dell - vmware optimizing wp (4!26!12)

8/2/2019 Dell - VMware Optimizing WP (4!26!12)

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Optimizing the Storage

Infrastructure for the

Private Cloud and Beyond

2012 Dell and VMware


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2 2012 Dell and VMware

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Data center evolving to cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Evolution to private cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Tools streamline storage management in virtual environments . . . . .7

Revolutionary approach: Hybrid cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Case study: Iland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12


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Introduction

The Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) survey shows that CIOs top twotechnology priorities are implementing virtualization and cloud computing

technologies to reduce capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating

expenditures (OPEX) and increase agility and flexibility. Two-thirds of

organizations have virtualized 50% or less of their infrastructure, and 29% say

the primary roadblock is the lack of in-house installation and management

skills. As organizations migrate Tier-1 applications to virtual environments, it

becomes essential to implement a storage platform that tightly integrates with

virtual servers to deliver crucial new capabilities needed by the business along

with the performance, scalability and reliability needed to support virtualizationof mission-critical applications.

Dell EqualLogic PS series SAN arrays abstract storage objects from storage

hardware to make storage as dynamic as upper-layer applications. A flexible,

scalable storage environment based on a shared pool of resources avoids the

cost and complexity of specialized storage networks. Dell EqualLogic iSCSI

SANs are tightly integrated with VMware vSphere and VMware View

to simplify the deployment of new functionality through streamlined storage

management, enhanced virtualization capabilities and superior businesscontinuity. EqualLogic support of vStorage APIs for Array Integration

(VAAI) enables quick deployment of virtual machines (VMs) from templates

and improves storage on volumes shared by multiple VMs.

Dells storage infrastructure integrates with virtualization to transform

physical silos into elastic virtual capacity while utilizing built-in, policy-driven

management to automate repetitive administrative tasks. Users are provided

with secure self-service to predefined IT services under a pay-for-use model.

Virtualization is the evolutionary path to cloud computing. Private cloud

computing combined with public cloud computing provides the ultimate

flexibility in workload deployment by shifting workload from internal to

external resources on demand while ensuring high levels of security.


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Data center evolving to cloud

Cloud is top technology priority

The Gartner EXP survey found that virtualization and the cloud are CIOs top

technology priorities. The survey included responses from 2,014 CIOs repre-

senting over $160 billion in corporate and public-sector IT spending across 50

countries and 38 industries. Currently, 3% of enterprises have the majority of

IT running in the cloud or on software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, but

over the next four years, CIOs plan to increase that number to 43%.

Benefits of virtualization and the cloud

Its not hard to see why CIOs place such a high priority on migrating to

virtualization and the cloud. Virtualization offers the potential to substantially

reduce CAPEX by reducing the number of physical servers and other

computing equipment that need to be purchased. Migrating spikes in demand

to the public cloud provides further CAPEX savings by eliminating the need to

purchase capacity to handle peak workloads.

Virtualization delivers substantial reductions in OPEX by reducing the number

of servers that need to be managed. Virtualization also reduces managementtime per server by automating and centralizing computing services. A library of

virtual machine templates drastically reduces the time required to provision a

server. Reducing the number of physical servers in the data center also reduces

power consumption and space requirements.

Virtualization and the cloud enable organizations to exploit global business

opportunities at a much faster speed. Bringing a new product to market

traditionally requires the purchase of hardware, software deployment and

testing, and possibly even new staff hires. Virtualization eliminates or reduces

these expenses by making it possible to deploy virtual resources to meet the

requirements of the product. Software deployment and testing is reduced or


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eliminated, since the new servers can be built from images of existing

production servers. The new resources integrate with existing resourcesso additional staffing is rarely needed.

Two paths to the cloud

Enterprises can choose between two primary paths to the cloud: evolutionary

and revolutionary. The evolutionary path preserves current investments by

putting existing enterprise applications into virtual machine containers. With

virtualization serving as the foundation, additional capabilities are then layered

on, such as usage-based billing/chargeback, workload life-cycle management,

dynamic resource pooling and self-service portals for users.

The revolutionary path adopts a new paradigm by developing cloud-native ap-

plications to leverage cloud-specific resources. This approach is appropriate

for Greenfield opportunities within organizations and is targeted at nontradi-

tional, Web 2.0 applications that are written for and deployed in the cloud.

These revolutionary solutions are often delivered together as an integrated,

turnkey unit.

Evolution to private cloud

Storage infrastructure challenges

As enterprises move to take advantage of the benefits of virtualization and the

cloud, a key challenge is architecting a storage infrastructure to enable the

private cloud. Server virtualization enables different operating systems to

share the same hardware and makes it easy to move workloads between dif-

ferent hardware, even while the applications are running. In order to take full

advantage of the potential of the cloud, storage needs to be just as dynamic byabstracting storage objects from physical storage in order to enable automatic

storage management and provisioning.


