Technical white paper Why the right architecture matters with vSphere HP 3PAR StoreServ Table of contents Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 VMware vSphere Virtualization and its demands on storage.............................................................................................. 4 Workload impact on storage .................................................................................................................................................. 4 I/O blender effect on storage ................................................................................................................................................. 4 VMware VAAI integration with HP 3PAR StoreServ ................................................................................................................ 5 Storage hardware primitives for VAAI .................................................................................................................................. 6 HP 3PAR silicon-level integration with VAAI ....................................................................................................................... 6 HP 3PAR StoreServ architecture advantages ......................................................................................................................... 7 HP 3PAR StoreServ—customized for flash ........................................................................................................................ 7 System-wide striping ............................................................................................................................................................... 8 HP 3PAR ASIC ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 HP 3PAR Autonomic Groups ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Workloads and HP 3PAR StoreServ performance analysis ............................................................................................... 10 Array wide striping benefits .................................................................................................................................................. 10 QoS controls (HP 3PAR Priority Optimization) .................................................................................................................. 12 HP 3PAR capacity reduction technologies ............................................................................................................................. 15 HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning with VMware vSphere .......................................................................................................... 16 Capacity savings with HP 3PAR Zero Detect during virtual disk creation ................................................................... 18 HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication and VMware vSphere ......................................................................................................... 20 VMware vSphere UNMAP Space Reclamation ....................................................................................................................... 21 vSphere Thin Provisioning Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) .................................................................................... 21 Test case—HP 3PAR TPVV and VMware Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) ........................................................... 22 Test findings—HP 3PAR TPVV and VMware Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) .................................................... 23
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Technical white paper
Why the right architecture matters with vSphere HP 3PAR StoreServ
VMware vSphere Virtualization and its demands on storage.............................................................................................. 4
Workload impact on storage .................................................................................................................................................. 4
I/O blender effect on storage ................................................................................................................................................. 4
VMware VAAI integration with HP 3PAR StoreServ ................................................................................................................ 5
Storage hardware primitives for VAAI .................................................................................................................................. 6
HP 3PAR silicon-level integration with VAAI ....................................................................................................................... 6
HP 3PAR StoreServ architecture advantages ......................................................................................................................... 7
HP 3PAR StoreServ—customized for flash ........................................................................................................................ 7
HP 3PAR ASIC ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9
HP 3PAR Autonomic Groups ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Workloads and HP 3PAR StoreServ performance analysis ............................................................................................... 10
HP 3PAR capacity reduction technologies ............................................................................................................................. 15
HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning with VMware vSphere .......................................................................................................... 16
Capacity savings with HP 3PAR Zero Detect during virtual disk creation ................................................................... 18
HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication and VMware vSphere ......................................................................................................... 20
VMware vSphere UNMAP Space Reclamation ....................................................................................................................... 21
vSphere Thin Provisioning Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) .................................................................................... 21
Test case—HP 3PAR TPVV and VMware Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) ........................................................... 22
Test findings—HP 3PAR TPVV and VMware Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) .................................................... 23
Technical white paper | HP 3PAR StoreServ
2
Storage management tools for VMware vSphere ............................................................................................................... 24
HP OneView for VMware vCenter ........................................................................................................................................ 24
HP OneView Integration with VMware vCOPS ................................................................................................................... 25
Conclusion and benefits ............................................................................................................................................................. 25
HP 3PAR Thin Conversion software is an optional feature that converts a fully provisioned volume to a TPVV. Virtual
volumes with large amounts of allocated but unused space are converted to TPVVs that are much smaller than the original
volume. During the conversion process, allocated but unused space is discarded. The result is a TPVV that uses less space
than the original volume.
Virtual machine sprawl, over-provisioned VMs, and inefficiencies in storage utilization by the vSphere environment are
ongoing problems for VMware administrators. HP 3PAR Thin Conversion addresses the problem of over-provisioned
VMware data stores, by allowing the administrator to change a fully provisioned volume to a TPVV and reclaim valuable
storage space on the HP 3PAR StoreServ, which would otherwise be wasted.
