hp reference architecture for microsoft sql server 2014 ... · however, unlike other purpose-built...

Technical white paper

HP Reference Architecture for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 with HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450, using HP 3PAR Remote Copy and Peer Persistence

Table of contents Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Solution components ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

HP ProLiant rack servers ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage ........................................................................................................................................ 3

HP 3PAR Peer Persistence ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

HP StoreFabric switches .......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Microsoft components ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Configuration guidance ................................................................................................................................................................ 5

HP ProLiant servers .................................................................................................................................................................. 5

FC SAN ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Networking configuration ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage ................................................................................................................................................... 7

Microsoft ................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Use cases ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

SQL Server workload .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Performance observations across all use cases .............................................................................................................. 14

Use case #1: Manual switch of source and target copy direction ................................................................................ 15

Use case #2: Move the running SQL Server instance to another cluster node ......................................................... 16

Use case #3: Live migration of running VM with SQL Server instance ........................................................................ 16

Use case #4: Catastrophic server node failure ................................................................................................................. 17

Use case #5: Storage system failure .................................................................................................................................. 17

Key findings .................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Bill of materials ............................................................................................................................................................................ 19

Hardware bill of materials ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

Software bill of materials ...................................................................................................................................................... 20

Terminology ................................................................................................................................................................................. 21

For more information ................................................................................................................................................................. 22

Technical white paper | HP Reference Architecture for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 with HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage

2

Executive summary

With online transaction processing, milliseconds of downtime or delayed response time can impact a customer’s business by millions of dollars. All-flash HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage enables cost-effectively meeting the high performance and resiliency demands of mission-critical Microsoft® SQL Server 2014 databases. HP 3PAR Peer Persistence software enables HP 3PAR StoreServ systems located at metropolitan distances to act as peers to each other, presenting a nearly continuous storage system to hosts and servers connected to them. This capability allows customers to configure a high-availability (HA) disaster recovery (DR) solution between two sites or data centers where switchover and switchback remains transparent to the hosts and applications running on those hosts. This delivers business continuity without impacting performance and enables load balancing across systems and sites.

The objective of this reference architecture (RA) is to showcase HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Peer Persistence in order to implement disaster recovery for an SQL Server 2014 environment, virtualized by Hyper-V.

While the RA is around the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450, it is applicable to the entire HP 3PAR portfolio.

Intended audience The intended audience includes those seeking guidance in the implementation of a highly available disaster recovery solution for their virtualized SQL Server database deployed on an HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all-flash storage solution.

Many customers deploy HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 for its all-flash capability that provides performance and high availability in their SQL Server deployments. Virtualizing SQL Server instances is also a key trend in these environments as part of a consolidation strategy to better utilize resources and reduce the amount of physical hardware running these database instances. But, in order to protect their mission-critical database against natural disasters, a robust replication and failover tool must be deployed without having any impact on application performance.

Figure 1. Peer Persistence with SQL Server in a guest-clustered virtual machine (VM) solution


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Solution components

Figure 1 illustrates a logical solution layout. Key solution components provided by HP and Microsoft are:

• HP ProLiant rack servers

• HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage

• HP 3PAR Peer Persistence

• HP StoreFabric switches

• Microsoft Windows Server® 2012 R2

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014

HP ProLiant rack servers

HP ProLiant servers deliver industry-leading compute innovation. Building on 25 years of proven features and functions, the HP ProLiant portfolio is designed to improve cost savings while providing more compute per watt per dollar to meet the new demands of today’s marketplace.

This solution is based on HP ProLiant DL380 and DL560 servers, which provide exceptional performance and value in a 2U form factor offering various options of processor, memory, disk, and networking configurations.

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage is the only all-flash array in the industry that delivers the performance advantages of a purpose-built, flash-optimized architecture without compromising resiliency, efficiency, or data mobility. A flash-optimized architecture reduces the performance bottlenecks that can choke general-purpose disk arrays that have been retrofitted with solid-state disks (SSDs). However, unlike other purpose-built flash arrays, the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 doesn’t require you to introduce an entirely new architecture into your environment to achieve flash-optimized performance. As a result, you don’t have to sacrifice rich, Tier-1 data services, advanced functionality, enterprise-class efficiency, or seamless data mobility between systems.

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage accelerates business agility by boosting application performance with over 900,000 IOPS at less than 0.7 milliseconds (ms) latency, while delivering all the enterprise-class, Tier-1 features and functionality you have come to expect from the storage platform.1

Two form factors are available, a 2- or 4-node configuration with up to 120 or 240 serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives. Figure 2 shows a base system containing the controllers and either 24 or 48 SSDs. Additional drive-only enclosures may be added.

