vmworld 2013: vmware virtual san technical best practices
DESCRIPTION
VMworld 2013 Cormac Hogan, VMware Kiran Madnani, VMware Learn more about VMworld and register at http://www.vmworld.com/index.jspa?src=socmed-vmworld-slideshareTRANSCRIPT
VMware Virtual SAN Technical Best Practices
Cormac Hogan, VMware
Kiran Madnani, VMware
STO5027
#STO5027
2
Agenda
VMware’s vision for SDS
What is Virtual SAN?
Key Components
Hardware considerations
Use Cases
Managing VSAN
Demo
Beta Information!
3
Software-Defined Data Center
Software-Defined Storage
SDDC | SDS
All infrastructure is virtualized
and delivered as a service, and
the control of this data center is
entirely automated by software.
Heterogeneous storage resources
are abstracted into logical pools,
consumed and managed through
app-centric policy-based
automation
4
VMware Approach to Software-Defined Storage
Software-Defined Storage
Virtualized Data Plane
Shared
Storage
VM-centric Data Services
Policy-Driven Control Plane
HDD SSD
Server Direct
Attached
Extensible framework
for ecosystem of VM-
centric data services.
Common
management model
based on VM-level
policies
Hypervisor-based
pooling of
heterogeneous
storage resources
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What is Virtual SAN?
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Introducing Virtual SAN (VSAN)
vSphere
VSAN
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
…
VSAN Datastore
Product Overview
• Scale out Storage built into the hypervisor
• Clusters ESX host attached storage
• Flash-optimized converged compute + storage
solution
• Software solution - Uses industry standard
components
• vSphere integrated management
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Introducing Virtual SAN (VSAN)
vSphere
VSAN
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
…
VSAN Datastore
Features
• Dynamic and capacity performance scaling
• Shared storage properties
• High Performance – Flash based read & write
cache
• High Resiliency – Distributed RAID; No single
points of failure
• VM-Centric management
• Automated SLA management
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VSAN Value and Differentiation
Native to ESX hypervisor -
improves resource efficiency &
latency
Storage platform architected for
VM-level data operations and
management
Built from ground up using Policy-
Driven Management principles
vSphere integrated management
Radically Simple Storage built for
the virtualization admin
Radically Simple Enterprise Storage
Significantly lower TCO without compromising performance
vSphere
VSAN
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
…
VSAN Datastore
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Key Components
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Requirements
At least 3 x ESXi hosts running version 5.5
1 x vCenter server running version 5.5; managed thru web-client
Each host containing at least 1 unused SSD & 1 unused HDD
1Gb or 10Gb network between hosts
VMworld 2013
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Hardware Considerations
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VSAN Hardware Requirements
SAS/SATA Controller or RAID
Controller must work in
passthru/JBOD/HBA mode
SAS/SATA/PCIe SSD
SAS/SATA HDD
1Gb/10Gb NIC
Server on
vSphere HCL
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Best Practices: Hardware Selection Considerations
Network
• VSAN supports both 1Gb & 10Gb NICs
• VSAN supports both VSS & VDS
Storage Controller
• HBA or RAID controller with JBOD mode for optimal performance
Solid State Disk
• Pick SSD’s based on performance and reliability
• Best practice: ~10% of storage should be SSD
HDD’s
• 7.2K for capacity or 10K for performance
VMworld 2013
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Use Cases
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VMware Virtual SAN – Initial Use Cases
• Handle peak performance such as boot, login, read/write storms
• Seamless granular scaling without huge upfront investments
• Support high VDI density
• Rapid storage provisioning and complete automation
• Ideal price/performance
• Minimizes data center footprint
• Integrated with vSphere Replication and VMware SRM
• Reduces cost of storage
• Minimizes data center footprint
Virtual Desktop (VDI)
Tier 2 / Tier 3
Test and Dev
Private Cloud
DR
Target
Site A Site B
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Managing VSAN
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VSAN Workflow – Configure & Deploy
Configure
VSAN
Determine VM
Storage
Requirements
Create VM
Storage Policy
using capabilities
Start VM
Deployment
Choose VM
Storage
Policy
Verify VSAN
met
requirements
Repeat as
necessary GO
Stop
VMworld 2013
You are
here
Finish VM
Deployment
VSAN
Capabilities
surfaced
18
Configure VSAN
•VSAN is configured in just a few clicks.
