HP StoreOnce VSA Deployment and Configuration Guide Abstract This document describes how to deploy the HP StoreOnce VSA using vSphere Client or Hyper-V Manager. It also describes how to add storage and apply a purchased license. It is assumed that users will be administrators with experience of working within a VMware vSphere 5.1 or 5.5 or a Hyper-V environment. This guide is frequently updated, please check http:// h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/psi/manualsResults/?sp4ts.
© Copyright 2013, 2014 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 Introduction...............................................................................................6 Product description ..................................................................................................................6 StoreOnce VSA system requirements...........................................................................................7 Supported datastores on VMware vSphere..............................................................................7 VMFS3.
To check that update is successful.............................................................................................52 To activate licenses.................................................................................................................52 6 Troubleshooting........................................................................................53 Deployment Problems .............................................................................................................
8 Documentation feedback...........................................................................71 A Regulatory information..............................................................................72 Belarus Kazakhstan Russia marking...........................................................................................72 Turkey RoHS material content declaration...................................................................................72 Ukraine RoHS material content declaration...........
1 Introduction Product description HP StoreOnce VSA is a software-only version of the HP StoreOnce Backup system. Packaged as a virtual appliance, it can be deployed and run on a Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V or vSphere 5.1 or 5.5 hypervisor (ESXi) installed by the customer. Once deployed, the user has access to the StoreOnce VSA for both Web Management via the StoreOnce GUI and command line management via the StoreOnce CLI. HP StoreOnce VSA supports two storage capacity licenses of 4 TB and 10 TB.
StoreOnce VSA system requirements The following prerequisites apply when deploying a StoreOnce VSA on the host (ESXi) or on Microsoft Server 2012 R2. Table 1 VSA system requirements Properties VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V Physical host • ESXi 5.1 • Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V • ESXi 5.
4. 5. Click VMFS3. Update the field in VMFS3.MaxHeapSizeMB. In ESXi 5.1 Update 1, the maximum heap size is 640 MB. This allows a maximum of 60 TB of open storage per ESXi host. In vSphere 5.5, VMware introduces a much improved heap eviction process and there is no need for the larger heap size, which consumes memory. vSphere 5.5, with a maximum of 256MB of heap, enables vSphere hosts to access all the address space of a 64TB VMFS. Refer to http:// www.vmware.
In the following example, the RAM value was increased to 32768 MB, so that the VSA boots up and is configured properly.
Before you start deployment NOTE: If you ordered StoreOnce VSA for electronic delivery, you will get a link to download a ZIP file in your order confirmation email. If you ordered StoreOnce VSA or physical delivery, you will receive a DVD with an ISO image. Neither the ZIP file nor ISO image can be used directly to deploy the StoreOnce VSA. If you ordered StoreOnce VSA for electronic delivery 1. 2. 3. Select the link in the order confirmation email.
If you ordered StoreOnce VSA for physical delivery 1. 2. The box will contain a DVD for VMware deployment and a DVD for Hyper-V. Select the required DVD. The StoreOnce VSA ISO image for VMware is a file named STOREONCEVSA_VMWARE.iso and the StoreOnce VSA ISO image for Hyper-V is a file named STOREONCEVSA_HYPERV.iso. Mount the required StoreOnce VSA ISO image and copy the files to the appropriate location for the deployment method, as described above.
Table 3 StoreOnce VSA package for Hyper-V (continued) Filename Description D2D_Master-734561-B21-.rpm HP StoreOnce VSA on VMware software update HP StoreOnce VSA User Guide HP StoreOnce VSA Deployment and Configuration Guide HP StoreOnce VSA Release Notes NOTE: 12 Introduction For checksum values for the ZIP and PS1 files refer to the release notes.
Deployment overview Steps Notes 1. Download the StoreOnce package to the correct folder. See Before you start deployment (page 10). 2. Based on your hypervisor environment, decide which deployment option to use and make sure all prerequisites are met. Make sure you have all networking information available before you start. See Deployment on Microsoft Hyper-V (page 17) or Deployment on VMware vSphere (page 33). Decide how much backup capacity will be required.
Logging on to the StoreOnce VSA after deployment All backup targets and StoreOnce Replication and Catalyst copy functions are configured and managed from the StoreOnce GUI or CLI. To log on to the StoreOnce VSA after deployment simply connect to the StoreOnce Management Console from any machine connected to the network using the host name or IP address that you specified for the StoreOnce VSA during deployment.