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In order to achieve the workload mobility required to support a resilient

virtual infrastructure for Tier-1 applications, virtualized servers require high-performance, concurrent access to shared storage resources. The storage

platform must deliver performance, reliability and scalability to support the

virtualization of mission-critical applications and the development of cloud

computing environments with self-service capabilities. At the same time, the

storage platform must help control operational costs by streamlining

management to avoid unnecessary administrative tasks.

Dell EqualLogic arrays optimize performance for virtualized environments

Dell EqualLogic virtualized iSCSI SANS provide a high-performance

storage infrastructure that can be tightly integrated with VMware virtualized

server and desktop environments. The Dell EqualLogic PS series iSCSI

SAN fully virtualizes storage across drives, controllers and networks to

decouple the logical storage service from the physical hardware and thus

bring the same benefits to storage that VMware brings to servers. Equal-

Logic PS series storage allows organizations to pool storage resources,

creating a flexible, scalable storage environment while consolidating storage

hardware.

By using Ethernet as the underlying network protocol, EqualLogic PS series

arrays help IT groups avoid the cost and complexity of specialized storage

networks and make it possible to leverage their investment in and knowledge

of Ethernet infrastructure. Dell EqualLogic has a rich and growing suite of

integrated storage capabilities that work with VMware APIs and dont

require the use of the NFS protocol.


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Tools streamline storage management in virtual

environments

VMware offers market-leading solutions that help businesses address their

server and desktop virtualization needs. Dell and VMware have a long

history of collaboration. Dell EqualLogic virtualized iSCSI SANs are

tightly integrated with VMware vSphere and VMware View. Included

with each storage array is a set of tools designed to streamline storage

management, deliver enhanced virtualization capabilities and enable busi-

ness continuity strategies for enterprises.

EqualLogic Datastore Manager

Dell EqualLogic Datastore Manager provides fast and efficient storage

integration and management of EqualLogic storage in VMware environ-

ments. This tool is used to create new datastores, expand existing datastores

and monitor datastores from vCenter in a matter of minutes. Since Datastore

Manager is a virtual application in vCenter, administrators can manage

storage from within their familiar vSphere framework.

Auto-Snapshot Manager

Dell Auto-Snapshot Manager / VMware Edition (ASM/VE) provides data

protection at the VM level. ASM/VE uses VMware vStorage APIs to create

instantaneous, space-efficient, online hypervisor-aware snapshots, clones

and remote replicas of virtual machines and Virtual Machine File System

(VMFS) datastores. ASM/VE is deployed as a vCenter vApp, meaning that

administrators can set automated schedules for snapshots, clones and

replicas from within the vCenter management framework.


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EqualLogic Virtual Desktop Deployment Utility

The EqualLogic Virtual Desktop Deployment Utility streamlines virtual desk-top infrastructure provisioning while optimizing the storage footprint. This tool

employs EqualLogic template volumes and thin clones to provide efficient

space utilization and enhances productivity by automating VM pool creation,

VM registration and patch and update management. The Virtual Desktop De-

ployment Utility deploys as a vApp in vCenter.

Storage Replication Adapter for Site Recovery Management

The VMware vCenter Site Recovery Management (SRM) Storage Replication

Adapter helps simplify disaster recovery management, automation and testing

for virtualized data centers. Combined with the native EqualLogic PS series

auto-replication feature, SRM enables administrators to easily replicate data,

configure VM protection groups and test recovery plans.

Dell Multipath Extension Module

The Dell Multipath Extension Module (MEM) automatically manages network

connections. It creates iSCSI sessions to all members that a volume spans.

As the storage environment changes, MEM responds by automatically addingand removing iSCSI sessions as needed. Furthermore, multiple paths to

storage enable load balancing of SAN traffic and provide redundant

connections to reduce the impact of network interface failures.

VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration

VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) provide native

integration between the hypervisor hosts and the storage arrays, enabling

VMware vSphere software to work directly with Dell EqualLogic PS

series arrays. These off-loading operations can dramatically accelerate VMdeployment tasks by avoiding the requirement to read the data all the way up


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the storage stack and write it back down the storage stack. Instead, VMFS

directs storage to move data directly, resulting in a 76% faster boot, a 75%reduction in CPU load and a 95% reduction in SAN traffic.

A number of VMFS operations cause the logical unit number to temporarily

become locked for exclusive write use by one of the VMware ESX nodes,

such as moving a VM with vMotion, creating a new VM or deploying a VM

from a template. A VAAI feature called Atomic Test and Set allows the ESX

server to off-load the management of the required locks to storage and

avoids locking the entire VMFS file system.