All HP 3PAR StoreServ systems running HP 3PAR OS 3.1.2 or later are able to convert a fully provisioned volume to a
thin-provisioned volume (or vice versa) without requiring an offline transition. The tunevv command is used to convert
between fully provisioned and thinly provisioned virtual volumes. In the following example, the logical disks used for user
space are moved to CPG FC_r5 for virtual volume vol01 and the virtual volume is converted to a TPVV:
cli% tunevv usr_cpg FC_r5 -tpvv vol01
When the -tpvv or -full options for the usr_cpg subcommand are specified, the tune automatically rolls back on a failure.
These options do not support virtual volumes with remote copy. These options only convert virtual volumes using
snapshots if the “-keepvv” option is used, but the snapshots reside in the virtual volume specified by the “-keepvv” option.
During the thin conversion, the HP 3PAR ASIC assists in reducing the amount of data copied by using its zero-detect
capability to remove the need to copy blocks of zeros. To make better use of this feature, it is advantageous to write zeros
to the allocated but unused space on the fully provisioned volume before the conversion. The method of writing zeroes to
the disk at the virtual machine layer is described in more detail in the VMware vSphere UNMAP Space Reclamation section.
Capacity savings with HP 3PAR Zero Detect during virtual disk creation
A key benefit for some VMware vSphere environments is that HP 3PAR Thin Persistence provides that when a new, fully
formatted volume is created, the entire volume is not allocated from physical storage because of all the zeroes written
during the formatting process. This situation is encountered in a vSphere environment with the EZT VMDK format that
zeroes out the entire VMDK file, consuming the full size of the VMDK file on the array even before the VM has been used.
With HP 3PAR Thin Persistence software and the built-in zero-detection capability of the HP 3PAR ASIC, as the ESXi host
writes zeroes to the VMDK file, the zeroes are detected inline by the ASIC, and no physical space is allocated for the VMDK in
the thin provisioned volume. Figure 15 demonstrates how the HP 3PAR ASIC works to detect zeroes and intercept them
before writing to the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage. Contrast this functionality with storage arrays that do not offer this
capability: on those arrays, an Eager Zeroed Thick VMDK negates any thin provisioning benefits because it fills up the
thin-provisioned volume as it is being initialized.
Figure 15. HP 3PAR ASIC inline zero-detect during VM creation.
Technical white paper | HP 3PAR StoreServ
19
Testing VMware VMs and EZT virtual disks
When virtual machines are created in a vSphere cluster, the administrator is given options. The common choice for critical
VMs is EZT, which allocates all space to the desired virtual disk upfront. This process results in the full virtual disk being
zeroed out (zeroes being written to the data store and underlying storage) during the VM provisioning process. HP 3PAR
Zero Detect reduces storage waste by intercepting the zero writes inline in the node by the ASIC. The following test case
demonstrates the storage efficiency realized with HP 3PAR Zero Detect.
Test findings—TPVV zero detect and EZT VMDK creation
Table 1 and figure 16 illustrate the used capacity difference between a TPVV with the zero-detect option disabled and
enabled during the VM creation of an EZT VMDK. Three VMs were created with EZT enabled: two 1,024 MB VMS and one
2,048 MB VM, where each virtual disk was automatically zeroed-out (only zeroes were written to entire VMDK) upon
power on.
Table 1. Comparison of HP 3PAR Zero-Detect with VMware VMFS data stores during EZT virtual disk creation.
RAID level and tier Total TPVV size Space used at
VMFS (VMs in MB)
Used USR space (MB)
from HP 3PAR TPVV
Vol3 TPVV with
zero-detect
RAID 1 FC 200 GB 4,128 8
Vol5 TPVV without
zero-detect
RAID 1 FC 200 GB 4,128 4,127
Figure 16. HP 3PAR Zero-Detect with TPVV during VM creation (EZT VMDK).
Our Zero-Detect use case results show the significant space savings realized with the HP 3PAR Zero-Detect functionality
enabled during the creation of VMs with VMware EZT option enabled, a space savings of 99 percent.
