IBM SONAS with VMware vsphere 5: Bigger, better, and faster!

Transcription

1 IBM SONAS with VMware vsphere 5: Bigger, better, and faster! Technical report Benton Gallun IBM System and Technology Group SONAS ISV Enablement September 2011 Copyright IBM Corporation, 2011

2 Table of contents Abstract...1 Executive summary...1 Intended audience...1 Scope...1 VMware vsphere IBM SONAS... 2 SONAS 1.2 qualification on vsphere Storage VMotion... 3 Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler... 4 Image Builder and Auto Deploy... 4 Centralized logging... 4 Virtual network enhancements... 4 VMware Site Recovery Manager 5 (SRM5): Host-based replication... 5 Summary...6 Appendix A: Glossary...7 Appendix B: Resources...8 About the author...9 Trademarks and special notices...10 IBM SONAS with VMware vsphere 5.0: Bigger, better, and faster!

3 Abstract This technical paper discusses storage placement best practices for a VMware environment that uses IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) for its primary storage. VMware vsphere 5 offers a number of new features and enhancements to further improve usability, system consolidation ratios, and total cost of ownership (TCO) for SONAS customers using VMware. Executive summary More and more enterprises are turning to server virtualization to increase the utility of hardware and data center real estate while increasing uptime through the use of high availability (HA) solutions built around VMware with shared storage solutions, such as SONAS. As virtual machines increase in number and the amount of data stored (in TB) continue to grow and drive storage. I/O ever harder, IBM SONAS scalable I/O and storage provide a competitive advantage in the data center by allowing I/O and data resources to be aggregated and used efficiently on demand. SONAS presently supports the aggregation of storage nodes up to 14.5 PB in a space-efficient footprint. VMware vsphere and IBM SONAS together provide a winning solution, providing high return on investment (ROI) on data center costs for mid- and large-sized VMware consolidations, while providing one of the best-ofbreeds scalability. Intended audience This technical report is intended for: Scope Customers and prospects looking to implement effective storage solutions for the enterprise business IT virtual environment requiring extreme scalability with the integration of VMware vsphere 5 and IBM SONAS. IT Management that needs to implement a highly-available and massively-scalable enterprise IT virtual infrastructure Customers who need to consolidate data center resources while improving system density and scalability This technical paper provides: Details on VMware vsphere 5 features Best practices for vsphere 5 use with IBM SONAS This technical paper assumes familiarity with the following: Basic knowledge of VMware virtualization technologies and products, including: VMware vcenter Server VMware vsphere Basic knowledge of IBM SONAS system IBM SONAS version 1.2 GA version or higher. 1

4 VMware vsphere 5.0 VMware vsphere 5.0 is the latest data center virtualization suite from VMware for the enterprise. VMware has turned feedback from customers and partners into valuable and attractive features for building scalable private clouds.. New features include: Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), VMFS5 (Vmware File System v5), monster VM (up to 32 vprocs, 1 TB RAM) support, up to 512 virtual machines (VMs) per host, stretch cluster support up to 10 ms latency, Image Builder, Auto Deploy, zero disk deployment options, centralized logging, 3D graphics, USB 3.0, IBM Tivoli Netcool, and performance and management efficiency enhancements. IBM SONAS IBM SONAS is a leading edge storage solution that provides enterprises the capability to consolidate and manage data, while reducing floor space and management expenses. SONAS also provides a customercentric solution that permits nondisruptive virtualization growth along with a robust set of business continuity and management tools, while enabling business and economic advantages for customers. The SONAS advanced architecture virtualizes and consolidates hundreds to thousands of spinning disks into enterprise-wide file system, and can scale I/O and capacity dynamically as storage nodes are added. IBM Scale Out NAS translates into reduced total cost of administration, reduced capital expenditure, and enhanced operational efficiency. SONAS 1.2 qualification on vsphere 5.0 IBM participated in the vsphere 5 beta and ran extensive storage tests verifying the integrity of SONAS vsphere storage operations under load during Storage vmotion, HA failover, and VMware VMotion operations. All tests were conducted against a battery of Microsoft Windows 2003, Windows 2008, SUSE Linux, and RedHat virtual machines using LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, Bus Logic,and VMware paravirtual storage adapters. SONAS 1.2 has accordingly been certified for use with vsphere 5.0. You can find it in the VMwareHardware Compababiilty List (HCL) at: 2

5 Figure 1: SONAS entry from VMware HCL Figure 2: Certification ID from VMware Storage VMotion In the previous release of vsphere, Changed Block Tracking was used to ensure that blocks changed during the first pass of Storage VMotion were caught up before fail over. In vsphere 5.0, this process has changed and the new VMware Mirror Mode is used to make sure that new writes are written to both the source and target, while other virtual disk blocks are copied sequentially. The result is a more efficient and quicker failover from source to target. You can refer to Duncan Eppings blog for a more detailed explanation at: 3

