps describe how to add disks after the VSA has been added to a management group and cluster. However, you can add the disks to the VSA when you first configure it, before you use it for clustered storage. Create additional disks Create up to 4 additional disks for a VSA.
Sample configurations Some sample configurations and their uses and benefits are described below. Single system configuration A single system configuration is useful for implementing a simple iSCSI target that can scale up to a redundant iSCSI SAN of any size. A single system configuration has only the elements listed IMPORTANT: A single system configuration offers no data protection, failover, or redundancy, and is not recommended.
Figure 6 Two-system configuration Three-system-plus configuration All configurations greater than two systems can be redundant, and do not require a Virtual Manager or Failover Manager. A configuration greater than two systems includes the items listed.
6 Using the VMware VSA laptop demo The VMware VSA laptop demo is the smallest and most portable version of the LeftHand OS software virtual appliance. Use this demo to create HP StoreVirtual Storage, complete with storage clusters. NOTE: Server. There is not a separate demo version of the HP StoreVirtual VSA for Microsoft Hyper-V The VSA can be used for free indefinitely as a single system iSCSI target with snapshots.
You only need to configure each virtual machine once. 1. Copy or download the VSA .zip file. 2. Copy or unzip the VSA files to the virtual machine directory. Copy the files to multiple directories for multiple VSAs. Configuring the VSA with VMware Player, VMware Server, or VMware Workstation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Open the VMware console. Click File→Open to open the VSA.vmx file. Navigate to the location of the unzipped VSA files. Select the VSA.vmx file and click Open.
7 Support and other resources Contacting HP For worldwide technical support information, see the HP support website: http://www.hp.
initiate a fast and accurate resolution, based on your product’s service level. Notifications may be sent to your authorized HP Channel Partner for on-site service, if configured and available in your country. The software is available in two variants: • HP Insight Remote Support Standard: This software supports server and storage devices and is optimized for environments with 1-50 servers.
8 Documentation feedback HP is committed to providing documentation that meets your needs. To help us improve the documentation, send any errors, suggestions, or comments to Documentation Feedback (docsfeedback@hp.com). Include the document title and part number, version number, or the URL when submitting your feedback.