Page 1 SANmelody TRIAL Quick Start Guide From Installation to Presenting Virtual Storage Download the trial software at: SANmelody Trial Software SANmelody TRIAL Quick Start Guide Change Summary August, 2009 www.datacore.com Initial version August, 2009 Changed page 3. Disks must be initialized in GPT. January 20, 2010 Date This document is the property of DataCore Software. It is intended solely as an aid for installing and configuring storage virtualization solutions with DataCore software products. This document does not provide a warranty to any DataCore software, equipment, or service, nor does it imply product availability. DataCore is not responsible for the use of this document and does not guarantee the results of its use. DataCore does not warrant or guarantee that anyone will be able to recreate or achieve the results described in this document. This document does not supersede technical knowledge taught in DataCore training courses nor professional skills in working with SAN and storage environments. DataCore Software reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. The installation and configuration described in this document made use of third party software and hardware. DataCore does not make any warranties or guarantees concerning such third party software and hardware. Copyright 2009-10 by. All rights reserved. DataCore, the DataCore logo, and SANmelody are trademarks of. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. No part of this document may be copied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form without the prior written consent of.
Page 2 Pre requisites For the SANmelody Disk Server: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32 bit or 64 bit versions) Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 A full list of SANmelody pre requisites can be found at http:///products/prod_sanmel_prerequisites.asp. SANmelody trial versions have usage limitations such as a maximum of 1 TB in pools. See the Trial download page on the DataCore Software Web site for complete information. For the Application Server (the server that will consume the presented virtual volumes, also known as LUNs): You can pick and choose any operating system as long as you know how to establish an iscsi initiator connection to an iscsi target. For the purpose of illustration in this document, we are using an application server with the Windows 2003 operating system. Important Notes: This document is not to be used for configuring real production systems. The information is this document is limited in scope and is only supplied as a guide to quickly configure SANmelody TRIAL version software for evaluation. SANmelody software contains a full on line Help system for any additional questions and Getting Started topic which outlines a full configuration. Visit the DataCore Technical Support Web site for FAQs and additional information pertaining to the SANmelody product (http:///support/support_home.asp). If you do not have any hardware available to test, you can create the same infrastructure in a virtual environment using the virtualization platform of your choice. For the purpose of this Quick Start Guide, we are using VMware Workstation. This Quick Start Guide only focuses on iscsi even though this trial version will allow you to use Fibre Channel as well. Please follow the document sections and steps in order.
Page 3 Preparing the Disk Server to Install SANmelody Software 1. Ensure that all Windows Server 2008 updates have been installed on the server, and then turn off automatic updates (to eliminate the possibility of computer restarts). Your server should not be part of any domain but rather on a separated workgroup. 2. Ensure you have unused physical disks attached to your server. Initialize the disks using GPT but leave them basic and unformatted. 3. Assign a static IP address to the network interface card (NIC) you plan to use for iscsi connectivity. (For the purpose of this guide we are using one NIC with a static IP address.) 4. Copy the SANmelody license file and SANmelody executable file to your disk server. You are now ready to install the SANmelody software.
Page 4 Installing SANmelody Software 1. Log on the system using a local administrator account. Always use the same account when using and configuring SANmelody software. 2. Double click the SANmelody executable file and follow the prompts. 3. You will be prompted to provide a license file. Browse to where you copied the license file and click OK.
Page 5 4. You will see a Windows Security warning message. Select the Always trust software from check box and click Install. 5. Restart the server when prompted. After the restart, login to the server and wait for the installation to complete. 6. Open Computer Management. In the console tree, expand the DataCore SANmelody snap in and select Storage Server. Click OK on the message that appears.
Page 6 7. Start the SANmelody storage server by clicking the Start button. Notice before the server is started, the status reflected in the status bar is Stopped Not Applied. 8. Validate that the storage server started. After the server is started, the status reflected in the status bar should read Running Not Applied. You are now ready to connect your application server to the DataCore SANmelody storage server.
Page 7 Connecting your Application Server to your SANmelody Storage Server via iscsi 1. Ensure you have iscsi initiator software installed on the application servers. (For the purpose of this guide we are using Microsoft iscsi Initiator.) 2. Add the Target IP address you have configured for iscsi use on the SANmelody storage server, logon and ensure persistent connection. After logging on to the iscsi target, the status should be Connected, and look similar to the images below.
