VMAX 101

1EMC CONFIDENTIAL—INTERNAL USE ONLY. 1EMC CONFIDENTIAL—INTERNAL USE ONLY.

VMAX 101VMAX 101 with vSphere Recommended Practices

David RobertsonvSpecialistTwitter: @daverdfw

2EMC CONFIDENTIAL—INTERNAL USE ONLY.

Agenda• History of Symmetrix• VMAX Hardware/Software Overview• What’s new with Enginuity 5875 (Danube)• Recommended Practices for Using VMAX with

VMware• Q&A


Evolution of SymmetrixContinuous Improvement in Efficiency and Effectiveness

Symmetrix is the enabler to evolving high-end infrastructure

CentralizedSingle servers

Single applications

Direct Attached Storage

DistributedMultiple servers

Multiple applications

Storage Area Networks1985–1995 1995–2005 2005–2010

VirtualizedVirtualized servers

Consolidated applications

Virtual StorageSymmetrix

4400Symmetrix

5500Symmetrix3000/5000

Symmetrix8000

SymmetrixDMX-1/-2

SymmetrixDMX-3

SymmetrixDMX-4

SymmetrixVMAX

FlashDrives

World’s first integrated

cached disk array (ICDA)

World’s firstterabyte ICDA

disk array

“Open Symmetrix”

managed datafrom all major

server platforms

Direct Matrixarchitecture

revolutionizes high-end storage

World’s firstincrementally scalable 1 PB

disk array

World’s most cost-effective,

high-performing,

secure, energy-efficient high-

end array

Purpose-built to deliver

infrastructure services within the data center

Created new“enterprise

storage”market category


Symmetrix Evolution

Symmetrix4800

Symmetrix 4400 4Mb DRAM 256MB Cache Board 5.25” HDA

Symmetrix4200

DynamicSparing

Non-DisruptiveMicrocode Load

Symmetrix 5500-316Mb DRAM1GB Cache Board

Hyper VolumeExtension3.5” HDA

SRDFPDS AssistSDSHDC

Symmetrix 5230-4Symmetrix 5100-9 RAID-S FWD SCSI SRDF Ext Dist SRDF Host Comp Symmetrix Manager MPLF 3380/3390 Intermix 3GB/9GB Intermix

Symmetrix ESPSDMS

Symmetrix3000*

EOSEDM

InfoMoverCelerraFDRSOS

3330/53303430/54303700/5700

‘90 ‘94‘92‘91 ‘93 ‘95 ‘96 ‘97

DataReachTimeFinder

‘98

DMSPSystem CallsUltra SCSISA-FailoverPowerPathFibre ChannelSDDF

‘99 ‘00

>4GB CacheSymmOptimizerFile SMMFNew TF SplitsSwitch SRDF R1/R2 FC Fabric Support

3630/56303830/58303900/5900

Symmetrix 5

Symmetrix 3Symmetrix 4

Symmetrix 2

813084308730

Symmetrix 4.8

‘01

Symmetrix 5.5823085308830

‘02 ‘03

Symmetrix 6

DMXDMX800DMX1000DMX2000

‘05

Symmetrix 7DMX-3

‘04

Symmetrix 6.5 DMX-2

‘06 ‘07

DMX1500DMX2500DMX3500DMX4500

DMX-3950

DMX-4Dynamic Cache PartitionsVirtual LUNRAID-62107 CU mainframe

‘08

Virtual ProvisioningInstant VTOCFlash Drives1TB SATA Drives

20 Years of Storage Leadership!

‘09

VMAX Series

Virtual Matrix Autoprovisioning GroupsEnhanced Virtual LUN

‘10

FAST

FAST VPFLMVAAI


Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity • Supports from 96 to 2400 drives

– Up to 240 drives per Storage Bay

– Up to 10 Storage Bays• Connectivity:

– Fibre– FICON– iSCSI– GigE

• More host connection ports– 128 Fibre Channel host/SAN– 32 Fibre Channel remote

replication– 64 iSCSI– 64 FICON host– 32 GigE remote replication


EMC Symmetrix: The World’s Most Trusted Storage Platforms

32 to 2,400 drives Two to 12 front-end/back-end directors FICON, ESCON, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Gigabit

