Using VMware Community Source to Drive Innovation for ESX Server - An Emulex Perspective. James Smart Consulting Engineer Emulex Corporation

Transcription

1 Using VMware Community Source to Drive Innovation for ESX Server - An Emulex Perspective James Smart Consulting Engineer Emulex Corporation

2 Agenda Emulex overview The Opportunity Emulex and Community Source Community Source vs Open Source Tips and advice Questions?

3 Emulex Introduction $68 $140 Emulex Revenues $ Millions $245 $255 $308 $364 $376 FY'99 FY'00 FY'01 FY'02 FY'03 FY'04 FY'05 Growth +15% +104% +76% +4% +21% +18% +3% SAN Infrastructure leader Leading supplier of intelligent building blocks for storage solutions Fibre channel HBAs and IOCs Embedded FC Storage Switches Record FY 2005 revenues 7th consecutive year of revenue growth 5 year CAGR of 22% Headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA ~ 600 employees Deep systems expertise in both networking and storage Broad relationships with all the major service and storage providers Recent acquisitions include Vixel, Trebia, Aarohi, Sierra Logic Fiscal Year Ends June

4 The World s Leading Companies Rely On Emulex

5 Emulex Is Trusted World Wide Servers Storage Partners

6 Trends in Server ization and SANs Servers have a high connect rate with FC SANs Enterprises are now deploying ESX across development and production driving SAN connectivity Estimate 70-80% of ESX servers are SAN attached Enabled by: ESX supports 4 generations of Emulex HBAs SANs are ideal for server virtualization-based workloads Any-to-any storage sharing to VM s Facilitates high availability and backup implementations Ideal for for VMotion Applications Storage administrators are now understanding virtual machine workloads Using existing toolsets SAN and storage practices

7 Downsides to Server SAN Connectivity Previous Single-System relationship to physical port lost There is no VM-identification on any I/O request from the server No ability to differentiate VM-specific data flows in the fabric (QoS) Trouble-shooting issues with virtual machines more difficult Storage Presentation very different All ESX servers must be able to see all storage Open-Zoning All servers and storage in same zone LUN Mapping/Masking based on servers, not the machine No ability to track per-vm data access on the storage array Departmental division of Server admin vs Storage admin blurred.

8 N_Port_ID ization (NPIV) An approved mechanism in existing ANSI T11 (FC) Standards Allows 1 physical port to obtain more than 1 address per port Each address requires a unique WWPN No relationship dictated between physical port and WWPN Indistinguishable to other endpoints on the fabric HBA wwpn wwpn1 wwpn2 HBA FC Fabric FC Fabric Zones

9 Emulex LightPulse HBA Allows a Machine to effectively have its own SAN ID Each VM has World Wide Port Name (WWPN) resources Based on industry standard N_Port_ID ization (NPIV) Multiple SAN addresses assigned to a physical port and distributed to the VMs Enables SAN best practices: VM-based zoning and LUN masking/mapping to control presentation SAN tools can track the Machine Hypervisor Hypervisor Fibre Channel HBA WWN Emulex LightPulse HBA technology Multiple FCIDs

10 The NPIV Community Source Opportunity NPIV requires modifications to more than the device driver ESX must know/manage WWPN s as resources of the VM NPIV API between ESX and the driver is needed Must be integrated into ESX at VM startup or shutdown. VMotion must migrate the NPIV resources along with the VM. ESX has significant design points to consider: Understanding what could be for dynamic resources Ensuring proper connectivity prior to VM startup How to best create HA configurations Using Community Source, we can: Accelerate Development and integration into ESX Use the forum for tighter communication with ESX engineering and product management

11 CS-NPIV Project Emulex created an Open Project to work on NPIV January 2006 Includes Emulex and QLogic SVN branch on ESX 3.0 trunk reflector for discussion and submit logs Bi-Weekly Con Calls Results: Emulex-contributed API specification now an ESX interface VMware has integrated NPIV support into CS ESX kernel NPIV Technology Preview released September 2006 Set of rpms for ESX 3.0 to add NPIV support Installation of Emulex NPIV device driver Upcoming ESX releases folding in NPIV modifications

12 Community Source Impressions Positives: Ability to modify the kernel, not just your device driver. Able to gain deep understanding of ESX and how different parts interact Able to work directly with VMware engineers who concentrate on the vmware kernel Great ability to create change Create the solution Generate rpms to replace any or all kernel contents Ability to immediately test, and to do so without VMware interaction Very good support documentation (lab notes and pdf docs) How to install; Lay down rpms; Build ESX server components Test Suites provided for many components Good Bug-Tracking tools that can isolate view to a specific IHV Excellent Support team Knowledgeable and responds quickly Provides background testing support Occasionally makes modifications on your behalf

13 Community Source Impressions Cons: Applications and Management software is not part of CS It is difficult to create applications to test your kernel APIs No opportunity to aid in integrating change into Center Dependent upon VMware for VC changes CS is still young and doesn t enjoy wealth of IHV participation (yet) CS processes still going through growth process A lot of communication still occurs behind the scenes Actual ESX integration, support levels, and schedules driven by VMware

14 Community Source vs Open Source Similarities: If you have the need, you can make it happen Full access to kernel code. Can see what it s doing. Very good mailing lists used for help. Very knowledgeable residents on these lists. Differences (ESX vs Linux): ESX Single company managing process Clear, quick acceptance process. Direct access to CS SVN pool Kernel acceptance by VMware Small group of reviewers Review focused on End-User/Product Strict compatibility requirements Very Good Documentation and Lab Notes Linux Entities: The Community; each Distro Acceptance process cloudy. Kernel integration multi-staged. Kernel acceptance by Community & Distro Large community review More focused on architectural purity More amenable to API change Documentation scattered, perhaps out of date, not all inclusive. Some very good.

15 Community Source Benefits Time to Market Can significantly influence and accelerate change in ESX Ability to create asynchronous ISO images Ability to ship previews outside of VMware product delivery dates. Ultimately, support is still based on VMware schedules

16 Tips and Advice Get started early Identify the technology and project and engage VMware team Utilize the resources across the board VMware business, marketing, engineering and test resources Understand the options Private engagement, project group or CS-wide Get customer validation Understand VMware customer and your customer overlap Be realistic Rome wasn t built in a day, and neither was ESX

17 Thank You Questions?

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