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Technical white paper

HP ProLiant Gen8 and StoreServ7400 Hyper-V solution for

Windows Server 2012Solution recommended architecture

Table of contents

Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Solution components ................................................................................................................................................................... 3Rack and power ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Network ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Servers ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Storage ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Windows Server 2012 ............................................................................................................................................................ 24

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V ........................................................................................................................................... 27

Management systems ........................................................................................................................................................... 40

Capacity and sizing ...................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Bill of materials ............................................................................................................................................................................ 45

Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Implementing a proof-of-concept .......................................................................................................................................... 48

For more information ................................................................................................................................................................. 49

Sizer resources ........................................................................................................................................................................ 49


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Technical white paper | HP ProLiant Gen8 and StoreServ 7400 Hyper-V solution for Windows Server 2012

2

Executive summary

In traditional data centers where each server is deployed for the sole purpose of running a single workload, you often

encounter hardware sprawl, higher energy consumption for power and cooling, and more complex management.

Virtualization decouples virtual and physical resources, thereby enabling the sharing of resources previously dedicated to

individual applications, driving less provisioning complexity, and greater flexibility. This leads to a transformation of not only

the data center, but also the businesses that those data centers fuel as a result of delivering greater consolidation,

administrative efficiency, and cost savings. HP and Microsoft are positioned to help you deploy a stable and flexible

virtualization infrastructure with their next generation of products to serve as a base for your applications. Together withWindows Server 2012 Hyper-V, our HP Converged Infrastructure solutions including HP Converged Storage is a powerful

virtualized compute platform that helps you reduce both capital and operational expenses while simultaneously increasing

the overall flexibility of your data center. The foundation for this virtualized platform is based on the following:

HP ProLiant BL460c and DL380p Generation 8 servers provide more capability for your blade or rack mount servers

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series storage arrays with advanced features built-in

HP Networking solutions for your data center and branch office Ethernet and Storage needs

Microsoft Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of products for deployment, management and maintenance

With HP Converged Infrastructure and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012, you can transform your data center into a cloud

computing environment to provide IT services on demand. As even newer components are made available or as additionalfunctionality is required, it can be seamlessly added to the existing virtualization infrastructure.

Target audience: This white paper is intended to assist IT decision makers, storage administrators, Windows and Hyper-V

architects and engineers involved in the planning, deployment and management of a Hyper-V Infrastructure using the HP

3PAR StoreServ 7x00 and HP ProLiant Gen8 servers.

This white paper describes testing performed in January 2013.

Introduction

Business requirements for technology solutions change quickly and contain complex features. HP helps IT departments to

provide the flexibility to rapidly implement new solutions, redesign and modify solutions as workloads and business

requirements evolve over time and reallocate resources that are freed up when new solutions are implemented.

For more than 30 years, HP and Microsoft have worked together to accelerate time-to-application value, improveperformance, and reduce the complexity and cost of deploying and running mission-critical data management applications.

Only HP and Microsoft integrate the hardware, software, and services you need, on the scale you need, with industry-

standard solutions that extend the power of information to everyone. As new technology is released in HP hardware such as

network devices, servers and storage, Microsoft operating systems and applications evolve to make use of these new

features.

HPs release of new products includes:

HP ProLiant BL460c and DL380p Generation 8 servers provide more processing power with 8 and 12 core processors and

memory capacities up to 768 GB along with LAN on motherboard cards to allow tailoring to your needs

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series storage arrays with advanced features like thin provisioning and Adaptive Optimization

built-in and support of SMI-S Providers for Microsoft System Center 2012.

HP Networking solutions for your data center and branch office Ethernet and Storage needs

Microsofts release of new products includes:

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with many new storage and networking features

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V with expanded support for virtual servers with up to 64 virtual processors, 1 TB

of memory, and expansion in networking and storage capabilities

System Center 2012 suite of products for deployment, management and maintenance

Microsoft has added functionality that makes use of new features across many of HPs product lines and this allows the IT

engineer to align their design closely to the customers requirements and goals both on initial design and as the needs

evolve over time.


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Power devices included in the solution fall into two broad categories, HP intelligent power devices and standard power

devices. The heart of the HP Intelligent power solution is the Intelligent Power Distribution Unit (PDU) which provides the

ability to connect to the Intelligent PDU over the Ethernet network and to manage and monitor the power in your racks.

Intelligent devices include special power components with blue connectors that contain connections for data

communication of power state and integration with intelligent power supplies in the ProLiant servers and in the

BladeSystem enclosure. Standard devices can be plugged into the Intelligent PDUs but do not contain the data connection.

Both intelligent and standard types of devices can be controlled from the Intelligent PDU management console.

Figure 2. HP Power: Physical HP Intelligent PDU components

The HP Intelligent PDU components shown in Figure 2 include the Intelligent PDU which plugs into data center power and

provides connections to either the HP Managed Extension Bars or to the BladeSystem. The HP Intelligent PDU is connected

to the HP Intelligent PDU Display so that you can monitor the rack locally from that display mounted in the rack door.

Remote monitoring and management of the HP Intelligent PDU is performed using Ethernet over a connection to the HP

Intelligent PDU. Special HP Intelligent power cables are available for connection to ProLiant servers with Intelligent Power

supplies and to the BladeSystem. HP Intelligent PDUs should be deployed in pairs in the rack and configured to support

redundant communication, SNMP trap generation and email alerts to notify administrators of power events.

The remote Intelligent PDU management console is accessible over Ethernet and can be configured for either http or https

connectivity and contains multiple functional areas.

The overview page of the remote HP Intelligent PDU Management Console is shown in Figure 3.

HP Managed Extension Bar

HP Intelligent Cable

HP Intelligent PDU

HP Intelligent PDU Display


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Figure 3. HP Intelligent Modular PDU: Overview

As shown above, the interface reports the total load in the vertical bar with alarm thresholds defined in yellow and red as

well as the current total load identified by the white pointer. The horizontal bars to the right of the total load show

information specific to each of the six load segments with the same threshold and current load indicators.


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Within the HP Intelligent Modular PDU interface, you can identify the type of devices that are plugged into the outlets of the

PDU such as extension bars (Load Segment 1, 2 and 3: Managed Extension Bar) or BladeSystem power supplies (Load

Segment 4, 5 and 6: HP AC Module, Single Phase, Insight) in the Identification portion of the menu as shown in Figure 4. The

load segments are the physical ports 1 through 6 on the HP Intelligent PDU that are connected to the Managed Extension

Bar or BladeSystem power supplies.

Figure 4. HP Intelligent Modular PDU: Identification

In the figure above, load segments 1, 2 and 3 contain managed extension bars and load segments 4, 5 and 6 contain

BladeSystem power supplies (HP AC Module, Single Phase, Intlgnt).


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In the device assignment section of the HP Intelligent Modular PDU interface, you can describe the type of devices that are

plugged into the outlets and PDU extension bars as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. HP Intelligent Modular PDU: Device Assignment

In the figure above, the device type dropdown box identifies the device that is plugged into each outlet on the PDU. In the

case of a managed extension bar, the fields to the right show the five outlets and allow the entry of description information

if the device is not automatically recognized. In the figure, the device labeled APS-KS-MGT01-iLO which is shown plugged

into Load Segment 1: Outlet 4 was automatically discovered through the data connection in the power cable that connects

the server to the PDU. The automatic discovery process populates the server name, model, Integrated Lights-Out (iLO 4) IP

address (and hyperlink) as well as the GUID for the device. The U Position, U Height and U Location fields are notautomatically populated but can be entered to fully describe each devices location within the rack. HP Location Discovery

Services products can be installed into the rack to provide automatic discovery of ProLiant Gen8 server location within the

rack.