Ethernet connectivity Up to 512 (256 usable) GB global memory

Symmetrix VMAX: Virtual Matrix Architecture

Note: Combinations may be limited or restricted based on configuration

96 to 2,400 drives for up to 2 PB of usable capacity

One to eight VMAX Engines (16 directors)

Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Gigabit Ethernet, FICON connectivity

Up to 1 TB (512 GB usable) global mirrored memory

8 Gb/s Fibre Channel, FICON, and Fibre Channel SRDF

CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE SCALABILITY

Symmetrix DMX:The Direct Matrix Architecture


Symmetrix Architecture – “Big Picture”

• Front-end connects hosts to the system• Back-end connects the physical drives

– Director– Physical drives

Front-end Host Adapters

Global Memory (Cache)Back-end Disk Adapters

Host Systems Host Reads

– “Cache Hit” if data is already in cache– “Cache Miss” is staged from disk

Host Writes– All host writes are to cache – “Write Pendings”are asynchronous written to disk


Symmetrix VMAX Virtual Matrix ArchitectureUp to 128 ports per system, two hot-pluggable modules per director

Back-end connections for Flash, Fibre Channel, and SATA disks (up to 128 ports, 2,400 disks, 2.1 PB)

Four Quad-core Intel processors at 2.33 GHz per core (16 cores per engine)

Global mirrored memory and redundant CPU complexes that can be accessed and shared across Symmetrix engines

Virtual Matrix interface connects and shares resources, providing massive scalability in a single system

High-AvailabilitySymmetrix Director Pair

Up to eight engines per Symmetrix system


VMAX Hardware Overview


VMAX Engine Overview






Engine IO module layout


Dir 1Dir 2Dir 3Dir 4Dir 5Dir 6Dir 7Dir 8

Dir 9Dir 10Dir 11Dir 12Dir 13Dir 14Dir 15Dir 16

Director #

Engine Numbering and Population Order

System Bay

Engine 1

Engine 2

Engine 3

Engine 4

Engine 5

Engine 6

Engine 7

Engine 8

Engine #

Populated 8

Populated 6

Populated 4

Populated 2

Population Order

Populated 1

Populated 3

Populated 5

Populated 7


Engine 8Dir 15/16Engine 7Dir 13/14Engine 6Dir 11/12Engine 5Dir 9/10

Engine 4Dir 7/8

Engine 3Dir 5/6

Engine 2Dir 3/4

Engine 1Dir 1/2

Up to four directly connected Storage Bays Up to six daisy chained Storage Bays Up to eight Disk Director pairs (Octants)

VMAX Storage Bay ConfigurationStandard Configuration

DirectConnect

DirectConnect

DirectConnect

DirectConnect

DaisyChained

DaisyChained

DaisyChained

DaisyChained

Octant 5Engine 2

Octant 6Engine 7

Octant 7Engine 1

Octant 8Engine 8

Octant 1Engine 4

Octant 2Engine 5

Octant 3Engine 3

Octant 4Engine 6


VMAX Drive and Protection Types


Supported Drive Types


Data Protection Options

Option Characteristics Protection Performance Cost

RAID 1 Write to two separate physical drives

Read from single drive - DMSP2 1 2

RAID 5 Parity based protection Striped data and parity

– 3+1 and 7+1 Configurations3 2 1

RAID 6 Two parity drives–6 + 2 and 14 + 2

Data Availability is primary Performance is a secondary

consideration New with Enginuity 5772

1 3 1

Unprotected Not recommended N/A


Choose RAID Protection That Makes Sense for Your Workload

High HighestPerformance Requirement

Avai

labi

lity

High

Highest

MIRRORED

RAID 6

RAID 5

Color indicates performance overhead


RAID types and Recommendations


VMAX Service Processor


Symmetrix Service Processor

• EMC personnel interface to the Symmetrix– Rack-mounted server with KVM & UPS– Windows XP Operating System

• Runs SymmWin application– Used to:

• Configure the Symmetrix• Run diagnostics, procedures, and other maintenance utilities • Launch Inlines commands

• Service processor also runs Solutions Enabler SYMCLI and Symmetrix Management Console server

• Secure Service Credentials ensure only authorize access• EMC Remote allows Support Engineers to access the service processor

remotely– Secure IP network connection– Modem


SymmWin• Graphical-based tool for configuring and

monitoring a Symmetrix System– Runs locally on the service processor– May also run on stand-alone PC

