HP P4000 VSA Installation and Configuration Guide Abstract This guide provides information about installing and configuring the VSA for ESX Server and the VSA for Hyper-V Server. 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 P4000 SAN Solutions using VSAs.
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Contents 1 Planning for the VSA...................................................................................5 Planning the virtual network configuration....................................................................................5 Planning the clustered storage configuration.................................................................................5 2 Installing the VSA for ESX Server..................................................................6 Prerequisites........................
Configuring the VSA with VMware Player, VMware Server, or VMware Workstation...................27 6 Support and other resources......................................................................29 Contacting HP........................................................................................................................29 Subscription service............................................................................................................29 HP Insight Remote Support Software..........
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 P4000 SAN Solution. 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 VSA for ESX Server The HP P4000 VSA is pre-formatted for use with VMware ESX Server. 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. Prerequisites • VMware ESX Server version 4.x or later • Microsoft .Net 2.
virtual or physical hard drives, and powering on the VSA. The installer checks for the CMC version 9.5, and then installs it, if it is not on the system. NOTE: If the Version 9.0 CMC is installed on a management computer on the network, the HP P4000 VSA for ESX installer updates the CMC to Version 9.5 in the same location. The user-specified location entered in the installer wizard is ignored. 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 P4000 Management Software DVD in the DVD drive. • Double-click the executable that you downloaded to start the installation. Click Install VSA for VMware ESX Server 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.
5. 6. 7. In the Disk Capacity section, designate a capacity that is suitable for the amount of storage available on your ESX Server. In the Location section, select Store with Virtual Machine, and click Next. For the first disk, select the Virtual Device Node to be SCSI1:0 from the list. For additional disks, assign SCSI 1:1 through 1:4, in sequential order. CAUTION: Selecting anything other than SCSI 1:0 for the first disk causes RAID to be unconfigurable later. 8. 9.
3 Installing the P4000 VSA for Hyper-V Server The HP P4000 VSA for Hyper-V Server is pre-formatted for use with Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V™. Install the VSA for Hyper-V Server on a Windows Server 2008 configured with redundant RAID. If you are using an evaluation copy, 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.
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. • The virtual NIC labeled seth0 is the default and required virtual NIC for the SAN/iQ software and iSCSI. NOTE: The Description, Speed and Duplex columns under the TCP Status tab will show “Unknown” for seth0. This has no functional impact on the actual speed or performance of this virtual NIC.
Table 5 Configuring the VSA for Hyper-V Server using the installer wizard (continued) Installer Step Definition Network Includes the following network information: • Host name for the VSA • IP address Reserved IP address is recommended. DHCP is available (requires statically assigned IP addresses).
4 Getting started with the P4000 SAN Installing the CMC Install the CMC on the computer or virtual machine that you use to administer the P4000 SAN Solution. You administer the entire network of VSAs from this CMC. To obtain the CMC, download the HP P4000 Management Software DVD. Find the DVD image at www.hp.com/go/p4000downloads. 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.
Figure 2 Configuring the hardware 1. Configure RAID and the TCP/IP 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 ESX 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 — ESX version 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. Navigate to the Network its IP address.
Documentation available For detailed instructions about using the CMC and the VSA, see the following resources. You can find these documents on the HP P4000 Management Software DVD and on the Manuals page of the HP Business Support Center website:. http://www.hp.com/support/manuals In the Storage section, click Disk Storage Systems and then select your product under P4000 SAN Solutions • Online help All User Guide content is contained in the Online Help, available from the menu bar under Help→Help Topics.
5 Designing a virtual SAN The HP P4000 VSA enables full featured use of the SAN/iQ software in a virtualized environment. When deployed correctly, HP P4000 virtual 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.
Table 9 Memory requirements for VSA disks (continued) Total capacity of all installed disks Requires at least this much memory ◦ 4.5 TB to 9 TB ◦ 2 GB ◦ 9 TB to 10 TB ◦ 3 GB Hyper-V Server • ◦ 500 GB up to, but less than 4.5 TB ◦ 1 GB ◦ 4.5 TB up to, but less than 9 TB ◦ 2 GB ◦ 9 TB up to, but less than 10 TB ◦ 3 GB A single virtual CPU with at least 2000 MHz reserved. NOTE: The Hyper-V installer assigns 1000 MHz by default.
• For the VSA for Hyper-V Server, dedicate a unique network adapter for iSCSI traffic. • For the VSA for ESX Server, be located on the same virtual switch as the VMkernel network used for iSCSI traffic. This allows for a portion of iSCSI IO to be served directly from the VSA to the iSCSI initiator without using a physical network. • For the VSA for ESX Server, be on a virtual switch that is separate from the VMkernel network used for VMotion.
a VSA using less than 4.5 TB, a platform with 10 GB of RAM could host a VSA and use 8 GB of memory to share for other VMs. Virtual switch or network The virtual switch or network should be entirely dedicated to the VSA and not used for any other traffic. Controllers and hard drives The internal disk controller and actual hard disk drives of a platform affect the capacity and IO performance of the VSA. Ideally VSAs should use storage that is hosted by many SAS or SCSI drives.
• Locating VSAs that are running managers on separate physical platforms If VSAs are running managers, ensure that those VSAs reside on separate physical platforms. Otherwise, rebooting a single physical platform could cause a loss of quorum in the management group. • Managing the performance impact of mixing platforms in clusters Mixing VSAs and physical platforms in a cluster yields unpredictable performance.
Creating the disk 1. 2. 3. 4. Power off the VSA. Using either VMware Server, VI Client, or Microsoft virtual machine manager, add from 1 to 4 disks to the VSA. Assign each disk to the next sequential SCSI address or location. Configure the ESX Server disks as independent and persistent. Configure the Hyper-V disks as fixed size. 5. 6. Increase memory based on the total capacity of the VSA, according to the requirements in “Memory requirements for VSA disks” (page 23).
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. • One VSA • A single management group • A single cluster • Running a single manager Figure 5 Single system configuration Two-system configuration A two-system configuration is the smallest possible redundant configuration.
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.
A Using the VMware VSA laptop demo The VMware VSA laptop demo is the smallest and most portable version of the SAN/iQ software virtual appliance. Use this demo to create an HP P4000 SAN Solution, complete with storage clusters. NOTE: There is not a separate demo version of the VSA for Hyper-V Server. The VSA can be used for free indefinitely as a single system iSCSI target with snapshots. If a configuration is deleted and recreated, the trial period of licensed features starts again.
4. 5. Select the VSA.vmx file and click Open. Edit the VSA settings as required by the VMware console you are using. Select the appropriate network mode: • Bridged • NAT • Host-only NOTE: All VSAs on the same platform should use the same networking mode. When running multiple VSAs on a single host, use NAT or Host-only networking mode, and use DHCP to assign IP addresses to the VSAs. 6. 7. 28 Power on the VSA.
6 Support and other resources Contacting HP For worldwide technical support information, see the HP support website: http://www.hp.
Related information The following documents [and websites] provide related information: • HP P4000 SAN Solution User Guide • HP P4000 Multi-Site HA/DR Solution Pack User Guide • HP P4000 Remote Copy User Guide • CLIQ — The SAN/iQ Command-Line Interface User Manual You can find these documents on the HP P4000 Management Software DVD and on the Manuals page of the HP Business Support Center website: http://www.hp.