For the load segments that are connected to a Blade Enclosure; the Onboard Administrator (OA) name, enclosure type

(c7000), OA IP address (including hyperlink) and GUID for the device are automatically discovered. Double-clicking on any of

the hyperlinks will open a new browser window with the information in the hyperlink.


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In the control section of the HP Intelligent Modular PDU interface, you can perform operations against devices that are

plugged into the outlets and PDU extension bars as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. HP Intelligent Modular PDU: Control

In the figure above, there are two types of control options, which depend on the Redundancy Status. If the redundancy

status shows a green checkmark (APS-KS-MGT01-iLO), then when you choose to turn off or cycle the power this Intelligent

PDU will communicate with its partner Intelligent PDU and shut off both power outlets that feed the server causing the

server to be entirely disconnected from power. If the redundancy status is a blue information icon (APS-KS-KVM01), then

when you choose to turn off or cycle the power only the outlet connected to this PDU is disconnected from power. If a

standard device with two power supplies is plugged into two different PDUs in a rack and you wish to completely disconnect

it from power, you must navigate to the other Intelligent PDU and shut down the corresponding device from its interface.

Note

It is important to update the firmware on the HP Intelligent Modular PDU devices to ensure that all current features are

available and that the firmware matches on all Intelligent PDUs.

Network

This solution incorporates HP Networking components to provide an integrated solution. The networking devices in this

solution include both Ethernet and Fibre Channel devices.

The network devices are selected based on the type (10GbE and 1GbE) and quantity or ports as well as airflow models so

that a back to front airflow pattern could be used to match with the hot and cold zones in the data center. When mounting

devices into the rack, the Ethernet and storage networking devices were mounted facing the rear of the rack, as shown

previously in Figure 1. The networking devices are then configured with the proper fan flow direction within their

management consoles. Proper cooling is important to ensure that processors are able to run at maximum performance.

The HP FlexFabric components used in this configuration provide a flexible architecture for converged Ethernet and Fibre

Channel connections. When using FlexFabric, the environment is cabled once and can then be configured or changed as

needed to meet new requirements without the need to change hardware.


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Ethernet

The Ethernet configuration used in this design contains both 10GbE and 1GbE segments. For this specific lab configuration,

there are data center networks (LabNet) that are internal to the data center and a corporate network (CorpNet) that houses

the client and administrator workstations, as well as management interfaces for servers, storage and network devices. The

LabNet and CorpNet networks are connected using a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 server that has the Routing and

Remote Access server and the Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway server roles installed.

The logical layout of the lab networks is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Ethernet Network: Logical

Note

Every server, the intelligent PDUs and network switches all have their management ports on the CorpNet network so that in

the event the RD Gateway server is unavailable, access to manage the lab is still possible.

HP Networking switches

CorpNet contains a single HP Networking 5800AF-48G switch and provides 48 RJ45 ports with 1GbE connectivity to the

administrative workstations, the server (RD Gateway) containing Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with the Remote Desktop

Gateway role, the administrative ports on the network and storage switches, the Onboard Administrator (OA) and the

Integrated Lights-Out (iLO 4) connections in the BladeSystem and the iLO 4 connections in the rack mount servers.

LabNet contains two HP 5920AF-24XG 10GbE switches that are configured as a redundant pair to provide service in the

event of failure of either switch through the use of Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) which combines multiple

physical ports into a single logical port. The 5920AF switches provide 24 - 10GbE ports each. The HP 5920AF-24XG 10GbE

switches have the ability to use multiple connection types including: DAC Cables with built-in transceivers, SFP+ transceivers

with LC-LC Fibre cables and HP X120 1G SFP RJ45 T transceivers. The 5920AF switches provide connection to the RD

Gateway server, management servers, the BladeSystem interconnect modules and the StoreServ 7400.

Ethernet Network: Logical

Admin

RD Gateway

Management Servers

Hyper-V Hosts

StoreServ 7400


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Note

The 5920AF switches do not currently provide a web interface and must be configured using the CLI.

Server network connectivity

A wide selection of network interface cards is available for ProLiant servers to provide a variety of capabilities and the ability

to change the cards as requirements evolve. LAN on Motherboard (LOM) cards, shown below are used to change the

personality of the built-in networking ports in the server. The LOM cards shown in Figure 8 are replaceable without the use

of tools.

Figure 8. ProLiant server: LAN on Motherboard (LOM) 554 card (Blade server on left and DL server on right)

The 554 LOM NICs are shown in Figure 8. The HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLB FlexibleLOM shown on the left is used in

ProLiant blade servers and the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLR-SFP+ FIO Adapter shown on the right is used in ProLiant

rack mount servers. Fibre Channel SAN connections (FCoE) are made through the 554 LOM NICs on the blade servers while

separate 8Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBA) are used for the DL380p rack mount servers.

BladeSystem interconnect modules

The BladeSystem enclosure allows the use of a variety of interconnect modules to match the design requirements of many

solutions. The Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module is shown in Figure 9. Two modules are used in this design to

provide converged Ethernet and Fibre Channel storage area networks into a single set of connections and a single point of

management.

Figure 9. BladeSystem interconnect module: Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port

There are eight external SFP+ ports (shown above) and 16 internal ports in each of the two FlexFabric interconnect

modules. The eight SFP+ connections are used to provide Ethernet or Fibre Channel access outside of the enclosure. The

first four connections (x1 through x4) are capable of providing Ethernet or FC support while the remainder of the ports (x5

through x8) are Ethernet only.

H P V C F le xF a b r i c 1 0 Gb / 2 4 -Po r tMo d u le

S H A R E D : U P L I N K or X - L I N K

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Note

Ports x7 and x8 in FlexFabric modules are shared uplink or cross-link ports that connect with interconnect modules in the

same or other BladeSystem enclosures.

Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN)

The Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) configuration used in this design contains two specific sets of components:

B-series 8Gb Fibre Channel (FC) switches

BladeSystem Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connections over FlexFabric interconnect modules

The HP 8/24 SAN Switch delivers affordable and flexible 8 Gbit/sec connectivity and can be incorporated into an extensive

core fabric or placed as an edge switch for SAN environments. It delivers sixteen high performance auto-sensing 1, 2, 4, and

8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel ports. With powerful yet flexible capabilities such as Ports On Demand scalability to 24 ports in an

8-port increment, the 8/24 SAN Switch enables organizations to start small and grow their storage networks in a non-

disruptive manner. A fully populated 8/24 SAN Switch with 24 enabled ports provides 384 Gbit/sec switching capacity for

un-congested sustained, 8 Gbit/sec full duplex throughput.

Product Highlights

Features Ports on Demand capability for fast, easy, and cost-effective scalability from 16 to 24 ports in an 8-port

increment

The 8/24 SAN Switch with 24 enabled ports may be deployed as a full-fabric switch or in Access Gateway mode, which

provides connectivity into any SAN (the default mode setting is a switch). Attaching through NPIV-enabled switches anddirectors, the 8/24 SAN Switch with 24 enabled ports in Access Gateway mode can connect to other SAN fabrics.

Optional enhanced ISL Trunking combines up to eight ISLs between a pair of switches into a single, logical high-speed

trunk capable of up to 64 Gbit/sec of throughput

Two HP 8Gb B-Series Fibre Channel switches support redundant connections to the management servers, the BladeSystem

enclosure FlexFabric interconnect modules and the StoreServ 7400 array as shown in Figure 10.