• Provides interface to Inlines• Automatically runs periodic checks and

performs “Call Home” • Can be accessed remotely using

EMCRemote


Enginutiy Release Numbering

5874.34.29.[03]Family NumberSupported Hardware:

Major Release Level

Emulation Code Level(Build #)

Service Processor Code(Minor Release Level)

Revision Numberof QA test code8 Symm8 VMAX

7 Symm7 DMX-3,DMX-4

6 Symm6 DMX, DMX-2


VMAX Device Configuration


Symmetrix Device• Logical abstraction of a disk drive

– EMC terms often used are hyper-volume, slice, split, device, or volume• Industry term is LUN – Logical Unit

– Approximately 64,000 devices per system • Each devices is assigned a unique hex identifier

– Emulates either a FBA and CKD device– Maximum size = ~240 GB TDEV

• Meta Devices can be created to go beyond this limit

• Mapped to persistent locations on physical disk – Protection from media failure

• RAID 1 Mirroring• RAID 5 and RAID 6 parity based protection

– Replication• Local• Remote

Symmetrix Device

DEV 1bc4


Symmetrix Device, continued

• Symmetrix Devices are provisioned to hosts– Physical connectivity– Map to front-end director port

• Assign Channel Address

– Mask device to specific HBA– Feature referred to as Auto-provisioning Groups

Symmetrix Device

DEV 1bc4


Hypervolumes


Physical Disk and Hyper Volumes

146 GB

Physical Disk10 GB

8 GB

9 GB

36 GB

6 GB

8 GB

11 GB

8 GB

Hyper Volumes


Metavolumes

A metavolume is two or more Symmetrix system hypervolumes presented to the hostas a single addressable device.


Gatekeeper Devices• A Gatekeeper can be any volume

accessible to the host– Appear like any other volume– Usually configured as a small device – Should not be used by the host for normal data

processing• Best practice is to dedicate devices as Gatekeepers

– When a SYMCLI session is started, gatekeeper and database locks are used to avoid conflicts

• Semaphore – Once the CDB sequence is processed, the gatekeeper is

closed and the lock released, freeing the device for other processing

• Solutions Enabler commands executed on the Symmetrix Service Processor uses a pseudo Gatekeeper device

– Storage Processor does not have direct access to any devices

Gatekeeper (Typically <10MB)


In-Band Communicates• Host to the Symmetrix communication is

performed using standard SCSI Write Buffer/Read Buffer commands

• Devices designated to receive commands are called Gatekeepers

– Typically minimum sized volumes– Simply used to pass commands and return

response

Gatekeeper

SYMCLICommands


VMAX Virtual Provisioning


Virtual Provisioning Device Types• Thin Device

– Host-addressable device– Seen by the operating system as a “normal” device– Used in the same way as other host-addressable devices

• Can be replicated both locally and remotely– Physical storage need not be completely allocated at device

creation– Physical storage is allocated from a pool of DATA devices– Remains Not Ready until bound to a pool, though can be

addressed and configured by a host• DATA Device

– An internal, non-addressable device – Provides the physical storage that is used to supply disk space for

a thin device– Placed in a thin storage pool to which the thin device has been

associated or “bound”– Multiple RAID protection types

• RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6• RAID 5 support in DMX is for 3+1 only


Virtual Provisioning with VMAX

Virtual Provisioning enables a large volume to be presented to a host while consuming physical storage from a shared pool only as needed.

Virtual Provisioning

ReportedCapacity

TDAT 8TDAT 7TDAT 6TDAT 5








…

Data Devices

Allocated

Application perceived Virtual Devices

AllocatedAllocated


Virtual Provisioning Steps

Data Devices or TDAT’s

“TDAT”

Storage Pool

Thin Devices

“TDAT”

TDEV

Step 1 create TDAT’s

Step 2 create Pool add TDAT”s

Step 3 create TDEV’s

Same Drive TypeSame RAID Level


Thin Pool Concepts

1 2 3 4ThinPools

VolumesWith Protection

7+1 or 6+2 in this example

Metavolume

…..