Figure 2. HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all-flash storage, 2- or 4-node

1 HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 cache handling chalk by Calvin Zito youtube.com/watch?v=TQBanWsHuBc

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-6962ENW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQBanWsHuBc


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HP 3PAR Peer Persistence2

Peer Persistence provides the ability to redirect host I/O, either manually or automatically, from the primary to the secondary storage system in a manner that is transparent to the host while causing reduced disruption to service.

Peer Persistence is an HA solution in a DR configuration between two sites with data in synchronous replication. Peer Persistence is used with Windows Failover Clusters to provide HA storage to cluster nodes that can extend beyond a single data center. Storage volumes created on one storage system are replicated to the other system using synchronous remote copy to make sure that the volumes are in sync at all times.

HP 3PAR Peer Persistence enables the transparent migration of application storage from one HP 3PAR StoreServ to another, maintaining business continuity for virtualized data centers.3 In the event of a failure in the source storage system, host traffic is redirected to the secondary storage system transparently and without major impact to the hosts. Peer Persistence makes sure that key applications are unaffected by:

• Non-disruptive live migration support across sites

• Virtual machine failure

• Storage system failure

• Site failure

HP StoreFabric switches

From small and midsized operations to data centers and cloud, HP StoreFabric has dynamic end-to-end solutions that solve even your most frustrating storage networking challenges. HP offers a comprehensive portfolio of storage networking products and accessories from leading suppliers for connection to SANs with HP servers and HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems and other Fibre Channel (FC) storage devices.

In this solution, the HP StoreFabric SN6000B 16Gb 48-Port Fibre Channel Switch was used for SAN connectivity between the servers and storage.

Microsoft components

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 is the operating system used for the solution, providing key business components such as Hyper-V, failover clustering, guest clustering,4 and storage connectivity drivers.

Microsoft clustering

This solution uses two levels of clustering at the server level. As shown in figure 1, the parent servers are clustered, and then the virtual machines belonging to the parent cluster are members of their own Hyper-V guest cluster.

Clustering provides HA, which means it provides recoverability in the event of a failure. Clustering cannot prevent a failure. A benefit of Hyper-V guest clustering is that it expands the benefits of Windows virtualization in the event of a failed VM, because the application can restart on another VM without waiting to restart the server. A failed VM could result in client applications accessing the clustered application to be impacted. Using clustered VMs helps to minimize the client impact on the application.

A benefit of using Peer Persistence with Windows clustering is that all I/Os to storage are synchronously mirrored to another storage system, so even if there is a site failure, when the Windows cluster recovers, all data is written to the storage system and acknowledged, and will be fully available on the secondary storage system. This helps reduce the business impact of catastrophic events and helps reduce the recovery-point objective to zero.

Microsoft SQL Server 20145

SQL Server 2014 enables customers to build mission-critical applications and Big Data solutions using high-performance, in-memory technology across online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, business intelligence, and analytics workloads without having to buy expensive add-ons or high-end appliances. SQL Server 2014 uses a common set of tools to deploy and manage databases both on-premises and in the cloud, which makes it easier for customers with existing skills to take advantage of the cloud.

2 Replication solutions for demanding disaster tolerant environments,

www8.hp.com/us/en/products/storage-software/product-detail.html?oid=5335710

www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-8318ENW 3 HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide 3.2.1, page 135 4 Microsoft, using guest clustering for HA, technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn440540.aspx

Super-fast Failovers with VM Guest Clustering in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Part 14 of 20 5 Microsoft SQL Server 2014

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/storage-software/product-detail.html?oid=5335710

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-8318ENW

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/manualsResults/?sp4ts.oid=5044394&spf_p.tpst=psiContentResults&spf_p.prp_psiContentResults=wsrp-navigationalState%3Daction%253Dmanualslist%257Ccontentid%253DUser-Guide-%252528how-to-use%252529%257Clang%253Den&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn440540.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/03/21/virtual-machine-guest-clustering-with-windows-server-2012-become-a-virtualization-expert-in-20-days-part-14-of-20.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/


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Configuration guidance

This paper provides additional guidance for this configuration installation, and is not intended to reproduce all the instructions available in other product documents. For example, while there are referenced documents for the installation of guest clustering and Peer Persistence, this document will provide some helpful pointers but is not a complete how-to guide.

