Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware 6.0 Hands-On Lab

Transcription

1 Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware 6.0 Hands-On Lab Description Dive into the VMware environment and explore the benefits of Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware. In this lab you'll learn how to increase visibility, availability and resiliency in your VMware environment with automated I/O management, load-balancing and reporting. This lab assumes a basic understanding of the VMware vsphere ESX environment, and the tools used to perform management of VMware ESX, such as vcenter. Guidance through the lab via screen shots and explanations should be adequate, should attendees not be familiar with these concepts before the lab. At the end of this lab, you should be able to Install DMP for VMware console and vcenter Plug-In Install DMP for VMware MPP onto ESXi 4.1 VMware Update Manager Install evaluation licenses to enable full functionality Basic understanding of system settings Array specific settings Enable and Disable DMP Paths Visualization of I/O metrics within the ESX Datacenter Notes A brief presentation will introduce this lab session and discuss key concepts. The lab will be directed and provide you with step-by-step walkthroughs of key features. Feel free to follow the lab using the instructions on the following pages. You can optionally perform this lab at your own pace. Be sure to ask your instructor any questions you may have. Thank you for coming to our lab session.

2 Items for the LAB: vcenter Server: dmpvcxx --- XX is the number for your lab group 00, 01, etc ESXi Server: senodex where X is the number for your lab group etc (sorry we couldn t get for this lab, so they are a bit different) vcenter Server Login: Administrator vcenter Server Password: Passw0rd VxDMP Temporary Key: AJP9-N2ZI-JTO2-3VPP-36PP-PPPP-PPR8-8PC Throughout the lab, commands or actions you need to take will be highlighted, such as: Click Command Installation of DMP for VMware Console and vcenter Plug-In The first step to perform during DMP for VMware installation is to install the vcenter Plug-In and the DMP Console. The DMP Console provides the communications bridge between the vcenter Plug-In and the Common Information Model components running on the ESX server. For production deployments, it is recommended that the DMP Console be installed on a Windows bit system, which may be a Virtual Machine. If Application HA is installed, the same server may be used for the DMP Console. It is not recommended for production to install the DMP console on the same system as the vcenter system. However, due to lab constraints, we will be co-locating the vcenter and the VxDMP Console software on the same administrative server. To begin with the lab, we will need to establish a Windows RDP session from the classroom workstation to your assigned administrative system. You will connect to vcenterxx, where XX has been assigned to you. There are 15 available systems, and you may need to work in groups of two. You can take turns, or assign a student to run through the tasks themselves. Establish an RDP connection to your assigned vcenter server Assuming Windows 7 Desktop go to: Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection The RDP Connection dialog will appear. In the Remote Desktop Connection: Type in the name of the vcenter Server Name provided (dmpvcxx) Login as: Administrator, Password: Passw0rd Then Click Connect 2 of 53

3 This should connect you to the vcenter host which you will use for this demo as seen in the picture below: 3 of 53

4 Next, we will prepare the environment for the demo by mounting the VxDMP ISO image. Mount the DMP for VMware ISO image located on the vcenter desktop. You can do this two ways. Double-click on the VRTS_Dynamic_Multi-Pathing_for_VMware_6.0.iso Icon on the desktop. We have installed drive management software to handle the manual effort of mounting the ISO for you. (This will mount the VxDMP ISO on drive G:) Or Right click on the VRTS_Dynamic_Multi-Pathing_for_VMware_6.0.iso icon and mount it by selecting the select drive letter and mount If you use the second method, make note of the drive letter you chose. We will come back to this mounted drive later in the next section. Once this is done, you will have the VxDMP Binary ISO mounted on the G: drive or on the drive of your choice. We will use this in the next section. Install vsphere Plug-in, Console Software and CLI interface In this section, we will install the vcenter Plug-in for VERITAS DMP for VMWare and the DMP console that is used to allow for a bridge between the plug-in and the ESXi components. These are required components to ensure that the vsphere plug-in can talk to VxDMP and to allow for statistics to be gathered from the hosts. 4 of 53

5 To do this, run the following steps: 1. Start Windows Explorer by clicking on the Folder Icon on the Task Bar 2. Navigate to the Drive (G) or the drive where the VRTS DMP Software was mounted 3. Locate the Setup.exe and double click on the (Setup.exe) executable: 5 of 53

