AirWave 8.0. Server Sizing Guide

Transcription

1 AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide

2 Copyright Open Source Code Lega Notice Warranty November AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide

3 Contents Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements 5 Tested HardwarePatforms 5 Testing Environment Parameters 5 Test Vaues 6 Conditions that Impact HardwareSizing 7 Choosing Your RAID Controer 9 RAID Configuration Information 9 Choosing Your Hard Drives 9 SSDs vs15k SAS 9 Chapter 2 Configuring Your Hardware 10 CPU Configuration 10 Disk Partitioning 10 Fiesystem Configuration 10 Chapter 3 Virtuaization 11 Virtuaization 11 Appendix A Sizing a Master Consoe and Faiover Server 12 Master Consoe 12 Faiover Server 12 Contacting Aruba 13 AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Contents 3

4 4 Contents AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide

5 Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements This document provides genera guideines to foow when seecting and configuring hardware. The first part of this chapter describes two AirWave appiances, and thenetworking environment in which thoseappiances were tested and vaidated. The foowing sections ists network conditions and AirWave settings that can cause your server sizing needs to differ from thetested vaues, and how thosesettings might impact your choice of hardware. Pease keep in mind that theinformation presented in this Sizing Guideis intended as a set of guiding principes and not a guarantee of a eve of performance on given hardware. If you have questions about how to provision AirWave appropriatey for your network, and certainy if you intend to monitor more than 3,000 devices, pease contact Aruba support. Tested Hardware Patforms The information provided in this document is based on interna testing scenarios using thehardware patforms described in Tabe 1, beow. These hardware patforms have been tested and verified in thearuba test networking environment, which is described in detai in "Testing Environment Parameters" on page 5. Tabe 1: Tested Hardware Patforms Mode 500 Device Server AW-HW-PRO AW-HW-ENT Maximum Devices CPU 1 x Inte Xeon E3-1225v2, 3.2 GHz 1 x Inte Xeon E5-2640, 2.5 GHz 2 x Inte Xeon E5-2640, 2.5 GHz Physica Cores Passmark Score RAM 8 GB 32 GB 64 GB Disks (RAID10 ony) SSD 6 x 146 GB 15k rpm SAS 8 x 146 GB 15k rpm SAS Storage Capacity 120 GB 438 GB 584 GB Maximum Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPs) The 500 supported-devices server described above is not an appiance sod by Aruba. Testing Environment Parameters The hardware patforms described in "Tested Hardware Patforms" on page 5 support a network with the foowing Aruba test vaues. This testing information is incuded to give you a cear idea of thetype of environment that is recommended for these hardware patforms, and to give you an opportunity to note how yourown networking environment may differ from thearuba testing environment, as any changes from these conditions can have a significant impact hardware performance and requirements. For more information on how these differences can impact your network, see "Conditions that Impact Hardware Sizing" on page 7. AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements 5

6 Aruba uses a PassMark ( score of AirWave appiance CPUs to compare the reative processing power between servers. These scores provide for a cose comparison, athough thescore for a CPU mode can vary over timeas more users contribute benchmark vaues for that CPU. To cacuate theiops deivered by thedisk subsystem, Aruba uses thecacuator at The foowing vaues for that cacuator most cosey approximate thedisk workoad characteristics of theamp. RAID Leve: RAID 1 and 10 Stripe size: 1024 KiB Number of drives: 8 Reads %: 20% Read cache hit ratio: 95% Write cache hit ratio: 65% Average I/O size : 8 KiB Test Vaues Scaabiity is tested based on thefoowing test vaues. Deviations fromthesevaues can impact overa scaabiity of your AirWave server. Tabe 2: Wireess Scaabiity TestVaues Category AP Interface poing period 10 Device-to-device ink period 5 CDP neighbor data poing 30 Ratio of switches/routers to access points 25% Read ARP poing (hours) 4 Read CDP tabe for device discovery poing (hours) 4 Read bridge forwarding tabe poing (hours) 4 Interface Up/Down poing period 10 Ratio of APs to controers 128:1 Ratio of cients to APs 5:1 Ratio of switches/routers to access points 25% Average port density of switches/routers 36 Read ARP poing period (hours) 8 Read CDP tabe for device discovery poing period (hours) 8 Read bridge forwarding tabe poing period (hours) 8 Interface poing period (minutes) 20 6 Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide

7 Tabe 3: VisuaRF Scaabiity TestVaues Category Average foor pan size (feet) 62,500 Number of access points per foor pan 20 Number of cients per foor pan 100 Number of attenuation grid ces per foor pan 2,500 Number Rogue devices per foor pan 20 AMP Synchronization timer (minutes) 15 Rogue ocation timer (minutes) 30 Location cacuation timer (min/max/number of sampes) 90/360/3 Conditions that Impact Hardware Sizing Accurate hardware sizing is amost as much of an art as it is a science, as it requires you to baance theneeds of your users and thedemands of your existing network infrastructure using a very compex set of interdependent variabes. There is no one-size-fits-a approach to hardware sizing that can accuratey predict theneeds of any individua network. However, as part of a best practice methodoogy for hardware sizing, Aruba suggests network administrators review thefoowing ist of network requirements and variabes, a of which that have a significant impact on the oad on AMP, and are a factors to consider when determining hardware requirements. Cient Mobiity: How often are your cients roaming? This is argey a function of your environment, but more frequent cient roaming increases theamp workoad. For exampe, a typica corporate office has reativey ow cient mobiity, as most peope stay at their desks for extended periods of time. In contrast, at a university, thousands of students change cassrooms on thehour, producing a food of association change data for theamp to process. Airports have yet another typeof cient mobiity pattern, with many new, highy mobie cients. These cient mobiity factors impact thedisk write demands and thestorage requirements of theamp server. Number Cients Per AP: The number of cients served by AirWave has a direct and significant impact on hardware sizing requirement. As a guideine, consider that thearuba testing environment assumes a cient-to- AP ratio of 5:1. If thetest networking environment was atered to support twicethecients, theserver size woud need to doube as we. Ratio of New Cients: AirWave requires more processing resources to identify new cients than existing cients. If your AirWave server manages APs in pubic paces ike airports or retai spaces, your network wi ikey have a higher ratio of new cients than thetesting environment, wi need a server with increased processing power. Wired Switch Percentage: Switches demand more processing resources from AMP. The 4,000 device rating for theaw-hw-ent appiance assumes s distribution of 20% switches and 80% APs. If your network has a higher percentage of switches, consider a server with increased CPU processing power. AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements 7