Licensing For StoreOnce VSA a single license key enables the appliance and the StoreOnce Catalyst, Replication and Security features. At deployment an instant-on license is automatically applied that is valid for 60 days. During this 60 day period a purchased license must be applied. If not, at the end of the 60–day period the configured backup targets become read-only. All backups written are accessible but additional backups cannot be written.
It can also be obtained using the following StoreOnce CLI command and response sequence. # system show config System ID Description Product Class Hardware Type CLI output Page control : : : : : : HP1259312EFF HP1259312EFF HP StoreOnce VSA Software Virtual text On NOTE: Remove the HP prefix from the System ID to obtain the value you require for the Serial Number; 1259312EFF in the above example. To redeem a purchased license 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
2 Deployment on Microsoft Hyper-V Introduction This deployment option is available for experienced Windows Server 2012 administrators who wish to use one of the following Hyper-V options to deploy StoreOnce VSA 2.0 or later: • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled: This is a standard Windows 2012 R2 OS installation on a physical server; the Hyper-V role enables users to create and manage virtual machines, such as HP StoreOnce VSA.
NOTE: This Hyper-V Manager contains two Windows Server 2012 R2 servers in a cluster configuration. One of them is the server that has been logged on to. In a non-cluster configuration only one server would be present. 18 4. To start deploying a VSA, right click on the server and select New — Virtual Machine… 5. The New Virtual Machine Wizard is displayed. Click Next to enter the required details for the VSA configuration.
6. Enter the name for the virtual machine, such as StoreOnce_VSA, and choose the preferred location to deploy the VSA. Click Next. 7. Verify that Generation 1 is selected and click Next > NOTE: 8. Generation 2 is not supported.
9. To configure the network select New Virtual Switch for the Connection and click Next > 10. Click Use an existing virtual hard disk and use the Browse... button to retrieve the Location of the StoreOnce VSA virtual hard disk. Click Next. NOTE: The zip package for the initial configuration contains the virtual hard disk that should be selected here. This VHD.ZIP should be extracted once for every VSA to be deployed. The VHD disk image being used for one VSA instance cannot be re-used for another.
11. The Summary page is displayed. Check the details and click Finish. 12. The StoreOnce VSA is now deployed on the Hyper-V server. The storage must be configured, as described in the next section, before the StoreOnce VSA is powered on. Configuration process IMPORTANT: VSA.
1. Right click on the StoreOnce VSA and select Settings… 2. The default vCPU value on Hyper-V is 1 for all VSAs. Navigate to the Hardware — Processor settings and increase the Number of virtual processors to 4.
3. A 1 TB disk as initial storage must be added before powering on the StoreOnce VSA. Go to the SCSI Controller, section and select Hard Drive. Click on Add to add a new hard drive to the SCSI controller. 4. Select the Virtual Hard disk radio button and click on New.
5. The New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard is displayed. Click Next. 6. For the Disk Format select VHDX and click Next > NOTE: 7. VHD is supported, but the newer VHDX version is recommended. Select Fixed Size and click Next > Fixed size is a thick provisioned disk type and is the recommended disk type. Make sure you have 1 TB of free space on the storage. Hyper-V will initialize the entire disk before presenting it to the StoreOnce VSA. This process takes 35-40 minutes for 1 TB.
8. Specify the Name and, if the default is not acceptable, Location for the virtual hard disk and click Next > 9. Select Create a new blank virtual hard disk and enter a Size of 1024 GB. Any other size value for the disk is not valid. Click Next.
10. The Summary page is displayed. Check the details and click Finish. 11. The Settings page for the StoreOnce VSA now includes the new hard drive under SCSI Controller. The storage configuration now has a hard drive available for use during the first power on of the StoreOnce VSA.
12. Right click on the StoreOnce VSA and click Start to power on the VSA . You can also click Connect...
13. The StoreOnce VSA powers up and the storage and Instant On license are configured automatically. A DHCP network configuration is applied by default. For information about configuring static IP addresses see To amend the network configuration after deployment (page 46). NOTE: If there is a heavy load on the Hyper-V server, the StoreOnce services on the VSA may take a long time to come up and the Instant On license application fails.