Metahead

To Hosts / Storage Groups

ThinDevices

1

432

5

23

1

5

23

1

5

23

1

5

23

11

432

1

432

1

432

5

Data Devices TDAT

VolumesWith Protection3+1 Physical

Disks

7+1 Pool 3+1 Pool

TDEV size and number is independent of TDAT and drive partitions

TDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV


Thin Pool Concepts with AutoProvisioning

1 2 3 4 Thin PoolsVolumes

With Protection7+1 or 6+2 in this example

Thin Devices

1

432

5

23

1

5

23

1

5

23

1

5

23

11

432

1

432

1

432

5

Data Devices TDAT

VolumesWith Protection3+1

Physical Disks

7+1 Pool 3+1 Pool

Storage Group

Port Group

Initiator GroupHBA HBA HBA HBA HBA HBA

Masking View

FA - XY FA - XY FA - XY FA - XY

Metavolume

TDEV …..

Metahead

Auto-Provisioning

Groups

TDEV size and number is independent of TDAT and drive partitions.TimeFinder , SRDF and Open Replicator relationships are configured at the TDEV level.

TDEV TDEV TDEVTDEV TDEV TDEV TDEV


Virtual Provisioning Thin Pools• Thin pools can be created

at the same time as DATA devices

• They can also be created with no associated DATA devices

• There is no default thin pool

• The first DATA device added to the thin pool defines its protection type

• Thin pools can contain devices of only a single protection type– If first device added is

RAID 1, all additional devices must be RAID 1

Pool type specific to Virtual Provisioning

Thin Pool With DATA Devices


Host Write I/Os to Thin Devices

Host Writes to Thin devices• The initial bind of a thin

device to a pool causes 1 thin device extent to be allocated per thin device

• When a write is performed to a logical block address that does not exist on a previously allocated extent, a new thin device extent will be allocated from the pool

• A round-robin mechanism is used to balance the allocation of DATA device extents across all available DATA devices in the pool

• A 4 member thin meta would cause 4 extents to be allocated

Thin Pool Thin Devices


Extent Allocation on Host Writes to Logical Block Addresses

LBA 0

LBA N-1

N = Number of blocks in the thin device reported capacity

Logical Block Addresses on a Thin Device

The host sees the thin device the same as a regular device

The disk still contains a range of logical block addresses

The LBA range will be equal to the number of 512 byte blocks in the entire device

The extent allocation mechanism does not change this


Extent Allocation on Host Writes to Logical Block Addresses (Continued)

LBA 0

Logical Block Addresses in a 12 Track Thin Device Extent

LBA 1535

0 KB - 768 KB

Thin device extents contain 768 KB or 12 Symmetrix Tracks

Each extent contains 1536 x 512 byte blocks

Extent allocation is only triggered if the host writes to an LBA that is not part of a previously allocated extent


Extent Allocation on Host Writes to Logical Block Addresses (Continued) Initial bind causes one thin

extent to be allocated Host sends an 8 KB write to

LBA 872 which is part of a previously allocated extent

– The write is accepted and acknowledgement is returned with no allocation performed

Host sends an 8 KB write to LBA 72588

– Extent allocation is performed, the write is accepted, and an ack is returned

Host sends an 8 KB write to LBA 73724

– No extent allocation is performed for the first 2 KB, extent allocation is performed for the second 6 KB, the write is accepted, and an ack is returned

LBA 0 - 1535LBA 0 - 1535

LBA 72192 - 73727

LBA 0 - 1535

LBA 72192 - 73727LBA 73728 - 75263

Example of Extent Allocation


VMAX Management Overview


EMC Solutions Enabler Introduction• Symmetrix Command Line Interface (SYMCLI)

– Nearly all host environments– Also installed on Service Processor

• Provides a host with a comprehensive command set for managing a Symmetrix storage environment

– Invoked from the host OS command line– Scripts that may provide further

integration with OS and application• Separate components licenses• Security and access controls

– Monitor only – Host-based and user-based controls

Detailed Configuration Information

Status On-line

ConfigurationChanges

Performance Control


EMC Symmetrix Management Console

• Quickly provision resources on demand

– Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)– Auto-provisioning Groups– Virtual Provisioning– Enhanced Virtual LUN technology