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Figure 10. Storage Network: Logical

The Fibre Channel connections differ between the rack mount servers and blade servers. The rack mount servers use Fibre

Channel HBAs which are connected using optical cables and 8Gb SFP+ transceivers to two B-Series SAN switches. The blade

servers connect using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) from the 554FLB LOM modules to the FlexFabric interconnect

modules, and Fibre Channel is used for the connection from the FlexFabric interconnect module to the B-series switches.

The differences in connection methods are shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Fibre Channel connections: Protocols used for connection

Storage Network: Logical

Management Servers

Hyper-V Hosts

StoreServ 7400

Fibre Channel: Protocols

NC554FLRB-Series Switch

BladeSystemInterconnect

ModuleB-Series Switch NC554FLB

DL380p Gen 8

BL460c Gen 8

Fibre Channel

Fibre C hannel Fibre C hannel over Et he rnet


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Virtual Connect server profiles

Virtual Connect server profiles are created for each blade server in the solution to define the connections that the server has

the ability to access. In this design, each of the BladeSystem servers is configured to allow access to a distinct set of

network and SAN devices.

Clustered and stand-alone Hyper-V server profiles for Ethernet

The server profiles used for testing resulted in four Ethernet networks that were defined as follows:

Production Network (3GbE) Used for client connectivity and server to server communication

Cluster Shared Volume Network (2GbE) Used for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV)

Live Migration Network (2GbE) Used for live migration traffic

Management Network (1GbE) Used for cluster heartbeat and communication with System Center Virtual Machine

Manager 2012 SP1

Network reconfiguration is possible by shutting down a blade server, editing the assigned server profile and restarting the

server.

Servers

The physical servers in this solution are categorized into two broad categories. Management servers that provide the

platform to service, deploy, monitor and manage the solution and Hyper-V host servers which contain the Hyper-V guests

that will be deployed with your applications. Both the management and application servers are configured as Hyper-V hosts

and VMs are deployed with the individual server roles. The functional roles and their location on the servers in this solution

are shown in Figure 12.


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The RD Gateway server is a domain-joined server that provides the connection point for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

connections to servers in the data center network. This server hosts the following tools used for management of the

infrastructure:

MobaXterm terminal software for connection to a 48-port HP serial port concentrator used with HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400

VMware Workstation 9.0 to host the virtualized 3PAR Service Processor

HP 3PAR Management Console (MC) and Command Line (CLI) tools

HP B-series SAN management tools (browser-based)

FTP/TFTP Server for distributing and updating firmware on network switches

Web server (IIS) to host installation distributions like ISO images used to provision servers

Note

The HP 3PAR StoreServ virtual Service Processor (vSP) is only provided as a VMware virtual machine. The availability of a

Hyper-V virtual machine-based vSP may be available in a future release. A physical HP 3PAR StoreServ Service Processor

(SP) can be ordered for environments that do not support VMware.

Management servers

The two Windows Server 2012 management servers are configured as Hyper-V host servers and have v irtual machines

configured with the following roles:

Domain Controller (DC), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server and Domain Name Service (DNS)

IP Address Management (IPAM) server

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 SP1

Microsoft Windows Deployment Server (WDS)

The management servers are located outside of the BladeSystem and provide a platform to control the configuration,

deployment, management and alerting for the Hyper-V hosts in the BladeSystem that run the application hosts. The

Hyper-V management server hosts are not clustered or domain-joined.

ProLiant BL460c Gen8 servers and HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure

ProLiant BL460c Gen8 servers are BladeSystem servers used to host the application virtual machines and Scale Out File

Servers in the solution.

BL460c Gen8 servers are designed to support virtualization and provide power and flexibility in memory, processor andnetwork features.

The ProLiant BL460c Gen8 servers are configured to serve the following roles:

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host (HiMem) clustered

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host (HiMem and LoMem) stand-alone

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Scaleout File Server Cluster (SMB 3.0)

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host HiMem) clustered

Clustered Hyper-V host servers provide a failover cluster for deployment of Highly Available (HA) Hyper-V virtual machines.

The components in each BL460c Gen8 are:

Processor: (two) E5-2665 processors

Memory: (192GB) HP 16GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R-11 Kit Disk: (two) HP 450GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD RAID 1

Network: HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 554FLB FIO Adptr

HP Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Kit

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V hosts HiMem and LoMem) stand-alone

The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host servers are deployed with two memory configurations:

HiMem configuration contains 192GB of RAM

LoMem configuration contains 96GB of RAM


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Memory: (192GB HiMem or 96GB LoMem) HP 16GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R-11 Kit

Disk: (two) HP 450GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD RAID 1


HP TPM Module Kit

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Scaleout File Server Cluster SMB 3.0)

The Windows Scale Out File Server (SOFS) cluster provides a two-node failover cluster to host Server Message Block 3.0

(SMB 3.0) file shares to store virtual hard disks (VHDX) that hold Guest OS and application data disk volumes.



Memory: (96GB) HP 16GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R-11 Kit

Disk: (two) HP 450GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD RAID 1


HP TPM Module Kit

HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure

The BladeSystem enclosure holds the power, network and management modules that support the BL460c servers in this

solution.

The components in the HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure are:

Power Distribution: HP BLc 1PH Intelligent Power Mod FIO Opt

Power Supplies: HP 6X 2400W Plat Ht Plg FIO Pwr Sply Kit

Fan: HP BLc 6X Active Cool 200 FIO Fan Opt

Onboard Administration: HP BLc7000 DDR2 Encl Mgmt Option

Network: (two) HP BLc VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Opt

Storage

The storage in this solution is provided by HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 Storage System. The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 provides

support for two- or four-controller node configurations, wide-striping of data, support for Windows Server 2012 Offloaded

Data Transfer (ODX), support for Windows Standards-based Storage Management and flexibility in storage provisioning. Thearray can be ordered in pre-configured starter packages or specifically configured to meet your design goals. The HP 3PAR

StoreServ 7400 array deployed in this configuration provides storage to HP ProLiant servers hosting Hyper-V guest virtual

machine startup and data disks. The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 array is connected with the rack mount and blade servers

using the HP B-series 8Gb Fibre Channel SAN switches and BladeSystem FlexFabric modules.


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HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 controller components

The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 two-node array used in this configuration is expandable into a four-node version if additional

array resources are needed due to increasing business needs or to support an increase in the number of connected hosts.

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 two-node controller components are shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Storage: StoreServ 7400 two-node controller components

In the figure above, the rear of a two-node HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 controller pair is shown.

Note

Node 0 and node 1 are oriented 180from each other when locating the ports on each controller.

The ports are the same on controller node 0 and controller node 1 and consist of the following ports:

FC-1 and FC-2 8Gb Fibre Channel host connections from each node

PCI-HBA 8Gb Fibre Channel (4-port) or 10GbE iSCSI (2-port) host connections from each node

MFG Serial Console connection to connect to a computer or serial concentrator switch for node management

DP-1 and DP-2 6Gb SAS connections for external M6710 (SFF) or M6720 (LFF) hard drive shelves

Intr 0 and Intr 1- Controller interlink connections to provide full mesh backplane links to an additional controller pair

MGMT 1GbE Ethernet management connection for access to the HP 3PAR Management Console functionality

RC-1 1 GbE Remote Copy connection for replication traffic

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Table 1. Specifications for the StoreServ 7400 and 7200 arrays

Feature 7400 Two-node (Four-node) 7200 Two-node

Controller Nodes Two (Four) Two

Processors Two (Four) six-core Two quad-core

3PAR ASIC Two (Four) Two

Cache 32 GB (64 GB) 24 GB

Host Ports

Fibre Channel 4 to 12 (4 to 24) 4 to 12

iSCSI 0 to 4 (0 to 8) 0 to 4

Number of initiators supported 512 (1024) 512

Hard Disk Drives HDD) 8 to 240 (16 to 480) 8 to 144

Solid State Drives SSD) 8 to 120 (16 to 240) 8 to 120

RAID Levels RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6

Additional Drive Shelves 0 to 9 (0 to 18) 0 to 5

Storage networking

Storage networking provides connectivity from the servers to the storage and for this design consists of Fibre Channel and

Fibre Channel over Ethernet connection types.

