© 2011 VMware Inc. All rights reserved Storage Management Module 5.

© 2011 VMware Inc. All rights reserved

Storage Management

Module 5

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VMware vSphere: What’s New – Revision A

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VMware vSphere:What’s New

Course Introduction

Introducing vSphere 5.0

Virtual Machine Management

Network Management

Storage Management

Scalability

High Availability

New Alternatives for Deploying vSphere

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Importance

This module introduces many of the new features and enhancements of VMware vSphere® 5.0 storage that increase storage scalability and manageability while reducing the total cost of ownership.

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Module Lessons

Lesson 1: Enhancements to Storage Functionality

Lesson 2: New Storage Functionality

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Lesson 1:Enhancements to Storage Functionality

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Learner Objectives

After this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Discuss vSphere Storage vMotion enhancements.

Describe new primitives for VMware vSphere® Storage APIs - Array Integration (VAAI ).

Describe enhancements to solid-state disk (SSD) support.

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What’s New with Storage vMotion?

vSphere 5.0 supports the Storage vMotion migration of:

A virtual machine that has snapshots

A virtual machine that uses linked clones

Storage vMotion is the underlying technology for a new vSphere 5.0 feature, Storage DRS.

Storage DRS is further discussed in module 6, “Scalability.”

In vSphere 5.0, Storage vMotion uses a new mirroring architecture.

The changed-block tracking mechanism is not used.

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Mirroring Architecture of Storage vMotion

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What’s New with VAAI?

VAAI was introduced in vSphere 4.1.

The goal of VAAI is to help storage vendors provide hardware assistance to accelerate VMware I/O operations that are more efficiently accomplished in the storage hardware.

In vSphere 5.0, new VAAI primitives are available to storage vendors:

VAAI: Hardware Acceleration for NAS:

• Allows NAS arrays to integrate with vSphere to transparently offload certain storage operations to the array

This integration significantly reduces the CPU overhead on the host.

VAAI: Hardware Acceleration for Thin Provisioning:

• Allows the monitoring of space on thin-provisioned storage arrays

This functionality helps to prevent out-of-space conditions and to perform space reclamation.

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What’s New with SSD?

SSD is supported in VMware ESXi™ 4.1. In ESXi 5.0, the VMkernel can automatically detect, tag, and enable an SSD.

Use the VMware vSphere® Client™ to identify an SSD.

ESXi host’s Storage panelon the Summary tab

By knowing which storage is SSD, you can use that storage for:

Quicker Storage vMotion migrations among hosts that share the sameSSD

Improving a virtual machine’s performance by placing its swap fileon it

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Review of Learner Objectives

You should be able to do the following:

Discuss Storage vMotion enhancements.

Describe new primitives for VAAI.

Describe enhancements to SSD support.

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Lesson 2:New Storage Functionality

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Learner Objectives

After this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Describe the software Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapter.

Discuss the uses of VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance.

Create and upgrade a VMware vSphere® VMFS-5 datastore.

Explain the purpose of VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA).

Use profile-driven storage.

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Software FCoE Adapter

convergednetworkadapter

networkdriver

FCdriver

VMware ESX®/ESXi host

networkdriver

softwareFC

ESXi 5.0 host

NICwith FCoE

support

enhancedEthernet

fabric

hardware FCoE(supported in vSphere 4.1)

software FCoE(new in vSphere 5.0)

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Configuring Software FCoE: Create VMkernel Port

Step 1. Connect the VMkernel to physical FCoE NICs installed on your host.

VMkernel ports

vmnic2 vmnic3

Physical adapter: vmnic2VMkernel label: FCoE-2

VLAN ID: 20IP address: 172.17.12.150

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Physical adapter: vmnic3VMkernel label: FCoE-3

VLAN ID: 30IP address: 172.17.12.151

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

NICs withFCoE support

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Configuring Software FCoE: Activate Software FCoE Adapter

Step 2. Add the software FCoE adapter.

Select host > Configuration tab > Storage Adapters link > Add.

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VMware vSphere Storage Appliance

VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance (VSA) is a virtual appliance that provides small and medium businesses with the benefits of VMware vSphere® vMotion® and VMware vSphere High Availability without requiring shared storage.

VSA runs on an ESXi host. A VSA cluster is a group of ESXi hosts, each running its own VSA instance.

A VSA cluster enables the following features:

Shared datastores for all hosts in the cluster

vMotion and vSphere HA

Datastore replication

Hardware and software failover capabilities

VSA is an alternative to SAN storage.

A SAN system provides a centralized array of storage.

A VSA cluster provides a distributed array of storage.

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VSA Architecture

VMware vCenter Server™ 5.0

datastore1

datastore2

VOL 1replica

VOL 2replica

VOL 1 VOL 2

VSA cluster with two ESXi hosts

ESXi hosts(VSA cluster

members)

VSA cluster leader

VSA VSA

VSA Manager VSA cluster service

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How a VSA Cluster Handles Failures

vCenter Server 5.0VSA Manager

datastore1

datastore2

datastore3

VOL 1replica

VOL 2replica

VOL 3replica

VOL 1 VOL 2 VOL 3

VSA cluster

VSA VSA VSA

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VMFS-5

VMware vSphere® VMFS-5 is a new version of the virtual machine file system that offers improved scalability and performance.