6 This will start the VERITAS Dynamic Multipathing Installer (above). 4. Next, click on the Install button to install the VxDMP Console and Command Line Interface (CLI). Clicking this will also install the vcenter Plug-in required by the VxDMP product. Note: The Product Installer will take a few minutes while it verifies the prerequisites. Please be patient. If not already installed, the installer will install a C++ and a J# Redistributable package on the node. We have taken care of this step for you, so the wait times are less. 6 of 53

7 Once the prerequisites are done, you will see the items on the GUI below Note to students: Notice that the ports and are needed by the VxDMP product. Only port is needed to be open through the firewall. In this lab, we have taken care of this step for you. In your own enterprise environments, please note you will need to handle these port requirements for DMP Management. 7 of 53

8 The screen above will appear after pre-requisites are done and any packages for installation are installed. Click Next. Please Accept the EULA License Agreement and Click Next 8 of 53

9 Now we will see the installation screen. This allows you to choose the lab system you are installing on and the directory where the DMP Console will be installed. Since these binaries are small, there is little need to change these defaults, however, if your environment restricts installation to this common directory, it gives you the chance to change it. Note that you may change the installation directory and re-verify any settings. Accept the defaults. Please click Next On the next screen, we will fill in the details of the vcenter Server that you are using with your lab. 9 of 53

10 You do not need to change the IP of the VxDMP Console IP, this is the IP of the local node where the installation is occurring (the vcenter Server in our case). Fill in the name of the vcenter Server you were assigned: dmpvcxx where XX is the number given to you by the instructors. Leave the vcenter Web Service Port with the default value Enter your vcenter User Name and Password as previously given to you: Login: Administrator Password: Passw0rd See below for an example: 10 of 53

11 Once you are done with the values, click Next 11 of 53

12 The product installer will verify the login credentials with the vcenter Server, please be patient. It may take a few moments to accomplish this task. Click Next after verifying the pre-install report The installation will take a few moments to push the binaries to the machine. Note the installer will provide features and settings on the product as it is installing. You may also click on Show Details which will show you detailed information as it is installing. See the next few images as verification. 12 of 53

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14 Plug-in Install Complete. Once the installation completes (pictured above), you can click Next. This will register the console service with vcenter and sets up the DMP Console configuration. Note: You may get a Security Warning complaining about a Certificate Warning. Click the checkbox to Install this certificate and do not display any security warnings, Then click on Ignore 14 of 53

15 Once you are done you can click Finish. See below: You can now Close the Installer Screen. Click on the X on the upper right hand corner of the installer application. 15 of 53

16 Note the two new short-cuts on the windows GUI. These are discussed in the appendix of this lab guide. VxDDLAdm and VxDMPAdm are the two shortcuts which you can use to interact with VxDMP on ESXi through the command line.. Congratulations! You have just installed and configured the VxDMP for VMWare vcenter Plug-in and DMP Console, and the Command Line Interface. BUT Wait! You are not done yet. This is only the vsphere plug-in and the DMP Communications console the VxDMP needs to work with ESXi. We will prepare to install the DMP Binaries on ESXi in the next section. vsphere Client and VxDMP VMWare Update Manager Push Installation In this section we will use the vsphere Client to utilize VMWare s Update Manager tool to push the VxDMP for VMWare ESX binaries to the appropriate ESXi host in the lab. This is not the only method that you can use to install the VxDMP binaries onto the ESXi servers. Alternatively, you can use the vihostupdate CLI provided by VMWare to install the components. This is a more manual process, however it can be used where needed.. To show the versatility of VxDMP, we will show you the method which can be used to install the VxDMP binaries to the ESXi servers in your environment using VMWare s direct and supported method of installing 3 rd party tools on ESXi. This will more closely match what most VMWare administrators will want to do in their production environments. Note: If you would like to install VxDMP using the manual method, please inform an instructor. They will guide you through the process of manually installing the packages on the ESXi host. It is not required. Experts: If you are familiar with vsphere Client and how to navigate through it, you can log into the vsphere client here, go to hosts and clusters, select your ESXi hosts, and select VMWare Update Manger. Skip down to the Scan Host section below after logging in. To Begin: On the Windows GUI, double click on the VMWare vsphere Client icon on the Windows Desktop 16 of 53

