Infortrend VMware Solutions

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1 Infortrend VMware Solutions Best Practice Version: 1.2 Updated: Nov., 2017 Abstract: This document describes the best practices for using Infortrend storage in VMware environment. Infortrend storage provides a high degree of compatibility and entire end-to-end virtual desk solution with VMware. Not only centralize the manageability but increase efficiency and reliability. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 1 / 71

2 Table of Contents EonStor DS Storage Systems in VMware Virtualized Environments... 3 Overview... 3 EonStor DS Configuration Guideline for VMware... 4 Configuration in SANWatch... 4 Configuration in VMware vcenter Configuration Considerations Data formats Deployment of VMFS volumes RAID level VMware Native Multi-pathing Configuration Comprehensive integration between EonStor DS and VMware Hardware Acceleration - VMware vstorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) Introduction Benefits VAAI Primitives vsphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) Introduction Benefits Requirement Installation Configuring VASA Provider SSD Swap Cache Introduction Configuration Backup and Restore with vcenter Site Recovery Manager Introduction SRM and SRA Prerequisites SRM and SRA Configuration Workflows between SRM and EonStor DS Reprotecting Virtual Machines after a Recovery Best Practice and Recommendations on SRM Remote Replication without SRM Introduction Configuration Use Case Difference between with SRM and without SRM Scenario 1: Replicated Data Validation Scenario 2: After a Disaster Conclusion Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2 / 71

3 EonStor DS Storage Systems in VMware Virtualized Environments Overview The increasing prevalence of virtualization is affecting businesses of all sizes and generating new storage needs. Supporting large numbers of virtual machines and their valuable datasets in VMware s virtual infrastructure requires a fully-integrated SAN delivering high performance, availability and agility. Infortrend EonStor DS integrates with key VMware vsphere features and APIs to make users enjoy optimal resource efficiency, application productivity, operational resilience and management simplicity. To ensure seamless integration of EonStor DS SAN storage into VMware virtualized environments, Infortrend has performed comprehensive testing to verify compatibility with VMware products. For details about compatibility, please refer to the VMWare Compatibility Guide or Infortrend s EonStor DS Compatibility Matrix. Effective software suites optimize and manage IT environments through virtualization. They greatly reduce operating costs and increase IT service availability, security, and scalability while providing the flexibility to choose any OS, application, and hardware. VMware vsphere delivers many enhanced features in terms of management, application services, infrastructure services, compatibility, and third party extensibility. For more details about VMware products, you can refer to Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 3 / 71

4 EonStor DS Configuration Guideline for VMware Configuration in SANWatch SANWatch, bundled with storage systems at no additional cost, is a browser-based and cross-platform software management suite that provides support for many mainstream operating systems. It features SSL (Secure Socket Layer) link protection and role-based access levels for management carried out on different installation sites and for different purposes. Note: SANWatch and User Guide Download Link: Step 1: Step 2: Launch Infortrend s SANWatch on any server, configured on the same network subnet as the targeted storage, to begin the partition creation for VMware datastore. Select the EonStor DS (we use ESDS 3024 as example) and check its status. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3: Step 4: Select Logical Volumes and click Create Logical Volume. Create a name for the Logical Volume, assign to Slot A or B (Controller A or B) and select targeted drive as the member drives using RAID protection (ex: RAID 1, 5, 6, etc. ). Then click Next. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 4 / 71

5 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5: Step 6: Click Create Partition under targeted Logical Volume to create a partition. Create the partition, set the partition name and the partition size based on requirement. Then click Next. Step 5 Step 6 Step 7: Step 8: Click Host LUN Mapping to map partition as targeted partition, to the ESXi server. Select Customize the host LUN mapping configurations, Fibre or iscsi interface, and mapping channel or use extended LUN mapping. Then click OK. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 5 / 71

6 Scenario 1 If you just want to use storage as a spaces to store datastore or use for test environment, we recommend use automatic mapping as following: Step 7 Step 8 Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 6 / 71

7 Scenario 2 If you want to configure LUM mapping with higher security consideration and deploy related VMware features, we recommend using Extended Host LUN mapping. We will introduce how to configure DS 1016 to set-up 10 GbE iscsi Extended LUN mapping and make one 1.45 TB partition to be used as a datastore for one ESXi server in the following: IP: ESXi 5.5 IP: vcenter Server 5.5 Network 1.45T Management IP: DS 1016T Host Channel IP: CH4: (Slot A) CH4: (Slot B) Configuration Reference Note: The following setting can be skipped using EonStor DS with Fibre Channel interface. Step 9: Select Channels -> Click Host Channel Setting. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 7 / 71

8 Step 10: Click Configure in the targeted Channels. Step 11: Configure IP address for each host board port. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 8 / 71

9 Step 12: Go back to Host LUN mapping and select Use Extended Host LUN Functionality. Step 13: The advanced LUN mapping provides array-based LUN access control over SAN for host. The advanced LUN mapping binds a logical partition with a specific HBA port and presents the partition to the HBA port. You have to add IQN of ESXi Host HBA port after clicking Configure iscsi Initiator Alias. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 9 / 71