The datastore and a single extent can be greater than 2TB.

• The maximum datastore size is 64TB.

• Pass-through raw device mappings (RDMs) can be greater than 2TB. Maximum size is 64TB.

• The maximum file size remains at 2TB.

Newly created VMFS-5 datastores use a 1MB file block size only.

The file system subblock size is 8KB.

Data of small files (less than or equal to 1KB) is stored directly in the file descriptor.

GUID Partition Table replaces Master Boot Record.

• GPT provides the ability to create VMFS-5 volumes greater than 2TB.

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Creating a VMFS-5 Datastore

Select host > Configuration tab > Storage link > Add Storage.

New in ESXi 5.0, you can choose between version 5

and version 3.

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Upgrading to a VMFS-5 Datastore

Select host > Configuration tab > select VMFS-3 datastore > click Upgrade to VMFS-5

link.

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VASA

VASA allows a storage vendor to develop a software component (a VASA provider) for its storage arrays.

A VASA provider gets information from the storage array about available storage topology, capabilities, and state.

storagedevice

vCenterServer

5.0

VASAprovider

vSphereClient

vCenter Server connects to a VASA provider.

Information from the VASA provideris displayed in the VMware vSphere® Client™.

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Benefits Provided by VASA Providers

VASA providers benefit vSphere administrators by:

Allowing administrators to be aware of the topology, capabilities, and state of the physical storage devices on which their virtual machines are located

Allowing them to monitor the health and usage of their physical storage devices

Assisting administrators in choosing the right storage in terms of space, performance, and service-level agreement requirements:

• Done by using virtual machine storage profiles

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Configuring a VASA Provider

Select Home > Administration > Storage Providers.

After adding a storage provider,the VASA provider is listed

in the Vendor Providers pane.

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Profile-Driven Storage

Profile-driven storage enables the creation of datastores that provide varying levels of service.

gold silver bronze uncategorized

not compliantcompliant

Profile-driven storage can be used to do the following:

Categorize datastores based on system-defined or user-defined levels of service:

• For example, user-defined levels might be gold, silver, and bronze.

Provision a virtual machine’s disks on “correct” storage

Check that virtual machines comply with user-defined storage requirements

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Storage Capabilities

Storage capabilities:

System defined – From VASA providers

User-defined

VASAprovider 2 –

SYSTEMCAPABILITIES

datastore A –USER-DEFINEDCAPABILITIES

vCenter Server 5.0

VASAprovider 1 –

SYSTEM CAPABILITIES

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Virtual Machine Storage Profiles

Virtual machine storage profiles:

Contain one or more storage capabilities

Are associated with one or more virtual machines

Can be used to test that virtual machines reside on compliant storage

VASAprovider 2 –

SYSTEMCAPABILITIES

datastore A –USER-DEFINEDCAPABILITIES

VASAprovider 1 –

SYSTEM CAPABILITIES

virtual machinestorage profiles

compliant not compliantcompliant

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Overview of Steps for Configuring Profile-Driven Storage

To configure profile-driven storage:

1. View existing storage capabilities.

2. (Optional) Create user-defined storage capabilities.

3. Associate user-defined storage capabilities with a datastore or datastore cluster.

4. Enable the VM Storage Profiles function on a host or cluster.

5. Create a virtual machine storage profile.

6. Associate a virtual machine storage profile with a virtual machine.

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Using the Virtual Machine Storage Profile

Use the virtual machine storage profile when you create, clone, or migrate a virtual machine.

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Checking Virtual Machine Storage Compliance

After clicking the Check Compliance Now link

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Lab 4

In this lab, you will work with new vSphere 5.0 storage features.

1. Upgrade a VMFS-3 datastore to a VMFS-5 datastore.

2. Create a VMFS-5 datastore.

3. Create a user-defined storage capability.

4. Create a virtual machine storage profile.

5. Enable your host to use virtual machine storage profiles.

6. Associate storage profiles with virtual machines.

7. (Optional) Upgrade VMware Tools and virtual machine hardware.

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Review of Learner Objectives

You should be able to do the following:

Describe the software FCoE adapter.

Discuss the uses of VSA.

Create and upgrade a VMFS-5 datastore.

Explain the purpose of VASA.

Use profile-driven storage.

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Key Points

Storage vMotion migrations support virtual machines with snapshots.

There are new VAAI primitives for NAS and thin provisioning.

The VMkernel can automatically detect, tag, and enable SSDs.

To activate software FCoE, you must bind the FCoE-capable network interface card to the software FCoE adapter.

VMFS-5 allows the virtual machine file system and a single extent to be greater than 2TB.

VSA enables low-end configurations to use vSphere HA, vMotion, and Storage vMotion without requiring external shared storage.

VASA allows storage vendors to provide information about the capabilities of their storage arrays to vCenter Server.

Profile-driven storage is a feature that introduces storage compliance to vCenter Server.

Questions?

© 2011 VMware Inc. All rights reserved Storage Management Module 5.

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