qnap plugin for vmware vstorage api for array integration ... · allocation of storage capacity as...

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ApplicationNotesNovember2015

QNAP Plugin for VMWare vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)


Notices

Thisusermanualdetails instructions forusing theQNAPEnterpriseStorageNAS.Please read theinstructionscarefully,andenjoythepowerfulfunctionsoftheQNAPEnterpriseStorageNAS.

• TheQNAPEnterpriseStorageNASishereafterreferredtoastheESNASortheNAS.• Theproductyoupurchasedmaynotsupportcertainfunctionsdedicatedtospecificmodels.

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Disclaimer

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TableofContents

Overview..............................................................................................................................................4

WhatisVAAI?...............................................................................................................................4

OverallBenefits............................................................................................................................4

VAAIforiSCSIsupports4features....................................................................................................4

VAAIforNAS(NFS)supports3features............................................................................................4

VAAIforiSCSI........................................................................................................................................5

VAAIiSCSI-BlockCopy.................................................................................................................5

VAAIiSCSI-BlockZeroing.............................................................................................................6

VAAIiSCSI-HardwareassistedLocking........................................................................................7

VAAIiSCSI-ThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim........................................................................8

VAAIforNAS(NFS)...............................................................................................................................9

VAAINAS-Fullfileclone..............................................................................................................9

VAAINAS-SpaceReserve..........................................................................................................10

VAAINAS-Extendedstatistic.....................................................................................................11

InstallationandVerification...............................................................................................................12

VAAIforiSCSI..............................................................................................................................12

VAAIforNAS(NFS).....................................................................................................................13


Overview

WhatisVAAI?

VMwarevStorageAPIsIntegration(VAAI)isasetofAPIsprovidedbyvSpherethatallowstheESXihoststooffloaddataprocessingofcertainstorage-relatedservicestostoragesystems.TheQNAPESNASwillprocessthedatainsteadoftheESXihosts.

OverallBenefits

TheintegrationofQNAPNASwithVMwareVAAIofferscustomersthechancetodeployavirtualizedenvironmentwithoptimizedperformance.Additionally,itwilloffloaddataprocessingtotheNASreleasingadditionalresourcesforESXihostsincertaintasks.

VAAIforiSCSIsupports4features

• Fullcopy(hardware-assistedcopy) • Blockzeroing(hardware-assistedzeroing) • Hardware-assistedlocking • Thinprovisioningandspacereclamation

VAAIforNAS(NFS)supports3features

• FullFileClone • SpaceReservation • ExtendedStatistic


VAAIforiSCSI

VAAIiSCSI-BlockCopy

BlockCopyenablestheQNAPstoragetomakefullcopiesofdatawithintheNASwithoutneedingtohavetheESXihostreadandwritethedata.

• WithoutVAAI: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithoutVAAI,itwillhave to read thedata fromtheNAS,andwritebackthedatatotheNAStocopythe data. This process consumes memory,networkbandwidth,andCPUfromtheESXihost,decreasingtheresourcesavailable fortheVMs.

• WithVAAI: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithVAAI,itwillsendacommandtotheNAS,andwaitfortheresult.ThisprocessoffloadstheworktotheNAS,andleavestheresourcesallocatedtoVMsunchanged.Thecopyprocessisdonedirectly by the NAS. CPU, memory, andnetworkbandwidtharenotusedinthecopyprocedure.

• Benefits: n ReducestheloadingonESXihosts n Fastervirtualmachinecloning n Fastertemplatedeployment n FasterstoragevMotion


VAAIiSCSI-BlockZeroing

BlockZeroingallowstheQNAPNAStozerooutalargenumberofblockstospeeduptheprovisioningofVMs.

• WithoutVAAI: When an ESXi host creates and initializes avirtual disk without VAAI, it has to writenumerous zeroes to the NAS to create theinitialized file. This process consumesmemory,networkbandwidth,andCPUfromtheESXihost,decreasingresourcesavailableforVMs.

