Implementing vSphere

David J Young

Implementing vSphere

AgendaVirtualizationvSphereESXivSphere ClientvCenterStorageImplementationBenefitsLessons LearnedDemo?

Implementing vSphere

Virtualization

Implementing vSphere

Hosted vs Native

Implementing vSphere

Hypervisor

Implementing vSphere

vSphere

Implementing vSphere

Evolution of vSphere

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vSphere Essentials for SMB

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vSphere for Enterprises

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vSphere Architecture

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ESXi Host

Hypervisor running VMsOrganized into ClustersAccesses shared storage datastores

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ESXi Console

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ESXi Licensing

ESXi -> VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi / VMware vSphere Hypervisor is freeMust be registered to remove nagmsgCan be seamlessly upgraded to take advantage of advanced vSphere features

Implementing vSphere

3rd Generation Hypervisor

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vCenter ServerCentralized manager of ESX/ESXi hosts Runs as Windows services on physical or virtual server Connects with:

vCenter database (SQL Server or Oracle) Windows Active Directory (required for Linked Mode)

Integrates with optional server/client plug-ins

Implementing vSphere

vCenter Licensing

Implementing vSphere

vSphere ClientPrimary interface for administration Runs locally on a Windows machine Connects to vCenter Server or directly to an ESX/ESXi host

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vSphere Client

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vSphere Client Home Menu

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Inventory: Hosts & Clusters

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Inventory: VMs & Templates

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Inventory: Datastores

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Inventory: Networking

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vSphere Web Client

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Virtual motherboard of a VM

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vSphere FeaturesHot Add Virtual Devices

Hot add CPU Memory

Hot add or remove Storage devices Network devices

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Virtual hard disk options

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VM Snapshot

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vSphere Templates

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VM Cloning

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Virtual Networking

Implementing vSphere

Network Terminologyvmnic: physical NIC in host computervswitch: virtual switchvnic: virtual NIC in the virtual machinevmhba: virtual host bus adaptor for SANvirtual machine port group: a unique concept in a virtual environment. Roughly a port on a virtual switch, but multiple vnics can connect to the same port groupvmknic: virtual NIC in the VMkernel. Used by vMotion, NFS & iSCSI

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vSwitch: Virtual Switch

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Distributed Switch

Aggregated datacenter-level virtual networking (vs. per-host) Simplified management Network statistics follow VMs

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vDS: Virtual Distributed Switch

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Centralized Network Management

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Datastores

VMFSNFSDAS

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VMFS DatastoreShared VM file system Block-level access by ESX/ESXi Supported devices

Local disk (not shared storage) Fibre Channel SAN iSCSI SAN

HBA ESX/ESXi software initiator via VMkernel network port Formats

.vmdk RDM (raw device mapping) to underlying LUN

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NFS Datastore

Shared directory on NFS server File-level access by ESX/ESXi Limitations

No RDM

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vMotion

Common StorageNetworking

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vMotion

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vMotion

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Storage vMotion

Relocate running VM from one datastore to another datastore with zero downtime Relocate across different storage types Change VM disk format (thick or thin)

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Implementation3 Dell R610 Servers

2 x Quad Core 2.4GHz Xenon CPUs16GB RAM4 Gigabit NICs2 x 160GB SAS Drives

1 Force10 S50V 48 port POE GigE layer 2/3 switch1 NetApp FAS2040

Dual active-active controllers16 x 600GB SAS drives (4.8TB)16 x 1TB SATA drives (8TB)CIFS/NFS/iSCSI (HTTP/FTP/SSH)

vSphere Essentials Plus

Implementing vSphere

VMS2

Implementation

VMS1 VMS2

Force 10 GigEStorage Network

POS2000

TimeForceFlexLM PDC

BarTenderNDS AdminDNC

SAV

GigE LAN

VMS2FlexLM PDC

BarTenderNDS Admin

SATASAS FAS1 FAS2

NIC Team

Multi-Path

NetApp 2040

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Virtual Machines

12 Production VMs5 Admin VMs5 Retired VMs3 Development VMs3 Test VMs1 Misc VMs

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BenefitsSnapshots:

Contingency plan for software upgradesEasy to create development machines

Lower Expenses:OpEx – Less power and cooling costsCapEx – Fewer physical servers required

Deployment – Easier/Faster to deploy machinesEasy to support Legacy Hardware/Apps

Huge Performance BoostUpgrade resources (memory, disk, CPU)

Quality vs Quantity

Implementing vSphere

Lessons Learned

Terminology can be a problemLink Agregation

NetApp: trunkingForce10: port-channelCisco: EtherChannelvSphere: NIC teaming

NICNetApp: vif (virtual interface)vSphere: vnic, vmnic, vmknic, vmhba

Can’t do everything in GUI

Bind HBAs to vmnicsChange MTU for Jumbo frames

Link Aggregation doesn’t work like you thinkDidn’t understand how vLANs really workBlock alignment is very important

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File System MisalignmentRead Block 0

Reads 2 VMFS blocksEach VMFS block needs to read 2 LUN blocks

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File System Alignment

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OS Misalignments

All versions of windows misalign filesystem, except:

Vista/Win7Windows 2008 Server +

All versions of RHEL, except:

RHEL 6 +

Best Practices for File System Alignment in Virtual Environments NetApp TR-3747 January 2011

Implementing vSphere

Technology Learned

FTOSLink AggregationMulti-pathingiSCSIvLANsLACPvSphere