Configuration information covered in this paper includes:

• HP ProLiant servers

• FC SAN

• HP Networking

• HP 3PAR all-flash storage system

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with built-in virtualization and clustering

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014

HP ProLiant servers

The servers were configured to boot from internal storage and were each configured with two 2-port 16 Gb FC adapters for redundancy and throughput capability. All FC ports were attached to the SAN for redundant storage connectivity. In this solution, both ProLiant DL380 and DL560 servers were used without any problems. However, as a best practice, the servers would normally all be as identical as possible, with a few exceptions such as using different network cards.

As a best practice, confirm the most recent HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) is applied before OS installation. Confirm that the server is fully patched with the most current HP SPP after installing the OS.

FC SAN

Peer Persistence builds on an HP 3PAR StoreServ Remote Copy (RC) implementation. For Remote Copy connectivity, the built-in 8 Gb Fibre Channel ports on the 7450 Storage nodes were used. A dedicated Remote Copy (RC1) 1 Gb Ethernet port on each storage node can be used for Remote Copy connectivity, but this could limit the synchronous copy throughput. Using the RC1 ports may be adequate for some Remote Copy solutions, but not this SSD solution, because it would have throttled replicated host I/O to 100 MBps.

Best practice is to have at least one port per node used for Remote Copy functionality.

Best practice is to match like ports between storage systems (for example, site A node 0 port 0:1:1 to site B node 0 port 0:1:1) to facilitate troubleshooting.

Zoning considerations

Follow these two Peer Persistence requirements when using Fibre Channel (FC) fabrics.

• Volumes must be presented and zoned to hosts at the local and remote site, which allows the disk to be used as a source or target device.

• Remote Copy port pairs should be zoned to each other for synchronous communications links.

Refer to the HP SAN design guide for supported SAN configurations.6 Chapter 16 describes the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage specific rules that apply to this solution. Refer to the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage best practices guide for HP 3PAR specific configuration and setup recommendations.

FC SAN zones were used for all storage connects. Zoning by host bus adapter (HBA) port is the HP-recommended zoning method for HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage (a single initiator port to multiple target ports per zone using World Wide Port Name [WWPN]). For example, a zone consists of a single server FC HBA port and multiple storage target ports. Table 1 documents the zoning for one cluster server node and is typical for the other three servers. Only the zone name changes.

6 For support information, visit HP Storage SPOCK: hp.com/storage/spock

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-4524ENW&cc=us&lc=en

http://www.hp.com/storage/spock


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Table 1. FC SAN zone used for one cluster node, typical virtual FC switch and adapters

Zone name Server alias Fabric 1 members Fabric 2 members

Zone62_1 Node62_HBA1p1 Array 1 port 0:2:1,

Array 1 port 1:2:1,

Array 2 port 0:2:1,

Array 2 port 1:2:1

Not applicable

Zone62_2 Node62_HBA1p2 Not applicable Array 1 port 0:2:2,

Array 1 port 1:2:2,

Array 2 port 0:2:2,

Array 2 port 1:2:2

Zone62_3 Node62_ HBA2p1 Array 1 port 0:2:1,

Array 1 port 1:2:1,

Array 2 port 0:2:1,

Array 2 port 1:2:1

Not applicable

Zone62_4 Node62_ HBA2p2 Not applicable Array 1 port 0:2:2,

Array 1 port 1:2:2,

Array 2 port 0:2:2,

Array 2 port 1:2:2

The Remote Copy ports zoned for Peer Persistence usage are shown in table 2. Each of the two 8 Gb built-in FC ports per storage node were used for Remote Copy functionality and zoned in a 1-to-1 configuration. The table shows all the remote copy port zones.

Table 2. FC SAN zone used for remote copy connectivity between storage nodes

Zone name Fabric 1 members Fabric 2 members

ZoneRCFC_011 Array 1 port 0:1:1,

Array 2 port 0:1:1

Not applicable

ZoneRCFC_111 Array 1 port 1:1:1,

Array 2 port 1:1:1

Not applicable

ZoneRCFC_012 Not applicable Array 1 port 0:1:2,

Array 2 port 0:1:2

ZoneRCFC_112 Not applicable Array 1 port 1:1:2,

Array 2 port 1:1:2

Note Synchronous replication mode is not allowed when running Remote Copy Fibre Channel (RCFC) over a SAN fabric extended over IP.7

7 HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide OS 3.2.1, page 25 (Fibre Channel over IP networks)



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Figure 3. Remote Copy links after being configured

Networking configuration

Follow Microsoft best practices for cluster networking. This solution configuration uses two physical 4-port network adapters. One port from each 4-port network adapter on each server was teamed and used for client-server network traffic for both the parent cluster nodes and the virtual machines. One port each was dedicated to each cluster for cluster traffic.

For storage networking information, refer to the following HP 3PAR StoreServ section.

HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage

Controller node connections

HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage is connected to the network for management access and for Peer Persistence Quorum Witness (QW) usage via the MGMT port on each storage node (not necessary on 4-node systems). A single IP address is configured

for each HP 3PAR Storage system, whether it’s a 2- or 4-node solution.

Console access for each storage node is via the RS-232 Mfg port.

The RC1 Ethernet port on the storage nodes was not used in this solution as discussed in the FC SAN section of this paper.

A 16 Gb FC adapter was added to each node for server storage presentation through the FC SAN.

Best practice information Refer to the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage best practice guide for important configuration and setup information. Best practice recommendations were included in this configuration, such as zoning, host sets, solid-state drive common provisioning groups (CPG), and persistent ports, as shown in table 3.

Table 3. FC SAN zone used for one cluster node, typical

Item Best practice used Comment

RAID level for SSDs Yes RAID 3+1; refer to solid-state drive CPG section of the best practice guide

CPG configurations Yes Refer to solid-state drive CPG section of the best practice guide

FC SAN zoning Yes Refer to FC SAN section

Remote Copy ports Yes Refer to FC SAN section

Hosts and host sets Yes Created manually

RCFC configuration Yes Redundant SAN solution with redundant fabrics





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HP 3PAR Management

The HP 3PAR Management Console (MC) and the HP 3PAR StoreServ Management Console (SSMC) were both used in this project. Figure 4 shows the Peer Persistence link and synchronous copy direction of the selected RC group. Both the HP 3PAR MC and the HP SSMC products can be installed and used on the same computer simultaneously.

Figure 4. Peer Persistence configuration viewed from MC

Figure 5 shows one of the many performance graphs that can be generated within the SSMC reports area. The figure shows a portion of the output with the IOPS and service time.

Figure 5. Performance graph taken with SQL Server database under load, 3-hour time interval, 5-min samples

MPIO and DSM Path Verify Enabled

Multipath functionality must be configured correctly for regular HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage usage and then for Peer Persistence.

Install and configure the Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) feature on the failover cluster server nodes. Until the MPIO feature is installed and configured, each HP 3PAR presented volume will appear multiple times, depending on the configured paths. Configure the MPIO properties for the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage by using the 3PARdataVV device hardware ID

(see figure 6). A reboot will be required.


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Figure 6. 3PARdataVV device after discovery

After adding the 3PARdataVV device ID and rebooting, set the HP 3PAR Device Specific Module (DSM) Path Verify Enabled

option for volumes used with Remote Copy and Peer Persistence. This should be configured on all servers using Remote Copy volumes.

On Windows Server 2012 R2, the setting is located in the Device Manager > Disk Drives > Properties dialog, as seen in figure 7. Right-click any of the HP 3PAR disks, then select the MPIO tab > Microsoft DSM Details. Select the Path Verify Enabled check box.

Figure 7. Select Path Verify Enabled for HP 3PAR Peer Persistence Remote Copy usage


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Remote Copy and Peer Persistence configuration

Peer Persistence software takes advantage of the Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) capability that allows paths to an SCSI device to be marked as having different characteristics.

Using ALUA, the paths to the source volumes are presented as active, while the paths to the target volumes are presented as standby. During a Peer Persistence failover operation, these replication roles are reversed; the source volume becomes the target, and the target volume becomes the source.

HP 3PAR Peer Persistence using Hyper-V Quorum Witness at a third site requires the following conditions:

• HP 3PAR StoreServ OS version 3.2.1 or newer

• Synchronous mode Remote Copy 1-to-1 configuration

• Maximum roundtrip network latency for Remote Copy synchronous mode replication link is 2.6 milliseconds. See figure 8

• Quorum Witness virtual machine installed at a third site

• The Quorum Witness reachable from both storage systems

• Quorum Witness maximum round trip network latency is 150 milliseconds

• Each source and target volume pair presented to the servers with the same volume Worldwide Name (WWN)

• Storage exported to all servers

Figure 8. Remote Copy link latency displayed in MC | Remote Copy Configuration | Summary area


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Figure 9 shows link traffic information as the SQL Server database I/O load generator starts up and creates synchronous traffic across the FC RC link.

Figure 9. Remote Copy link throughput displayed in MC | Remote Copy Configuration | Summary area

Table 4 lists some important configurations for Peer Persistence, with additional details listed after the table.

Table 4. Remote Copy group configuration information for Peer Persistence

Item Best practice used Comment

Copy CPG Yes A copy CPG is needed for manual Peer Persistence switchovers.

Use the same CPG for virtual volume (VV) user CPG and copy CPG.