VM provisioning from a template reduces installation time and standardizesworkloads. However, it requires a full data copy, which for a 100GB template,

may take five to 20 minutes. VAAI uses the arrays native copy/clone and ze-

roing functions for a 10x to 20x speedup in provisioning time.

VMware vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness

VMware vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) are a new set of APIs

that complement and coexist with VAAI off-load capabilities. Where VAAI

focuses on providing APIs to enable the off-loading of storage-related

functions from VMs to storage systems that support those capabilities, VASA

focuses on providing insight and information. For example, VASA enables

Dell EqualLogic arrays to provide vCenter with visibility into storage

configuration, health status and functional capabilities.

Dell Server Management Plug-in

In addition to the storage plug-ins mentioned above, the Dell Server

Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server seamlessly integrates

with vCenter to simplify and consolidate the management of server andvirtual infrastructure from a single console. It enables administrators to

create and use hardware and hypervisor templates to ensure consistency


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and maintain corporate-approved standards. According to a product review

by InfoWorld, Dell has compressed thankless and repetitive server admintasks into a few clicks of the mouse. It has also made gathering up-to-date

hardware inventory information extremely simple.

Dell vStart series

The Dell vStart series is a plug-and-play virtualization stack with all the hard-

ware, software and cabling preinstalled in the rack. vStart includes all of the

infrastructure required to run hundreds of VMware virtual machines. The

racks are shipped to the customer for installation by trained, certified

professionals who can quickly get the customer operational. The standardbuilding blocks are based on industry best practices and real-world designs,

with performance and availability optimized and provided in a complete

environment.

Revolutionary approach: Hybrid cloud

Virtualization increases efficiency by standardizing servers, operating

systems, desktops and applications. The next step is a hybrid cloud

environment that allows users to tap into resource pools when needed. Thisbusiness model lets end users have the keys to the kingdom so they can

rapidly provision servers and scale on demand at their own expense. The

end-to-end hybrid solution provided by VMware and Dell uses the same

architecture as the private cloud solution described earlier, so users can shift

workload from internal to external resources based on demand and pay for

hosted services only when needed.

Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service is an enterprise-class

infrastructure as a service (IaaS) hosted in a secure Dell data center thatprovides access to vCPUs, memory, storage networks, IP addresses,

firewalls, catalog capabilities and additional services. Pooling of servers,


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networks and storage increases agility and reduces the time and CAPEX

needed to set up and maintain computing environments. On-demandcapacity makes it possible to quickly increase or reduce computing capacity

to respond to new business opportunities, seasonal/cyclical trends and other

fluctuations in demand. Mobile users have anytime access from multiple de-

vices, and stronger service-level agreements improve end-user satisfaction.

Case study: Iland

Challenge

Iland has evolved from a collocation and application hosting company into a

cloud infrastructure provider with high-availability cloud data centers in

Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas and London. The

company needed a fully redundant, cloud-ready solution that would provide

customers with high availability, scalability, ease of management and finan-

cial efficiencies while enabling them to target replication to a remote facility

for disaster recovery.

Solution

Iland chose Dell as one of its key technology partners to provide server and

storage environments through cloud offerings based on Dell PowerEdge

servers and Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN storage. Iland has standardized on

Dell EqualLogic PS6000 series iSCSI SAN arrays in its six data centers.

Benefits

Iland saved more than $1 million across several multi-array implementations

of Dell EqualLogic iSCSI storage, compared with the cost of Fibre Channel

SANs. The company provides cost-effective disaster recovery capabilitiesusing the built-in replication capabilities of Dell EqualLogic. Only five to 10


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minutes is needed to install and configure a new EqualLogic unit. Global

visibility is provided into multiple EqualLogic units via one pane of glass,

with no-charge SAN headquarters software. EqualLogic iSCSI storage

requires 30% less administrative time compared with Fibre Channel.

Conclusion

Virtualization is the evolutionary path to cloud computing. Dell and VMware

have teamed to integrate the infrastructure needed to implement private

cloud computing. Furthermore, Dell and VMware offer hosted cloud

services at Dell data centers. Dell EqualLogic PS series SANs provide a

high-performance, scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-manage storage

platform for private cloud computing in virtualized data centers. Dell and

VMware have collaboratively developed a broad array of capabilities that

administrators can utilize to protect data, streamline management and

control costs. Dell EqualLogic PS series SANs enable organizations to

create virtual environments for mission-critical applications, deploy desktop

virtualization infrastructures and construct next-generation cloud environ-

ments that maximize the value of virtualization for the entire enterprise.

dell - vmware optimizing wp (4!26!12)

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