RAIDIX Data Storage Solution. Data Storage for a VMware Virtualization Cluster

Transcription

1 RAIDIX Data Storage Solution Data Storage for a VMware Virtualization Cluster 2017

2 Contents Synopsis... 2 Introduction... 3 RAIDIX Architecture for Virtualization... 4 Technical Characteristics... 7 Sample Project in an IT company... 9 Business Impact About RAIDIX Synopsis This document unveils VMWare infrastructure requirements, RAIDIX tech characteristics and recommended RAIDIX configurations for virtualization needs. All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

3 Introduction As of today, server virtualization is one of the most efficient methods of deploying private and public clouds, development and testing environments, as well as corporate applications. Server virtualization enables decreased TCO due to power and space economy, eliminates hardware vendor lock-in and boosts operational up-time. The RAIDIX solution for data storage in a virtual environment allows the administrator to facilitate and automate system management, and accomplish greater ROI and IT resources for every dollar invested into the corporate infrastructure. The key storage parameters include: Connectivity tools VMware ESXi and the data storage system may be connected via versatile protocols iscsi, NFS, etc. Virtual machines (VM) may employ corresponding files (configuration and vdisks) on all available datastores. At that, the administrator can make use of all VMWare s storage functions (VMotion, VMware DRS, VMware HA and VMware Storage VMotion). Performance Performance depends on a server utilized for data storage (RAID-controller and drive functions). Due to the RAIDIX unique algorithms and efficient parallelization of calculations, RAIDIX unlocks maximum performance expected from specific hardware. Moreover, RAIDIX-based systems enable elastic scalability with no degradation in case of increasing number of VMs or heavy workloads. Compatibility RAIDIX supports virtualization platforms VMware ESX 5.0/5.1/5.5/6.0; KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine); RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization), Microsoft Hyper-V Server, XenServer. All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

4 RAIDIX Architecture for Virtualization Pic. 1. VMWare and RAIDIX Data Storage. Configuring a Virtual Infrastructure on RAIDIX Storage 1. RAIDIX Installation For virtualization tasks, it s recommended to employ the RAID 6 array a level of interleaving blocks with double parity distribution, based on RAIDIX s proprietary mathematical algorithms. RAID 6 provides improved performance due to optimized paralleling of calculations (I/O requests are processed separately by each drive). RAID 6 ensures solid fault-tolerance sustaining complete failure of two drives in the same group. For increased performance in the enterprise environment, it s advisable to initialize RAID 6 arrays (RAID 6i where i stands for initialization). During the initialization process, the disks are primarily written with zeros, allowing for accelerated processing of transactional operations. All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

5 To ensure fast failover, high velocity and reliability, RAIDIX recommends to activate the Advanced Reconstruction feature. This mechanism optimizes performance of read operations by eliminating the drives with the lowest read rates. Advanced reconstruction can be used in two modes: Permanently: RAIDIX eliminates drives with the highest response time and resolves a system of equations in the background to restore the data. The system stops sending read requests to those drives for a second and then eliminates other slow drives. On-Demand: RAIDIX detects slow drives in a group and stops sending them read requests. The data is quickly restored by solving a system of equations. The drives with the lowest response time are assigned Slow status in the UI so the administrator can replace them quickly and ensure normal system performance. 2. Setting up ESXi The first step is to configure a target (e.g., Fibre Channel). The target connects to VMware ESXi. The next step is configuration of datastores in the dual controller mode (Active-Active). In this mode, both nodes are active, they work in parallel and provide access to the same pool of drives. The nodes are hardware-agnostic components of the data storage system that include processors, cache memory, motherboards and may be combined into a cluster. RAIDIX guarantees continuity of data access and provides fault-tolerance due to: Duplication of nodes Duplication of drive connection channels (both nodes are connected to a single set of drives). Nodes interact through InfiniBand, iscsi (over Ethernet), SAS, and Fibre Channel interfaces that allow for data and cache status synchronization. Due to bi-directional standby cache synchronization, the remote node always contains an up-to-date copy of data in the local node cache. Therefore, should one node fail, the All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

6 other node will transparently take over the entire workload, allowing the administrator to fix errors on the fly. Duplication of hardware components and interfaces provides protection against the following incidents: Failure of a single hardware component (CPU, motherboard, power supply unit, controller, system drive) Connection failure of a drive shelve interface (SAS cable, I/O module) Power failure for one of the nodes Software errors detected on one of the nodes. All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

7 Technical Characteristics Supported RAID levels RAID 0/5/6/7.3/10/N+M Max. number of drives in a RAID 64 Max. number of drives in the system 600 Scalability unit Hot spare Max. LUN size 12 drives Dedicated reserve disks and shared access disks Unlimited Max. number of LUNs 487 iscsi MPIO, ACLs, CHAP-authorization, LUN masking, СRC Digest Supported number of sessions 1024 Max. number of hosts in case of direct connection Supported operating systems Supported virtualization platforms Supported high-performance interface Supported NAS protocols Integration with MS Active Directory WORM (Write Once Read Many) Number of nodes Data caching 32 Mас OS Х and higher, Microsoft Windows Server 2008/ 2008 R2/ 2012, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8; Red Hat Linux, SuSE, ALT Linux, Cent OS Linux, Ubuntu Linux; Solaris 10 VMware ESX 3.5/4.0/4.1/5.0/5.1/5.5/6.0; KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine); RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization), Microsoft Hyper-V Server, XenServer Fibre Channel 8Gb, 16Gb; InfiniBand (FDR, QDR, DDR, EDR); iscsi; 12G SAS SMB, NFS, FTP, AFP Yes Yes 2 in the Active/Active mode Two-tier: RAM and Flash, WriteBack and All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

8 ReadAhead for multiple streams QoS support On the host/application level All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

9 Sample Project in an IT company The hardware infrastructure included 10 Supermicro servers with Broadcom HBA cards and Mellanox InfiniBand adapters. For synchronization purposes, ISCSI over InfiniBand was selected as the fastest method in this hardware configuration. ISCSI over Ethernet was used for failover. RAIDIX employed three RAID 6i partitions and an average of three LUNs per partition on each server. Every server hosted VMWare ESXi 5.1 and VCenter 5.1 with virtual machines (VMs). VMs performed versatile IT functions of MS SQL Database storage, backup server, fileservers for corporate users, virtual server farms for software engineers, office services, etc. The chosen configuration allowed for effective processing of random data, low system footprint and high reliability. Infrastructure scheme Storage Disks RAIDs LUN VM RAIDs 6i 3 LUN per RAID JBOD 6 RAIDs 6i 1 LUN per RAID RAIDs 6i 3 LUN per RAID RAIDs 6i 3 LUN per RAID RAIDs 6i RAIDs 6i 3 LUN on one RAID, 2 on the other RAID 3 LUN on one RAID, 2 on the other two RAIDs 6i 3 LUN per RAID RAIDs 6i 3 LUN per RAID RAIDs 3 LUN per RAID 72 All rights reserved. RAIDIX,

10 Business Impact Reliable fault-tolerant storage of critical data Flexible virtualization of existing infrastructures High performance of transactional operations Data availability at six nines (99,9999) Optimized IT expenses. About RAIDIX RAIDIX ( is a leading solution provider and developer of highperformance data storage systems. The company s strategic value builds on patented erasure coding methods and innovative technology designed by the in-house research laboratory. The RAIDIX Global Partner Network encompasses system integrators, storage vendors and IT solution providers offering RAIDIX-powered products for professional and enterprise use. All rights reserved. RAIDIX,