Deployment using HP StoreOnce VSA Hyper-V PowerShell Installer StoreOnce VSA on Hyper-V offers another method of deployment and configuration using a PowerShell script provided by HP. This method offers the following advantages: Hyper-V Manager requirements Benefits of the PowerShell installer Hyper-V Manager requires you to unzip the VHD.ZIP manually before starting the deployment. The PowerShell script does the unzipping as part of the deployment.
2. The script displays the available ZIP files in the entered directory, select the appropriate ZIP to proceed. 3. Enter the directory where the VSA Image should be created. 4. Enter the name that you wish to use for the StoreOnce VSA virtual machine. 5. The script configures the folder and files. It then prompts to configure eth0 for the network. Enter Y to continue with the network configuration.
6. Choose the IP Configuration mode: DHCP or Static. If you select Static, you will be prompted to provide IP address details. Select the required VM Switch. (In our example only one VM switch is available and it has been configured with the name Management Switch.) If required, repeat the above steps to configure eth1. 7. If required, configure up to three DNS servers. 8.
9. After the VSA image is uncompressed and the deployment completes, the script displays a message that the VSA was successfully deployed. At this stage the status of the VSA is Off. 10. Use Hyper-V Manager to add the initial storage before powering on as explained in Steps 3 to 13 in Configuration process (page 21).
3 Deployment on VMware vSphere Introduction This deployment option is available for VMware administrators using vSphere client or vSphere web client. Before you start This deployment method requires you to ensure that all deployment pre-requisites have been met; there are no in-built checks within the deployment process.
3. From the File menu select Deploy OVF Template… 4.
5. Check the details of the StoreOnceVSA OVF file and click Next. 6. Enter a Name, such as StoreOnce VSA, for the deployed template and select an Inventory Location for it on the server. Click Next.
7. Select a datastore from the list and click Next. Only one datastore may be selected at deployment and it will be used for the StoreOnce VSA system files. The virtual disk created will be thin provisioned, with a capacity of 50 GB. 8. Check that the disk format, Thin Provision, is selected and click Next. The deployment creates the Thin Provisioned virtual disk for the operating system. (The 1 TB Thick Provisioned virtual disk for storage must be added separately after deployment.
9. Select the appropriate network for the StoreOnce VSA and click Next. If you do not know which network to select, ask the VMware administrator.
10. Use the Properties dialog to configure DNS Server Settings (up to 3) and edit Ethernet0 settings and Ethernet1 settings, if required. The default deployment is DHCP. After deployment, network settings may be amended using StoreOnce CLI commands. See the HP StoreOnce Backup system CLI reference guide for further details. 11. Check the Summary screen and click Finish to start the deployment process.
NOTE: The deployment creates the Thin Provisioned virtual disk for the operating system. See the next section for more information about creating virtual disks for storage after deployment. 12. The deployment process can take up to 15 minutes to complete, depending on the datastore selected and how heavily loaded it is. It may take longer if the vSphere client is accessing the StoreOnceVSA_OVF file across the network. During deployment a progress meter is displayed. 13.
To create a 1 TB virtual disk NOTE: If you create virtual disks before power on, the first boot script incorporates the commands to prepare and add the storage to the StoreOnce VSA. If you create virtual disks after power on, you must apply the StoreOnce CLI commands manually, as described in To prepare and add storage using the StoreOnce CLI and reboot the VSA for automatic addition of the Instant-On license. 1. 2. From the VSphere client, expand the vCenter server and select the HP StoreOnce VSA.
5. Select a Device Type of Hard Disk and click Next.
6. Ensure that Create a new virtual disk is selected and click Next. 7. Specify a Capacity of 1 TB and make sure that Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed is selected. Select a Location, as appropriate. Click Next.
8. Select an unassigned SCSI ID for the Virtual Device Node of the new disk and click Next. 9. Check the Summary screen and click Finish.
10. The process is now complete for the first virtual disk. To create additional virtual disks, repeat the process. • If powering on the StoreOnce VSA for the first time, the total storage will be made available to the StoreOnce VSA automatically, and the Instant-On license applied. • If the StoreOnce VSA has already been powered on, use StoreOnce CLI commands, as described in the next section, to prepare and add storage to the StoreOnce VSA.
4 Configuration options for StoreOnce VSA To prepare and add storage using the StoreOnce CLI This process prepares and adds all available storage and is required if you create virtual disks after the StoreOnce VSA has been powered on. You are recommended to create as many virtual disks as required before adding them to the StoreOnce VSA .