8 Trap Rate: Traps consume processing resources, and trap rates are associated with cient mobiity. The AW- HW-ENT appiance was tested against a continuous rate of 100 traps/second. If your environment wi trigger more traps than thetest environment, consider a hardware server with a greater CPU and IOPS capacity. AMON: AMON aows AMP to coect enhanced data from Aruba devices on certain firmwareversions. An AMP server coecting data using AMON requires more CPU and memory resources than an AMP server using SNMP, especiay if AMP is coecting AppRF and Unified Communication and Coaboration (UCC) data. AppRF can produce a ot of data and increase theamp s storage requirements, but an upper bound can be configured to mitigate that probem. SNMP Po Periods: The AW-HW-ENT appiance is certified with defaut poing periods (i.e., 10 minutes for interface poing, 5 minutes for up/down poing). More aggressive or frequent AMP poing needs a server with increased CPU and IOPS capacity to hande theincreased workoad. RAPIDS. The Rogue AP Intrusion Detection System (RAPIDS) is another feature that can have a major impact theamp server size. Identifying and processing rogue APs consumes CPU and disk resources on theamp. If the AMP manages an AP that detects many APs in other networks (for exampe, if your AP is in an open paza or an atrium in a shopping ma) then that AP wi ikey identify a arge amount of rogue APs, requiring increased server capacity. VisuaRF: The numbers of foor pans and campuses managed and monitored by AMP directy impacts the amount of memory used by thevisuarf feature. The AMP server may need more memory resources to manage a compex network using VisuaRF. Data Retention Periods. Long retention periods increase thebuk of data theamp has to manage. If your network requires onger data retention periods than thedefaut retention settings, consider a server with a arger disk capacity than thetested devices. Reports. The type, frequency and scope of reports can have an arge impact on theamp. The AMP RAID controers are configured for write-back, so they behave ike an soid-state drive for writes. Reads, on the other hand, take much more processing resources. Report generation require that a ot of data is read from thedisk, which sows thedisk subsystem. Interna testing is focused on thesteady-state of theamp, and does not expicity factor in report generation and processes ike nighty maintenance. Interna testing ensures the steady-state never uses 100% of theserver's resources so there is extra processing avaiabe when needed. If you wi be generating reports frequenty, consider a server with a greater IOPS and disk capacity. Instant APs: The Supported Devices vaues in Tabe 1do not appy to Instant APs uness thefoowing criteria are met. n n n Device counts are adjusted for virtua controers An Instant AP acting as a virtua controer is managed as two devices; one virtua controer, and one AP. (This is in contrast to Instant APs associated to theinstant virtua controer and standard APs, which are counted as a singe device). If your network incudes a arge number of standaone Instant APs acting as virtua controers, be aware that this may impact the device count. The Supported Devices vaues in in Tabe 1 assume that these devices are standard APs. If your network incudes many Instant virtua controers, your hardware requirements must take into consideration increased device count. WAN Link is High Quaity. The quaity of thewan ink has a arge impact on Instant networks. Poor WAN ink quaity increases the amount of time it takes for an Instant AP to downoad new firmware, causing downoads to take onger. This increases http socket utiization, reducing theabiity of other Instant APs to initiate their firmware downoads. Configuration updates are pushed from AMP to Instant APs one device at a time, so if an Instant AP on poor quaity WAN ink is sow to update, that AP acts as a botteneck, sowing down the configuration push to other devices. Rogue Poing and VisuaRF are disabed 8 Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide

9 A singe Instant AP cannot accuratey detect rogue APs or determine VisuaRF ocation information, as these features typicay require trianguation between three or more APs to accuratey detect theocations of other devices on the networks. Best practices are to disabe rogue poing and VisuaRF in networks with just a singe Instant AP per ocation, to reserve memory and CPU utiization resources for other processes. Choosing Your RAID Controer RAID 10 is theony supported RAID configuration forairwave. Software RAID and SATA drives are NOT SUPPORTED for any configuration of AirWave. RAID Configuration Information For RAID 10: Usea dedicated HardwareRAID controer with caching and battery backup or a non voatie (NV) cache. Configure theraid controer for Write-Back caching with battery backup (uness NVcache is seected, in which case Force Write-Back without Battery backup is recommended). Enabe individua drive caching. Ensure that a disks are assigned and configured to a singe voume. ImproperRAID configuration can resut in drasticay reduced server performance. If you have any questions regarding hardware compatibiity or seection, contact Aruba support. Choosing Your Hard Drives 15K SAS drives are the highest performance spinning patter drives avaiabe today. Seria ATA and 10K SAS are vasty outperformed by 15K SAS, and shoud not be used in an AirWave server. You wi need to seect theappropriatey sized hard drive to meet your desired storage voume after taking into account RAID 10 reduction on overa storage capacity. RAID 10 reduces your singe voume avaiabe drive space by ½ because of theredundancy introduced. An exampe woud be 16x 146GB 15K SAS hard drives in a RAID 10 voume wi resut in approximatey 1.1 TB of storage space [(16*146GB)/ 2]. To ensure hardware capabiity, purchase server hardware that is certified to be compatibe with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2. SSDs vs 15K SAS Soid State Drives are becoming more affordabe and are being offered as a high performance drive option by many vendors. SSDs offer performance that far outstrips 15K SAS. AirWave supports depoyment on SSD based storage arrays and can take advantage of thehigh speed disk access and stear random write performance. Enterprise grade or high-end consumer grade SSDs are suitabe, but avoid ow-end consumer grade drives with oder controers. Confirm with your vendor prior to purchasing SSDs that their offerings are appropriate for a 24/7 sustained high random write database server. In genera, RAID 10 is sti recommended forssd depoyments to aow forthebest overa redundancy and performance. Any parity based RAID (5/6/etc) is not recommended. For additiona information, pease contact Aruba support. AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Chapter 1 Identifying Hardware Requirements 9

