technical white paper - integration of eternus dx storage systems in vmware … · 2013-05-16 ·...

White Paper Integration of ETERNUS DX Storage Systems in VMware Environments

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The role of storage in virtual server environments 2GUI Integration with ETERNUS vCenter Plug-in 3Exchanging information between ETERNUS DX systems and vSphere with VASA 4Executing VMware-related storage operations directly on ETERNUS DX systems using VAAI 5Integrating ETERNUS DX and its replication function with VMware SRM 6Higher levels of integration 8

Content

Technical White Paper Integration of ETERNUS DX Storage Systems in VMware Environments


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The role of storage in virtual server environments

Deploying server virtualization like VMware has a significant impact on other infrastructure domains, namely networks and storage. Server virtualization is not only an important technology for server operators – it also has an impact on the management of storage and networking equipment. The relationship to storage is a simple one, as the physical representation of virtual servers, aka virtual machines (VMs), is just files, which in most cases are stored on external storage arrays. Thus server operations have to deal substantially with storage. This can create administrative complexity, because additional know-how needs to be acquired, more procedural coordination among various experts is necessary, and a lot of information must be exchanged.

In its role as infrastructure vendor, Fujitsu is developing PRIMERGY servers and ETERNUS DX storage systems, as well as middleware like ServerView Resource Orchestrator, in order to enable integrated management of infrastructure resources. As part of these developments, Fujitsu offers direct integration with VMware management tools, in order to reduce the complexity and costs of managing virtual machines.

This white paper describes four areas where Fujitsu ETERNUS DX disk storage systems can be integrated in VMware environments.

1) A plug-in gives VMware administrators insight into the ETERNUS DX storage system directly from the vSphere GUI.

2) The next level of integration enables the direct exchange of infor-mation between ETERNUS DX storage systems and vSphere, including data about the current system status, system events or alerts. This sup-ports VMware administrators when provisioning virtual machines, and it optimizes the placement of virtual machines if changes occur in the IT environment. It can even automate corrective actions to prevent availability or performance problems related to the storage system. This is all possible because ETERNUS DX supports the VMware VASA interface (VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness).

3) Storage-related VMware actions, such as copying a virtual machine, can be triggered directly on the ETERNUS DX storage system to save performance and network bandwidth. This is possible because ETERNUS DX supports the VMware VAAI interface (vStorage APIs for Array Integration).

4) By nature, server virtualization makes the realization of disaster re-covery concepts easier: it simply requires that the files which represent a VM be available at a failover site. Complete DR can be implemented efficiently by integrating ETERNUS DX and its replication functions with VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager).


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GUI Integration with ETERNUS vCenter Plug-in

ETERNUS vCenter Plug-in extends the user interface of VMware vSphere Client, allowing you to display system information about Fujitsu ETERNUS DX disk storage systems without the need to use an additional

management tool. Thus VMware administrators get the information they need for provisioning and running virtual machines from the storage system. The plug-in can be downloaded for free.

Important features

■ When setting up a new virtual machine, information about the available storage capacity is displayed

■ For performance tuning, the plugin shows detailed information about read / write IOPS (input output operations per second) for read and write throughput (i.e. how much data is transferred per second)

■ For troubleshooting or optimization, the administrator can take a complete look at the path from a particular virtual machine via the SAN switches to the disk type and down to the storage LUN, getting an end-to-end view of all the instances involved.

■ A new storage LUN for virtual machines can be created in the vSphere Web Client. Creating a new storage LUN without this vCenter Plug-in must be done from the ETERNUS Web GUI (this function is only available in the vSphere Web Client version).


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Exchanging information between ETERNUS DX systems and vSphere with VASA

VM VM

VM VM

Datastore cluster

Datastore cluster

Overloaded

The vCenter becomes storage-aware through the integration of the ETERNUS DX managed system via the VASA API (VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness). This reduces the workload of server operators when manually collecting environmental parameters about the underlying storage systems which are needed to assign the right storage resources to a particular VM.

On the ETERNUS DX side, predefined storage profiles describe a combination of logical and physical disk attributes (rotation speed, capacity, disk types like SSDs, fast disks or slower high capacity disks, etc.). Each volume or RAID group in the ETERNUS DX system is mapped to these profiles. These are then transferred via VASA to the vCenter. When creating a VM, the administrator can select the storage profile which fits the application demands best. For example, performance-hungry VMs hosting a database can be assigned – via profiles – to fast SSDs on an ETERNUS DX system. The VMware administrator works with profiles representing quality classes in terms of capacity, performance, etc. Thus, a deep understanding of storage technology is not necessary, and the tedious task of manually gathering a lot of information about connected storage systems is superfluous. The objective is to deliver the right service levels, in terms of infrastructure requirements, for an individual VM as easily as possible.