10 Note 1: How to find the IQN in vcenter Client: Select targeted ESXi host -> Configuration tap -> Hardware -> Storage Adapters -> Rescan all device -> Select targeted iscsi Adapter Port -> Click Properties Note 2: We only attach one cable to the HBA port in the following example, so there is only one IQN shown. On General page click Configure, there you can use copy and paste to get the IQN. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 10 / 71

11 Step 14: After getting the IQN, go back to SANWatch to add the IQN: Press Add to add this IQN and give it a specific Alias for recognition, then Click OK. Now you can see that the IQN has been added. You can check the status of mapping below the Partition Information. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 11 / 71

12 Configuration in VMware vcenter Step 1. Login to vcenter -> Home -> Hosts and Clusters -> Select Targeted ESXi host -> Configuration tap -> Hardware -> Storage -> Rescan all device -> Add Storage Step 2, Step 3. Choose Storage Type Disk/LUN. Any unallocated storage devices will appear in the list. Select the required storage device then click Next. Step 2 Step 3 Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 12 / 71

13 Step 4. Select suitable file system version then click Next You can refer to How VMFS5 Differs from VMFS3, for further information. Step 5 Enter a name for this datastore then click Next. Step 4 Step 5 Step 6. Step 7. Set the capacity for this datastore then click Next. Click Refresh or Rescan All. Then you can see the datastore that you just created in SANWatch. Now it can be used for this ESXi Server. Step 6 Step 7 Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 13 / 71

14 Configuration Considerations Data formats Data volumes on EonStor DS Series arrays have to be configured as either a VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) volume or RDM (Raw Device Mapping) volume 1 to make them accessible to ESX Server. VMFS is the VMware proprietary clustered file system and the most common access method. If users would like to allow multiple virtual machines and multiple physical servers to access a single volume, they should configure using the VMFS format. Another way to allow virtual machines to access data volumes on storage is RDM. Virtual machines access VMFS volumes and RDM volumes in different ways. As shown in the following Figure, virtual machines can directly access a virtual disk in the VMFS format, but their access to the RDM volume is enabled through a mapping file in the VMFS volume. This mapping file contains metadata that redirects disk access to physical devices. Accessing a VMFS volume and an RDM volume Treating the RDM volume as a local disk, virtual machines can format it in the proper way. RDM is especially useful in the following applications: 1. SAN-based snapshot/volume copy or other layered applications on virtual machines. 2. Leveraging Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS) to implement virtual-to-virtual clusters or physical-to-virtual clusters. Clustered data and quorum disks have to be configured as RDM volumes. In previous section, VMFS volumes have been introduced, followed by the step-by-step guide to create Virtual Machines with RDMs in the vsphere Client. 1 Maximum size of an RDM volume out of 2TB Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 14 / 71

15 Apps Apps Apps Apps OS OS OS OS VM VM VM VM Virtualization laye IP: ESXi 5.5 IP: vcenter Server 5.5 Network 1T Management IP: DS 1016T Host Channel IP: CH4: (Slot A) CH4: (Slot B) Example to create Virtual Machines with RDMs Step 1 After you finished storage configuration and added devices to vcenter, rescan the HBAs on all your ESXi servers. Step 2 Right-click on the targeted virtual machine, and click Edit Settings... to open the Virtual Machine Properties window. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 15 / 71

16 Step 3 Add a Hard Disk to a virtual machine and select Raw Device Mapping. Step 4 Select the targeted RAW LUN and the datastore to store the LUN mapping. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 16 / 71

17 Step 5 Select the compatibility mode based on your requirement: Difference between Physical and Virtual compatibility RDMs Now you can see the newly added RAW LUN. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 17 / 71

18 Deployment of VMFS volumes The following guideline can help you properly deploying VMFS volumes: 1. Virtual machine boot disks and application data should be stored in separate VMFS volumes. Most I/O issued to boot disks involves paging activities and is sensitive to response time. By separating boot disks from application data, the risk of prolonged response time due to application related I/O can be mitigated. 2. Database platforms for enterprise data management, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle, often use active logs and/or recovery data structures to track data changes. In cases of unplanned application or operating system disruptions, these active logs or recovery data structures are critical in ensuring system recovery and data consistency. Therefore, all virtual machines supporting such database platforms should be provided with an independent VMFS volume for storing active log files and recovery data structures. Furthermore, if files or structures are mirrored, the source and the target should be stored in separate VMFS volumes. 3. Application data, including database files, should be stored in a separate VMware file system. This file system should not contain any structures that are critical for application and/or database recovery. 4. It is recommended that VMFS volumes are no more than about 80% full. This ensures that administrators do not suddenly run out of space to accommodate user data and VMware snapshots for virtual machines. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 18 / 71