Path_management Must Set this policy from the command-line interface (CLI) with the setrcopygroup command for the Remote Copy groups used with Peer Persistence.

Auto_failover Must Set this policy from the CLI with the setrcopygroup command for the Remote Copy groups used with Peer Persistence.

Setting “Path Management Policies” is important for correct data access from the storage systems. The path_management policy allows peer-persistent remote-copy groups to be configured to support uniform host storage access when the data is available from more than one storage system via ALUA functionality. A more thorough discussion is provided in the HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide.8

Setting “Auto Failover Policy” enables the automatic failover on a remote-copy group when used in conjunction with the Quorum Witness functionality. A volume group must have the auto_failover policy set if it is to be valid for automated and transparent failover. A more thorough discussion is provided in the HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide.9

Peer Persistence manual switchover and automatic failover

Peer Persistence executes a manual switchover or an automatic failover of the Remote Copy group for maintenance or disaster recovery operations. HP 3PAR Peer Persistence switchover and failover are key elements in providing and maintaining a high-availability storage solution between two sites.

The HP 3PAR Peer Persistence switchover operation moves the servicing of host I/O from one storage system to the other and reverses the direction of data replication. The switchover is a manual operation designed to facilitate service optimization and storage system maintenance activities within a high-availability data storage solution.

8 HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide OS 3.2.1, page 150 9 HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide OS 3.2.1, page 269




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In a manual transparent switchover, the operation is initiated in one of two ways:

• By issuing the setrcopy switchover command from the command-line interface, to a remote-copy volume group on the

primary storage system

• By using the switchover command from the management console

Automatic transparent failover10 migrates the servicing of host I/O from the failed primary to the surviving secondary storage system. In an automatic transparent failover, there is no coordination of operation between the storage systems, because the original source system failed. Only those actions performed on the secondary system are executed.

In an automatic transparent failover, the trigger is provided to the surviving secondary storage system by the Quorum Witness infrastructure and related software, which begins state transition and activation of the secondary host paths for all applicable secondary volume groups.

For both the manual and the automatic peer-persistent operations, the new source system will begin to service host I/O. For an automatic failover operation, replication will have stopped, and will remain unavailable until the failed system is recovered.

There is currently a workaround for Windows Peer Persistence support. As part of the recovery steps after an automatic failover for Windows Peer Persistence, a manual disk rescan allows failback to the original configuration.11 Perform this step after the setrcopygroup recover command is issued and before the manual switchover back to the original direction.

Perform the rescan from either diskpart or from “Disk Manager.”

Remote Copy

Remote Copy (RC) functionality is used by Peer Persistence to handle consistency groups and data copy operations. Consistency groups or RC groups enable in-order I/Os for the VVs in them and allow for simplified management operations. As a best practice, do not unnecessarily include volumes in an RC group that do not depend on consistency with other volumes within the group. Table 5 lists the volumes and RC groups used.

Table 5. List of RC group volumes

Volume RC group Size (GiB) Provisioning RAID Comment

Backup1 RC_grp_bkp1 1,024 Thin 5 For SQL Server

Data1 RC_grp_1a 1,400 Thin 5 For SQL Server

Log1 RC_grp_1a 1,400 Thin 5 For SQL Server

Msdtc1 RC_grp_1a 1.250 Thin 5 For SQL Server

Tempdb1 RC_grp_1a 1,024 Thin 5 For SQL Server

VM_sql101 RC_grp_1a 200 Thin 5 For VM101

VM_sql102 RC_grp_1a 200 Thin 5 For VM102

Peer Persistence source and target volume pairs must have the same volume WWN. If the volumes are both present before Remote Copy group creation, then this information would need to be adjusted to be the same for each pair.

To simplify the process, when creating the Remote Copy group, use an existing source volume, and let the wizard create a new target volume. From the Create Remote Copy Group wizard, select Create new volume, which creates a new target

volume with the correct WWN on the backup storage system. After creating the RC group, export the volume to the hosts. Remember, both the source and target (or secondary) volumes must be exported to the same hosts.

10 HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage concepts guide, HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1, Automatic Transparent Failover section 11 Windows Peer Persistence workaround, HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1 Release Notes, note 111310

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.BINARYPORTLET/public/kb/docDisplay/resource.process/?javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.rid_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=docDisplayResURL&javax.portlet.rst_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=wsrp-resourceState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c04204225-2%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.tpst=ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01_ws_BI&ac.admitted=1410900423080.876444892.199480143



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Microsoft

Microsoft SQL Server interaction with Remote Copy, Peer Persistence, and HP 3PAR StoreServ is described in the following sections.