Setup
VSAN
Network
Enable
VSAN
on the Cluster
Select
Manual
or Automatic
•Automatic mode: all empty local disks are claimed by VSAN for the
creation of the vsanDatastore
•Manual mode: the administrator must manually select empty local disks
to add the the vsanDatastore.
If Manual,
pick
Disks/SSDs
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VSAN Fully Integrated with vSphere
•All the management tasks pertaining to the installation, configuration &
monitoring of VSAN will be done from the vSphere Web Client.
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vsanDatastore
A single vsanDatastore is created, using storage from multiple hosts and
multiple disks in the cluster.
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks SSD
vSphere
VSAN
VSAN Datastore
VMworld 2013
…
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vsanDatastore for Availability
The virtual machine is comprised of storage objects (VM Home, VMDK,
delta, swap) which may be distributed across the hosts and disks in the
VSAN cluster.
VMs may have a replica copy for availability, or stripe for HDD performance
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks SSD
Replica & Stripes for VM 1
Replica & Stripes for VM 2
vSphere
VSAN
…
VMworld 2013
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VSAN Scale-Out Storage – Radically Simple
vSphere
VSAN
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
VSAN Aggregated Datastore
Hard disks SSD
Hard disks SSD
vSphere
VSAN
VSAN Aggregated Datastore
vSphere
VSAN
VSAN Aggregated Datastore
vSphere
VSAN
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Best Practices: Scale Out
All hosts in a VSAN cluster be similarly or identically configured
It avoids a single host having a majority of running VMs.
It avoids a single host having a majority of VM storage components.
VMware recommends deploying a
balanced cluster, both from a compute
and storage perspective
VMworld 2013
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VSAN Workflow – Configure & Deploy
Configure
VSAN
Determine VM
Storage
Requirements
Create VM
Storage Policy
using
capabilities
Start VM
Deployment
Choose VM
Storage
Policy
Verify VSAN
met
requirements
Repeat as
necessary GO
Stop
VMworld 2013
Finish VM
Deployment
VSAN
Capabilities
surfaced
You are
here
25
What are the key components of Virtual SAN?
VMworld 2013
vSphere
VSAN
Hard disks Hard disks SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
…
VSAN Datastore
Capacity,
Availability, Performance
VM Storage Policy
Reflect the storage
requirements of the
application
Based on VSAN
datastore
capabilities
Picked during VM
deployment
Allows VM
deployment at
scale
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Which Capabilities does VSAN support?
• Number of disk stripes per object
The number of HDD's across which each replica of a VMDK object is distributed.
• Number of failures to tolerate
Defines the number of hosts, network and/or disk failures a VMDK can tolerate.
• Object space reservation
% of the logical size of VMDK, including snapshots, that should be reserved (thick
provisioned). Rest of object is thin.
• Flash read cache reservation
Flash capacity reserved as read cache for the storage object. Specified as a percentage of
the VMDK capacity.
• Force provisioning
If enabled, object will be provisioned even if the policy requirements cannot be satisfied by
the vsanDatastore.
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Storage Capabilities used in policies
Capability Use Case Value
1 Number of failures to tolerate
(RAID 1 – Mirror) Redundancy
Default 1
Max 3
2 Number of disk stripes per object
(RAID 0 – Stripe) Performance
Default 1
Max 12
3 Object space reservation Thick Provisioning Default 0
Max 100%
4 Flash read cache reservation Performance Default 0
Max 100%
5 Force provisioning Override policy Disabled
VMworld 2013
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VSAN Workflow – Configure & Deploy
Configure
VSAN
Determine VM
Storage
Requirements
Create VM
Storage Policy
using
capabilities
Start VM
Deployment
Choose VM
Storage
Policy
Verify VSAN
met
requirements
Repeat as
necessary GO
Stop
VMworld 2013
Finish VM
Deployment
VSAN
Capabilities
surfaced
You are
here
29
Decisions when creating a VM Storage Policy
Do I want availability for this VM?
• Number of failures to tolerate should be a capability in the policy.
Do I want additional performance (above the default) for this VM?
• Number of disk stripes and Flash read cache reservation are capabilities that
can be used for performance purpose.
Do I want the VM to be thickly provisioned?
• Object space reservation should be a capability in the policy.
Do I want the VM deployed even if VSAN cannot meet the policy?
• Force provisioning should be a capability in the policy.