19 RAID level EonStor DS Series storage arrays allow users to protect data volumes with various RAID levels, including RAID 1, RAID 3, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10. Data volumes in the same storage array can be protected with different RAID levels. The following are general guidelines to configure RAID levels for data volumes in a VMware virtualized environment: 1. Virtual machine boot volumes are generally subject to low I/O rates. They can be configured with RAID 6 protection. 2. Large file servers with the vast majority of the storage consumed by static files can be provided with RAID 6-protected volumes since I/O rates are expected to be low. 3. Infrastructure servers, such as Domain Name System (DNS), perform most of their activities utilizing CPU and RAM and therefore are often subject to low I/O rates. If users use virtual machines as infrastructure servers, it is proper to provide them with RAID 6-protected volumes as storage space. 4. For most applications, RAID 5 is a proper level to protect virtual disks with. However, if the application involves extensive logins, such as financial applications, RAID 10 may be a better option which works best for heavy transactional workloads with high random writes. 5. Log devices for databases should be RAID 10-protected volumes. Furthermore, if databases or application logs are mirrored, the source and the target should be located on separate sets of disks (in VMFS format, if applicable). 6. Virtual machines that generate high workloads of small-block random read I/O, such as Microsoft Exchange, should be allocated RAID 10-protected volumes for better performance. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 19 / 71

20 VMware Native Multi-pathing Configuration Multi-pathing is a fault tolerant technique where there is more than one physical path between the CPU in a computer system and its mass storage devices. Redundant physical path components include controllers, switches, and the bridge devices connecting them. In addition to fault tolerance, a multi-pathing solution redistributes the I/O request load among the multiple paths between the host and the storage devices. This helps remove bottlenecks and balances workloads. By default, ESXi provides an extensible multi-pathing module called the Native Multi-pathing Plug-In (NMP).which supports three types of Multi-path I/O, including Most Recently Used (MRU), Fixed, and Round Robin. Most Recently Used (MRU): Selects the first working path discovered upon the boot of ESXi. If this active path becomes unavailable, the ESXi host will switch to another alternate path and not return previous path even if it is fixed. Fixed: Set a dedicated path to transfer I/O or NMP will select the first working path discovered upon the boot of ESXi. If this active path becomes unavailable, the ESXi host will switch to another available path and return previous path when it is recovered. Round Robin (RR): Automatically selects all available paths and sends the I/O to each in a circular fashion, which allows load balancing. All available paths are Active (I/O) and used for transferring data. Step 1: Select Targeted ESXi host -> Configuration tap -> Hardware -> Storage Adapters -> Rescan all device -> Right click targeted device and select Manage Paths Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 20 / 71

21 Step 2: In Manage Paths, you can select the suitable multi-pathing solution based on your requirement. Round Robin is highly recommended because all available paths can be used for transferring data with load balancing. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 21 / 71

22 Comprehensive integration between EonStor DS and VMware Hardware Acceleration - VMware vstorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) Introduction VAAI is a set of APIs (application programming interface) that allow the virtualization hypervisor to offload I/O processing for certain data-related services to VAAI-supported storage systems, such as the Infortrend EonStor DS family storage systems. It enables VMware ESX hosts to convey virtual machine operations to storage hardware at a meta-level instead the traditional data level reducing operational latency and traffic on a Fibre Channel or iscsi storage network. The topology of VAAI Benefits Speed up the virtual machine clone and migration tasks. Reduce the host overhead associated with initialization job result from space allocation in virtual machine creation. Solve the virtual machine locking issue by competing for the same storage resources. VAAI Primitives Full Copy - Speed up the virtual machine clone and migration tasks. Block Zeroing - Reduce the host overhead associated with initialization job result from space allocation in virtual machine creation. Hardware Assisted Locking - Solve the virtual machine locking issue by competing for the same storage resources. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 22 / 71

23 Infortrend storage system works seamlessly with VMware s ESX/ESXi virtualization hypervisor to improve the efficiency of tasks such as Storage vmotion, cloning and provisioning new virtual machines, all while reducing SCSI reservation locks and increasing the storage scalability by adding new related SCSI commands to the standard SCSI command set. All enhancements mentioned above have related primitives and SCSI commands for storage system integration. The options of Infortrend storage to support VAAI are enabled by default. Users can check the VAAI support in storage system via vsphere Client or vsphere web client. There is a column shows the Hardware Acceleration status of each volume. If the storage has already applied VAAI support, the column will show Supported. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 23 / 71

24 Full Copy The primitive is also called hardware-accelerated copy, or copy offload, and it leverages the standard SCSI XCOPY command. In real case, it always takes lots of time when the user deploys, clones or migrates an existing virtual machine with application data. The primitive lets those processes be entirely executed on storage array, offloading the hypervisor server, resolving the host overhead associated with VMware initiating and managing cloning or migrating operations. It can significant reduce overall traffic on host and network. The full copy primitive is helpful for tasks such as virtual machine data cloning, or VMDK file migrating among datastores within a storage system using VMware Storage vmotion function. The storage system will help to reduce the number of disk I/O requests from host - lowering the host-side I/O bandwidth use while doing copy related operations. In our Full copy test with EonStor DS 3000T, we cloned 4 virtual machines and 10 virtual machines from one datastore to another. As more virtual machines cloned as more significant time saved (from 22% to 40.24%). 4 virtual machines cloned 10 virtual machines cloned The difference of data copying or migration with or without VAAI support. It can significant reduce the I/O requests from host to storage array Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 24 / 71

