Module 12 Equallogic HIT All Platforms 30 Pages

7/28/2019 Module 12 Equallogic HIT All Platforms 30 Pages

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dule 12 EqualLogic Host Integration Tools


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The Microsoft Host Integration Tools build on the existing iSCSI components that are

native Windows along with adding powerful tools such as Auto Snapshot Manager to

enhance the SAN environment. EqlXcp, is a the command-line Windows utility that

accelerates file copies a file using the SAN Data Copy Offload API.



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Microsoft Software Initiator includes MS MPIO installation. The version of the initiator is dependent on

the HIT kit version

Remote Setup Wizard - allows for you to configure the array from a Microsoft system.

RAID 6 configuration - new with HIT release 3.2

EQL MPIO DSM iSCSI initiator properties Page - new with HIT release 3.2. The MPIO DSM records path

status and device information in a log file. Access this information from the MPIO iSCSI Initiator

properties page.

ASM/ ME, Auto- Snapshot Manager Microsoft Edition, is a set of application recovery tools using a ASM/

ME VSS Requestor and the ASM/ ME VSS provider. Those tools include a suite of Microsoft recovery

tools:

NTFS Volume Recovery Tool

Exchange Recovery Tool

SQL Recovery Tool

Hyper-V Recovery tool - new with HIT release 3.2

ASM/ME supports Hyper-V as an application, enabling you to make Smart Copies of

virtual machines and their associated virtual hard drives (VHDs). There are constraints

on the type of Smart Copy allowed, and the configuration of the virtual environment.Additional Features support in the HIT Kit

Mount Points - new with HIT release 3.2

IPV6 - new with HIT release 3.2

Windows 2003 and 2008 Failover Cluster - new with HIT release 3.2

PowerShell Tools new with HIT release 3.5.0 This is used for managing one or many PS

Series groups through a set of PowerShell commands.

VDS Virtual Disk Service, Provider

Java Runtime Environment



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Connection Awareness to a PS Series SAN

EHCM EqualLogic Host Connection Module

Manages sessions to and from the iSCSI initiator

Remote Setup Wizard MPIO Settings Page Allows management of DSM

Include / Exclude networks

Define load balancing policy

Configure session connections

iSCSI Initiator MPIO Session Management Tab

Real-time view of MPIO session connections



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The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) component of MicrosoftWindows Servers coordinates the activities of providers, writers, andrequestors for creating and using shadow copies.

A VSS requestor is an application that requests VSS services to create

shadow copies such as Equallogic Autosnapshot manager. Typically, VSSrequestors are backup applications. Requestors communicate with writers to

gather system data and signal writers to prepare data for backup.

A VSS provider manages storage volumes and creates shadow copies ondemand. In response to a requestor, a provider generates COM events tosignal applications of an impending shadow copy and creates and maintainsthis copy until it is no longer needed. During the life cycle of the shadowcopy, the provider effectively supports two independent copies: the disk thatis actively updated and a fixed copy that is stable for backup.

A VSS writer is an application or service that writes data to disk andcooperates with VSS providers and requestors. During backups, writers ensurethat data is in the proper state for a shadow copy.



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VSS makes automated back-ups of network volumes. VSS back-ups are online, which

means they are always available without mounting a tape.

VSS helps protect against problems caused by users leaving files open during nightly

back-ups. If a user had a file open when the back-up ran, previous versions of

Windows back-up would have skipped the file rather than back it up. In WindowsServer 2008, however, back-up pulls the most recent version of the file from VSS and

backs it up.

The back-up process using VSS:

Back-up software begins the back-up process based on policy schedules

defined and configured in the back-up software

The back-up software talks to MS VSS service requesting a back-up (in this

case the Exchange 2010 volumes).

VSS tells the Exchange 2010 application that a back-up request has come in

and that the application needs to Quiesce the mail stores.

VSS then tells NTFS to flush buffer cache so that all transactions arecompleted

VSS then tells the PS Series Array to take a snapshot

VSS then tells the Exchange 2010 application that it can continue

VSS informs the Back-up software that a snapshot is available and that it can

now perform a back-up of the snapshot

The back-up software tells VSS the back-up is complete



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Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition (ASM/ME) is a unique and innovative

bundled data protection feature of the Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SAN that

enables fast online backups and quick restores of Microsoft Hyper-V Server virtual

machines (VMs), NTFS File Systems, Microsoft SQL Server datasets and Microsoft

Exchange Server datasets.

