Flex-IO. Upgrade Guide

Transcription

1 Flex-IO Upgrade Guide

2 Introduction This guide has been authored by experts at Liquidware Labs in order to provide information and guidance concerning upgrading existing installations of Liquidware Labs Flex-IO. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any external use by any person or entity without the express prior written consent of Liquidware Labs. Liquidware Labs, Inc Mansell Road Suite 200 Alpharetta, Georgia U.S.A. Phone: Liquidware Labs Inc. All rights reserved. Stratusphere, ProfileUnity, FlexApp, FlexDisk, and Flex-IO are trademarks of Liquidware Labs. All other products are trademarks of their respective owners Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 1

3 Contents FLEX-IO OVERVIEW... 3 BEFORE YOU BEGIN... 4 UPGRADING FLEX-IO FROM PRIOR VERSIONS... 4 REMOVING VIRTUAL MACHINES FROM THE FLEX-IO DATASTORES... 5 REMOVING FLEX-IO STORAGE APPLIANCES FROM A HOST... 5 INSTALLING THE NEW SOFTWARE... 5 PUSHING OUT NEW STORAGE APPLIANCES... 6 USING THE NEWLY CREATED DATASTORES... 8 GETTING HELP WITH FLEX-IO... 9 USING ONLINE RESOURCES... 9 CONTACTING SUPPORT... 9 Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 2

4 Flex-IO Overview When it comes to using VDI in the enterprise environment, there is a particular challenge with running nonpersistent desktops in a shared environment. Users quickly hit a performance bottleneck as the maximum input/output operations per second (IOPS) are reached on storage devices. So how can you cost-effectively provide enough IOPS once you have moved to a shared storage design or even if you decide to use local spinning disk in your server to simplify your environment? Liquidware Labs solves this problem with Flex-IO. Flex-IO is designed to accelerate reads and writes of your existing storage for use with both non-persistent and persistent desktops. The Flex-IO technology is based on a one-to-one deployment model, meaning there is one Flex-IO per ESXi host. Flex-IO works by using ESXi host memory to cache read and write IOPS, accelerating them. For example, a volume that could only perform at ~600 IOPS can now perform at ~25,000 IOPS, and we have even seen a volume that could only perform at ~260 IOPS perform at ~33,000 IOPS. Flex-IO is a storage virtual appliance that sits inbetween your existing storage and your virtual desktops. The solution leverages a nominal amount of host RAM to serve as a high-performance storage device on each host, reducing latency. The Flex-IO Management Console allows administrators to centrally manage multiple Flex-IO Storage Virtual Appliances on multiple VDI hosts. The console is a web-based application that takes care of the following tasks for you when deploying Flex-IO Storage Appliances to your hosts: Creating storage appliance and uploading Flex-IO VMDK to datastore Creating internal private switch that is not connected to an external network interface card Creating port group on the above virtual switch Setting MTU to 9000 on the above port group Creating VMkernel IP on the above virtual switch Setting the VMkernel MTU to 9000 Setting a Private IP for the VMkernel that is only routable and secured for traffic only between the Flex-IO Storage Appliance and that hosts ESXi VMkernel. Setting IP addresses and MTU on the Flex-IO Storage Appliance Powering on Flex-IO Storage Virtual Appliance Mounting NFS Datastore Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 3

5 Before You Begin Before you begin the process of upgrading Flex-IO, please check the Software Requirements section of the Flex-IO Administration Guide to ensure that your environment complies with the latest system requirements for the Flex- IO Management Console and the Flex-IO Storage Virtual Appliances. Upgrading Flex-IO from Prior Versions If you are running a prior version of Flex-IO, there are several steps you will need to follow to upgrade your existing Flex-IO software to the latest version. Careful attention needs to be paid to any virtual machines that are using the Flex-IO datastore. The following steps will preserve those virtual machines through the upgrade process: 1. Remove any virtual machines from existing Flex-IO datastores. 2. Remove Flex-IO Storage Appliances from a Host. 3. Install the new version of Flex-IO over the top of the old version of the software. 4. Push out Flex-IO Storage Appliances again. 5. Use the newly created Flex-IO datastores. Keep reading for more details on each step of this upgrade process. Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 4

6 Removing Virtual Machines from the Flex-IO Datastores Before upgrading Flex-IO, all virtual machines currently using Flex-IO need to be migrated off the Flex-IO Datastore. Otherwise the Flex-IO Datastore, along with any virtual machines currently contained there on, will be locked and remain unusable. You will need to configure your desktop broker to no longer use the Flex-IO Datastore for any of its virtual machines. Removing Flex-IO Storage Appliances from a Host Removing a Flex-IO Storage Appliance can be done directly from the Flex-IO Management Console. Removing it through the console removes both the virtual appliance and all the networking components created during deployment. To remove the Flex-IO Storage Virtual Appliance from a host: 1. Select the host/storage appliance name pair and click on the Delete button below the list of current hosts where Flex-IO has been deployed. 2. Confirm the removal of the Flex-IO Storage Appliance from the selected host by selecting OK and it will be removed from the list. Installing the New Software The new version of Flex-IO can be installed over any older versions; there is no need to uninstall the old software first. Download the Flex-IO installer from Liquidware Labs ( to your server and run the installer as an administrator. Once the installer starts, follow the steps to install the software. Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 5

7 Pushing Out New Storage Appliances 1. Double-click on the Liquidware Labs Flex-IO icon on your desktop to open the Flex-IO Management Console, and login to the upgraded Flex-IO Management Console. (Administrative privileges required.) Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 6

8 2. Your VMware Virtual Center credentials that you entered in the prior version of Flex-IO should have been preserved so that you will not need to re-enter that information. Instead you will go directly to the Deployment section to create new Flex-IO Storage Appliances. As hosts are found, select your target host and pick your Datastore. Click Submit. 3. At this point, the Flex-IO Management Console will configure one host at a time which may take several minutes. When the configuration process is complete, you should have a new NFS Datastore on each host and the Deployment State should show Active. Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 7

9 Using the Newly Created Datastores Now you can configure your desktop broker to use the newly deployed Flex-IO Datastores for any of its virtual machines. Please see Configuring Your Desktop Broker to Use the Flex-IO Datastore in the Flex-IO Administration Guide for additional assistance. Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 8

10 Getting Help with Flex-IO If you have questions or run into issues while working with Flex-IO, Liquidware Labs is here to help. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge, tools, and support you need to be productive. Using Online Resources Liquidware Labs maintains various kinds of helpful resources on our Customer Support Portal. If you have questions about your product, please use these online resources to your full advantage. The Support Portal includes product forums, a searchable Knowledge Base, documentation, and best practices among other items. You can visit our website at Contacting Support If you wish to contact our Support staff for technical assistance, please either log a request on the Liquidware Labs Customer Support Portal or give us a call. Prior to Logging a Case you may want to review these helpful tips: Check the Product Documentation included with your Liquidware Labs Product. Try to see if the problem is reproducible. Check to see if the problem is isolated to one machine or more. Note any recent changes to your system and environment. Note the version of your Liquidware Labs product and environment details such as operating system, virtualization platform version, etc. To speak directly with Support, please use the following numbers: Toll Free in USA & Canada: International: Flex-IO : Administration Guide Page 9