10 Chapter 2 Configuring Your Hardware This section expains sizing information forcpus, Disk partitions, and fiesystems, and it incudes thefoowing sections: "CPU Configuration " on page 10 "Disk Partitioning" on page 10 "Fiesystem Configuration" on page 10 CPU Configuration Ensure that Power Management is configured for Maximum Performance. By defaut, most vendors configure BIOS to an eco-friendy setting. Ensure that Memory Operating Mode is configured to Optimizer Mode, if avaiabe. Disk Partitioning AirWave automaticay partitions thedisk subsystem upon instaation. You can override these vaues. Tabe 4 beow ists thedefaut partitioning and provides guidance for more advanced scenarios. Tabe 4: Defaut Partitions Defaut Partitions boot swap Size 100 MB 4 GB / Remainder of disk space Fiesystem Configuration For AirWave, the NOOP Fie I/O scheduer provides the best random write performance. If you are running AirWave 7.2 or ater, AirWave shoud automaticay manage this setting for you. To check thecurrenty assigned scheduer (if sda is not your device name, pease repace with thecorrect device name): # cat /sys/bock/sda/queue/scheduer noop anticipatory deadine [cfq] (Sampe Output) To configure noop as your preferred scheduer: # echo noop > /sys/bock/sda/queue/scheduer And confirm that your change has been appied: # cat /sys/bock/sda/queue/scheduer [noop] anticipatory deadine cfq (Expected Output) AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Chapter 2 Configuring Your Hardware 10

11 Chapter 3 Virtuaization Virtuaization AirWave can run in a virtuaized environment. To ensure scaabiity, use a dedicated processor and memory. You must aso ensure that thedisk subsystem can maintain theiops throughput described in "Tested Hardware Patforms" on page 5. Most virtuaized environments use a shared disk subsystem assuming that each appication wi have bursts of I/O without a sustained high I/O throughput. AirWave requires a continuous sustained high data I/O rate. Aruba recommends a 20% increase buffer for virtua environments. Ensure you aocate enough extra disk space for the OS and swap when partitioning the virtua disk. AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Chapter 3 Virtuaization 11

12 Appendix A Sizing a Master Consoe and Faiover Server Master Consoe Tabe 5: Master Consoe Specifications Environment Size CPU Cass Cock Speed (GHz) CPUs Tota Cores Memory Disk Subsystem Sma (2-3 servers) Inte Xeon E GB 6x 146GB 15k RAID 10 (438GB usabe disk space) Large (>3 servers) Dua Inte Xeon E GB 8x 146GB 15k RAID 10 (584GB usabe disk space) Faiover Server The Faiover server shoud be at east as powerfu as the most powerfu AMP server that it monitors to ensure smooth operation in a faioversituation. AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide Appendix A Sizing a Master Consoe and Faiover Server 12

13 Contacting Aruba Pease contact your customer service representative or Aruba support if you have questions regarding hardware compatibiity or seection. Tabe 6: Contact Information Support Options Main Site Support Site Airheads Socia Forums and Knowedge Base North American Teephone Internationa Teephones Software Licensing Site Wireess Security Incident Response Team (WSIRT) arubanetworks.com support.arubanetworks.com community.arubanetworks.com (To Free) arubanetworks.com/support-services/arubasupport-program/contact-support/ icensing.arubanetworks.com arubanetworks.com/support/wsirt.php Support Emai Addresses Americas and APAC EMEA WSIRT Emai Pease emai detais of any security probem found in an Aruba product. 13 Appendix A Sizing a Master Consoe and Faiover Server AirWave 8.0 Server Sizing Guide