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1 Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

VMAX Best Practices forVMware Environments

David RobertsonvSpecialist

Itzik ReichvSpecialist

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2 Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

VMAX FA Flag Settings for vSphere

SPC-2 SCSI 3 (Optional) No effect on ESX anymore.

Unique WWN (UWN)

Common Serial Number (C)

OS2007 (Optional)

Screenshot from within VirtualCenter using the VSI4

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Connectivity Considerations with VMAX

VMware ESX Servers should have multiple physicalHBA

VMware Servers should be connected to multipledirectors

Directors 7 and 8 in single engine configurations Connections to different directors in different engines in

multiple engine configuration

Connect each HBA to a minimum of two ports ondifferent directors

Not a requirement but strongly recommended I/O intensive workload will benefit Servicing of the array is less impacting

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Connectivity Considerations with VMAXCont.

HBA1 HBA2 HBA1 HBA2 VMwarevSphereServers

MinimumConfiguration

IdealConfiguration

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Connectivity Considerations with VMAXCont.

HBA1 HBA2 HBA1 HBA2 VMwarevSphereServers

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Path Management with VMAX

PowerPath/VE is strongly recommended forvSphere environment

PowerPath/VE is optimized for multi-controller

storage (i.e. VMAX) NMP policy is available with vSphere

Use Round Robin policy for Symmetrix arrays

esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp -P VMW_PSP_RR -s

VMW_SATP_SYMM We recommend setting the Round Robin IOPS

parameter to 1 (default is 1000)

Use Fixed Policy for Gatekeepers

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Using the VSI to configure Multipathingpolicy

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VMAX FA Configuration for SPC-2

Turned on per Fibre Channel port or per initiator

Do not activate in a live system if not previouslyset

Default from 5773 (DMX-4)

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Performance and Storage LayoutvSphere with VMAX

Use Virtual Provisioning Always provides optimal balance in VMware environments

FAST VP

Physical Disk Size and Protection Depends on the IO characteristics of the workload

LUN Layout Avoid using same set of disks for applications with different

I/O characteristics

Configuration for I/O intensive application data Follow best practices recommendations for a physical

server

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Partition Alignment (VMFS and Guest OS)

Intel-based systems are misaligned due to metadata written by the BIOS

to handle LBA to CHS translation Partition Misalignment affects VMFS and Guest OS partitions

Host-based Partition Utilities can be used to Align Partitions:

For Linux and VMFS Alignment use fdisk

Offset partition to 64 KB boundary

Aligned VMFS partitions are now automatically created by vSphere Client

For Windows Operating Systems (2003 in particular) use the diskpartutility

Create partition aligned on 64 KB boundary

Use diskparfor versions of pre-Windows 2003 System at SP1

Earlier versions of diskpartwill show partitions as aligned, even if they are not

For Metavolumes (MetaLUNs) only the base device needs to be aligned

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Effects of Partition Misalignment

Symmetrix VMAX uses 64K track size

In an Aligned System, the 64 KB write would be serviced by a singledrive

File-system misalignment affects performance in two ways:

Misalignment causes disk crossings: I/O broken across two drives

Misalignment causes stripe crossings: I/O broken across stripe

elements Even if disk operations are buffered by cache, there is performance

impact

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VMAX Virtual Provisioning in VMwarevSphere Environments

vSphere provides native thin provisioning Either one can be used

Both features can be used simultaneously but doing soincreases risk

VMAX Virtual Provisioning simplifies drive and DAworkload distribution Provides additional benefits besides optimizing storage

use

Ensure enough paths and TDEVs to support the workload VMAX Virtual Provisioning provides additional

benefits Zero Reclaim and Rebalancing

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VMAX Virtual Provisioning for vSpherePerformance Considerations

RAID protection of data devices

Balance between performance versus resiliency

Fully allocate Virtually Provisioned devices if

Applications sensitive to latency

The risk of oversubscription is too high

Optimum performance when IOs are aligned

VMFS is aligned on 64 KB boundary (use vCenter) Virtual disks should be aligned

Including boot volumes (Linux, pre-win2k8/windows7)

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VMAX Virtual Provisioning for vSpherePerformance Considerations Cont.