Note
HP 3PAR TPVVs consume user space, admin space, and possibly snapshot space on the disk array. The output of the CLI
command examples in this paper shows the reserved and the raw reserved space. The reserved space is what is offered by the array as usable space to the host. This value is also shown in the HP 3PAR Management Console in the reserved user
size column for a TPVV and in the pie chart for the logical option in the summary tab for the virtual volume details screen.
The raw reserved space is calculated from the reserved space by multiplying the latter by its RAID overhead factor.
For more information on HP 3PAR TPVVs, see HP 3PAR thin technologies white paper.
Note the graph in figure 16 and CLI example in figure 17 show the capacity used after the Zero-Detect test case was
completed. Three VMs were created on each TPVV; two VMs with 1,024 MB EZT virtual disks and one VM with a 2,048 MB EZT
virtual disk. Each virtual disk was zeroed-out (only zeroes were written) upon VM power on.
Figure 17. HP 3PAR CLI output (showvv command) after Zero-Detect tests with TPVVs and VM creation (EZT VMDK).
Interpreting results
Only drives in the Fibre Channel tier in the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 array were used in this test. Table 1 summarizes the
HP 3PAR TPVV comparison; both TPVVs are the same configuration and size. TPVV vol3 has Zero-Detect enabled, whereas
TPVV vol5 does not. Take note of the difference in USR used space (4,127 MB) on vol5 with Zero-Detect disabled and the
USR used space of 8 MB on vol3, which has Zero-Detect enabled. Zero-Detect results in a 99 percent reduction in the USR
used space consumed by the VMs.
Without the benefit of HP 3PAR Zero-Detect, VMs and their corresponding virtual disks (VMDK) demand, in our test, 515X
more storage space be allocated upfront on the thin-provisioned volume, reducing the benefits of thin provisioning and
causing the storage to look like a traditional storage array. When the thin-provisioned volume has the zero-detect feature
enabled, almost zero storage space was used during EZT VMDK creation and the subsequent zeroing out the VMDK. The
HP 3PAR ASIC, with its zero-detect capability, increasing the efficiency of thin-provisioned storage on an HP 3PAR StoreServ
Storage system.
Tip
The HP 3PAR CLI commands are useful for interrogating StoreServ arrays at the vvol level. The showvv command is used
to verify whether a particular storage device is thin-provisioned. The command can be run from an SSH session to the vSphere host. In this example, --server=server_name specifies the target server. The specified target server prompts you
for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For
more information on HP 3PAR CLI commands and their related options, see HP 3PAR Command Line Interface
Administrator’s Manual and the HP 3PAR Command Line Interface Reference.
To display information about a vvol or tpvv on an HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage system, use the showvv command as shown:
# showvv –s
HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication and VMware vSphere
With the increasing use of flash in virtualization environments, deduplication for primary storage arrays has become critical.
The potential benefits of deduplication correlate directly with data redundancy. For example, VM images and client
virtualization environments with hosted virtual desktops are both characterized by a high degree of data redundancy,
meaning that these are two use cases where primary deduplication fits well.
The main issue that primary deduplication typically faces is that, particularly in virtualized environments, primary storage
arrays are subjected to unpredictable performance demands that can require simultaneously low latency and high
throughput. The impact of deduplication on performance is determined by various parameters such as whether
deduplication takes place inline or as a background process and the level of granularity used for deduplication operations.
HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage offers the only solution in the industry that uses built-in, silicon-based mechanisms and a
patented express indexing feature to protect flash performance while delivering extremely efficient, highly granular
block-level deduplication. Unlike other approaches, HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication software performs a full check on all data
before marking it as duplicated, which is essential to deliver data integrity for virtualized and mission-critical environments.
Figure 19. Example of showvv HP 3PAR CLI command for vol3—original used space and TPVV used space after UNMAP space reclaim.
Test findings—HP 3PAR TPVV and VMware Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP)
Table 2 shows the results of the tests. Column 5 and 6 reveal the space at the TPVV level after VMs are deleted and then the
space used at the TPVV level after issuing the VMware UNMAP command. Looking at vol2 as an example, over 99 percent of
the capacity is reclaimed compared to the used space prior to UNMAP.
