Hersey Cartwright

vBrownBag – May 20, 2015vSphere 6 Foundation ExamSection 3 – Storage

•VCDX-DCV #128•vExpert •Website: http://www.vhersey.com/•Twitter: @herseyc

•VMware vSphere 5.x Datacenter Design Cookbookhttp://www.amazon.com/VMware-vSphere-Datacenter-Design-Cookbook/dp/1782177000

About Me

• VCP6-DCV Study Guide on vHersey.comhttp://www.vhersey.com/study-guides/vcp6-dcv/

• IT-Muscle’s VCP 6 Delta Beta Exam Study Materialhttp://it-muscle.com/?p=15

• David Stamen’s VCP6 Study Guidehttp://davidstamen.com/category/vmware/vcp6-dcv/

• vWannabe’s VCP6-DCV Study Guidehttp://vwannabe.com/vcp6-dcv-study-guide/

• vBrownBags – Past, Present, and Futurehttp://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/

Community Resources and Study Guides

•3.1 – Connect Shared Storage Devices to vSphere•3.2 – Configure Software Defined Storage•3.3 – Create and Configure VMFS and NFS Datastore

•vSphere 6 Foundation Exam Topics/Blueprinthttps://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=64179&ui=www_cert

Section 3 – Configure vSphere Storage

•Expand VMFS Datastore•Create VMFS Datastore•Add an Extent to a VMFS Datastore•Mount NFS Datastore•Software iSCSI Multipathing•Enable and Configure VSAN•Create a Storage DRS Cluster

Labs/Demos

•NFS v4.1 ▫NFS Multipathing/Load Balancing/Security

•VVOLs •vMotion Support with Physical RDMs•VSAN 6.0▫Fault Domains▫All Flash VSAN

•VMFS 3 Deprecated

What’s New with vSphere 6 Storage

•SCSI (Local/Direct Attached Disks)• iSCSI – Hardware and Software•Fibre Channel•Fibre Channel over Ethernet – Hardware and Software•Ethernet (NFS)

•Software Defined (VSAN, VVOLs)

Identify storage adapters and devices

•SCSI INQUIRY Device Identifiers – Unique and persistenteui.XXXXXX, t10.XXXXXX, and naa.XXXXXXX

•Path-based Identifiers – Not unique and not persistentvmhbaV:Cx:Ty:LzV = HBA Number, x = Channel, y = Target, z = LUN

• Legacy Identifier – Generated by ESXi host – Unique and persistentvml.XXXXXX

•Device Display Name – Can be modified•FC - WWNN and WWPN• iSCSI – iqn.year-month.tld.domain:uniqueid

Identify storage naming conventions

•Zoning controls and/or isolates paths in the FC storage fabric▫Defines which HBA/ports can connect to which target/ports▫Single-initiator-single-target is the preferred zoning practice for ESXi▫Storage Networking 101: Understanding Fibre Channel Zones

http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsp/article.php/3695836/Storage-Networking-101-Understanding-Fibre-Channel-Zones.htm

•Masking is a process that makes a LUN unavailable to some hosts▫Can be done on ESXi hosts (MASK_PATH module) or on array▫Use case – Boot from SAN

Zoning and Masking

•Hardware iSCSI▫HBA capable of offloading iSCSI and network processing.▫Dependent (VMkernel interface) or independent (no VMkernel interface)▫Bi-directional CHAP is not supported on independent adapters

•Software iSCSI▫Software-based initiator▫Requires VMkernel interface

• iSCSI Multipathing is not supported across HW and SW adapters

Hardware/software iSCSI initiator requirements

• VMFS3 has been deprecated• Standard (Universal) 1 MB files system block size▫VMFS3 datastores upgraded to VMFS5 maintain legacy block size

• Supports storage devices and virtual machine disks greater than 2 TB▫Up to 64 TB device, 62 TB virtual disk

• GUID Partition Table (GPT)▫New datastores are created with GPT format▫Upgraded datastores maintain MBR until expanded beyond 2 TB