The process for providing storage connectivity for the server infrastructure incorporates several phases:

First Step:design a physical cabling diagram and make the connections between the B-series Fibre Channel switches,

BladeSystem FlexFabric interconnect modules, the management servers and StoreServ 7400

Second Step:configure the B-series Fibre Channel switches by assigning an alias to each physical connection from every

server, each connected port on the FlexFabric interconnect modules and each of the host connection ports on the

StoreServ. Third Step:configure the B-series Fibre Channel switches by assigning the aliases to zones. The zones provide a logical

connection path from a server through the B-series switches to the StoreServ.

Forth Step:define Virtual Connect server profiles, assign them to servers and install MPIO

Fifth Step:provision the StoreServ with each host and VMs World Wide Names (WWNs)

First Step: Physical Cabling

Physical cabling for storage is split into two areas: Fibre Channel cabling for StoreServ connectivity to hosts and SAS cabling

for StoreServ connectivity to the disk shelves.

The physical Fibre Channel cabling connections are made between the BladeSystem FlexFabric interconnect modules, the

B-series SAN switches and the StoreServ 7400. The 8Gb physical Fibre Channel connections provide the flexibility for

multiple paths to be configured from the servers to the StoreServ array.


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Figure 14. Storage Networking: StoreServ 7400 Fibre Channel cabling

BladeSystem Fibre Channel connections are defined in Virtual Connect Manager as SAN Fabrics: A, B, C and D as shown in

Figure 15. The logical SAN Fabrics are used in conjunction with Virtual Connect Server Profiles to define how each server

connects to the StoreServ array.

Figure 15. Storage Networking: Virtual Connect SAN Fabric configuration

HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Modu le

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Second Step: Alias Assignment

The Fibre Channel connections made into each B-series SAN switch are defined by physical port number from within the

Zone Admin portion of the HP B-series Switch Explorer interface. An alias name (Number 1 in the figure below) is created

[alias7400_N0_P1] and associated with a physical switch port (Number 2 in the figure below) [1,4(port4,U-Port,PID:

010400)]. The assignment of an alias is similar to how IP addresses are matched with host names in DNS.

Figure 17. Storage Networking: B-series switch alias assignment

Once each of the physically connected ports is assigned an alias, SAN Zones are created to link the aliases together andpermit Fibre Channel traffic to flow between the defined ports in the zone.


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Third Step: SAN Zone Creation

SAN Zones are created in Virtual Connect Manager as shown in the following figure by creating a zone name (number 1 in

the figure below) [zone_c7000_M1_X3_7400_N0_P1] that contains the aliases (number 2 in the figure below) for the

c7000 interconnect module 1, port X3 and the StoreServ 7400 Node 0, port 1.

Figure 18. Storage Networking: StoreServ 7400 and c7000 storage zoning on B-Series switches

Multiple SAN Zones are created in each of the B-series SAN switches to provide redundant physical and logical connections

from each server to the StoreServ array with the B-series SAN switch having the following zones:

FC01 SAN Switch

zone_c7000_M1_X3_7400_N0_P1

zone_c7000_M1_X3_7400_N1_P1

zone_c7000_M1_X4_7400_N0_P1

zone_c7000_M1_X4_7400_N1_P1

FC02 SAN Switch

zone_c7000_M2_X3_7400_N0_P2

zone_c7000_M2_X3_7400_N1_P2

zone_c7000_M2_X4_7400_N0_P2

zone_c7000_M2_X4_7400_N1_P2


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As shown in the following figure, each port on the BladeSystem FlexFabric interconnect module has connections defined in

the B-series switch to connect with the StoreServ controller node 0 and node 1.

Figure 19. Storage Networking: StoreServ 7400 and c7000 storage zoning on B-Series switches

Example of connections for BladeSystem Interconnect module 1 (module on left side), port X3 (SAN Zones A1 and A2)

BladeSystem Interconnect module 1, port X3 is physically connected to B-series switch FC01: port 0

B-series switch FC01:port 0 is logically connected to FC01:port 4 (SAN Zone A1) and FC01:port 12 (SAN Zone A2)

B-series switch FC01:port 4 is physically connected to StoreServ controller node 0:FC-1 (SAN Zone A1)

B-series switch FC01:port 12 is physically connected to StoreServ controller node 1:FC-1 (SAN Zone A2)

The same pattern is repeated for each of the ports (X3 and X4) on both interconnect modules.

By combining the physical Fibre Channel cabling and logical SAN switch zoning, each server in the BladeSystem is able to

maintain connection in the event of loss of any of the following physical components:

Port on the 554FLB LOM NIC card in each server

BladeSystem FlexFabric Interconnect module

B-Series Fibre Channel SAN switch

StoreServ 7400 Array controller node

At this point in the configuration, we have ensured that there are physical and logical paths from the StoreServ array

controllers to the FlexFabric interconnect modules in the BladeSystem.

The four connections from the FlexFabric interconnect module ports to the Fibre Channel switches are running at 8Gb FibreChannel and the connection from the FlexFabric interconnect modules to each of the physical Hyper-V hosts consists of two

4Gb FCoE connections as discussed in the next sections. Additional FlexFabric interconnect modules and mezzanine N ICs

can be used to expand the Ethernet and FCoE connectivity available to the servers and Hyper-V VMs.

A white paper covering HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Networking Scenarios is available from:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01702940/c01702940.pdf

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SAN Zone

C1

SAN Zone

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SAN Zone

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SAN Zone

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http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01702940/c01702940.pdfhttp://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01702940/c01702940.pdf


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Forth Step: Virtual Connect server profiles

The Virtual Connect server profiles that are created for each blade server in the configuration allow access to storage

resources.

Server profiles for storage are configured differently for blade servers in odd numbered bays and in even numbered bays as

follows:

SAN Aand CNetwork (4Gb FCoE) Used for storage connectivity to StoreServ 7400 for oddnumbered servers

SAN Band DNetwork (4Gb FCoE) Used for storage connectivity to StoreServ 7400 for evennumbered servers

Figure 20. Storage Networking: Virtual Connect Server Profile

The server FCoE HBA connections alternate between pairs of SAN networks to balance the access to SAN resources.

Fifth Step: StoreServ provisioning for each host

Use the HP 3PAR Management Console (MC) to associate the host World Wide Names (WWNs) with the hosts in preparation

to provisioning each server with its storage.

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 is Microsofts newest generation of server operating system and provides many significant

enhancements and features. The section below provides coverage of significant features and links to additional information

Windows Server 2012 has a large focus on virtualization and technologies that support and improve virtualization, leading

to a change in the licensing for Windows Server 2012.