Looking at the rest of the table, the third column shows the total size (in GB) of all VMs deleted from each volume. The
fourth column is the number of blocks VMware UNMAPs per iteration. The fifth column is the used USR space (in MB) on the
TPVV after the VMs were deleted, as reported by the showvv command, and before the VMware UNMAP command was
executed. The sixth column is the TPVV’s used USR space (in MB) after the VMware reclaim UNMAP esxcli command
was executed.
The last column shows the elapsed time to complete the UNMAP space reclaim operation. As the UNMAP reclaim units are
increased (fourth column), the time to complete the space reclaim (last column) decreases. The results show that there is
benefit to increasing the reclaim unit size from the default of 200 MB to reduce the amount of time that UNMAP takes to
complete. The peak service times reflect the impact an UNMAP request has on storage performance. This impact occurs on
all storage arrays because of the workload from the UNMAP command, which is a very I/O intensive operation. As a result, it
is recommended to do UNMAP operations during off-peak hours so there is less impact on VM workloads.
Table 2. VMware UNMAP space reclamation test results.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
TPVV Total
vvol
size
in GB
VMDK
removed
in GB
UNMAP
reclaim
units
Used
USR
space
(MB)
before
reclaim
Used
USR
space
(MB)
after
reclaim
Peak service
time/latency
before
reclaim (ms)
Peak service
time/latency
(ms) during
reclaim
Time
UNMAP
took to
complete
reclaim
TPVV vol2
(RAID 6
FC)
1,02
4
400.0 200 410,386 4,852 .4 4.5 9 min
TPVV vol3
(RAID 6
FC)
1,02
4
400.0 800 410,216 4,848 .5 5.5 8 min
TPVV vol4
(RAID 6
FC)
1,02
4
400.0 1,600 412,762 4,922 .5 5.5 6 min
TPVV vol1
(RAID 6
FC)
1,02
4
400.0 3,200 412,765 4,934 1.0 5.7 6 min
Technical white paper | HP 3PAR StoreServ
24
Interpreting results
Only drives in the Fibre Channel tier in the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 array were used in this test. The combination of
VMware’s Thin Space Reclamation (UNMAP), HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning and HP 3PAR Thin Persistence software helps
realize greater storage efficiencies in a fluid virtualization environment. As demonstrated in the above example, the reclamation tools can result in significant capacity savings—99 percent capacity savings in the test environment
used—that help keep a storage environment as thin as possible over time. VMware vSphere administrators can use
these tools to address the effects of virtual machine sprawl and reclaim valuable storage resources.
Storage management tools for VMware vSphere
HP OneView for VMware vCenter
HP OneView for VMware vCenter integrates as a plug-in with the vCenter Server, Web UI, and vSphere Client software.
The VMware administrator accesses the vCenter Server management capabilities, including the functionality of the plug-in,
using the vSphere Client software installed on the end user’s system.
After registering with the vCenter Server, all vSphere clients connected to that vCenter Server get access to HP OneView for
VMware vCenter through the HP Management tab.
Figure 20. A typical VMware configuration with HP storage and HP OneView software integration into the environment.
HP OneView for VMware vCenter software establishes a connection with vCenter Server. The storage module uses this
connection to resolve the disks for each ESX/ESXi host, data store, and VM. After resolving these disks, the storage module
then creates a connection to all configured HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems to resolve the disks visible by the ESX/ESXi
host to the LUNs presented from the HP storage systems. When LUNs are successfully resolved, the relevant storage
information is cached or displayed in context with the vSphere Client.
The HP Management tab located under the VMware “Manage” tab provides detailed topology and properties of your
HP Infrastructure in the context of the selected cluster, host, VM, or data store. This tab starts as an overview dashboard
and then drills down into the physical infrastructure. Additionally, the user can access storage information from either the
cluster, VM, data store, or host level from within the vSphere interface. This can be done by selecting the specific vSphere
object in the tree on the left and then selecting the HP Management tab.