6 Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler Storage DRS (SDRS) is a new feature in vsphere 5.0. Previous versions of vsphere contained DRS, which would redistribute virtual machines across hosts in a cluster based on a recent history of their average processor and memory requirements in order to provide the best fit of VMs to processor and memory resources in the cluster. Storage DRS provides a similar and complementary function dynamically moving virtual machines to different data stores in a data store cluster based on recent I/O averages and available data store space as monitored by Storage I/O Control (SIOC). SIOC support for Netowrk File System (NFS) has also been added to vsphere in the 5.0 release. Storage VMotion now supports linked clones and virtual machines with snapshots. SDRS can be automated or can be configured to make manual recommendations for rebalancing and helps to avoid a denial of service condition resulting from a full data store. In many environments, SDRS will take place primarily during the initial placement of a new VM to disk, thus dramatically reducing the need for excessive Storage VMotion operations and sparing system adminsitrators from having to do a manual storage analysis before creating a new VM. IBM recommends the following SDRS practices to SONAS customers: Observe support guidelines and use NFS exports with less than 64T. Make all NFS mounts of the same capacity when possible. Configure SDRS to migrate virtual machines to new data stores when insufficient space exists to fit a large VM on a data store. The default 80% setting in SDRS can be raised in many cases as the resulting free space on a 64T mount (12.T) is significantly larger than the largest VMDK virtual disk (2T) and will be larger than the largest VM in most of the deployments. For more information on SDRS, refer to the following URL: Image Builder and Auto Deploy Customers with large VMware deployments will benefit from the ability to create custom image profiles consisting of VMware and third party VMware installation bundles with Image Builder, which can be rapidly and automatically deployed through vsphere Auto Deploy. Hundreds of ESX servers can be deployed and customized using image profiles or can be updated to the latest VMware installation bundle patch levels within hours automatically. The Auto Deploy feature uses host profiles to customize host-specific information post deployment. Centralized logging Larger and larger vsphere deployments render analysis of logs distributed across ESX hosts increasingly complex. ESX systems with no local disk can now be deployed statelessly through Auto Deploy, and as a result, cannot retain a local log in the event of a crash. Logs can now be redirected to a centralized SO- NAS share or to a syslog server for increased convenience and improved availability. Virtual network enhancements VMware vsphere Distributed Switch improvements allow improved insight into traffic on virtual networks through protocols, such as Netflow, SPAN, and LLDP enabling sophisticated network analysis through 4

7 tools such as, Tivoli Netcool Performance Flow Analyzer, packet inspection through network sniffers, and network-level virtual machine discovery. VMware Site Recovery Manager 5 (SRM5): Host-based replication VMware Site Recovery Manager 5 with Host Based Replication support means many new disaster recover (DR) data center possibilities for SONAS. SONAS large data capacity makes it ideal as a recovery target for a large number of virtual machines hosted on SONAS or another platform which is at or near its capacity. Figure 3 represents four data centers with IBM System Storage N series, N7900, with 1 PB of hosted virtual machines. Earlier, four N series units would have been required in the disaster recovery (DR) data center. As host-based replication takes place in the hypervisor at the virtual disk level, SRM can leverage one SONAS with 4.4 PB in the DR data, center thus reducing complexity and cost. Figure 3: Representation of four data centers with IBM N-Series N7900 with 1 PB of hosted virtual machines. 5

8 Summary VMware vsphere 5.0 provides new features to enterprises enabling scale out of existing VMware deployments with larger VMs, more rapid infrastructure deployment, dynamic storage management, improved virtual network visibility, increased performance, and improved disaster recovery. Improved efficiency and monster VMs make consolidation of nearly all enterprise servers a possibility. Existing data center real estae is used more efficiently and power consumption goes down by consolidating providing lower TCO while improving manageability and reliability. SONAS scalability provides the ability to scale far beyond the capacity of traditional storage and makes it perfect for high-density consolidation and as a DR site storage solution for multiple vsphere deployments, regardless of their capacity. 6

9 Appendix A: Glossary IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) - Build on IBM high-performance computing experience, and based upon IBM General Parallel File System (IBM GPFS ), scale out network-attached storage (NAS) solution provides the performance, clustered scalability, high availability, and functionality that are essential to meet strategic Petabyte Age and cloud-storage requirements. VMware vsphere Formerly developed as VMware Virtual Infrastructure, it is VMware s first cloud operating system that can manage large pools of virtualized computing infrastructure, including software and hardware. VMware ESXi - VMware ESXi is bare-metal embedded hypervisor, which runs directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system. 7

10 Appendix B: Resources These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper: IBM Systems on PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/systems IBM Redbooks ibm.com/redbooks IBM Publications Center IBM SONAS on IBM PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/systems/sonas IBM SONAS documentation IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage Concepts ibm.com/redbooks/redpieces/abstracts/sg html?open IBM SONAS Introduction and Planning Guide (GA ): IBM SONAS administration and user documentation: IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage Administrator's Guide (GA ): _guide.pdf IBM SONAS User's Guide (GA ): guide.pdf IBM SONAS Configuration Guide (GA ): _guide.pdf IBM SONAS Troubleshooting Guide (GA ): de.pdf VMware documentation vsphere PowerCLI Administration Guide VMware Virtual Networking Concepts 8

11 About the author Benton Gallun is a Systems Architect in the IBM SONAS ISV Enablement Group. He has 15 years experience working with thin client, virtualization, and storage technologies. His focus is on server virtualization, Virtual Dekstop Infrastructure (VDI), and cloud solutions from ISVs which leverage the power of scale out NAS. You can reach Benton at bgallun@us.ibm.com. 9

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