Cluster Validation tests against storage

It’s a good idea to perform the Microsoft Failover Cluster Validation tests against the storage disks after each of the several stages of storage configuration. For example, one test might be to perform a storage validation test after all the primary storage volumes have been presented to the parent cluster nodes to confirm basic storage presentation and MPIO functionality. Another test would be performed after remote-copy groups have been configured with the secondary volumes and those volumes presented. Finally, perform a switchover of all the remote-copy groups and run the storage validation tests again to confirm volume access from the other HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage system.

MS SQL Server 2014 guidance

No special configuration changes are needed for SQL Server to benefit from Peer Persistence. Peer Persistence can transparently benefit any applications using HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage volumes.

Hyper-V guest-clustered virtual machines

Microsoft has made Hyper-V guest clustering of virtual machines relatively straightforward. To create shared storage for the VMs, first create a vhdx disk on a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) disk in the parent cluster. Present that vhdx disk to the clustered virtual machines.

When presenting a vhdx disk to more than one virtual machine for Hyper-V guest clustering, be sure to check the Enable virtual hard disk sharing feature as shown in figure 10. Usually the virtual machines need to be off during this task.

Figure 10. Enable virtual disk sharing


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Use cases

The following use cases were performed:

1. Manual switchover of source and target copy direction while clients access the database

This use case confirms manual switchover functionality of the Peer Persistence solution, including storage usage from both sites.

2. Move the running SQL Server instance to another cluster node (another clustered guest virtual machine)

This use case confirms SQL Server database storage access from other nodes. Combine this with use case 1. This might also be performed during maintenance operations.

3. Live migration of virtual machine running the SQL Server instance

This use case confirms Hyper-V functionality of the parent cluster and storage access from other nodes. This might also be performed during maintenance operations.

4. Catastrophic server node failure

This use case confirms the solution operates as expected during a catastrophic node failure.

5. Storage system failure

This use case confirms the solution operates as expected during a catastrophic storage system failure.

SQL Server workload

An OLTP workload utility was used during testing to simulate brokerage account activity. The utility was run against a fully functional SQL Server 2014 database. No utility workload characteristics were altered other than global user and global intensity settings. Normally, client applications will retry requests for any anomalous application responses; however, like many test tools this application does not handle retries well. During some use cases, the workload application was momentarily paused and then restarted during SQL Server instance ownership changes. The same behavior was seen by the SQL Server Management Console Activity Monitor, which had to be restarted when the SQL Server instance was moved or migrated. The workload application was using the separately installed SQL Server 2014 database—not simulating the database. If the workload was paused for a test case, this is noted.

Performance observations across all use cases

Optimal performance is achieved when SQL Server storage disks are owned by the parent cluster server hosting the virtual machine running the SQL Server instance. Move disks used by SQL Server to the node hosting the virtual machine running SQL Server. It doesn’t seem to matter which virtual machine owns the Hyper-V guest cluster disks.

Figure 11 shows the performance difference seen from the perspective of the SQL Server Management Studio Activity Monitor when the data and log disks are owned by either the server owning the virtual machine that owns the SQL Server instance, or a different parent server. Increased database I/O and batch requests as seen in location #2 of the figure is better. The actual dip is caused by the cluster disk move to the other node.

Figure 11. Activity Monitor showing impact of parent cluster disk ownership


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Use case #1: Manual switch of source and target copy direction

This test entailed selecting the consistency group, referred to as the Remote Copy group, and performing a switchover. In this case, the source group of volumes becomes the target group, and the target volumes become the source. This test was performed twice within several minutes. The switch is almost indiscernible from the Activity Monitor output, but can be clearly seen from the performance traces captured for the two storage systems. The client workload continued uninterrupted during this time.

Output from the Microsoft SQL Server Activity Monitor during this time is shown in figure 12.

Figures 13 and 14 show I/Os being serviced from one array, then the other during the manual switchover. These three figures are all from the same time period for the same event.

Figure 12. Activity Monitor output during switchover test (See HP 3PAR Management Console figures too)

Figure 13 shows the graph of performance information from the perspective of the storage system at site A. Figure 14 shows the same graph type, at the same time, from the perspective of the storage system at site B.

Figure 13. Database I/Os serviced from the site A storage system, then B, then again A via manual switchover

Figure 14. Database I/Os serviced from the site B storage system between the two manual switchover events


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Use case #2: Move the running SQL Server instance to another cluster node

Figure 15 shows a performance graph of the I/O workload, as seen from the HP 3PAR Management Console, during a move of the SQL Server instance to the other virtual machine node. The workload was momentarily paused for this disruptive event, and then started shortly after the move completed. The operation completed as expected with Peer Persistence providing continuous data to all nodes.