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Licensing General

Windows Server 2012 changes the Microsoft licensing model, especially around Hyper-V virtualization. The Enterprise

version of Windows licensing no longer exists and you have the following choices depending on your need:

Table 2. Windows Server 2012 licensing

Windows 2012Edition

PhysicalProcessors

Virtualization InstancesWindows Features

Foundation OneNo Virtual OS Instances

Limited features

Essentials

Up to Two

per license

No Virtual OS Instances

Limited features

Standard

Up to Two

per license

Two Virtual OS Instances

All features

Datacenter

Up to Two

per license

Unlimited Virtual OS Instances

All features

Additional information on Licensing for Windows Server 2012 is available from:Licensing Brief

Windows Server 2012 Domain Services (AD DS)

The domain controller virtual machines (DC-VM) are Windows Server 2012 and are both configured using Windows 2012

forest and domain functional levels. The Hyper-V virtual machines that contain the Domain Controller role also contain

DHCP and DNS.

Additional information on AD DS is available from:What's New in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

DHCP

The DC-VMs run split-scope DHCP which is a new feature that allows two servers to share a DHCP scope for client IP

addressing. The available pool of IP addresses is split between the two servers with DC01 holding 70% of the addresses in

the scope and DC02 holding 30% of the IP addresses in the scope.

Additional information on DHCP is available from:What's New in DHCP

DNSThe DNS role on DC01 and DC02 is configured with forward and reverse lookup zones and uses AD Replication to transfer

zone information. Scavenging is set on all zones.

Additional information on DNS is available from:What's New in DNS

Windows Server 2012 Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU)

Windows Server 2012 has a new feature that provides a managed update process called Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) for

failover clusters which takes one node offline, updates it and reboots it if needed, places the node back online and repeats

the process for the remainder of the nodes in the failover cluster. This feature ensures that all nodes in the failover cluster

are maintained at a common level to enable the best stability for cluster services.

Additional information on Cluster-Aware Updating is available from:Cluster-Aware Updating Overview

Windows Server 2012 storage features

Windows Server 2012 provides new storage functionality that is used by the Hyper-V hosts and guests to allow better

utilization of resources.

Native Support for Thin Provisioning using UNMAP and TRIM to allow reclamation of unused space on VHDX and PassThru

disks. Disk space that is marked as unused on the VHDX is available and can be re-used without an increase in the size of

the underlying VHDX. Space that is marked as unused is released on restart or shutdown of the server that is using the

VHDX file for storage.

Data deduplication allows for efficient space utilization

Additional information on Windows Server 2012 Storage is available from: Windows Server 2012 Storage White Paper
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/briefs/virtual-licensing.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831769.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200226.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200224.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831694.aspxhttp://download.microsoft.com/download/A/B/E/ABE02B78-BEC7-42B0-8504-C880A1144EE1/WS%202012%20White%20Paper_Storage.pdfhttp://download.microsoft.com/download/A/B/E/ABE02B78-BEC7-42B0-8504-C880A1144EE1/WS%202012%20White%20Paper_Storage.pdfhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831694.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200224.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200226.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831769.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/briefs/virtual-licensing.aspx


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Windows Server 2012 BitLocker

BitLocker has been updated in Windows Server 2012 to provide:

Option of full volume encryption (slow) or used space encryption (quick)

Ability to encrypt Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV)

Additional information on BitLocker is available from:BitLocker Overview

Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)

Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) works with Windows Server 2012 hosts and HP 3PAR StoreServ 7400 to shift storageprocessing from the server to the storage array for files of 256 KB or larger. This allows the SAN to handle the bulk of the

storage operations with the server initiating the operation. The server initiates the operation such as a file copy and asks the

StoreServ array to complete the file copy and report back to the server that the operation has completed. This enables a

significant increase in the file copy throughput since the StoreServ is handling the operation. The ASICs in the StoreServ

array have a feature called zero-detect which speeds file transfers by only copying data blocks which actually contain data.

Figure 21. Windows: Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) data flow

Figure 21, above shows the file copy process without ODX and with ODX and the numbers in the diagram are detailed below

Copying a 10GB file without ODX:

1.

Server sends read request to the StoreServ over Fibre Channel2.

StoreServ sends 10GB of data to the server over Fibre Channel

3.

Server sends 10GB of data to the StoreServ over Fibre Channel

The above process results in 20GB of data traversing the Fibre Channel connections between the server and the StoreServ

array.

Windows: Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)

without ODX with ODX

Hyper-V Host

StoreServ 7400

Hyper-V Host

StoreServ 7400

1

2

3 1

2

3

5

4

Control

Data

Data

Control

Control

Control

Control

Data
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Copying a 10GB file with ODX:

1.

Server sends the offload data read request to the StoreServ over Fibre Channel

2. StoreServ sends a token representing the request to the server over Fibre Channel

3. Server sends the write request to the StoreServ over Fibre Channel using the token

4. StoreServ copies the 10GB of data internally

5. StoreServ confirms the data copy completion to the server over Fibre Channel

The above process results in 10GB of data being copied within the StoreServ array and only minimal control data being sent

over the Fibre Channel connections. During the copy process features like zero detect running on the StoreServ are used to

further reduce the amount of data that the StoreServ is actually moving.

Additional information on ODX is available from:Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) with Intelligent Storage Arrays

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Microsoft released Hyper-V virtualization technology in Windows Server 2008 R2 and has improved it substantially in the

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V release. Microsoft has made new and expanded features available that allow for effective

use of the extensive resources available from ProLiant Gen8 servers, storage and networking. With Windows Server 2012

Hyper-V virtualization capability, the large amounts of memory, processor power and network capacity that HP has

incorporated into the ProLiant Gen8 servers can be effectively used as the foundation for your virtualization strategy.

New and expanded Hyper-V features for Hyper-V 2012 include:

Increase in the quantity of virtual processors supported in each virtual machine

Dynamic memory to allow for expanded memory configuration options

Hyper-V Replica to allow asynchronous replication to an additional Hyper-V server for disaster recovery

Live migration is expanded to enable migration to and from stand-alone (non-clustered) servers

Storage migration allows for the movement of virtual hard disks while the virtual machine continues to run

File servers with Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 can be used to host virtual machine storage

Virtual Fibre Channel provides direct Fibre Channel connectivity into a virtual machine

Virtual SAN Switch allows for the creation of virtual storage switches that work with Virtual Fibre Channel interfaces

Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) format has been improved to allow expanded capabilities

Table 3 shows the comparison of features in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 and on Windows Server 2008 R2 and the

highlighted values are the changed scalability limits that are available with the Windows Server 2012 version of Hyper-V.

Table 3. Feature comparison for Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Feature Hyper-V (Windows 2012) Hyper-V (Windows 2008 R2)

Virtual Machine features

Virtual Processors 64 4

Memory 1 TB 64 GB

Virtual Hard Disk Capacity 64 TB (VHDX) 2 TB (VHD)

Virtual IDE Disks 4 4

Virtual SCSI Controller devices 4 4

Virtual SCSI Disks 256 256

Virtual Fibre Channel adapters 4 NA

Physical disk size presented to VM directly OS Limit OS Limit

Snapshots 50 50

Virtual network adapters 12 12
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Feature Hyper-V (Windows 2012) Hyper-V (Windows 2008 R2)

Floppy drive 1 1

Serial ports (COM) 2 2

Host Machine features

Logical Processors 320 64

Virtual to Logical Processer ratio No Hyper-V limit 8:1

Running Virtual Machines per server 1024 384

Virtual processors per server 2048 512

Memory 4 TB 1 TB

Storage OS Limit OS Limit

Virtual SANs No Hyper-V limit NA

Physical NICs No Hyper-V limit No Hyper-V limit

NIC Teams No Hyper-V limit NA

Virtual network switches No Hyper-V limit No Hyper-V limit

Virtual network switch ports per server No Hyper-V limit No Hyper-V limit

NA = Not Available in this version of Hyper-V

Additional information on new and changed Hyper-V features is available from:What's new in Hyper-V

Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)The VHDX file format allows for improved support of large disks, increased performance and enables new storage features.