25 Block zeroing The primitive is also called hardware-accelerated zero, or zero offload, and it leverages the standard SCSI WRITE-SAME command. When user tries to create a new virtual machine or new virtual disks, a format called eager zeroed thick could be used for space pre-allocated and pre-zeroed. The zeroed task is to write data with zero to clean and initialize space for new space allocation. It means it will take much longer time to provision such virtual disks because it s a slow and inefficient process to zero out each disk space. The virtualization server must complete all the zero writes of the entire virtual disk before it reports back that the disk zeroing is complete, and it s especially time-consuming for large disks. With the block zeroing primitive, these zeroing operations also could be offloaded to the storage system without issuing multiple zero writing commands. We test Block zeroing by creating 100GB virtual machines in eager zeroed thick virtual disk format. With VAAI Block Zeroing primitive support, the virtual machine creation time can be reduced over 20%. The difference of block zeroing between without or with VAAI support. VAAI helps to reduce lots of zeroing write commands issued by server. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 25 / 71

26 Hardware-Assisted Locking If the storage system was used for sharing to multiple virtualization servers, VMware s file system needs to coordinate all the accesses from multiple servers. It allocates part of the storage available to it for data describing virtual machines and their configurations, as well as the virtual disks that they try to access. The implemented locking mechanism within the datastores that are used to prevent any virtual machine from being run on, or modified by, more than one host at a time. Rather than locking the entire LUN, Hardware-Assisted Locking (ATS) provides a granular LUN locking method and only locks the blocks on the LUN that are allocated to specific VMDK used by a specific virtual machine. The initial implementation of mutual exclusion for updates to these locking structures was built using SCSI RESERVE and RELEASE commands. Under the protection of those locking methods, one host could update its data records on the device without the risk of interference from other hosts attempting to update the same records. Multiple hosts still can access its LUNs concurrently and also reduces the number of commands required to successfully acquire on-disk locks. In this test case, we deployed 100 virtual machines from 4 ESXi servers. All the servers share the resource from one Infortrend storage system. We powered on all of the virtual machines with a single shared datastore. Now we can see how it helps to reduce the bottleneck caused by LUN locking. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 26 / 71

27 VSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) Introduction One of the challenges facing VMware administrators is time consuming to recognize the capabilities and configurations of storage arrays. Infortrend VASA Provider is implemented to allow VMware administrators to gain insight into the EonStor DS families directly from vcenter, and assist them to efficiently manage storage resource. This APIs provide a way of delivering storage arrays information to VMware vcenter, including: Storage Capabilities Collects and communicates information about physical capabilities and services that underlying storage offers. Storage Capabilities Profile Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 27 / 71

28 Storage Status Report statuses of various storage entities. Difference: with and without VASA Provider Benefits VASA makes datastore management in virtual environment simple, it can help Making decision about the placement of datastore. Making an early plan for space allocation. Monitoring the status of storage in vcenter. Requirements vcenter Server version 5.5 or later ESX/ESXi hosts version 5.5 or later EonStor DS VASA Setup or later Suggest FW: 5.1x or later The server that will be installed with VASA Provider must be installed with the following components: JAVA Runtime Environment 8 or later Microsoft.NET Framework 2.5 or later Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 28 / 71

29 Installation Step 1: Download Infortrend VASA Provider from Infortrend Customer Support System: Step 2: Use an administrative account to log in to the Windows server (VMs or physical servers) on which you are installing Infortrend VASA Provider. Note: VASA Provider and vcenter Server cannot be installed on the same server. Step 3: Locate the downloaded installer, and double-click it to start the installation process. Follow the onscreen instructions while clicking Next to proceed. Step 4: When you are prompted to select the install location, use the default location or click Browse to select the installation location, and then click Next. Step 3 Step 4 Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 29 / 71

30 Configuring VASA Provider VASA Provider must be configured to allow vcenter Server to communicate with the storage subsystems and monitor their status. Step 1: Adding or removing storage subsystems 1. Double-click IFT VASA Raid IP Manager on your Windows desktop to start the application. 2. To add storage subsystems and edit the user credentials for accessing VASA Provider double-click a cell, in the Set RAID IP tab window, and enter the IP address of the storage subsystem that will be managed by vcenter Server. If there is more than one storage subsystem in your storage network, double-click an empty cell and repeat the same procedure. Click Save when finished. Setup the sync interval (in minutes) from the drop-down menu to let VASA provider collect the most updated information from the storage subsystem on a regular base. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 30 / 71

31 3. On the General Setting tab, enter a user-defined Username and Password, or use the default user credentials for accessing VASA Provider: "username" for the Username field and "password" for the Password field. Note: JAVA Runtime Environment 8 or later is required to be installed before VASA installation, and you have to confirm the JRE install path which is correct. In addition, if JRE install path has been modified, you have to go to $VASA_install_PATH/tomcat and run uninstall.bat, then go back to IFT VASA Manager to re-install the VASA service. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 31 / 71