Figure 15. SQL Server instance move

Use case #3: Live migration of running VM with SQL Server instance

Figures 16 and 17 capture a live migration of the virtual machine, running SQL Server, to another parent node. The SQL Server database workload was running continuously during this migration. The performance changes seen are effects of the cluster live migration, and the manual cluster move of the data and log disks to the other cluster node. The operation completed as expected with Peer Persistence providing continuous data to all nodes.

Figure 16. Activity Monitor graph of a live migration event

Figure 17. HP 3PAR Management Console graph of a live migration event


17

Use case #4: Catastrophic server node failure

This tested the failure of a parent node, which owned the virtual machine running the active SQL Server instance. The catastrophic event was simulated by using the ProLiant server HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) interface to force a server power-off. The VM running on the server node failed as expected and was started on another available node. The SQL Server instance that was running in the Hyper-V guest cluster did not wait for the VM to start on another node, but came up on the other VM. The load generator was stopped just before the failure and started shortly after the SQL Server instance started back up. Figure 18 captured the I/O activity during the complete event. There was no impact at all to the Peer Persistence protected storage. In a real catastrophe, all data written to disk by the SQL Server database would be intact and a crash consistent recovery would be performed.

Figure 18. HP 3PAR Management Console chart of I/O during a node fail and recovery operation

Use case #5: Storage system failure

In this test, a storage system was failed, while the servers remained up. To create the failure, the storage system servicing the SQL Server 2014 disk I/O was shutdown. For this operation to be recognized as a valid event, the RC links and the Ethernet QW communication links must go down at essentially the same time. The HP 3PAR Remote Copy user guide discusses the various automatic failover scenarios.12

Figure 19 shows the Activity Monitor graphs of the automatic failover event as it relates to SQL Server database client I/O. The dip in the first “Processor Time” graph and the spike in the “Wait Tasks” are the most significant indicators of the failover, because all incomplete I/Os to the failed storage system were reissued to the alternate storage system. The client workload continued essentially uninterrupted during this time.

Automatic failover occurs with the assistance of the multipath I/O stack and HP 3PAR Peer Persistence automatic failover, including HP 3PAR Remote Copy with data integrity consistency groups.

Figure 19. Activity Monitor recording the automatic failover event

Figures 20 and 21 show I/Os being serviced from one array, and then the other during the automatic failover. The three figures shown in this use case are all from the same time period for the same event, and show normal expected behavior, while the client workload continued to run without incident. The first graph shows the failed storage system I/O dropping to zero, while the other graph shows the partner storage system picking up the I/O workload to perform a seamless recovery.

12 HP 3PAR Remote Copy software user guide OS 3.2.1, beginning at page 145



18

Figure 20. Database I/Os serviced from the site A storage system up to the point of the catastrophic failure

Companion figures 20 and 21 show the HP 3PAR Management Console I/O activity around the failure event.

Figure 21. Inactivity on the site B storage system until all host I/O for the database was automatically failed over

Key findings

Some key findings include:

• Optimal performance is achieved when SQL Server storage disks are owned by the parent cluster server hosting the VM running the SQL Server instance. Best practice is to move all disks used by SQL Server to the node hosting the virtual machine running SQL Server. It doesn’t seem to matter which VM owns the Hyper-V guest cluster disks.

• The performance was not affected by whether the storage source disk was on one array or the other (the local site or the remote site).

• Switching source and target array roles was almost indiscernible from the application perspective.

• Virtual machine guest clustering provides fast failover capability for the SQL Server resource.

• The HP 3PAR highly available Peer Persistence storage configuration responds immediately to a catastrophic storage system failure. I/Os initially serviced by the site A storage system are redirected to the site B storage system to maintain 100 percent client workload uptime.

Summary

HP 3PAR Peer Persistence software enables HP 3PAR StoreServ systems located at metropolitan distances to act as peers to each other, presenting a nearly continuous storage system to SQL Server 2014 hosts and the servers connected to them. This capability allows customers to configure a high-availability (HA) disaster recovery (DR) solution for their mission-critical SQL Server database between two sites or data centers. Switchover and switchback remain transparent to the SQL Server hosts and the applications running on those hosts.

Peer Persistence enables disaster recovery for SQL Server and other applications needing a simple HA or DR storage solution for their compute environments, as demonstrated by the various use cases performed and documented in this reference architecture.


19

Bill of materials

Major components used in testing this RA are listed here. The list is not exhaustive, but provides guidance. For example, power distribution units (PDUs) and interconnecting cables are not listed. Often these items will already be present, or ordered as needed.