17 This will bring up the login screen, fill out the appropriate credentials here as previously given: Hostname: dmpvcxx (where XX is your lab number provided by instructors) User Name: Administrator Password: Passw0rd (Or you may click on the Use Windows session credentials check box) 17 of 53

18 Click on Login Since this is (assumedly) the first time this vcenter Server has been logged into, you will get a Certificate Warning (see below), please click the Install this certificate checkbox and then click Ignore. After a few moments, you will see the vsphere GUI. Click on the Home Symbol in the Navigation tool bar 18 of 53

19 Now we will use VMWare Update Manager to install the VxDMP binaries to the ESXi server. We have done the work to get the packages into the VMWare Update Manager (VUM) for you. You do not need to do anything in the lab to get this to work. We will simply show you the flexibility of VUM to install our VxDMP packages for what can be large enterprise environment. The steps required to setup and configure VMWare Update Manager (VUM) are outlined in the VMWare installation guide. Click on the Hosts and Clusters Icon near the top of the working pane of the GUI Select the appropriate ESXi server assigned to you (it should be the only one there) named senodexx (where XX is your lab number, 1 2 3, etc) Then, on the tabs to the right, select the Update Manager Tab 19 of 53

20 Since the Lab environment is a fresh install, we will need to run the ESXi host through the Update Manager scan process. This may have already been done, however, for completeness, we will repeat this step now. Use these steps to Scan the host to prepare the installation. Right click on the ESXi host name in the GUI (senodexx) and then select Scan for Updates. This will check to see if your ESXi Host (senodexx) has the appropriate VERITAS VxDMP for VMWare binaries installed on it. 20 of 53

21 In the dialog that pops-up, select the checkbox that will scan for Patches and Extensions and then click Scan While this runs, notice on the Recent Tasks the Progress of the scanning of the Host. When it is done, the status will change to Completed 21 of 53

22 When the scan is complete, you should see in the Update Manager screen under hosts compliance view that the ESXi host is Non-Compliant. This is simply indicating that the physical host does not have the appropriate software installed for VxDMP. To Remediate (this will actually be the install of the product), click the Remediate button at the bottom of the screen in the Update Manager tab. This will bring up the Remediate Wizard dialog for this host. Continue.on next page. 22 of 53

23 Click on the VxDMP Baseline on the right underneath Baselines. Make sure that checkbox is selected. Validate the selections match above and then click Next. Verify that the 3 packages for VxDMP are selected (see below) and then click Next Next, on the Options Screen, you may optionally fill in the Task Description. Please select the Failure Response drop down to Power Off virtual machines and Retry, and set the Retry Delay 2 minutes. Leave the number of retries set to 3 (default). Please see the diagram below. 23 of 53

24 Once done, click Next Now you should see the Ready to Complete panel which will allow you to confirm your selections: Click Finish to begin the remediation 24 of 53

25 You will see tasks in the bottom task bar. And once done, Task Complete Reboot the ESXi Node Once you see the Remediation Complete Status for the Task, you will need to reboot the ESXi server to initialize DMP and have the installer finish the steps required to run the VxDMP Product. Please make sure you follow these steps as the product will not work without a reboot of the ESXi host. To Reboot: On the vsphere GUI, right click on the ESXi hostname on the left (senodexx) and choose Reboot. The right click is on the Hosts and Clusters view of the ESXi node, not the VUM view. 25 of 53

26 Enter a Reason if you wish, and click OK Please wait a few minutes. This may take a little time based on the resources in the lab. Once the ESXi host is back on line, reconnect to the host (senodexx) and go back into Update Manager. (You can reconnect by right clicking the host in vsphere GUI and clicking on Connect.) To Scan the host, once again on the host (senodexx) and choose Scan for Updates 26 of 53

27 Repeat the above steps to rescan, and when that task is complete, you should see that the ESXi is now compliant, which indicates that the node has the VxDMP software installed and properly configured on the ESXi host. Note: ESXi, depending on your speed, may do this step for you. Just look for compliance like below. One of the things you can see now, is that VxDMP now owns the Devices under the storage. To show this, Click on the Configuration tab followed by clicking the Storage selection under Hardware and then on the Devices View in the working pane. Note the Owner column in the Device listing: 27 of 53