• WithVAAI: When an ESXi host creates and initializes avirtualdiskwithVAAI,itwillsendacommandto the NAS, and waits for the result. Thisprocess offloads the work to the NAS, andleaves the resources allocated for VMsunchanged.TheblockinitializationprocessisdonebytheNASdirectlyandCPU,memory,andnetworkbandwidtharenotused.

• BenefitsofBlockZeroing n ReducestheworkloadonESXihosts. n Fasterallocationofvirtualmachinecapacity.

• Effectiveusagen CreateThickProvisionedEagerZeroedvirtualdisks. n CreateVMswithThickProvisionedEagerZeroedvirtualdisks.


VAAIiSCSI-HardwareassistedLocking

Hardware Assisted Locking improves efficiency on large clusters by locking only required blocksinsteadofanentireLUN.Whenread/writeoperationsoccurfromoneESXiserver,itwillkeeptherestoftheLUNisavailabletobeaccessed,increasingefficiency.

• WithoutHardwareAssistedLockingWhenanESXihostaccessesadatastoreonan iSCSI LUN, the iSCSI LUN is locked andotherESXihostshavetowaitfortheLUNtobereleased.ThemoreESXihoststhatsharethe same datastore, the lower theperformancewillbe.

• WithHardwareAssistedLockingWhenanESXihostaccessesadatastoreonaniSCSILUN,therequiredblocksarelocked,andtheiSCSILUNremainsaccessibletootherESXihosts.Moreconcurrentoperationscanbe achieved while maintaining a goodperformancelevel.

• BenefitsofHardwareassistedLockingn EnablestheQNAPNAStoscaletomoreVMs n EnablesmoreESXihostswithoutincurringaperformancepenalty.

• Effectiveusagen LargeVMwareclusterswithshareddatastores.


VAAIiSCSI-ThinProvisioningandSpaceReclamation

Pre-allocatingcapacityforiSCSILUNscanleadtoinefficientstorageusage.ThinProvisioningallowsallocation of storage capacity as it is needed. This capacitywill only be usedwhen data, VirtualMachines,orvirtualdisks,arestoredontheLUN.

SpaceReclaimallowsspacetobereleasedwhenVMorvirtualdisksaredeletedormigratedtootherLUNs.Itavoidswastingcapacityafterdatahasbeenremoved.

• WithoutThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim: WithoutThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim,spaceallocationisdoneduringLUNcreation,and cannot be released until the LUN isdeleted.Ifanadministratorcreatesa100TBLUN,the100TBwillbereservedfortheLUNand cannot be used for other applications.WhendataisdeletedfromtheLUN,theNASwill not show the free space, as the is stillallocated.

• WithThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaim: With Thin Provisioning and Space Reclaim,thespaceallocationisdoneonlywhendataiswritten,and itcanbereleasedwhendata isdeleted. The free space on the NAS willdynamically increase and decrease as the VMs are created and deleted. The storagemanagement ismuchmoreflexibleandrequires lessphysicalcapacity, increasingefficiencyandlowersthetotalcostofstorage.

• BenefitsofThinProvisioningandSpaceReclaimn Moreaccuratereportingofrealdiskspaceusage. n Betterandmoreefficientstoragemanagement n Lowercostofstorage. n Usecapacityonlywhenneeded n PurchaseHardDrivesonlywhenneeded

• Effectiveusagen VMcreation/deletion n Snapshotcreation/deletion


VAAIforNAS(NFS)

VAAINAS-Fullfileclone

SimilartotheFullCopyinVAAIiSCSI,itenablestheQNAPstoragetomakefullcopiesofdatawithintheNASwithoutneedingtohavetheESXihostreadandwritethedata.

• WithoutFullFileClone: When an ESXi host copies data withoutVAAI,itwillhavetoreadthedatafromtheNAS, andwrite the data back to the NAS.This process consumes CPU,memory, andnetwork bandwidth from the ESXi host,decreasing the resources available for theVMs.

• WithFullFileClone: WhenanESXihostcopiesdatawithVAAI,itwillsendacommandtotheNAS,andwaitfortheresult.Thisprocessoffloadstheworkto the NAS, and leaves the resourcesallocated to the VM unchanged. The copyprocess isdone in theNAS.CPU,memory,andnetworkbandwidtharenotused.

