highly available virtual machines with ibm storwize v7000 and microsoft hyper-v

HA Virtual Machines with IBM Storwize V7000 and Microsoft Hyper-V

Page 1 Copyright IBM Corp. 2010

Highly Available Virtual Machines

with IBM Storwize

V7000 and

Microsoft Hyper-V

Configuration and Best Practices Guide

Authors: David West Date: October 2010 Version: 2.2



Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 3 Target Environment ................................................................................................................... 3

IBM Storwize V7000 ............................................................................................................... 4 Audience and Assumptions .................................................................................................... 6 Configuration Summary .......................................................................................................... 6

Microsoft Hyper-V Overview ....................................................................................................... 7 Core Hyper-V Features and Benefits ...................................................................................... 8 New Hyper-V Features in Windows Server 2008 R2 .............................................................. 8

Summary of Installation and Configuration ................................................................................. 8 Installation Tasks ................................................................................................................... 8 Operational Tasks .................................................................................................................. 9

IBM Storwize V7000 Configuration ............................................................................................. 9 Configuring iSCSI Target Ports .............................................................................................. 9 Create iSCSI Host Objects ....................................................................................................10 Map Volumes to iSCSI Hosts ................................................................................................11 Metro Mirror Local Replication ...............................................................................................11

Windows Server 2008 R2 Configurations ..................................................................................12 Install the IBM SDDDSM Multipath Software (Fibre Channel only) ........................................12 Configuring iSCSI Sessions ..................................................................................................12 Install MPIO and Enable iSCSI multi-pathing ........................................................................13 Windows Registry Settings for iSCSI Hosts ...........................................................................15 Install and Validate Microsoft Failover Clustering ..................................................................16 Install the Hyper-V Role ........................................................................................................16 Configure Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) .............................................................................16 Create and Configure Virtual Machines .................................................................................17 Make Virtual Machines Highly Available ................................................................................18

Storwize V7000 Operations.......................................................................................................18 Migrating Backend Storage with Virtual Machines Online ......................................................18

Hyper-V Operations ..................................................................................................................20 Moving Virtual Machines .......................................................................................................21 Quick Migration of Virtual Machines ......................................................................................21 Live Migration of Virtual Machines .........................................................................................22 Automatic Failover of Virtual Machines .................................................................................22 Hot Add Storage....................................................................................................................23 Quick Storage Migration ........................................................................................................25

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................26



Executive Summary A virtualized server or storage environment enables more efficient use of computing resources by sharing hardware resources. The IBM Storwize V7000 combined with Microsoft Hyper-V provides a fully virtualized solution for flexible infrastructure that can grow and change with your business, reducing the costs of managing and operating your infrastructure. The unique ability to move both servers and storage without downtime significantly improves Service Level

and minimizes impacts on users and customers. Any unexpected downtime can have a serious impact on productivity and customers, making high availability at the server and storage levels critically important. This solution meets those challenges by balancing virtual machine loads, providing seamless backend storage management and enterprise class high availability. The IBM Storwize V7000 provides features such as thin provisioning, iSCSI or Fibre Channel

host connectivity, FlashCopy, live data migration, and multiple data replication features to meet

high availability and disaster recovery requirements. Using the Storwize V7000 seamless data migration capabilities, backend data can be migrated to alternate storage without down time. In addition to all the common benefits of virtual servers, Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 provides Live Migration of virtual machines. With the introduction of Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV), clustered nodes have simultaneous access to volumes, providing increased up time with Highly Available Virtual Machines (HAVMs) that can failover or move without downtime. Efficient disaster recovery options are also possible using IBM Storwize V7000 FlashCopy based VSS solutions to backup and restore quickly. Ease of use for System Administrators is another key advantage of this solution, provided by the Storwize V7000 new Graphical User Interface with centralized management and Hyper- Server interface and technology.

Target Environment The IBM Storwize V7000 disk system targets medium businesses to large enterprise customers seeking enterprise-level reliability and availability. Storage virtualization, like server virtualization, is now one of the key foundations for building a flexible and reliable IT infrastructure solution that allows companies to better align their business and IT needs. Storage Virtualization allows an organization to implement pools of storage across physically separate disk systems (including storage from different vendors). Storage can be provisioned from these pools and migrated between pools without any downtime for the attached hosts. It provides a single set of tools for advanced copy functions such as instant copy and remote mirroring solutions. The end result is simplified management from a single interface, regardless of the underlying storage hardware.



The virtualization of storage provides several benefits for storage administrators and management including:

Combining storage capacity from multiple heterogeneous disk systems into a single reservoir that can be managed as a business resource rather than separate boxes.