28 Congratulations! You have now successfully installed VxDMP for ESXi. Using the VMWare Update Manager tool allows the greatest simplicity in installations across many ESXi nodes. We now have the environment ready to use VxDMP as the multi-pathing solution for ESXi. The next section will introduce you to the environment and VxDMP licensing. VxDMP for VMWare Licensing In this section, we will demonstrate the existing I/O path status before license installation along with installing a valid VxDMP for VMWare license using the vsphere Client. First, if you are not already in the vsphere Client, please log in using the steps in the previous vsphere section. Select the assigned ESXi host(s) from the Hosts and Clusters view in the vsphere Client. Then, select the VxDMP tab which now appears at the top in the working pane. Note: You may get a security warning when first selecting the tab, just select Yes Your vsphere GUI screen should look something like what is depicted below. 28 of 53

29 Now expand the storage array emc_clariion0 selection tree on the left under VxDMP Configuration, then highlight one of the LUNs presented to the Host from that array. Note the small yellow triangle and the state of the paths attached to this LUN (one will say NO_LICENSE). See below. This indicates that the appropriate license for VxDMP has not been installed on the vcenter Server. Without a full license, VxDMP will only utilize one path. We can address this by adding a license which we will do in the next step. To install a VxDMP license, on the vsphere GUI navigation toolbar, select Inventory > Solutions and Applications > VERITAS Dynamic Multi-Pathing. OR, you can select Home, then Click on the VERITAS Dynamic Multi-Pathing Icon (see Next Page) 29 of 53

30 This will send you to the main VxDMP Dynamic Multi-Pathing 6.0 for VMWare plug-in configuration (console) page. 30 of 53

31 Next, click on the License Management Tab on the top of the working pane. Select the ESXi host you are assigned to for the lab (senodexx) and either right click on the host or click on the Apply License button (see below) 31 of 53

32 Use the following evaluation license to apply to the ESXi host you selected above: AJP9-N2ZI-JTO2-3VPP-36PP-PPPP-PPR8-8PC Enter this key, exactly as it appears above, into the text box and check the I accept the terms of the License Agreement. Then, click on the Apply button. When the dialog completes, you will see the following entry for the ESXi host you installed the key on: 32 of 53

33 Then, once the license has been uploaded to the ESXi host, you can click OK to dismiss the Add New License dialog. Notice the host now has a license and is using an active key: Next, navigate back to Hosts and Clusters in the vsphere Client by selecting Inventory > Hosts and Clusters Please make sure you select also the VxDMP tab on the tabs on the top of the working pane. 33 of 53

34 Navigate through the VxDMP Configuration pane on the left to the LUNs presented to the host. (Select the array, expand it, then select a LUN.) Once there, click the Refresh button in the upper right hand corner of the working pane Now notice that the paths for the LUNs presented to the ESXi Host are now both ENABLED. Congratulations! At this point you have licensed the product and enabled both of the paths to the storage LUNs presented to the ESXi host. You should also have a basic understanding of how to browse the Arrays and LUNs sections of the VxDMP Plug-in. In the next section, we will walk through the basic usage of VxDMP for VMWare using the vsphere Client. VxDMP vcenter Operations using the vsphere GUI In this section we will familiarize you with how to gather statistics and navigate through the VxDMP vsphere plug-in for DMP on ESXi. Follow these steps to see how you can alter paths and see the differing I/O patterns that can be seen using the Plug-in. We will use these to see how generated I/O on a guest can be seen easily in the GUI. Now that we have installed the license and verified that paths are enabled, you can click on the ESXi server (senodexx) beneath the pane of the VxDMP Configuration panel on the left. Note that this displays the information about the Arrays attached. You can also hover over the graphics below to get high-level, real-time statistics for the array for reads and writes. 34 of 53

35 By default, the GUI displays the Storage View. Select the HBAs viewing tab (To the Right) to get information about the HBAs attached to this host and associated array. Note the granular statistics available to VMWare administrators directly in the vsphere GUI using VxDMP. 35 of 53