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VSAN Policy definition
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Best Practices: VM Storage Policy
Number of Disk Stripes per object
should be left at 1, unless the the IOPs requirement of the VM is not being met
by the SSD cache.
Flash Read Cache Reservation
should be left at 0, unless there is a specific performance requirement to be
met by the VM.
Proportional Capacity
should be left at 0, unless thick provisioning of virtual machines is required.
Force Provisioning
Should be left disabled, unless the VM needs to be provisioned, even if not in
compliance
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VSAN Workflow – Configure & Deploy
Configure
VSAN
Determine VM
Storage
Requirements
Create VM
Storage Policy
using
capabilities
Start VM
Deployment
Choose VM
Storage
Policy
Verify VSAN
met
requirements
Repeat as
necessary GO
Stop
VMworld 2013
Finish VM
Deployment
VSAN
Capabilities
surfaced
You are
here
33
VM Provisioning Example (1 of 2)
During VM provisioning, an appropriate pre-configured VM Storage Policy
is selected for the VM.
If the vsanDatastore understands the capabilities in the VM Storage
Policy, it will be displayed as a matching resource.
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VM Provisioning Example (2 of 2)
If the vsanDatastore can
satisfy the VM Storage
Policy, the the VM Summary
tab will display the VM as
compliant.
If not, due to failures, or the
force provisioning capability,
the VM will be shown as
non-compliant.
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Visualizing the layout
VMworld 2013
Support for mapping the
layout to visualize:
Physical-to-virtual mapping
Virtual-to-physical mapping
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IO workflow
All VM I/O is directed to the SSD. Writes are later destaged to HDD.
If the requested read block is not in cache, the request is directed to HDD
Hard disks SSD
vSphere
VSAN
VSAN Datastore
1
2
Write
Hard disks SSD
vSphere
VSAN
VSAN Datastore
1 2 Read
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VM requirements changed?
Traditional Approach
1. Migrate VMs from datastore
2. Decommission LUN/Volume
3. Create new LUN/Volume with the
new storage requirements
4. Format of the LUN with VMFS in
the case of block storage
5. Migrate VMs to new datastore.
VSAN
1. Edit the VM Storage Policy
2. Apply the changed policy
vs.
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Maintenance Mode – planned downtime
VMworld 2013
3 Maintenance mode
options:
Ensure accessibility
Full data migration
No data migration
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Managing Failures - unplanned downtime
VMworld 2013
Through policies, VM’s on
VSAN can tolerate multiple
failures
Disk Failure
SSD Failure
Network Failure
Server Failure
VM’s continue to run
Parallel rebuilds minimize
performance pain
40
Observing performance
VMworld 2013
4 ways to monitor
performance:
esxtop
Performance Manager UI
RVC & Observer
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Demo Time
This next section of the presentation will look at:
1. Ease of Setup
2. Building a VM Storage Policy
3. Change that VM Storage Policy as VM I/O requirements change
4. Highly Available Virtual Machines
5. VSAN & vSphere HA Interoperability
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Demo - Key Takeaways #1
• Network connection required for communication and I/O purposes.
• Setup is very simple.
• Scaling out storage and compute in a VSAN cluster is as simple as adding a new host to the cluster.
• Policies enable Software Driven Storage.
• As VM storage requirements change, administrators can simply update the policy.
Compare this to a physical SAN or NAS infrastructure where new datastores would need provisioning to satisfy changing VM I/O requirements.
• VMs can be migrated between a vsanDatastore, traditional VMFS and NFS datastores.
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Demo - Key Takeaways #2
• VSAN & vSphere HA provides high availability at both the storage AND compute layers.
More detail on VSAN & HA interoperability can be found in session BCO5047 –
vSphere HA – What’s New and Best Practices by Keith Farkas & Jeff Hunter
VMworld 2013
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VSAN Beta Information
46
• It’s free
• It’s as easy as installing vSphere
• It gives you the chance to win an iPad!
Register for Virtual SAN Beta Now!
47 47
Other VMware Activities Related to This Session
HOL:
HOL-SDC-1308
Virtual Storage Solutions
Group Discussions:
STO1001-GD
VSAN with Cormac Hogan and VMware R&D Engineers
THANK YOU
VMware Virtual SAN Technical Best Practices
Cormac Hogan, VMware
Kiran Madnani, VMware
STO5027
#STO5027