• Supports online upgrade (VMFS3 to VMFS5)• Supports online expand or extend• Up to 256 VMFS datastores per host supported

Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)

•ESXi includes NFS Clients for NFS v3 and NFS v4.1▫Use only one NFS version to access a datastore▫No upgrade from NFS v3 to NFS v4.1 – migration only

•NFS datastores can be mounted read-only•Supports vMotion, HA, DRS, and FT (FT not supported on NFS v4.1)•Virtual disks created on NFS datastores as thin-provisioned by default

unless hardware acceleration supporting Reserve Space operation is used. (NFS v4.1 does not support hardware acceleration)

Network File System (NFS)

• Supports NFS Multipathing• Supports non-root user access when using Kerberos•NFS v4.1 DOES NOT SUPPORT▫VMware Fault Tolerance, Storage DRS, Storage IO Control, SRM, or VVOLs▫NFS Hardware Acceleration

•NFS Shares should be exported as either v3 or v4.1▫DO NOT provide both protocol versions to same share.

• vSphere 6 NFS v4.1 Overview from @ChrisWahlhttp://wahlnetwork.com/2015/02/02/nfs-v4-1/

NFS v4.1

•Datastore Clusters▫Similar/interchangeable datastores

•Storage Capacity and Performance Load Balancing ▫Similar to vSphere DRS▫Automation Levels▫Aggressiveness

• Initial Placement of virtual disks based on space and I/O workloads•Migration of virtual disks based on space and I/O workloads•Datastore Maintenance Mode

Storage DRS

•Performance – Provisioned based on performance characteristics

•Data Protection – Protected by array features – replication, snapshots…

•Recovery/Fault Domains – Number of VMs affected by datastore failure

•Availability – Separation of VMs and/or VM disk to reduce impact of failure

• Load Balancing – Balancing load and/or capacity

Multiple VMFS/NFS Datastores Use Cases

• 3 Hosts providing storage (Disk Groups) required.• At least one SSD and one HDD per Disk Group (unless all flash option).• SAS/SATA HBA or RAID controller ▫On HCL▫Configured in passthrough or RAID0 mode.

•Network Requirements▫Dedicated 1 GB for hybrid configurations (10GbE recommended)▫Dedicated/shared 10GbE for all flash configuration▫VMkernel adapter configured for Virtual SAN traffic type▫Multicast must be enabled on physical switches/routers▫ IPv6 NOT supported for VSAN traffic

VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN)

•Requires vCenter – VVOLs not supported with standalone hosts•VASA Provider – Storage awareness service.•Storage Container – Pool of capacity or aggregation of storage

capabilities (snapshot, replication, deduplication).•Protocol Endpoint – Host to VVOL communication▫FCoE, FC, iSCSI, NFS storage protocols▫IPv6 not supported▫NFS v4.1 not supported

•Virtual Datastore represents a Storage Container

Virtual Volumes (VVOLs)

•vSphere Installation and Setup Guidehttp://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-installation-setup-guide.pdf

•vSphere Storage Guidehttp://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-storage-guide.pdf

•vSphere Resource Management Guidehttp://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-resource-management-guide.pdf

•What’s New in the VMware vSphere 6.0 Platformhttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf

Section 3 Resources - Storage

•Best Practices for Running VMware vSphere on iSCSIhttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/iSCSI_design_deploy.pdf

•Multipathing Configuration for Software iSCSI Using Port Bindinghttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-multipathing-configuration-software-iSCSI-port-binding.pdf

Section 3 Resources - iSCSI

•Administering VMware Virtual SANhttp://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/virtual-san-60-administration-guide.pdf

•What’s New: VMware Virtual SAN 6.0http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_Whats_New.pdf

•Virtual SAN 6.0 Performance: Scalability and Best Practiceshttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-San6-Scalability-Performance-Paper.pdf

Section 3 Resources - VSAN