Helps increase storage utilization by providing host applications with more flexible access to capacity.

Improves productivity of storage administrators by enabling management of heterogeneous storage systems using a common interface.

Improves application availability by insulating host applications from changes to the underlying physical storage infrastructure.

Enables a tiered storage environment where the cost of storage can be matched to the value of data, and easily migrated between those tiers.

Supports advanced copy services from higher-cost to lower-cost devices and across storage systems from multiple vendors.

IBM Storwize V7000 The IBM Storwize V7000 disk system consists of both hardware and software. The initial version of the software is Version 6.1. The modular hardware enclosures include integrated drives of varying form factors, including both hard disk drives and solid-state drives. The solution also provides external storage virtualization, making it possible to integrate with and manage heterogeneous storage along with the Storwize V7000 storage.

The Storwize V7000 system is designed to allow quick and efficient storage deployment, thanks to a new easy to use Graphical User Interface, integrated drives, and interoperability with nearly any back-end SAN attached storage. The new web-based GUI, displayed below, runs on the Storwize V7000 system so there is no longer a separate console server required. The Storwize V7000 consists of a control enclosure and optionally up to four expansion enclosures initially, with plans to support up to nine enclosures later. The system also supports intermixing 3.5" and 2.5" type controller and expansion enclosures. Within each enclosure are two canisters; Control enclosures contain two Node canisters and expansion enclosures contain two Expansion canisters. . The system provides a choice of up to 60 x 3.5 inch or 120 x 2.5 inch Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives for the internal storage and uses SAS cables and connectors to attach to the optional expansion enclosures. In addition to the hard disk drives, there are also internal solid-

available.



advantage of the high performance solid-state drives, by automatically moving more active data from hard disk drives to solid-state drives using a very sophisticated algorithm. When virtualizing external storage arrays IBM Storwize V7000 can provide up to 32PB of usable capacity. IBM Storwize V7000 supports a large range of external disk systems similar to what the SVC supports today. The Storwize V7000 includes flexible host connectivity options with support for 8GB Fibre Channel or 1GB iSCSI sessions. This is an important feature, considering many IT infrastructures are in transition to newer networking technologies. In addition, there is also a full array of advanced features including:

Seamless data migration

Thin Provisioning

Volume mirroring

Global and Metro Mirror replication

FlashCopy 256 targets, cascaded, incremental, space efficient (thin provisioned)

Integration with Tivoli Productivity Center More detailed information on the Storwize V7000 disk system can be found in the IBM Storwize V7000 Introduction and Implementation guide Redbook at: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/



View of the IBM Storwize V7000 web-based Graphical User Interface

Audience and Assumptions This solution guide is intended for IT professionals with experience in the following areas:

Windows Server 2008 and R2 administration and configuration

Microsoft Hyper-V virtual server concepts and configuration

IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller administration (since the Storwize V7000 is based on the SVC platform and technology)

General storage, SAN and disk systems knowledge

Configuration Summary The proof of concept environment for this solution included:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

IBM System x 3850 servers

IBM Storwize V7000 disk system

DS4800 and EXP810s as external virtualized storage. This is just one example of external storage that can be virtualized by the IBM Storwize V7000

IBM SDDDSM multipath software with Microsoft MPIO for Fibre Channel hosts

Windows built in iSCSI initiator and MPIO for iSCSI hosts



The illustration below summarizes the proof of concept environment, including:

Storwize V7000 internal and external virtualized storage capabilities

Windows Servers with Microsoft Failover Clustering hosting the highly available virtual machines, providing the underlying movement of VMs between host systems.

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) for advanced centralized Hyper-V management capabilities.

The solution can be deployed with either iSCSI or Fibre Channel connectivity to the Windows host systems.

The Storwize V7000 uses Fibre Channel connectivity to the backend external virtualized storage systems.

Microsoft Hyper-V Overview

Hyper-V with Windows Server 2008 R2 provides software infrastructure and management tools that you can use to create and manage a virtualized server environment for consolidated and scalable data centers.