36 Another important feature here includes being able to reset and disable statistics gathering, and the ability to change which type of statistics you can view: Blocks Average (MS) Times You can select these two tabs to get other views of the statistics gathered by VxDMP by selecting the links. The page will update automatically. Try selecting on the Blocks view. You can also change the auto Refresh times as well by selecting the dropdown next to Auto Refresh: This will alter the amount of time between automatic updates. A value of 0 means never update the statistics. Next, select or highlight the emc_clariionx array on the left. Note that the statistics and LUN names are now displayed which will also detail the statistics gathered for these devices. 36 of 53

37 You can select the Array Ports tab at the top of the DMP Plug-in to get information about the array ports that these devices use as well. This gives you another view of how the array side is performing. Next, Select Array Ports, then select the Tabular View button at the right of the I/O statistics form on the right. All of the statistics that VxDMP for VMWare gathers are available in tabular form. This will demonstrate viewing these statistics, please see below. 37 of 53

38 Next, select one of the individual LUNs attached to this array. These are under the array listing on the left hand pane of the working view. Note the Number of paths attached. There should be two. (See the top of the working pane) Also note at the bottom of the view that each path is shown with statistics for each of the HBAs interaction with the selected LUN. We will make use of this view in the next section of the lab. You may also select the Tabular form to get the statistics gathered in tabular form as well. Now let s get some further detail on the DMP settings and tunables available for VMWare ESXi using the VxDMP product. DMP is highly tunable for specific I/O workloads. You can also set up DMP to have differing alerting and timeouts depending on the storage attached to the ESXi host environment. Follow these steps to look at these settings: Select/Highlight the ESXi server under VxDMP Configuration on the left hand pane. This is the ESXi server you installed VxDMP on. It is the lab node assigned to you (senodex). Then, select the Settings button on the right hand side of the working pane. (It looks like a gear) 38 of 53

39 This will pop up a dialog which will allow users to configure various DMP and Storage path settings. Select the DMP Daemon Control group on the left. Note the number of tunables and values which can be set here. If you use your mouse and hover over the settings, a help dialog will appear to show you each of the settings definition. This is helpful in determining what features can be enabled and changed using the dialog. 39 of 53

40 For the purposes of this lab, there is nothing that needs to be changed here. Simply note that there are many tunables available to end users to maximize the throughput and availability of storage using VxDMP. There is detailed documentation on these settings in the VxDMP Administrators guide which comes with the software or is downloadable from You may look at the other Settings groups to see them, but you do not need to change them for the purposes of the lab. Note the DMP Error Recovery tunables which can be changed to your specific array type and environment. Also note the Error Recovery group which allows you to set specific error recovery in the event of path loss. Please dismiss the settings dialog by clicking Cancel. We will come back to settings and I/O settings in the next section. VxDMP Array and I/O Pattern Operations In this section, we will now begin to look at how the VxDMP product can be used to add availability and vary I/O patterns across Array Enclosures. This section will show examples of how to change the I/O patterns to maximize Array functionality while preserving availability. To Begin, we need to get some VMWare I/O going in the test lab so that you can begin to see I/O patterns. First, Login to vsphere Client if you have not already done so. See the above section on how to do this if you need assistance. Or ask an instructor. Power on the RHEL 6.2 SAN VMWare guest in your Lab which is running off of the senodexx (where XX is the number given to you in the lab). You can do this by right clicking on the RHEL 6.2 SAN entry in vsphere Client > Power > Power On. Or you can highlight it and click the Green arrow on the top of the GUI. Please give this a few moments as the host needs to start. 40 of 53

41 After the node has started (3-5 minutes maximum), you can check to see if it is fully up by checking to see the Console is sitting at a login prompt. Note: We have taken care of generating Read, Write, and Random I/O in this Guest for you. There is no reason to Login to this node if you don t want to. If you wish, as an extra exercise, you can ask your instructor how to log into this console to look at the I/O generation script and modify it to your needs. THERE SHOULD BE VxDMP I/O BEING GENERATED AT THIS POINT! To look at the I/O generation, navigate to the ESXi host (senodex) and click on the VxDMP tab on the top of the working panel. Once there, note the I/O patterns and amounts on the bottom section of the Plug-in window. Again, remember there are I/Os already occurring, so there should be data displayed. Let s set a refresh rate of 15 seconds on the GUI by selecting the Auto Refresh dropdown box and selecting of 53