Furthermore, information about the ETERNUS DX system status is communicated using events and alarms. Events indicate changes in the storage configuration, whereas alarms signal changes in system availability or performance characteristics.

If performance degradation occurs on the storage system – e.g. due to high data access workloads or high utilization of capacity – the VMware administrator may decide to migrate VMs to other volumes or even to another ETERNUS DX system.

Such corrective actions can be automated to maintain service levels without human intervention.

VMware’s Storage DRS functionality monitors the I/O latency along with the volume capacity usage rate and maps them against predefined rules. If the given threshold value is exceeded, the corresponding virtual machine may be automatically moved to another volume. This prevents the previous system from increasingly being overloaded, and it maintains the I/O performance for the virtual machines while helping to improve system stability and reliability.

During the creation of such storage clusters, VASA can provide the system attributes needed to select the most suitable volume for particular application scenarios.

Storage DRS uses rules to decide whether to migrate the blocks of a VMDK between the volumes. This can avoid VMware Storage vMotion migrations which are not useful. For example, if LUNs share spindles, then a Storage DRS intervention will not be beneficial for I/O load balancing.

Another trigger for moving data can be alarms for a potential lack of disk capacity, e.g. caused by a threshold value for thin provisioning. Automated actions to prevent problems can then be initiated by Storage DRS.

Even large and complex virtualization environments can be operated efficiently, and service levels can be maintained, by integrating ETERNUS DX system management with the VMware VASA and VMware automation tools.


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Executing VMware-related storage operations directly on ETERNUS DX systems using VAAI

Since virtual machines are physical files which are located on an external storage system, a lot of VMware-related activities result in the handling of data. This can be done more efficiently on the storage system directly, instead of running data via a network to a server and then back to storage, thus saving server performance and network bandwidth. This is possible due to the integration of ETERNUS DX systems with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI).

Frequent storage-related operations are copying activities, e.g. the cloning of virtual machines, creating a virtual machine from a template or executing store vMotion activities within the storage system.

Much more speed and efficiency is generated through the integration of VMware VAAI with the Extended Copy function of ETERNUS DX. On the server side, a command triggers the Extended Copy functionality on an ETERNUS system and on the process. In addition to offloading tasks from a VMware ESX server to the storage system, this also has another big advantage for productive operations: While being copied, a file is typically not available for productive use. Thus, a virtual machine that is to be copied is available again much faster. Test results have been impressive: a time reduction of 60% for the copy process and a reduction of 80% in CPU load on the server side (depending on the individual configuration).

Another typical example is the creation of virtual machines. In the creation process the allocated disk space is overwritten with zeros. This task can also be offloaded from the server to the storage system. In tests the traffic of data blocks from the server to storage was drastically reduced, and the CPU load for this task was diminished by 84%.

With VAAIWithout VAAI

App

OS

App

OS

App

OS

App

OS

App

OS

VMwareVMware

Processing through

the serverOnly order to perform copy

Copy is performed within the disk storage system

ETERNUS VAAI Plug-in

ETERNUS DX ETERNUS DX

App

OS OS

App AppApp App

OSOS OS


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Storage based replication with ETERNUS SF REC

VMware vSphere

vCenter Server SRM

ETERNUS

ETERNUS DX Storage

Servers

Virtual Machines

Production Site

VMware vSphere

vCenter ServerSRM

ETERNUS DX Storage

Servers

Virtual Machines

Recovery Site

specific period. This ensures data integrity, even when data is transferred out of sequence due to transmission delays. If there is insufficient cache memory capacity due to instabilities in the link or increased traffic, disk-buffered REC can be used.

Another big advantage of the REC functionality is that it can be used with ETERNUS DX systems of various models and sizes, thus contributing to lower costs. Quite often IT organizations had to run identical storage systems on both sides in order to take care of replications. Thanks to the family concept of ETERNUS DX storage systems, the entry-level models can also replicate data to midrange and high-end models, and vice versa, even to multiple locations. This makes for very flexible DR system configurations – for example, data from small ETERNUS DX systems can replicate the virtual machines from a remote location to a central data center.

Integrating ETERNUS DX and its replication functions with VMware SRM

When disaster strikes, administrators must switch IT operations from one location to another. This typically means that administrators must rely on their own technical expertise when coordinating many interde-pendent activities in the right sequence. Furthermore, an emergency plan needs to be worked out and tested to prove that the switchover will work reliably. But in many cases these plans have never been applied in real-world environments, and that is risky for productive IT. VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager) simplifies and automates the key elements of disaster recovery by setting up disaster recovery plans, testing, executing a failover when a problem occurs and failing back to the primary data center when it is operational again. Once VMware vSphere is deployed on the protected and recovery sites, disk array-based replication is established between the two sites in order to have current copies of the virtual machines at all sites.