Striped versus Concatenated thin metavolumes Depends on type of workload

Small block versus large block

Random versus sequential

Reads versus writes

Influenced by presence or absence of SRDF

Concatenated thin metavolumes can be grown

Frequently exploited feature in VMware environments

Striped metas can be grown as of 5875 and SE 7.2

Most VMware environments have small blockrandom read workload

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VMAX Zero Space Reclamation

Reclaims thin pool storage by deallocating unnecessary track

groups Scans each track group and discards those containing all zeros Deallocated tracks are presented as all zeros by Symmetrix to host

Primary use is post migration from thick to thin Migration performed using TimeFinder/Clone or Open Replicator for

Symmetrix Reclamation should be run prior to configuring any replication

relationships Thin devices in active TimeFinder or SRDF relationships will be

skipped

Thin

P

ool

100110010001111000000000000000010011001000111100000000000000000000000000000000

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VMAX Zero Space Reclamation Cont.

Very useful tool in VMware environments Relevant if customer upgraded to vSphere

VMware Thin

Zeroedthick (VMware Thick) Eagerzeroedthick

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VMAX Virtual ProvisioningAutomated Pool Rebalancing

Rebalances allocated tracks across data devicescontained within thin pool Levels out imbalances caused by thin pool expansion

Or unbinding thin devices from the thin pool

Scheduled process that runs at given intervals

User defines imbalance as a percentage utilization differencewithin the pool (user configurable 1% to 50%)

In VMware environments, storage requirements canincrease rapidly

Mass VM deployment (VDI, testing environments, etc)

Virtual environments are very dynamic Adding datastores, removing datastores Automated Pool Rebalancing maintains performance and

gives best TCO

Thin

Poo

l

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VMware vSphere and FAST VP

FAST VP operates at the sub-LUN level Analyzes/moves data in groups of 10 extents (1 extent =

768k) Great value in vSphere environments RDMs, dedicated datastores

Considerations are the same as that for physical servers

Configure a single standard size of device on all tiers Same size TDEVs recommended

For optimal system performance use Optimizer in concertwith FAST VP

Optimizer will balance load within a tier

Utilize EMC Virtual Storage Integrator to identify theStorage Type

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EMC FAST in Action

EMC Storage with an active ESX Cluster

VMware VMware VMware VMware

All Fibre ChannelDisk Drives

Disk Resources are ~80% Busy

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EMC FAST in Action

Add Flash Drives and Apply FAST Policy

68% Less Disk I/O Contention

2.5X Faster Disk Response Time

VMware VMware VMware VMware

Tiered Storage4% Flash Drives

96% FC Drives

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VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)Available on VMAX with Enginuity 5875

Block Zero

SCSI write many blocks from host toarray

Without API

SCSI Write Same command oneblock from host to array and repeatedlywritten

With API

Reduce host I/O traffic Higher throughput for guest

applications

Benefits

Without With

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VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)Available on VMAX with Enginuity 5875

Full Copy

SCSI Read data from array to host

SCSI Write data from host to array

Without API

SCSI Extended Copy data movedwithin the array

With API

Reduces time to migrate

Reduces time to deploy

Benefits

WithoutWith

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VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)Available on VMAX with Enginuity 5875

Hardware Assisted Locking

Reserves the complete LUN

Requires several SCSI commands

Without API

Works at a block level no LUN lock

SCSI Compare Swap command

With API

Reduces SCSI reservation issues

Allows more changes to metadata

Benefits

Without With

vmdk1

vmdk2

vmdk1

vmdk2

Th k Y !

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Thank You!

EMC Symmetrix VMAX Enginuity 5875: FAST VP, VAAIMaking The BestArray even Better: http://itzikr.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/emc-symmetrix-vmax-enginuity-5875-fast-vp-vaai-making-the-best-array-even-better/

SRM Automated Failback Using EMC Symmetrix VMAX:http://itzikr.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/srm-automatic-failback-using-emc-symmetrix-vmax/

Increase Scalability for Virtual Desktops with EMC Symmetrix FAST VPand VMware VAAI: http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h8062-scalability-vmax-vaai-wp.pdf

April 28-EMC Live Webcast: VNX Best Practices for VMwareEnvironments:http://info.emc.com/mk/get/DBM10690-17709_raf_lp?reg_src=PA_Vmware

Tuning NMP IOPS Parameter for Symmetrix Devices:http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h8119-tuning-vmware-symmetrix-wp.pdf

Using EMC Symmetrix Storage in VMware vSphere Environments:

http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/solution-overview/h2529-vmware-esx-svr-w-symmetrix-wp-ldv.pdf White Paper: Using VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration with

EMC Symmetrix VMAX: http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h8115-vmware-vstorage-vmax-wp.pdf

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VMware Site Recovery Manager Failover/Failback DEMO

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Storage Pool Management feature for VSIDEMO