42 Next, use the Settings Tool to change the I/O pattern of the selected array for this lab. Make sure you select the emc_clariionx array on the left under VxDMP Configuration, then select the Settings button on the right. This will bring up the Settings dialog where the default I/O policy (iopolicy) will be set to MinimumQ. This setting is always the VxDMP default. MinQ tells DMP to use the path to the array which has the least amount of I/O in its specific path (HBA) queue. This is the best algorithm to use all HBAs effectively so that none of the HBAs are left idle.if we left the setting of iopolicy to MinimumQ and you went and viewed the statistical graphs, you would see that the HBAs would start to evenly distribute the I/O being generated to the array. You can see an example of this in the bar charts in the diagram above. In our lab, the array (Clariion) we are using is an Active Passive/Failover array, and the cabling is done in such a way that simultaneous I/O across both HBAs to the array is not possible. We can, however, use it to simulate other items. Please continue with the lab. Now we can use the settings to change the I/O Policy to whichever you decide is best for your environment. For the purposes of the Lab, change the I/O policy to Single-Active, then click OK. Observe over the next minute or so the changes in the I/O patterns displayed in the statistics pane (or tabular view). Watch which of the LUNs on the bottom of the graphical representation to see which LUNs are receiving the varying I/O on the RHEL host. To see what happens to the I/O pattern after making these IO policy changes, click on one of the LUNs below the registered array and notice the changes in the I/O (in this case from two paths to one). After a few minutes of observation, go back into settings and change the I/O policy to another pattern of your choice. Then repeat your observations based on your needs. This is your opportunity to explore the different I/O options available with VxDMP for VMWare. 42 of 53

43 So, you are thinking, what if a path fails? We can simulate this using VxDMP to show you what will happen when a path fails, disappears, or is taken out of the configuration. Lets discuss this below. Since we are in a lab and cannot physically shut down a path (by unplugging it or rebooting a switch), we will simulate this by shutting down an array port on the emc_clariion(x) array. To do this, highlight the emc_clariion(x) array on the left (1) and then select the Array Ports tab on the top of the working window (2). You should see the two array ports and their current status displayed. See below: (3) Right click and Select Disable 43 of 53

44 This will bring up a dialog. Confirm the HBA you are disabling, click on the force disable last path checkbox, and then click OK. You will see VxDMP disabling the port. 44 of 53

45 Once the path/port is disabled, the screen will refresh and you will see that the path chosen is now disabled, and the LUNs for the emc_clariion(x) array are now highlighted with a warning check next to them in the panel on the left of the VxDMP Plug working window. This is indicating that an event has taken place (removing a port to the LUNs). If would like to see the difference in the I/O, highlight one of the LUNs you observed before and look at the I/O statistics for that LUN. You should observe a skew in the I/O between the paths as one of them is now disabled. This may take a few moments, so please be patient. Note: Even if you left the lab section above in Single Active or in another balanced mode, VxDMP will ensure that even if you disabled a path, it will ensure it will use the remaining path. You do not need to leave the I/O policy set to multipath to a balanced or round robin mode. Please take a few moments to explore if you wish. I/O is still being generated by the automation put into the RHEL client. After you are done exploring the environment, please re-enable the port path by selecting the array > select the Array Ports tab > then right click on the disabled path and choose Enable 45 of 53

46 Choose the HBA, and then click OK. 46 of 53

47 If you wish, you can view the statistics view of the LUNs to see the I/O pattern return to using both paths (if you have multipathing I/O policies enabled). Congratulations! You have now completed this section of the VxDMP Lab. You should be able to configure a path, monitor its status, along with resulting I/O pattern changes. VxDMP in the vsphere DataCenter View VxDMP for VMWare ESXi is much more than an availability tool. You can also use it to display statistics on I/O for multiple ESX servers in a vcenter environment. In this section of the lab, we will demonstrate how VxDMP can display statistics for all ESXi I/O across the datacenter. This would be for all storage visible to the ESX servers registered to vcenter in this datacenter. To look at some of these statistics, we can navigate to the DataCenter view. Navigate to VxDMP Lab datacenter on the left of the screen, then select the VxDMP tab on the working pane of the vsphere GUI. This will display the array(s) attached to ESXi hosts in this datacenter. Observe the Arrays and the hosts attached (in the lab this will only be one). You can see all the arrays and hosts attached to them. Note that you can hover over the small information bubble next in the Hosts Connected tab. This will list all of the hosts attached to this Array. 47 of 53