The improvements include:

Support for disks up to 64 TB

Windows can mount and eject VHDX disks

VHDX file corruption prevention through the use of metadata

Optimization of alignment to support 512-byte Emulation ( 512e) and 4K native large sector disks

Performance improvement through support for larger block sizes

Convertible to VHD and back to VHDX

Additional information on VHDX is available from:Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format Overview

Hyper-V host configurationDeployment of the Hyper-V host servers is done on both the BL460c Gen8 and DL380p Gen8 ProLiant servers. The design

of this infrastructure is intended to permit flexibility in the deployment and ease of reconfiguration of virtual servers and

allows the selection of Highly Available (HA) configurations as well as stand-alone configurations. The BL460c Gen8 servers

have been configured with two memory configurations HiMem with 192GB and LoMem with 96GB.

Consistent configurations have been implemented to make troubleshooting and management simple and straightforward.

The following sections detail specific subsystem configurations including network, storage and failover clustering.

High Availability Hyper-V Hosts

The highly available Hyper-V hosts are deployed across a four-node Windows failover cluster running on ProLiant BL460c

Gen8 servers with the HiMem configuration.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831410.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831410.aspx


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Microsoft Windows 2012 Licensing

Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition license is used for each of the Hyper-V host servers deployed. A single Datacenter

edition license is used since each BL460c Gen8 and DL380p Gen8 server contains two physical processors. The Datacenter

edition license provides for an unlimited number of virtual machine instances on the Hyper-V host server without the

complexity of calculating the multiple licensing options. Server Client Access Licenses (CALs) are still required for users and

devices that will access the servers.

Contact your Microsoft Licensing Specialist for the most cost-effective solution for your situation:

microsoft.com/licensing/default.aspx

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V guest configuration

The infrastructure for this project used generic Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V guest v irtual machines that were deployed to

perform testing of Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 2012 features to ensure that the configuration worked with the

StoreServ 7400. The Hyper-V guest servers consist of the following configuration:

Virtual Machine OS: Windows Server 2012

Virtual Processors: two

Virtual Memory: 4096MB

OS Disk: Dynamically Expanding VHDX

Data Disk: Dynamically Expanding VHDX

Networks: Production, Management, Cluster Shared Volume and Live Migration

Hyper-V failover cluster configurationThe use of a Windows Server 2012 failover cluster permits high availability for the VMs that are located on the cluster. Live

migration can be used to move VMs into and out of the failover cluster since all of the Hyper-V servers have been configured

to support live migrations. The same network configuration is deployed on all servers in the BladeSystem with Virtual

Connect server profiles to permit the movement of servers into and out of the failover cluster.

The flexibility of this design allows reconfiguration of Hyper-V hosts and VMs as business needs change, while the servers

remain online servicing client requests.

Failover cluster quorum configuration

For the 4-node Windows failover cluster, the quorum mechanism used is: Node and Disk Quorum. This quorum

configuration provides a quorum vote for each of the four cluster nodes and for the disk. This design allows for the failure of

two nodes while the failover cluster maintains quorum with the two remaining nodes and the quorum disk resource.

Hyper-V network configurationNetworking is critical for connecting servers in any environment and virtual environments are no exception. As the number

and type of servers being virtualized increase, there is an expanding need for network capabilities in virtual infrastructures.

HP BladeSystem components like Virtual Connect FlexFabric work seamlessly in conjunction with Hyper-V network

virtualization to provide the functions necessary for virtualized workloads. FlexFabric and Hyper-V provide the flexibility to

implement network environments that range from simple single network configurations to complex networks that integrate

Ethernet and Fibre Channel. The configuration implemented in this design makes use of multiple Ethernet networks to

support production connections. Management, Cluster Shared Volume and live migration networks separate traffic created

during live migration operations.

Servers participating in live migration are required to have a consistent network configuration to allow for the live migration

traffic. Naming of the networks and consistency in their creation is critical to implementing a functional design.
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A new feature useful for the creation of highly available and redundant networks is Windows Server 2012 Network Teaming

This feature allows the creation of a single network that is made up of two underlying physical connections. This teamed

network is created at the Windows level and is then used as the base for the creation of each Hyper-V virtual network. In the

following diagram, two - 3Gb NICs (Prod_A) are combined to create the TeamPROD network team and then a Virtual Switch

is created within the Hyper-V interface called Prod. The highly available Prod network is then available for use by the

Hyper-V host and virtual machines. The same method is used to create the Management Virtual Switch. The LiveMigration

and Cluster Shared Volume virtual switches are connected directly to FlexFabric NICs.

Figure 22. Hyper-V host and guest: Network configuration

In Figure 22 above, the server on the bottom left (HOST01) is the Hyper-V host server and the two servers shown above it

are two virtual machines (vGST01 and vGST03) located on that host.

Prod

Virtual Switch

3GbE

Management

Virtual Switch

1GbE

Network: All BladeSystem Hosts

vGST03

vGST01

Host01

FlexNIC

Prod_A

3Gb

Flex-Fabric

Port

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNIC

LiveMig

2Gb

FlexNIC

Prod_A3Gb

Flex-

Fabric

Port

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNIC

CSV

2Gb

LiveMigration

Virtual Switch

2GbE FCoEHBA A-

Fabric

4Gb

FCoEHBA C-

Fabric

4Gb

TeamPROD

TeamMGT

Cluster Shared

Volume

Virtual Switch

2GbE


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Additional information on Hyper-V Networking is available from:Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Network Virtualization

Survival Guide

Hyper-V storage features

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V introduces new functionality and enhancements for storage to provide a broader range of

storage flexibility. This example configuration uses three methods to connect storage for virtual machines: IDE Controller,

SCSI Controller and Virtual Fibre Channel.

IDE Controller

The IDE Controller virtual device is used to connect storage to the VM. Two devices of the IDE Controller type are supported

per VM with up to two disks each. The startup (boot) disk must be attached to an IDE Controller virtual device. The IDE

Controller also supports the virtual CD/DVD device for the VM.

SCSI Controller

The SCSI Controller virtual device is used to connect additional storage to the VM. Four SCSI Controller devices are supported

per VM with up to 64 disks each. Using the SCSI Controller to connect to additional disks allows the use of the UNMAP

storage feature which works with the StoreServ 7400 thin provisioning feature to reduce the amount of space required on

the underlying LUN.

Virtual Fibre Channel

The Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel features are comprised of Virtual Fibre Channel Adapters which are configured in the

Hyper-V settings for each virtual machine (VM) and Virtual Storage Area Networks (vSANs).

The Virtual Fibre Channel adapters (vHBA) allow Hyper-V guests to directly connect to physical HBAs in the Hyper-V hostservers using N-port IO Virtualization (NPIV) technology. Up to four Virtual Fibre Channel devices can be configured per VM.