32 Step 2: Registering Infortrend VASA Provider with vcenter Server 1. From the homepage of vsphere Client, click Storage Providers, click Add, enter the following information, and then click OK. Note: Name: Name your VASA provider URL: Enter the URL of your VASA provider. For HTTPS (SSL) connection: server IP address]:8443/vasa/services/vasaservice For HTTP connection: server IP address]:8080/vasa/services/vasaservice Login and Password: Enter the user credentials for accessing VASA Provider Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 32 / 71

33 2. From the homepage of vsphere Client, click Datastores and Datastore Clusters, select the Summary tab, and check the information in the Storage Capabilities and Storage Capability Details sections. 3. Go to homepage of vsphere Client -> Click VM Storage Profiles -> click Create VM Storage Profile, and then do the following: a. Name the profile and click Next. b. Select the options to define the capabilities for the storage, and keep clicking Next to finish the setup. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 33 / 71

34 4. From the homepage of vsphere Client, click VMs and Templates, right-click and select New Virtual Machine from the contextual menu. In the window that appears, do the following: a. Select Typical and click Next. b. Choose the name of the profile you just created from the VM Storage. c. Profile drop-down menu, and click OK. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 34 / 71

35 5. To change the profile of a VM, right-click on it, choose VM Storage Profile > Manage Profiles from the contextual menu, and then choose a profile form the drop-down menu. If you click Propagate to disks, the storage profiles will be applied to all VMs stored on the same virtual disk. Click OK to complete the setup. 6. From the homepage of vsphere Client, select VM Storage Profiles, and from the left sidebar, select the profile you just created, and the list of all VMs applied with that profile will appear under the Virtual Machines tab. If the profile does not match the actual capabilities of the virtual machine, you will see "Noncompliant" under the Compliance Status column. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 35 / 71

36 SSD Swap Cache Introduction vsphere 5.0 (or later) enables users to choose to configure a swap cache on the SSD. ESXi server will use this swap cache to store the swapped-out pages instead of sending them to the regular and slower hypervisor swap file on the disk. This feature in ESXi uses a relatively small amount of solid-state drive (SSD) located in EonStor DS to significantly reduce the performance impact of host-level memory swapping. In general, the host cache is made of files equally divided into 1 GB size (.vswp). ESXi uses this file as write back cache for virtual machine swap files. Configuration Step 1: Step 2: Create LDs and partitions by using SSDs on EonStor DS, and mapping them to specific ESXi hosts. Configure host cache for targeted ESXi. Note: In order to enable Swap cache, add a custom value for hot cache allocation. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 36 / 71

37 Backup and Restore with vcenter Site Recovery Manager Introduction One of the most complicate procedures of a Disaster Recovery (DR) Failover in a VMware environment is the process of setting up inventory, register, reconfigure and power up VMs at the DR site. VMware Site Recovery Manager is an ideal solution that simplifies and automates disaster recovery. SRM is an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) application to manage virtual machines in datacenter and set recovery plan and policy in advance. The user can, for example define each VMs into High, Medium or Low priority groups and determine the recovery procedure running user-defined scripts and start sequence of individual VMs in advance. When planned migration or unexpected disaster occurs, the system administrator can easily initiate the recovery running via VMware vsphere Web Client with a single button click. SRM enables integration with array-based replication, as well as the use of a native VMware vsphere-based replication. SRM, a plug-in for vcenter on both the primary (or protected) site and the recovery site, enables separate VMware environments to communicate and negotiate with each other. In array-based replication, VMware SRM perfectly coordinates with EonStor DS Remote Replication technology via Infortrend Storage Replication Adapter (SRA). Remote replication capability allows users to create full data copies of virtual machines across storage system, in synchronous or asynchronous mode. VMware SRM architecture Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 37 / 71

38 SRM and Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) should be installed both at the protected and recovery site. Once SRA has been installed, the user should easily discover Infortrend SRA in Array Managers of SRM and execute additional configurations for the local array at the protected site and peer arrays at the recovery site. The following is the step-by-step guide to configure SRM. SRM and SRA Prerequisites EonStor DS series requirements for SRA 1.0.8(i) and above Remote replication license required at both the protected and recovery sites Recommend systems with firmware 5.1x or later VMware vcenter SRM requirements VMware vcenter Site Recovery Manager 5.5 or 5.8 license Site Recovery Manager, VMware vcenter servers, and SRM database servers should be installed in individual VMs or physical servers SRA (installed on the server with SRM) VMware tools for Guest OS virtual machine Windows platform support only VMware vcenter, vsphere Client, ESXi Server, Guest OS, Database are required, Please check compatibility Matrixes for SRM Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 38 / 71

39 SRM and SRA Configuration Protected Site Recovery Site ESXi IP: ESXi IP: ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 vcenter IP: vcenter IP: vcenter Server 5.5 vcenter Server 5.5 DS 3016T IP: DS 1016T IP: DS 3016T DS 1016T Environment to demonstrate SRM Step 1: Set up Replication Pair and create backup schedule. 1. Before SRM and SRA installation, you have to set up Replication Pair via SANWatch. Connect two systems by in-band or source system with in-band and targeted system with out-band and then select Replication Manager. 2. Create a replication pair. 3. Select a method for pair creation. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 39 / 71