Page 8 3. Next we will verify the iscsi connection by using the iscsi Manager tool on the SANmelody storage server. In the console tree, expand iscsi Manager and select the port. In the right pane, verify the session is Connected. 4. Now we ll define the application server. In the console tree, click Application Servers. In the right pane, right click in the content area and select New Application Server from the shortcut menu.
Page 9 5. In the dialog box, enter the application server name and select the operating system type. (In our case, we select Microsoft Windows (other). 6. The application server is listed in the right pane. To associate the discovered iscsi initiator channel to our newly defined application server, right click on the application server and select Properties.
Page 10 7. Click the Channel tab and select the relevant iscsi initiator in the list of Available channels (if you followed this guide, you should have only one) and notice that the arrow turns green. Click the green arrow and that channel is now be associated with your application server and appears in the list of Assigned channels, as shown below. (Repeat for any additional channels.) 8. At the moment, the icon representing your application server is red. This means that the configuration changes made have not been applied. Also notice that the status reflected in the status bar reads Running Not applied. The configuration changes need to be applied to take effect. Click the Apply Configuration button in the toolbar, as shown below. Click OK on the confirmation message. After the configuration is applied, the icon will appear normally instead of in red. Note: This completes adding and assigning channels to a new application server. Follow the same steps in this section to add additional application servers.
Page 11 Pooling your Disks and Creating a Thin provisioned Virtual Volume (LUN) The beauty of the DataCore SAN software virtualization approach is that not only does the software allow you to create a SAN with any x86 or x64 servers but it also allows you to pool any type of disks or LUNs together regardless of vendors. You can now pool together your direct attached storage and LUNs from legacy storage arrays. As long as Disk Management can see the disks, DataCore SANmelody software can manage them. Obviously, there are some best practices associated with pooling disks/luns together but that is beyond the scope of this Quick Start Guide. 1. Let s pool the disks together. In the console tree, expand Disk Manager and select NMV Pools. In the content area of the right pane, right click and select Create New Pool. In the dialog name, provide a name for the pool and keep the default storage unit size. Click OK. If you want additional information about the storage unit size, please refer to the online SANmelody Help.
Page 12 2. Now we need to assign disks to that pool. Click the Assign Raw Disk button in the toolbar. In the dialog box, select the disks you want to use in your pool, then select the new pool as the target pool and click the green arrow. Click OK. 3. Let s create a thin provisioned volume, also referred to as a Network Managed Volume or NMV. For more information, see the SANmelody Help or contact a DataCore Sales representative. In the right pane, right click on the pool and select Add Network Managed Volume. You will get a confirmation message validating its creation.
Page 13 4. Now we can create the virtual volume. This is the LUN that the application server will discovers and use as a storage resource. In the console tree, select Virtual Volumes and in the content area of the right pane, right click and select New Virtual Volume. In the dialog box, select the newly created volume and click the green down arrow. (You should be used to that green arrow by now.) Click OK. Notice that the volume has as a nominal size of 2 TB. This is the effect of using thin provisioning. You can create a very large disk geometry using very little physical space. 5. Let s resize the virtual volume to 500 GB for the purpose of this guide. In the right pane, right click the newly created virtual volume listed and select Properties. In the Properties dialog box, resize the virtual volume to 500 GB and click OK. 6. Lastly, apply the configuration by clicking the Apply Configuration button in the toolbar, as described on page 10. We are now ready to present the virtual volume or LUN to the application server.
Page 14 Presenting the LUN and Discovering it on the Application Server 1. In the console tree, select Application Server. In the bottom area of the right pane, right click in the content area and select Map New Virtual Volume. In the dialog box, select the virtual volume, select the iscsi channel and click the green arrow. Click OK. 2. Apply the configuration changes by clicking the button in the toolbar. 3. Now we ll discover the LUN on the application server machine. Open Computer Management on the application server. In the console tree, open Device Manager and rescan your disks. Listed under Disk drives, you will now see a new SCSI device called DataCore SANmelody SCSI Disk Device.
Page 15 4. In the console tree, open Disk Management. The size of that disk will be discovered as previously sized at 500 GB. This concludes our Quick Start Guide. We hope you found it useful. For additional information or questions about the SANmelody product or features such as Thin Provisioning, please contact a DataCore Sales representative or a DataCore Authorized Solution Provider or visit or support or email info@datacore.com.