Each Fibre Channel Adapter has two sets of World Wide Names (WWN). Address set A and Address Set B, shown in Figure 23

are used during live migration operations to ensure that storage connectivity is maintained throughout the migration

process.
http://aka.ms/gakmzihttp://aka.ms/gakmzihttp://aka.ms/gakmzihttp://aka.ms/gakmzi


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Figure 23. Hyper-VStorage: Virtual Fibre Channel Address Sets

Hyper-V automatically alternates between the Address sets on the Hyper-V source and destination hosts to ensure

continuous access to storage resources, For example, Address set A is connected to the VM on the originating host and

Address set B is connected to the destination host during the live migration transition period. At the end of the migration the

destination host remains connected to Address set B.

Additional information on Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel is available from:Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview

Microsoft Multi-path IO MPIO)

Microsoft Multi-path IO drivers (MPIO) are used in conjunction with both physical and virtual Fibre Channel connections to

provide high availability features with redundant connection paths to prevent loss of connectivity to the StoreServ 7400.

Additional information on Microsoft MPIO is available from:Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) Users Guide for Windows Server

2012

Microsoft File Server with Server Message Block 3.0 SMB 3.0)

Microsoft file servers using Server Message Block 3.0 (SMB 3.0) allow the use of file shares to hold VHDX files for virtual

machines. These file shares are used for startup disks as well as for additional data disks. Stand-alone file servers or

Scale-Out File Servers (SOFS) can be used to provide this service. Scale-Out File Servers provide the advantage of being

highly available and straight forward to manage and use. The Scale-Out File server used in this design uses the
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831413.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831413.aspx


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StoreServ 7400 array to hold the disk storage that is then provided to the v irtual machines through the use of a Uniform

Naming Convention (UNC) path as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24. Hyper-VStorage: File Server using Server Message Block 3.0

Additional information on using Microsoft file servers with SMB 3.0 to host Hyper-V storage is available from:Deploy Hyper-V over SMB

Microsoft Hyper-V Storage Live Migration

Microsoft Hyper-V Storage Live Migration allows the relocation of v irtual hard disks to another storage location while access

to the disk continues during the migration process. This feature can be used whenever you want to keep a virtual machine

running and need to perform maintenance on the underlying storage devices that the VM is using. The feature operates in a

similar manner to VM Live Migration since disk access continues throughout the storage migration process. This feature can

place a large amount of data on the network during the migration process so proper design of the storage network is

important to ensure that there is no contention for network resources.

Ensure that your application supports the use of this feature before you implement it in your design.

Additional information on Microsoft Hyper-V Storage Live Migration is available from: Virtual Machine Storage Migration

Overview

Additional information on Microsoft Hyper-V live migration is available from:Virtual Machine Live Migration Overview

Note

Microsoft Hotfix KB 2796995 must be applied to enable support of ODX for Storage Live Migration of Cluster Shared

Volumes (CSV) on the same array. The hotfix is available from:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796995/EN-US
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134187http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831656.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831656.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831435.aspxhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796995/EN-UShttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796995/EN-UShttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831435.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831656.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831656.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134187


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Hyper-V storage connection

Storage connections for each Hyper-V host are made using FCoE HBA ports on the 554FLB LOM cards that are configured

with Virtual Connect Manager. Windows Multi-Path IO (MPIO) is used to provide redundant paths to the StoreServ array from

each Hyper-V host. The Hyper-V host connects directly to the FCoE Ports (554FLB) and does not use the Virtual SANs.

Two Virtual SANs are configured in the Hyper-V Virtual SAN Manager and each Virtual SAN is connected to an FCoE port on

the 554FLB. A Virtual Fibre Channel adapter is connected to each Virtual SAN in the VMs settings. Two Fibre Channel paths

are presented to each VM and Windows MPIO is used to provide redundant connections to the StoreServ array.

Figure 25. Hyper-V Hosts: Odd numbered servers

In the figure above, the server on the bottom left (HOST01) is the Hyper-V host server and the two servers shown above it


Storage: HOST01 & Odd numbered Hosts

vGST03

vGST01

Host01

FlexNIC

Prod_A

3Gb

Flex-

Fabric

Port

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNICLiveMig

2Gb

FlexNIC

Prod_A

3Gb

Flex-

Fabric

Port

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNIC

CSV

2Gb

FCoE

HBA A-

Fabric

4Gb

FCoE

HBA C-

Fabric

4Gb

vSANc

Virtual SAN

4Gb

vSANa

Virtual SAN

4Gb

MPIO

MPIO

MPIO

FabricA

FabricC


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The configuration above is for the odd numbered Hyper-V hosts and connects the hosts with SAN fabrics A and C (see the

physical cabling section) and the configuration below is for the even numbered Hyper-V hosts and connects the hosts with

SAN fabrics B and D. This configuration balances the Hyper-V host servers across the four available SAN fabrics.

Figure 26. Hyper-V Hosts: Even numbered servers

In the figure above, the server on the bottom left (HOST02) is the Hyper-V host server and the two servers shown above it


Hyper-V storage configuration

The storage configuration for support of the Hyper-V host OS disks consists of two local disks installed in each host server.

Guest VMs use VHDX disks that are stored on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) that are created on the StoreServ 7400. These

VHDX disks are available for access from each Hyper-V host.

There are multiple methods for presenting the disks (VHDX) to the virtual machines, three of which are detailed below.

Storage: HOST02 & Even numbered Hosts

vGST04

vGST02

Host02

FlexNIC

Prod_A

3Gb

Flex-

Fabric

Port

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNIC

LiveMig

2Gb

FlexNIC

Prod_A

3Gb

Flex-

FabricPort

10GbE

FlexNIC

MGT_A

1Gb

FlexNIC

CSV

2Gb

FCoEHBA B-

Fabric

4Gb

FCoE

HBA D-

Fabric

4Gb

vSANd

Virtual SAN

4Gb

vSANb

Virtual SAN

4Gb

MPIO

MPIO

MPIO

FabricB

FabricD


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Method one: Startup and Data CSVs presented to Hyper-V host

The Hyper-V Failover Cluster storage configuration uses disks that hold the operating system for the guest VMs, vGST01,

vGST02 and vGST03 shown in green in Figure 27. The virtual machine startup (OS) disks created as VHDX1, VHDX2 and

VHDX3 are located on a LUN provisioned from the StoreServ 7400 array. The LUN is created from a thick or thinly

provisioned LUN and is presented to the Hyper-V host failover cluster nodes HOST05, HOST06, HOST07 and HOST08 as

a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) so that it is accessible from each node in the cluster. The VHDX files are created with a file

size of 64 GB for the guest operating system disks and are presented to the IDE Controller device in the virtual machine.

The storage that holds additional data for vGST01, vGST02 and vGST03 is shown in blue in Figure 27. The virtual machine

data disks are created as VHDX1d, VHDX2d and VHDX3d and are located on a LUN provisioned from the StoreServ 7400array. The CSV LUN is created from a thick or thinly provisioned LUN and is presented to the Hyper-V host failover cluster

nodes: HOST05, HOST06, HOST07 and HOST08. The VHDX files are created with a file size of 200 GB for the guest data disks

and are presented to the SCSI Controller devices (supports UNMAP) in each v irtual machine.

Figure 27. Hyper-V Storage: Startup and Data CSVs presented to Hyper-V host

H

yper-VF

ailover

Cluster

StoreServ

7400

Host05

VHDX1

vGST01

OS Disk

CSV1

Host06 Host07 Host08

vGST02 vGST03vGST01

VHDX3

vGST03

OS DiskVHDX2

vGST02

OS Disk

VHDX1d

vGST01Data Disk

CSV2

VHDX3d

vGST03

Data DiskVHDX2d

vGST02

Data Disk

vGST03


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Method two: Startup CSV presented to Hyper-V host and Data LUNs presented directly to Hyper-V guest

The Hyper-V Failover Cluster storage configuration uses disks that hold the operating system for the guest VMs, vGST01,

vGST02 and vGST03 shown in green in Figure 28 is the same as the configuration used in Figure 27.