2. Apply the license using one of the following StoreOnce CLI commands: • license load : to load a license that has been saved as a file image. The file image must exist in the Backup system's repository directory. • license add to key in the license directly. If you used email or a temporary file, cut and paste the string exactly as you obtained it from the HP Licensing website. Entering the license manually is not advised.
To increase virtual memory for optimal performance For optimal performance, especially at higher capacity configurations, it may be necessary to increase the Virtual RAM resources allocated to StoreOnce VSA. • Minimum vRAM required: 16 GB • Recommended vRAM for more than four virtual disks: 32 GB IMPORTANT: It is recommended to avoid over-committing CPU and/or memory resources for the hosted VSA.
NOTE: Use the slider bar on the Resources tab to reserve memory. The value chosen will depend upon individual configurations and other demands on memory. It is strongly recommended to reserve the entire guest memory for the StoreOnce VSA. 5. 6. 48 Click OK to apply the resource changes. Right click on the StoreOnce VSA and select Power – Power On.
7. The Summary page for the StoreOnce VSA now reflects the changes to the resources. To increase vRAM on Hyper-V 1. 2. Use the StoreOnce CLI command, system shutdown, to power down the StoreOnce VSA. On the Hyper-V Manager screen, right click on the VSA and select Settings.
3. Power On the VSA from Hyper-V Manager GUI. 4. The StoreOnce VSA will now have the increased amount of memory.
5 Software update on VSA 1.x to VSA 2.0 StoreOnce VSA 2.0 provides various enhanced features over StoreOnce VSA 1.x. To update an existing VSA 1.x to this newer version an RPM is available in the StoreOnce VSA package. This RPM update applies to • StoreOnce VSA 1.0.0 with software version 3.7.0 or • StoreOnce VSA 1.1.1 with software version 3.7.1 or • StoreOnce VSA 1.2.0 with software version 3.7.2 or • StoreOnce VSA 1.3.0 with software version 3.7.3.
To check that update is successful Wait for the system to reboot. NOTE: Depending upon the updates, this could take 10 minutes or longer. Once access returns to the Management interface, check that the process has completed successfully, as follows: • From the StoreOnce CLI: Use system show packages to check that all packages are now Installed. You should see this line in the output of system show packages: D2D_Master-734561-B21-3.11.0-1411.2.x86_64.
6 Troubleshooting This chapter provides troubleshooting information for: • Deployment problems (page 54) • Storage addition problems (page 56) • License alerts and issues (page 58) • Network problems (page 60) • Performance problems (page 63) • Power issues (page 64) • Miscellaneous issues (page 65) • Logs for the StoreOnce VSA (page 66) 53
Deployment Problems StoreOnce VSA power-on fails after deployment Cause The ESXi or Hyper-V host on which the StoreOnce VSA was deployed has insufficient resources. Solution Check the ESXi or Hyper-V host and make sure it meets the minimum resource requirements for the StoreOnce VSA, see StoreOnce VSA system requirements (page 7).
The network will be configured with a valid ipv4 address, instant-on license enabled and service sets started. • If you wish to configure a static IP: Use the StoreOnce CLI command, net set wizard. See To amend the network configuration after deployment (page 46). Once the static IP is assigned, reboot the StoreOnce VSA to enable the instant-on license.
Storage addition problems When adding storage to the StoreOnce VSA, the following guidelines apply: • Always allow the StoreOnce CLI command, hardware discover storage, to complete before running the command, hardware add storage. NOTE: There are two StoreOnce CLI commands that perform the same function: hardware discover storage and hardware prepare storage. The same comments apply to both.
NOTE: On Hyper-V, hardware prepare/discover storage command may throw up the following error messages: device-mapper: table: 253:0: multipath: error getting device device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table These error messages can be safely ignored. Error running system show status The StoreOnce CLI command, system show status, displays an additional size for the "Discovered" storage size. This is a known issue with the StoreOnce VSA and does not affect device performance or behavior.
License alerts and issues IMPORTANT: Always ensure that the StoreOnce VSA has the correct date and time settings before generating and applying licenses to the StoreOnce VSA. StoreOnce Instant-on license not installed alert If the Instant-on license is not enabled in the StoreOnce VSA after deployment, the StoreOnce GUI generates an alert with the message “StoreOnce Instant-on license not installed”.