This is implemented by the server-less Remote Equivalent Copy (REC) remote mirroring function of the ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager. It ensures fast recovery if the primary site fails. REC provides synchronous and asynchronous remote site support between the primary and secondary storage devices.

A typical problem arises in those disaster recovery architectures if the distance between the productive and the recovery site is large, if the available network bandwidth is small or if data volume is high. REC features a consistency mode to deal with such situations. It uses part of the cache memory of an ETERNUS DX system as a buffer. Data is then copied to the destination device and compiled on a block basis after accumulating the I/Os from multiple REC sessions in a buffer for a

Disaster recovery using Remote Copy

Backup siteMain site

ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager

Copy source Copy destination

ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager

ETERNUS DX Disk storage systems

ETERNUS DX Disk storage systems


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Time

Requiredbandwith

Amou

nt o

f upd

ates

Local site

Disk Buffered REC

Management ServerWAN

SAN

Backup site

ETERNUS DX90 S2ETERNUS DX90 S2

Management Server

SAN

Disk Buffer

Cache Cache

Buffer Buffer

Even if the amount of updates exceeds thebandwith, data is sequentially transmittedvia buffer

The REC functionality of ETERNUS SF offers high flexibility in terms of network connections

■ Remote Advanced Copy for Storage Area Networks (SAN) By using Fibre Channel interfaces, Remote Advanced Copy can provide low-cost remote site support between a primary storage device and a secondary device.

■ Extended Remote Advanced Copy for Wide Area Networks (WAN) Extended Remote Advanced Copy uses a Fibre Channel switch and WAN converter to cover very long distances over WAN.

■ Remote Advanced Equivalent Copy Function using an iSCSI Interface In this case the connection between the disk storage systems is made via an iSCSI interface over an IP network. This enables ETERNUS DX systems to provide a disaster recovery solution at reduced cost, as no Fibre Channel switches and SAN gateways are required.

In the event of a disaster, administrators are notified so that they can decide whether to initiate a failover. Once they initiate a failover, SRM implements the disaster recovery plan following three basic steps:

First, on the protected site, SRM shuts down the virtual machines, starting with those virtual machines assigned the lowest priority. Failover does not require connectivity to the protected site, so if SRM cannot connect to the site, it simply notifies the administrator that it cannot power down the virtual machines and proceeds to the next step. Then, at the recovery site, SRM prepares the data store groups for failover. Finally, SRM restarts the virtual machines at the recovery site which have been replicated with ETERNUS SF REC to the ETERNUS DX systems on the remote site, starting with the virtual machines assigned the highest priority.


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All rights reserved, including intellectual property rights. Technical data subject to modifications and delivery subject to availability. Any liability that the data and illustrations are complete, actual or correct is excluded. Designations may be trademarks and/or copyrights of the respective manufacturer, the use of which by third parties for their own purposes may infringe the rights of such owner.For further information see www.fujitsu.com

Published byFujitsu LimitedCopyright © 2013 Fujitsu Limitedwww.fujitsu.com

Further Information and downloads ■ ETERNUS SF Storage Management Software

http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/STRSYS/system/Technical_White_Paper_ETERNUS_SF_V15.pdf■ ETERNUS DX Disk Storage Systems Functionality

http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/STRSYS/system/TechWP_DX_Feat_Glob_ENG_x3.pdf■ ServerView Resource Orchestrator

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/services/software/ror/■ ETERNUS vCenter Plug-in, VASA Provider and VAAI Plug-in and More

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/services/computing/storage/eternus/tools/

Higher levels of integration

The integration of VMware with the ETERNUS DX system already provides a lot of benefits that significantly reduce the complexity and workloads in a virtual server environment. However, there are still many tasks which are necessary to set up or change a virtual IT scenario. For example, the provisioning of the physical storage, network and server resources and all the necessary software deployments are extremely time-consuming.

Fujitsu’s ServerView Resource Orchestrator Cloud Edition (ROR CE) is management software for delivering virtual server infrastructures in a simple, fast and reliable way. ROR CE offers dynamic resource

management and cloud infrastructure management, thus enabling self-service provisioning. Physical and virtual servers, plus storage and networks, are provisioned automatically. Available server, storage and network connections are pooled by ROR CE. A portal helps define the physical configuration needed, along with the virtual servers and the operating systems that are to be deployed. This can include VMware, but it also supports other virtualization technology like Hyper-V, KVM, etc. It also includes high availability and DR functionality on the physical and the virtual level. More information is available in a dedicated white paper (see further information).

technical white paper - integration of eternus dx storage systems in vmware … · 2013-05-16 ·...

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