40 Scenario 1: If you want to create a new source volume, select Create a new volume as the source of replication pair. Scenario 2: If you want to use an existing source volume, choose Select existing volume for replication pair creation. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 40 / 71

41 4. Select your source device and source partition. 5. Select your remote device and logical volume on that remote device. 6. Select a replication mode There are several replication types, including synchronous mirror, asynchronous mirror, and volume copy. Synchronous mirror requires higher network bandwidth and is suitable for critical data. Asynchronous mirror is suitable for archived data. Volume copy is used for application development or tests. In most scenarios, we recommend using volume mirror in asynchronous mode because of lower performance impact during office hour. The backup schedule should be arranged based on user requirements. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 41 / 71

42 7. Select Diagnose Network to check the connection status between the source device and target device before creating the replication pair. 8. Click Next and system will create a replication pair. 9. Create a backup schedule and select the backup type. 10. Select the schedule target and create the schedule. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 42 / 71

43 Step 2. SRM Server Installation 1. Download Infortrend SRA from VMware or Infortrend Customer Support System VMware website: Infortrend Customer Support System: 2. Install SRM Server in VMs or physical servers on both Protected and Recovery Sites In this best practice, we install SRM Server in a virtual machine (take ESXi for example) Protected Site Recovery Site SRM Server Protected VM SRM Server Apps OS Apps OS Apps OS VM Virtualization layer VM VM Virtualization layer ESXi IP: ESXi IP: ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 vcenter IP: vcenter IP: vcenter Server 5.5 vcenter Server 5.5 DS 3016T IP: DS 1016T IP: DS 3016T DS 1016T Before starting SRM server installation, we have to set up a dedicated database for SRM server (ESXi ), please refer to VMware website for database compatibility matrixes Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 43 / 71

44 Open the Guest OS ESXi ( ) console to install SRM, and setup vcenter Server Credentials and database configuration Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 44 / 71

45 If SRM service failed to start during installation, please change the VMware Site Recovery Manager Service in Windows Service Manager to use the domain account and this issue will be solved. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 45 / 71

46 Step 3. Storage Replication Adapters 5.5/ 5.8 Installation 1. Download SRA from support site and install. 2. Please confirm the Infortrend DS Series SRA Service is started in SRM server. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 46 / 71

47 Step 4. Enable SRM in vcenter Go to Home -> Plug-ins -> Manage Plug-ins and download available SRM Plug-ins Step 5. Click Site Recovery in home page and Configure Connection between Protected site ( ) and Recovery Site ( ) Go to Site -> Configure Connection -> Enter IP Address and access port number -> Provide vcenter user name and password Note: Please confirm port 80 is available and not used by other services in order to build connection among these two sites. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 47 / 71

48 Step 6. Right Click the Recovery Site s IP to login. Step 7. After connection creation, you must have to configure resource, folder, and network mapping to make SRM to properly move all protected data to right place in recovery site. Go to Site -> Resource Mapping / Folder Mapping / Network Mapping Note: Please confirm all the information including resource, folder and networking are synchronized on both sites. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 48 / 71

49 Step 8. Configure Placeholder Datastores For every virtual machine in a protection group, Site Recovery Manager creates a placeholder virtual machine at the recovery site. You must identify a datastore on the recovery site in which Site Recovery Manager can store the placeholder virtual machines. Note: You cannot select replicated datastores as placeholder datastores and for clusters the placeholder datastores must be visible to all of the hosts in the cluster. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 49 / 71

50 Step 9. Configure Array Manager After establishing a basic connection between primary and remote sites, the user should discover Infortrend SRA in Array Managers. Users may configure Local and Peer array IP addresses. Go to Array Managers -> Add an Array Manager -> Enter display name for this adapter, such as Infortrend_SRA -> Enter both local and peer array s IP address -> Repeat the same procedure to add Array Manager on recovery site. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 50 / 71

51 Note. Please enable Array Pairs manual on Discovered Array Pairs page as following: Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 51 / 71

52 Step 10. Create a Protection Group Once both sites and Array Managers are configured, the user can create a protection Group and select targeted partition(s) to protect. Go to Protection Groups -> Create a Protection Group -> Select targeted array pair -> Select targeted partition(s) to protect -> Naming this protection group Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 52 / 71

53 Step 11. Create Recovery Plan Go to Recovery Plans -> Create Recovery Plan -> Select Recovery Site -> Select targeted protection group -> SRM will automatically test network -> Naming this recovery plan Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 53 / 71