ASM/ME, included with all PS Series arrays, allows administrators to create NTFS file

system, Exchange storage group and SQL Server database Smart Copy snapshots,

local database volume clones, and remote replicas. With the introduction of

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, ASM/ME also integrates directly into the Hyper-V

parent partition providing SmartCopy snapshots of virtual machines and virtual hard

disks. ASM/ME is also tightly integrated with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service

(VSS) to provide hardware-based snapshots of Windows based applications. A

complete scheduler is included with E-mail notification options to simplify

maintenance operations.



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The PowerShell Tools are new to The Host Integration Toolkit version 3.5.0

The example shown above will create a read-only snapshot of MyVolume that is

online and allows connections

from multiple initiators.

Microsoft Windows PowerShell 2.0 is required To verify the required version of the

Windows PowerShell is running use the following command: powershell host

In order to enable communication between the PS Series group and the Powershell

Tools, you must create a new administrative account or reset the password for any

existing administrative account(you can reuse the same password) on the PS Series

group. This only needs to be done once for each set of credentials you want to use

for each PS Series group.

* For more information on the EqualLogic PowerShell commands see the PowerShell

User Guide at: https://www.equallogic.com/support/download_file.aspx?id=1055



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The Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tools for VMware (HIT/VE) is comprised ofthree tools designed to ease administrator tasks including Datastoremanagement, local and remote protection, and virtual desktop automation. Delldelivers HIT/VE as a virtual appliance which can be downloaded and installed into

the VMware cluster. Once it is configured, the following three tools are installedand registered as plug-ins into vCenter.

Administrators can launch each of these tools from the Home screen of vCenterand also from the new context sensitive tabs and right-click menu options thatare added with the plug-in.



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ASM/VE is a plug-in to vCenter. It allows an administrator to do selective restoresof VMs and datastore from Smart Copies,

clone virtual infrastructure objects from Smart Copies and Smart Copy Replicasand replicate datastores from one PS series group to another.

A Smart Copy is a collection of virtual machine snapshots and EqualLogic PSSeries volume snapshots, performed synchronously by ASM/VE. You can useSmart Copies and replicas to restore the state of virtual machines to a specific

point in time. Smart Copies are stored locally on your PS-Series group whilereplicas reside on a second group, possibly at a remote location for disaster

tolerance.



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Datastore Manager is a tool that allows administrators to provision storage rightfrom vCenter. It is context sensitive so you can right click on a cluster and deploya new datastore. It will go to the SAN, create the volume or volumes with thesize and requirements that you state, it will properly surface them to the cluster,

rescan the HBAs and then put a VMFS file system on them and make themavailable as a usable datastore. All without having to leave vCenter Client! Not

only that but the tool allows for you to expand volumes and also monitor theirstatus from vCenter GUI.

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The main status panel shows information for each EqualLogic datastoreincluding:

Status

Capacity

Space utilization

Name and status of the related PS Series volume

Snapshot space

Snapshot utilization

Replication status

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The HIT for VMware contains VMware View integration along with thin cloneintegration for space efficient virtual desktop deployments. It uses the Equallogicthin clone technologies.

The Virtual Desktop Deployment Utility provides automation of the following:

deployment of virtual desktops. The Virtual Desktop Deployment Utilityextends the capabilities

of the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) that is available from VMwareView.

The EqualLogic Virtual Desktop Deployment Utility provides thesefeatures:

Automated virtual desktop deployment by managing operations on

storage arrays inside

vCenter

Ability to import VDI pool metadata directly into VMware ViewFast provisioning of additional desktops

Fast and automated re-deployment of desktop pools



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Remote Setup Wizard Command Line Interface (RSWCLI): Discovers andinitializes PS Series arrays, configures and manages access to PS Series arrays,and configures and manages multipathing.

Multipath device configuration components: Provides the EqualLogic

Connection Manager (ehcmd) daemon to manage multipath devices, aDevice Mapper kernel module (dm-switch) to optimize routing of

multipathing devices, and a command line interface (ehcmcli) that allowsusers to review the diagnostic state of EqualLogic multipathing.

EqualLogic Host Performance and Tuning Tool Suite (eqltune), a utility usedto validate configurable parameters against practices recommended by Dell.



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EqualLogic MPIO settings:

Network include (-I)

Network exclude (-E)

MPIO parameters (-P)PS Array operations:

Discover (-d)

Initialize (-i)

List group (-l)

Add group access (-a)

Remove group access (-r)

Modify group access (-m)



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Discover and Login to a PS Series Target

The iSCSI volume discovery and login procedure is unchanged when using HIT

for Linux MPIO software. The iscsiadm utility is still used to discover and login tovolumes. Its worth noting that in its default mode, iscsiadm will login through all

available iface records including those added by the EqualLogic MPIO software.This will result in unnecessary iSCSI sessions being created, negatively impactedlogin performance and potentially straining SAN resources.



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Module 12 Equallogic HIT All Platforms 30 Pages

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