• BenefitsofFullfileclone n ReducestheloadingofESXihosts

• Effectiveusagen vCenterCloning n StoragevMotion(coldclone) n DeployVMsfromtemplates


VAAINAS-SpaceReserve

Historically, vSphereonly supportedbuilding thinprovisionedvirtualdisksonNFS.By supportingSpaceReserve,apre-allocatedvirtualdisk(thickprovisionedeagerzeroed) ispossiblewithQNAPNFSdatastores,byoffloadingthefilecreationontotheNAS.

• WithoutSpaceReserveWithoutSpaceReserve, it isnotpossibletocreateThickProvisionedvirtualdisksonan NFS datastore, only Thin Provisionedvirtualdisksareavailable.

• WithSpaceReserve: WithSpaceReserve,itispossibletocreateThick Provisioned virtual disks on NFSdatastores.

• BenefitsofSpaceReserve n Bettervirtualdiskread/writeperformance(thinprovisiondisksvsthickprovisiondisks)


VAAINAS-Extendedstatistic

ExtendedStatisticenablesvSpheretoqueryspaceutilization details for virtual disks on QNAP NFSdatastores.Thisincludesthesizeandsuagedetailsofavirtualdisk.

TheextendedstatisticsareusedbyVMwareduringspecific operations including Space Reserve, andClone.

TheextendedstatisticscanalsoberetrievedfromtheESXihostcommandline:


InstallationandVerification

VAAIforiSCSI

VAAIiSCSIisenabledinVMwarebydefaultanddoesnotrequireanyinstallation.

• GUIVerificationToVerify that the storage supportsVAAI, simplyopen the storage configuration in vSphereClient, and select the datastore. The column “Hardware Acceleration” (VAAI) will showsupported.

• CLIVerificationviaSSHorESXishell

ThescreencaptureaboveshowsVAAIfeaturessupportedbytheQNAPiSCSILUN.

PleaserefertoVMwaredocumentationfordetailsonenabling/disablingVAAIinVMware.

DisablingtheVAAIfunctionalityinESXi/ESX(1033665):http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1033665


VAAIforNAS(NFS)

VAAINFSrequiresinstallationoftheVAAIpluginoneachESXihosts.

IftheESXiserversarenotconnectedtotheinternet:

• DownloadtheVAAINASpluginfrom:http://www.qnap.com/utility• InstallthepluginbyfollowingtheprocedureforinstallingpatchesonanESXi5.x/6.xhostfrom

thecommandline:http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2008939n Upload the patch to a datastore on your ESXi 5.x/6.x host using theDatastore

BrowserfromvCenteroradirectconnectiontotheESXi5.x/6.xhostusingthevSphereclient.Migrate or power off the virtualmachines running on the host and put the host intomaintenancemode.Thehostcanbeputintomaintenancemodefromthecommandlinewith:

n Navigatetothedirectoryonthedatastorewherethepatchfilewasuploadedtoandverifythatthefileexists:

Where Datastore is the datastore name where the patch file was uploaded,and DirectoryName isthedirectoryyoucreatedonthedatastore.

n Installorupdateapatchonthehostusingthese esxcli commands:ToInstallbyusinglocalsetup:

Where PatchName.zip isthenameofthepatchfileyouuploadedtothedatastore.

# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

# cd /vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName

# ls

# esxcli software vib install -v

"/vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName/PluginName.vib"


ToUpdatebyusinglocalsetup:

n VerifythattheVIBsareinstalledonyourESXihost:

Forexample:

n Afterthepatchhasbeeninstalled,reboottheESXhost:

n Afterthehosthasrebooted,exitmaintenancemodeandpoweronthevirtualmachines:

# esxcli software vib update -v

"/vmfs/volumes/Datastore/DirectoryName/PluginName.vib"

# esxcli software vib list

# reboot

# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit


• Verify from vSphere client that “Hardware Acceleration” is supported as in the followingscreenshot

Note:Duringtheinstallation,ifapreviousversionofthepluginwasinstalled,itwillbelistedasVIBsRemoved:

qnap plugin for vmware vstorage api for array integration ... · allocation of storage capacity as...

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