Instant-on license validity or number of days remaining is reduced Cause If you change the date settings on the StoreOnce VSA to an older date, the instant-on license validity period may be reduced because the corresponding number of additional days are deducted from it. Solution Do not move the date backwards once the instant-on license has been installed on the StoreOnce VSA. This will result in the deducting of the corresponding number of days from the license validity period.
Network problems Unable to access VSA over the network when default port —eth0 goes down Cause Eth0 is set the as default primary IP for the StoreOnce VSA. When Eth0 goes down in the StoreOnce VSA, Eth1 also becomes unavailable. Eth1 does not automatically get switched to the default state when Eth0 goes down. Solution From the vSphere Client, access the VSA console using the ‘Open Console’ option.
StoreOnce VSA on Hyper-V losing connectivity frequently It is a known issue that virtual machines on Hyper-V may lose connectivity on the virtual network. This has been acknowledged in the link below: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/ c87623da-453c-407a-ae99-611274f16b80/vms-disconnecting-from-network? forum=winserverhyperv The workaround suggested by the forum is to disable VMQ on the network adaptors on the Hyper-V hosts.
StoreOnce VSA hanging in 'Stopping' or 'Stopping-Critical' or 'Paused' state It is observed that virtual machines on Hyper-V sometimes hang in a 'Stopping' or 'Stopping-Critical' or 'Paused' state. Please refer to the appropriate Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 documentation to find the resolution.
Performance problems A number of factors can negatively affect StoreOnce VSA performance in the ESXi environment. Always make sure the virtual resources of the ESXi servers on which StoreOnce VSAs are deployed and the datastores used by StoreOnce VSAs are not in a over-committing state. VSA writes and reads are slower in ESXi SAN environments Cause The memory and CPU resources allocated to the StoreOnce VSA may be less than the minimum requirements of the VSA.
Power issues The VSA service set goes down and file system becomes read-only The VSA service set goes down and file system becomes read-only when external ESXi storage LUNs are disconnected from the server. Cause This behavior may be seen when the connection to the ESXi storage is lost and recovered while the VSA is powered on and running. Solution The StoreOnce VSA may become unresponsive in this case. Contact HP Support for assistance at http://www.hp.com/support.
Miscellaneous issues Operations such as power-off, power-on, and storage addition on the StoreOnce VSA may fail when using vSphere with the message: Cause This behavior may happen when the vmdk descriptor file for the StoreOnce VSA is corrupt or missing or locked. This vmdk file corruption may also be caused by frequently changing the name of the StoreOnce VSA through vSphere GUI. . Solution Please refer to VMware troubleshooting documents on this issue.
Solution Wait for 10-15 minutes between the deletion of one target appliance and the addition of another target appliance. Time settings are reset when the StoreOnce VSA is rebooted Cause This is a known StoreOnce VSA issue, and occurs because this is a software defined system with no hardware of its own. Solution Always sync the StoreOnce VSA time with the ESXi host server automatically.
To change the password for the HPresetpassword account 1. 2. Gain access to the local system console either using a locally attached USB keyboard and Monitor or via the iLO remote console. At the Login prompt type: HPresetpassword 3. When prompted for the password enter: hpresetpassword 4. Once logged in a list of available commands will be presented. reset: Reset the 'Admin' password to 'admin'manage: Change the 'HPresetpassword' user's passwordhelp: List available commandsexit: Log out 5. 6. 7.
StoreOnce VSA console showing segmentation fault alert The StoreOnce VSA console may sometimes give the following segmentation fault error while shutting down. This can be safely ignored as it does not harm any functionality or data stored on the VSA.
7 Support and other resources Contacting HP For worldwide technical support information, see the HP support website: http://www.hp.
Typographic conventions Table 4 Document conventions Convention Element Blue text: Table 4 (page 70) Cross-reference links Blue, bold, underlined text email addresses Blue, underlined text: http://www.hp.
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.
A Regulatory information For important safety, environmental, and regulatory information, see Safety and Compliance Information for Server, Storage, Power, Networking, and Rack Products, available at http:// www.hp.com/support/Safety-Compliance-EnterpriseProducts. Belarus Kazakhstan Russia marking Manufacturer and Local Representative Information Manufacturer’s information: • Hewlett-Packard Company, 3000 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, California 94304, U.S.
HP Enterprise Servers http://www.hp.com/support/EnterpriseServers-Warranties HP Storage Products http://www.hp.com/support/Storage-Warranties HP Networking Products http://www.hp.