The storage module of HP OneView for VMware vCenter has the ability to manage storage provisioning from within the
vSphere Client for the HP 3PAR StoreServ and other HP storage arrays. The user has the ability to add or remove LUNs from
the VMware vCenter configuration without the need to go to a different management tool for the array, as well as to clone
or create new VMs based on either existing VMs or a pre-created template.
Technical white paper | HP 3PAR StoreServ
25
HP OneView Integration with VMware vCOPS
HP OneView for VMware vCenter Operations Manager provides integrated and highly automated performance, capacity,
configuration compliance, and cost management tools to the VMware vCenter Operations Manager (vCOPS) custom GUI.
The software uses the vCOPS analytics engine that analyzes what is normal and then applies those norms to a dynamic
server environment. For information on vCenter Operations Manager, see VMware vCenter Operations Manager Enterprise
documentation at vmware.com/support/pubs/vcops-pubs.html.
When the HP OneView for VMware vCenter Operations Manager is installed, the custom HP OneView Dashboard is added to
the vCenter Operations Manager custom GUI. HP OneView Dashboard allows you to monitor resources in a vCenter
environment. The analytics engine allows for proactive monitoring of the HP OneView resource environment and indicates
the state of the resources. If a problem occurs, an alert is triggered and displayed. The analytics engine also provides
proactive prediction, which can determine the point in the future when a resource can reach a critical level.
For more information on HP OneView for VMware vCenter, visit the HP Converged Infrastructure Management website or
view the HP OneView demo.
Conclusion and benefits
By now, it is clear that virtualization is only going to continue to grow exponentially in enterprise environments.
Compounded with trends like virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Big Data, the I/O blender effect will only worsen if
companies do not act now and plan for the future.
Deploying HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage in VMware vSphere environments helps remove the management, provisioning, and
monitoring headaches associated with most storage platforms. Purely architected and traditional SAN storage struggles to
meet the performance and agility needs of a virtualized server environment, whereas HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage meets or
even exceeds the heavy demands that server virtualization places on storage, using massive parallelization for exceptional
performance and high availability features for superior resilience, enabling clients to consolidate with confidence.
As shown in table 3, the savings realized in capacity utilization and time efficiency with the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 hybrid
array in a VMware vSphere environment is significant.
Table 3. Overview of test findings.
Storage
technology
HP 3PAR support VMware support Storage efficiency Savings
HP 3PAR wide
striping
Native to HP 3PAR
architecture
N/A Less wasted disks in
storage array between
RAID volumes
• 89% decrease in read
latency of vSphere
hosts
• 98% decrease in write
latency of vSphere
hosts
HP 3PAR Priority
Optimization
Priority Optimization
license required
Storage
Distributed
Resource
Scheduler (DRS)
Less than 1% impact
upon tier-1 application
read/write latency
Improves ability to meet
business/application
service-level agreement
(SLA)
HP 3PAR Zero
Detect
Inline at HP 3PAR
silicon layer
VAAI 99% difference in
TPVV used space
Decreased write I/O, less
storage network traffic
Thin Space
Reclamation
HP 3PAR Thin
Persistence license:
UNMAP supported in
firmware
UNMAP native to
vSphere 5.5
99.68% of vSphere
space deleted was
reclaimed on TPVV
35% quicker with higher
reclaim units
Support for the latest version of VMware vSphere and integration with vSphere Storage APIs delivering enhanced
performance, agility, and scalability in vSphere environments, while HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning software allows physical
storage to be consumed only when required for actual written data, rather than when allocated.
HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Server are trademarks of the Microsoft
Group of companies. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States
and/or other jurisdictions.
4AA5-5655ENW, November 2014
Resources
HP Storage, hp.com/go/storage
The Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) for HP Storage products website: hp.com/storage/spock
HP 3PAR StoreServ: hp.com/go/3par
HP Support Center: us-support.external.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public
Storage concepts and terminology: HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage Concepts Guide
HP 3PAR thin technologies white paper: h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx%2F4AA3-8987ENW.pdf
HP 3PAR Priority Optimization white paper: www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-7604ENW
HP SAN Design Reference Guide: h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00403562.pdf
HP 3PAR VMware Implementation Guide
Supported hardware and software platforms: hp.com/go/3par