Table 6 lists hardware components, and table 7 lists software and applications used.

Hardware bill of materials Table 6. Hardware bill of materials (FIO indicates factory installable option)

Quantity Description Comment

HP ProLiant servers (cluster nodes) Cluster nodes hosting SQL Server VMs

2 HP ProLiant DL560 Servers with 256 GB RAM Site A cluster nodes

2 HP ProLiant DL380p Servers with 128 GB RAM Site B cluster nodes

4 HP NC365T 4-port Ethernet Server Adapter For teamed corporate network and cluster network

4 HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 366FLR Adapter (LAN on motherboard [LOM]) For teamed corporate network

8 HP SN1100E 16Gb Dual Port FC HBA Two per server node

0 HP PCIe IO Accelerator (optional feature for increased performance)13 Optional hardware not used


2 HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 2-node base One at each data center

4 HP SN1000E 16Gb 2-port PCIe Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter One per storage node

0 HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 drive enclosure Optional hardware not used

20 HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 400GB 6Gb SAS SFF (2.5 inch) MLC Solid State Drive

Miscellaneous hardware

2 HP 3800-24G-2SFP+ Switch (J9575A)14

4 HP SN6000B 16Gb 48-port Fibre Channel Switch With Power Pack+

1 HP rack and keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) switch, keyboard and monitor

2 Two servers to host redundant virtual Active Directory (AD) or Domain Name System (DNS) servers, Peer Persistence Quorum Witness, Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC), File Share Witness (FSW) shares, and client workload utility for SQL Server

13 HP IO Accelerator Card, h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/solid-state/ 14 HP 3800 Switch Series QuickSpecs, h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14152_div/14152_div.pdf

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/solid-state/

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14152_div/14152_div.pdf


20

Software bill of materials

Table 7 shows a software bill of materials used for this project.

Table 7. Software bill of materials

Quantity Description Comment

HP software

2 HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1 Supports Peer Persistence with Hyper-V

1 HP 3PAR Management Console

HP 3PAR Remote Copy license

HP 3PAR Peer Persistence license

HP 3PAR System Reporter license

1 HP StoreServ Management Console (SSMC)

1 HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) 2014.06.015 Includes HP Smart Update Manager (SUM) v6.4.1

Microsoft software

6+ Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 build 6.3.9600 Cluster nodes, VMs for SQL Server, additional infrastructure

2 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 On virtual machines in guest cluster

All .NET Framework 3.5

4 MPIO Enabled on all physical servers for HP 3PAR DSM “3PARdataVV”

Miscellaneous software

1 Brocade SAN advisor and HP-supported firmware (FW)16 FOS 7.2.1a was used

1 Emulex OneCommand Manager and HP-supported FW17 FW 1.1.65.101 was used

15 HP SPP used on all ProLiant servers to provide applications with current BIOS, FW, and drivers 16 For support information, visit HP Storage SPOCK: hp.com/storage/spock 17 HP Storage SPOCK (Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge) hp.com/storage/spock for support information




21

Terminology

Table 8 provides a short list of common terms used in this paper.

Table 8. Glossary of common terms

Term Description

Failover cluster A grouping of hardware and software components that may provide high availability through redundancy, along with scalability for workloads.

Guest clustering A failover cluster whose server nodes are composed of virtual machines and which possibly includes cluster-aware software running on those virtual machines, such as SQL Server 2014.

Peer Persistence Peer Persistence enables failover or failback between two sites or data centers to be transparent to hosts, without any disruption to applications running on them. Peer Persistence is deployed with Remote Copy without the need for any additional hardware or appliance.

Remote Copy HP 3PAR Remote Copy is a unique replication technology that allows you to protect and share data from any application more simply, efficiently, and affordably. Remote Copy dramatically reduces the cost of remote data replication and DR.

SCSI LUN SCSI logical unit number (LUN), which is used with FC devices along with their Worldwide Name (WWN) for identification.

Virtual volume (VV), and VLUN Either thinly or thickly provisioned storage that is made available for server usage by exporting it, which creates a volume-LUN (VLUN) pairing from the HP 3PAR perspective and a disk LUN from the server perspective.18

TPVV A thinly provisioned VV (TPVV) is a volume that allocates system storage as needed, while a fully provisioned VV is one with fully allocated or reserved space on the storage system.

Fibre Channel (FC) fabric; FC SAN One or more FC switches connected together creates an FC fabric. Two switches not connected would be two FC fabrics. An FC SAN is composed of one or more FC fabrics.

18 HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage concepts guide



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