48 Also note that the datacenter view can also display I/O statistics by Port in a Pie Chart. This is useful in noting how the I/O is being distributed to various ports in your datacenter storage (arrays). These charts are another powerful tool to note how your environment is behaving. You can see in the example above that more I/O is going over one port than another. What does the pie chart look like in your lab? Is there a distribution that is explainable? Can you see how affecting the I/O pattern (by setting the I/O policy) can affect these statistics? Next, note the graphical bar charts for the host(s) at the bottom of the working pane. 48 of 53

49 Here we can highlight and click on either the read or write bar to get statistics and mappings of the Virtual Machine and Virtual Disk to the individual LUNs. Please see below. 49 of 53

50 Think of this as your way of getting I/O statistics on a per-vm per-vmdk per-lun view. This helps identify which virtual machines are conducting the most I/O and how each of those I/Os are performing. In the picture above, can you see an issue in the read performance between the Clariion LUNs? Obviously with only one VM per lab environment, you will not see a great deal here. However, it is important to point out this valuable piece of information which can be used to aid in identification of nodes which may have I/O issues. With many ESXi environments sharing a single, or a few, disk arrays, you can quickly see how easily having these types of statistics will help you drive optimal performance, availability, and visibility across the datacenter. While you are exploring, have a look around in the Blocks/Average Time tabs or you can look into the individual views. Note the various changes in statistics as your view changes and how this can be used to troubleshoot and gather information on application behaviors. Remember, these values are available to you on a granular per HBA or Array port basis as well if you expand and highlight objects in the view selection. Congratulations! You have completed the VxDMP Lab. If you have time, and would like to view some of the command line interface operations, please refer to the Appendix. Thank you for taking the time to do the VxDMP for VMWare ESX lab. We appreciate it and would look forward to any comments or improvements you may have to the lab guide and the exercises within. If you have a moment, we would like your input. Please fill out the course survey when you have a moment. Thank you again for your participation. 50 of 53

51 Lab Appendix: If you have prior experience with DMP on other VERITAS Products, you may wish to see some of the command line interface operations which could be useful to users in an ESXi environment. While it isn t required to learn and use the command line to work with VxDMP with ESXi, there may be some scripting or other operations which may be valuable to some users. This section has a few basic commands and procedures to list information to alter or configure your DMP environment. From the Windows RDP session on the vcenter host: VxDMPAdm (DMP Administration) Double click on the vxdmpadm icon on the vcenter Server Windows Desktop: 51 of 53

52 Just double clicking on the icon will list the help section (as above) Using this interface we can manipulate VxDMP configurations, settings, and operations. The command can also be used in a script to manipulate settings on a as needed basis or as part of an operation to affect I/O patterns based on needs during off-business hours. Run some of these commands below as an example of how you can interact with the VxDMP settings in your environment. To set the host you want to interact with: set ESX_HOST_NAMES=<senodeXX> You should only have to enter your host and username/password once. vxdmpadm listenclosure emc_clariion0 all vxdmpadm license vxdmpadm listapm vxdmpadm getattr vxdmpadm listapm Note that many of the items, such as the getattr option, will display the same settings available to be manipulated as in the GUI. There are many operations available to you. Explore as you need to, however, please do not change any parameters permanently. Disk Discovery Libraries: Another tool is the DDL listing for assigning Array Support libraries for use with DMP. Here you can use the vxddladm command to alter the Array Support Libraries and Disk Discovery Libraries available in DMP to match your specific configuration. As new arrays come in to your enterprise, some Array Libraries need to be changed to match these configurations. Use this tool to modify an existing installation, to update a library, or to add new arrays to your configuration. Please see the command options below. 52 of 53

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