54 Step 12. Different interaction workflows between SRM server and EonStor DS series storage can be initiated now, including Test, Cleanup, Recovery, and Reprotect. In addition, the user can define the priority for each virtual machine. Site Recovery Manager sets all virtual machines in a new recovery plan to recovery priority level 3 by default. If a planned migration or a disaster occurs, Site Recovery Manager will start virtual machines on the recovery site based on the priority. Site Recovery Manager starts priority 1 virtual machines first, then priority 2 virtual machines second, and so on. Note: SRA Parameters Configuration Go to Home > Solutions and Applications > Site Recovery, right click both protected site and recovery site, click Advanced settings, go to storage, and change the default value 300 to 600 for the parameter storage.commandtimeout. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 54 / 71

55 Workflows between SRM and EonStor DS Test Recovery Plan When you test a recovery plan, Site Recovery Manager will execute the recovery plan step by step, including test network, execute remote mirror of replicated data at the recovery site. It will make sure the synchronizing data is available and writeable at the recovery site. The most improtant thing is that Site Recovery Manager does not disrupt the current operations at the protected site. It will skip the steps in the plan to shutdown all virtual machines in protected site and force devices at the recovery site to assume ownership. Figure: Testing the recovery plan Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 55 / 71

56 Notes: Before the test is starting you will get a warning to make sure you know what you are doing. You have the option here to select a checkbox to synchronize the datastores, too. Figure: Test Confirmation Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 56 / 71

57 Cleanup after Testing a Recovery Plan After testing a recovery plan, running a cleanup operation will make SRA remove the test environment and return the recovery plan back to Ready state. Figure: Cleanup after testing One-Click Recovery There are two failover possibilities that may occur and will require SRM and SRA to act. One is planned downtime, such as upgrades of operating system / applications and hardware maintenance. In this instance, we would ask SRA to shut down the VMs, unmount the datastores at protected site, execute datastores replication from source to target storage, and restart the services on the recovery site. Another is unplanned downtime when an unexpected event occurs. In this scenario, minimizing the impact is the key. Once virtual machines are offline at the protected site, copies of these virtual machines at the recovery site based on the last storage replication from protected sites could be powered up to resume the services. By using one-click button, both scenarios will be automatically covered by implementing the pre-defined procedure to migrate or recover the protected data. Figure: One-Click to execute planned migration or disaster recovery Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 57 / 71

58 For example, site A is the protected site and site B is the recovery site. If site A goes offline because of disaster. Using one click of Disaster Recovery, Site Recovery Manager will resume the services at site B based on the last storage replication. Figure: Scenario of disaster recovery Note. Enabling forced recovery If a disastrous event occurs and the protected site goes offline for an extended period of time, making SRM unable to perform its standard tasks covered in the previous chapter, you can follow the steps introduced in this chapter to carry out the recovery plan with a forced recovery option. This chapter assumes you are already familiar with the standard tasks of a recovery plan. For detailed instructions on the steps mentioned in this chapter, refer to the previous chapters. For more information about forced recovery, see VMware's documentation: 5B7CDD0A-75D7-426D-AC62-FAB73DED78AD.html&resultof=%22forced%22%20%22forc %22%20%22recovery%22%20 SRM From the home page of vsphere Client, click the Site Recovery icon to launch SRM. Select Sites from the left sidebar. 2. Select the site to which you want to adjust the settings, and then select Manage > Advanced Settings tab. 3. Select Recovery, and select the checkbox for "recovery.forcerecovery". 4. Repeat the above procedures for the opposite site. SRM From the home page of vsphere Client, click the Site Recovery icon to launch SRM. 2. Click Sites, right-click on the site to which you want to adjust the settings, and then choose Advanced Settings. 3. Select Recovery, and select the checkbox for "recovery.forcerecovery". 4. Repeat the above procedures for the opposite site. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 58 / 71

59 Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 59 / 71

60 Reprotecting Virtual Machines after a Recovery When site A comes back online, you can execute a Reprotect operation to protect the virtual machines on site B. Site B becomes the protected site, and site A becomes the recovery site. Site Recovery Manager and SRA reverse the direction of replication from site B to site A. Figure: Reprotect after planned migration or disaster recovery Figure: How it works in reprotect Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 60 / 71

61 Best Practice and Recommendations on SRM 1. Prepare an organized recovery plan in advance i. Define the backup schedule to meet RTO and RPO requirements. ii. Test the recovery plan to make sure it is usable. iii. Define the importance of each virtual machine and assign each VMs into High, Medium or Low priority groups and determine the start sequence of individual VMs in advance. 2. SRA only supports replication among DS models. 3. Within the same data center or non-cross WAN environment, EonStor DS can execute synchronous replication for business-critical service. 4. The user may choose asynchronous mode to allow the mirroring during off-peak hours in order to achieve effective bandwidth utilization and to reduce costs. 5. To ensure successful remote replication in an array-based scenario, users are advised to reserve extra space in the storage system at recovery sites. 6. It is highly recommend to configure Bi-directional protection. SRM is configured to fail over virtual machines from site A to site B at the same time that it is configured to fail over a different set of virtual machines from site B to site A. Note: Uni-directional protection to fail over virtual machines from site A to the site B. In this case, licenses are required only for the protected virtual machines at protected site A. However, SRM licenses must be purchased for the protected virtual machines at both sites for Bi-directional protection. 7. For more information about Infortrend Remote Replication, please refer to SANWatch Configurations for Remote Replication on EonStor DS EonStor DS remote replication feature guide Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 61 / 71