Core Hyper-V Features and Benefits The key features of Hyper-V include the following:

64-bit native hypervisor-based virtualization

Ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines concurrently

Large virtual machine memory support and Virtual LAN support

Virtual machine snapshots, to capture the state of an entire virtual machine

Runs on all roles including Server Core, of Windows Server 2008

MSCS failover cluster support for high availability virtual machines

Move or migrate virtual machines between clustered nodes

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) interface

Microsoft System Center VMM management integration

New Hyper-V Features in Windows Server 2008 R2 In R2, there have been several new features to enhance manageability and availability. The key new features include:

Cluster Shared Volumes

Live migration of running virtual machines

Hot add of storage (VHDs) to running virtual machines

Quick Storage Migration (requires VMM R2)

SAN Migration into and out of clustered hosts

Microsoft System Center VMM R2

Summary of Installation and Configuration The steps for implementing this solution are summarized below. Note that common configuration items such as setting up Microsoft Failover Clustering, or general SVC or Storwize V7000 administration and provisioning are beyond the scope of this document. Links to this information will be provided as needed throughout the document. This also assumes the IBM Storwize V7000 environment and backend storage is already in place.

Installation Tasks

On the IBM Storwize V7000:

Provision or verify availability of adequate volumes for cluster and VMs

Note: These can be thin provisioned or standard Storwize V7000 volumes

Setup iSCSI target Ethernet ports on the Storwize V7000 if using iSCSI

Create iSCSI or Fibre Channel host objects and map volumes to the hosts



On the Windows Server:

Setup iSCSI sessions using the native Windows initiator if using iSCSI

For iSCSI, install MPIO and enable Windows native iSCSI multi-path support

Install IBM SDDDSM multipath software if using Fibre Channel

Install, validate and configure Microsoft Failover Clustering

Add available storage as Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs)

Install the Hyper-V role

Create Virtual Machines on CSV volumes and load OS

Make Virtual Machines highly available

Operational Tasks

Moving Virtual Machines to another cluster node

Quick Migration of Virtual Machines to another node

Live Migration of Virtual Machines to another node

Automatic failover of Virtual Machines if a node goes down

Hot add and removal of storage (VHDs) on running Virtual Machines

Quick Storage Migration (requires Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2)

IBM Storwize V7000 Configuration This section covers iSCSI specific setup steps, however if you are using Fibre Channel the steps are similar and less complex. Before proceeding, ensure there are adequate volumes configured and available. For more detailed information on Storwize V7000 administration and configuration tasks, please reference the SVC and Storwize V7000 Information Center at this location: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/svcic/v3r1m0/index.jsp

Configuring iSCSI Target Ports Open the Storwize V7000 console and log on to the cluster. The iSCSI configuration is accomplished by configuring Ethernet ports with iSCSI dedicated IP addresses. You will need to have static IP addresses for each port that is enabled for iSCSI. A minimum of 2 ports (at least one each for the two iSCSI targets) should be configured for failover.

Click Configuration > Network

On the Network page, click on iSCSI, then click on the port you want to configure

Enter the IP address information, it defaults to IPv4, click on the IPv6 button to configure that type of IP address.

Click OK to finish

You may enter aliases, CHAP authentication, or iSNS server information on the main screen also.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/svcic/v3r1m0/index.jsp



Below is a view of the new Storwize V7000 GUI and iSCSI configuration panels. This is also where most other network related settings are configured, such as management ports, service IP addressing, event notifications, and advanced options such as Storwize V7000 software updates, GUI preferences, or license settings.

Create iSCSI Host Objects Using the Storwize V7000 console Hosts > All Hosts panel, create host objects that correspond to the Windows Server host nodes that will be running Hyper-V. You can create Fibre Channel or iSCSI hosts. Note: The Windows Server initiator name can be found in the Windows iSCSI Initiator GUI, which is under the Administrative Tools menu. Go to the Configuration tab to view the initiator name. Enter this name in the iSCSI parameters when setting up an iSCSI host. If setting up a Fibre Channel host, enter the WWPNs of the Host Bus Adapter (HBA) on the Windows Server. This can be found in the HBA management software or various Windows system tools. The screen capture below shows the new Storwize V7000 GUI for configuring hosts. Simply click on the New Host button and follow the prompts to setup a host. Any of these settings can be changed later also.



Map Volumes to iSCSI Hosts Using the Storwize V7000 console Volumes > All Volumes panel, map the volumes to the hosts you created. Microsoft cluster configuration. When creating new volumes on the Storwize V7000 you also have the option to create and map, all in one process. After the volumes are created it prompts you for the host(s) to map the new volumes to.

Metro Mirror Local Replication Another high availability feature of the Storwize V7000 is Metro Mirror synchronous replication. Although this is primarily designed for Disaster Recovery applications, you may configure Metro Mirror or Global Mirror (asynchronous) relationships within the same Storwize V7000 cluster for local high availability. This feature copies data from a primary volume to a secondary volume, ideally located on a separate storage array. More detailed information on how to setup and manage Metro Mirroring is provided in the Storwize V7000 help files or online at: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/svcic/v3r1m0/index.jsp

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