The storage that holds additional data for vGST01, vGST02 and vGST03 shown in blue below is different from the previous

example. Three separate LUNs are created to hold each of the data disks for vGST01, vGST02 and vGST03. The virtual data

disks are created as VHDX1d, VHDX2d and VHDX3d and are each located on a LUN provisioned from the StoreServ 7400

array. Each LUN is created from a thick or thinly provisioned LUN and is presented to the Hyper-V guests: vGST01, vGST02

and vGST03. The VHDX files are created with a file size of 200 GB for the guest data disks and are presented to each virtual

machine using the virtual Fibre Channel Adapter devices configured for each virtual machine.

Figure 28. Hyper-V Storage: Startup CSV presented to Hyper-V host and Data LUNs presented d irectly to Hyper-V guest

StoreServ

7400

Hyper-VF

ailover

Cluster

Host05

VHDX1

vGST01

OS Disk

CSV1

Host06 Host07 Host08

vGST02 vGST03vGST01

VHDX3

vGST03

OS DiskVHDX2

vGST02

OS Disk

VHDX1d

vGST01

Data Disk

vGST03

VHDX2d

vGST02Data Disk

VHDX3d

vGST03Data Disk

LUN LUN LUN


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Method three: Startup and Data CSVs presented to Scale-Out File Server

This Hyper-V Failover Cluster storage configuration is similar to the first configuration above with a different method of

connecting to the storage. The CSV3 disk that holds the operating system disks for the guest VMs, vGST04, vGST05 and

vGST06 is shown in green in Figure 29. The virtual machine operating system disks created as VHDX4, VHDX5 and VHDX6

are located on a LUN provisioned from the StoreServ 7400 array. The LUN is created from a thick or thinly provisioned LUN

and is presented to the Scale-Out File Server (SOFS) cluster nodes HOST09 and HOST10 as a Cluster Shared Volume

(CSV) so that it is accessible from each node in the SOFS cluster over a Fibre Channel connection. The Scale-Out File Server is

configured with a share called CSV3 that is available to the Hyper-V hosts on a UNC share(\\ScaleOutFileServer\CSV03) that is accessed using the Server Message Block 3.0 (SMB 3.0) protocol.

The storage that holds additional data for vGST04, vGST05 and vGST06 is shown in blue in Figure 29. The virtual machine

data disks are created as VHDX4d, VHDX5d and VHDX6d and are located on a LUN provisioned from the StoreServ 7400

array. The CSV4 LUN is created from a thick or thinly provisioned LUN and is presented to the Scale-Out File Server (SOFS)

cluster nodes HOST09 and HOST10 as a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) so that it is accessible from each node in the SOFS

cluster over a Fibre Channel connection. The Scale-Out File Server is configured with a share called CSV4 that is available tothe Hyper-V hosts on a UNC share (\\ScaleOutFileServer\CSV04) that is accessed using the Server Message Block

3.0 (SMB 3.0) protocol.

Figure 29. Hyper-V Storage: Startup and Data CSVs presented to Scale-Out File Server

File

Server

FailoverCluster

StoreServ

7400

Hyper-VF

ailover

Cluster

Host05 Host06 Host07 Host08

vGST05 vGST06vGST04 vGST06

Host09 Host10

VHDX4

vGST04

OS Disk

VHDX6vGST06

OS DiskVHDX5

vGST05

OS Disk

VHDX4d

vGST04

Data DiskVHDX5d

vGST05

Data Disk

VHDX6dvGST06

Data Disk

CSV3 CSV4

Fibre Channel

SMB 3.0


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The VHDX files are created with a file size of 64 GB for the operating system disks that are presented to each virtualmachine using a UNC path (\\ScaleOutFileServer\csv03\TestVM\Virtual Hard Disks\vhdx4.vhdx)

in the VMs settings on the IDE Controller device as shown in Figure 30.

Figure 30. Hyper-V Storage: Startup VHDX presentation from Scale-Out File Share with SMB 3.0


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The VHDX files are created with a file size of 200 GB for the data disks that are presented to each virtual machine using aUNC path (\\ScaleOutFileServer\CSV04\TestVM\vhdx4d.vhdx) in the VMs settings on the SCSI Controller

device.

Figure 31. Hyper-V Storage: Data VHDX presentation from Scale-Out File Share with SMB 3.0

Management systems

Managing a set of servers in a data center or a single rack is important to ensure that stable service is provided and that

applications meet the uptime agreements detailed in a companys Service Level Agreement (SLA). Management systems are

available to assist with all phases of an applications lifecycle from deployment to maintenance and redeployment as

business requirements change.

This configuration makes use of management systems from both Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Microsoft.


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HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) and Onboard Administrator (OA)

HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) for rack mount (DL) servers and Onboard Administrator (OA) for BladeSystem (BL) servers

provide insight into the server configuration and the ability to remotely manage and diagnose a server without leaving your

desk. The iLO functionality allows for remote management from any server or workstation in your environment as well as

from IOS and Android devices.

Figure 32 shows the overview of information that is available in the iLO interface. The left pane shows the types of

information and features that are available to gather information or remotely access the server.

Figure 32. Server Management: iLO 4 and OA

The features available in the iLO are dependent on the version of the license you purchase and install. The iLO Advanced

license contains the full suite of remote management capabilities.

Additional information on HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) including the features available with each license is available from:

HP Integrated Lights-Out white paper orHP Integrated Lights-Out.
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-5167ENWhttp://www.hp.com/go/ilohttp://www.hp.com/go/ilohttp://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-5167ENW


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HP Intelligent Provisioning

HP Intelligent Provisioning (IP) replaces HP SmartStart for Gen8 and newer servers. Intelligent Provisioning integrates thefunctionality of SmartStart into flash memory on the ProLiant system board. During the POSTprocess, an administrator can

boot into the Intelligent Provisioning functionality by pressing F10when prompted. Once the Intelligent Provisioning

process starts, the administrator can choose to configure the hardware and install an operating system or maintain the

server as shown in Figure 33. Installing the operating system (OS) using the Intelligent Provisioning interface ensures that

the appropriate drivers and software are installed along with the operating system to provide an integrated solution.

Figure 33. Server deployment: Intelligent Provisioning

Note

New versions of the Intelligent Provisioning software are installed by booting the server from the downloaded Intelligent

Provisioning ISO image which is mounted into the iLO using the virtual media functionality.

Additional information on HP Intelligent Provisioning (IP) is available from: HP Intelligent Provisioning

HP Service Pack for ProLiant

The Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) replaces the ProLiant Support Pack (PSP) and provides an integrated set of software and

firmware to support the ProLiant server model and operating system version you deploy. The use of the Service Pack for

ProLiant ensures that compatible versions of software and firmware are deployed together.

The HP SPP is deployed using the HP Software Update Manager (SUM) which is run to update the local server where HP SUM

is running, a single remote server or a set of remote servers simultaneously. Each time a new HP Service Pack for ProLiant is

released it can be deployed throughout the environment with SUM to ensure protection against any vulnerabilities and

availability of new features.

Additional information on HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) is available from:HP Service Pack for ProLiant
http://www.hp.com/go/intelligentprovisioninghttp://www.hp.com/go/spphttp://www.hp.com/go/spphttp://www.hp.com/go/intelligentprovisioning

getpdf.aspx 4aa4 6158enw

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