62 Remote Replication without SRM Introduction Even without SRM, remote replication on EonStor DS storage systems offers strong defense against major disruption to IT continuity, especially due to natural disasters. In combination with data services, such as snapshot and volume copy, remote replication allows entire data sets to be saved at physically separate locations. If one location becomes inaccessible, data can still be used from the remotely replicated data set. Additionally, Infortrend remote replication supports multiple modes and scenarios, with up to 64 replication pairs per system for maximum flexibility and redundancy. Infortrend systems also feature shorter replication times and higher bandwidth utilization to minimize delays and latency. EonStor DS Remote Replication to protect virtual machines Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 62 / 71

63 Protected Site Recovery Site Windows Server Apps OS VM Windows Server Apps OS VM SUSE Server Apps OS VM Virtualization layer Virtualization layer ESXi IP: ESXi IP: ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 vcenter IP: vcenter IP: vcenter Server 5.5 vcenter Server 5.5 DS 3016T IP: DS 1016T IP: DS 3016T RemoteMirror 1 DS 1016T Datastore for Windows 1 RemoteMirror 2 Datastore for Windows 2 RemoteMirror 3 Datastore for SUSE 1 Example to protect virtual machines by using Remote Replication Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 63 / 71

64 Configuration Step 1: Set up a Replication Pair between protected site and recovery site, and create a backup schedule via SANWatch as mentioned before. Step 2: Replicated data validation Currently we have set a pair between protected and recovery site. If you want to validate replicated data, you have to take a snapshot of the LUN (take Partition 1 as example, which is the target of Remote Mirror 1) on recovery site and map it to ESXi host ( ) on recovery site to validate the replicated data. Protected Site Recovery Site Windows Server Apps OS VM Windows Server Apps OS VM SUSE Server Apps OS VM Virtualization layer Virtualization layer ESXi IP: ESXi IP: ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 vcenter IP: vcenter IP: vcenter Server 5.5 vcenter Server 5.5 DS 3016T IP: DS 1016T IP: DS 3016T RemoteMirror 1 DS 1016T Datastore for Windows 1 RemoteMirror 2 Datastore for Windows 2 RemoteMirror 3 Datastore for SUSE 1 Example to validate replicated data by using snapshot Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 64 / 71

65 Go to SANWatch -> Select the partition which is the target of Remote Replication -> Select Snapshot -> Click Take Snapshot to take a snapshot for this partition -> When the snapshot has taken, select targeted snapshot and click Map -> Create host LUN mapping Go back to vcenter -> Select targeted ESX host-> Configuration -> Storage -> Add Storage -> Select VMFS Mount option (Keep the exiting signature / assign a new signature) -> Select Custom configuration Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 65 / 71

66 If you do not need to resign a VMFS datastore copy, you can mount it without changing its signature. You can keep the signature if, for example, you maintain synchronized copies of virtual machines at a secondary site as part of a disaster recovery plan. In the event of a disaster at the primary site, you mount the datastore copy and power on the virtual machines at the secondary site. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 66 / 71

67 Usage Case Scenario 1: When a disaster occurs Map the target LUNs to the remote ESX host manually, so that the service can continue. Scenario 2: When local site has been recovered Step 1: Unmap source when local has been recovered Step 2: Switch source and target roles, and Sync from remote to local Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 67 / 71

68 Step 3: Stop service and unmap remote source Step 4: Split Step 5: Switch source and target roles Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 68 / 71

69 Step 6: Sync from local to remote Step 7: Map source and service to complete failback procedure Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 69 / 71

70 Difference between with and without SRM Scenario 1: Replicated Data Validation It needs complicated procedure to validate replicated data without SRM 1. Execute Remote Replication from Protected site to Recovery site. 2. Create Snapshot of the Target Volume. 3. Map the snapshot to the host. 4. Boot the host to check data validity. Check data validity. 1. You only need to set remote replication pairs via SANWatch once in advance. 2. Click on the Test button and SRM automatically checks data validity. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 70 / 71

71 Scenario 2: After a Disaster It needs complicated procedures to resume services via multiple interfaces. 1. Based on the previous procedure of remote replication and mapping target volumes to ESXi Host via Infortrend GUI. 2. Manually boot each virtual machine to resume service in vcenter. However, SRM and DS Remote Replication make operations simple. 1. Based on previous procedure of remote replication, via SRM GUI, click on the Recovery button and SRM will automatically launch the recovery process. Conclusion The integration of VMware with EonStor DS series delivers lots of benefits that significantly reduce the complexity and workload in a virtual environment. For virtualized deployments from small to large, the combination of VMware and Infortrend solutions can greatly assist the IT administrator, quickly deliver flexibility, performance, reliability and agility to the IT infrastructure in the most cost-effective way. Therefore, the integration of VMware with Infortrend EonStor DS series is an ideal virtualization solution. Copyright 2016 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 71 / 71