• Ease of use– Tasks view– Wizards– Templates

• Management integration– Symmetrix Management Console and SMI-S

on Service Processor• Complements EMC Symmetrix

Manager and SYMCLI• Lightweight software requiring

minimal host resources• Web-based GUI• SMC/SPA also is available as a vApp

virtual appliance on PowerLink

Simplifies storage management for virtual data centers

Symmetrix Management Console“Ease-of-use” capabilities


EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer

• Simplify storage management– Intuitive, automated trending of Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs)– Improve long-term planning for

upgrades and consolidation• Monitor Symmetrix operations

– Real-time data collection—five-second intervals

– Diagnostics• Easily drill down to device-level views of

performance• Choose time period to track

– 24 hours, one week, one month, six months, year to date, custom

• FAST monitoring– Monitor storage type usage and

performance– Monitor Storage Groups and volume

level metrics


VMAX Provisioning Overview


Symmetrix VMAX: Easy, Quick, and Automated Storage ProvisioningAuto-provisioning Groups simplifies initial configurations and all future changes and additions

1

2

Create Initiator Group1

2Add/Remove Initiator

3

4

Create Port Group3

4 Add/Remove Port

5

6

Create Storage Group5

6Add/Remove Device


Auto-provisioning Groups

15 clicks to completeSimplifies initial configurations and all future changes and additions

Port A

Port B

Port C

Port D

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

Single Setup to Build and Associate Groups

Traditional Mapping and Masking

Symmetrix VMAX: Easy, Quick, and Automated Storage Provisioning for Virtual Servers with a Single Action

40 Individual Masking OperationsFive ESX servers x two HBAs x four storage ports

~160 clicks to completeIncludes initial configuration and repeated for every change or add

Port A

Port B

Port C

Port D

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV

DEV


EMC VMAX Storage

Scale-out architecture for unmatched performance and hyper-consolidation

New “ease-of-use” capabilities to provision thousands of virtual and/or physical servers in minutes

Support for Enterprise Flash, Fibre Channel, and SATA

FAST for tiering storage in VMware environmentsEnhanced Virtual LUN Technology for nondisruptive mobility

Robust enterprise class BC and DR solutions with TimeFinder and SRDF


What’s new with Enginuity 5875 (Danube)



VMware vStorage APIs for Array IntegrationSupport for VAAI

• Block Zero10-times less I/O for VMware vStorage Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) formatting/reallocation

• Hardware-Assisted LockingBlock-level locking allows up to 10-times more virtual machines per data store

• Full Copy Offload replication to array for 10-times faster virtual machine deployments, clones, snapshots, and VMware Storage vMotion



EMC Virtual Storage Integrator

VIRTUAL STORAGE

INTEGRATOR

MORE EFFICIENCY

MORE SCALEMORE

SECURITYVirtual Storage Integrator simplifies virtual

server management while preserving architectural control

of the storage infrastructure

VMwareMicrosoftHyper-V


FAST VP: Sub-LUN Optimization

Device Pool

Flash drives: optimize performance

SATA: optimize cost and capacity

~5% is active

~95% is inactive

Allows most inactive data to move to SATA drives with no performance impact

Storage Pool


FAST with Virtual Pools (FAST VP)• A new level of Fully Automated Storage

Tiering– Automated tiered storage for virtual pools– Sub-LUN data movement for virtual pools

• Automatically responds to changes in the production workload

• More efficient use of capacity– Place very busy data on enterprise Flash drives– Place mostly idle data on Fibre Channel and SATA

drives


Virtual Provisioning Levels of Granularity


Elements of FAST• Storage Type – a shared storage resource with common technologies• FAST Policy – manages data placement and movement across

Storage Types to achieve service levels for one or more Storage Groups

• Storage Group – logical grouping of devices for common management

• Storage Class – combination of Storage Types and FAST Policies to meet service level objectives for Storage Groups

Storage Types FAST Policies Storage Groups

ProductionApp1_SG

ProductionApp2_SG

Dev_SG

R53_200_EFD200 GB EFDRAID 5 (3+1)

R57_146_FC146 GB 15K FCRAID 5 (7+1)

R614_1000_SATA1 TB SATARAID 6 (14+2)

Production

25%50%25%

Development

25%100%

Storage Class


FAST VP

FAST VP Implementations• FAST VP tasks split between

microcode and FAST controller

• Performance data collected by microcode

– Data collected at LUN and sub-LUN level

• Performance data analyzed by FAST controller

• Controller generates a “Performance Movement Policy”

• Microcode applies policy– Executes sub-LUN data

movements between tiers using Virtual LUN VP Mobility

Collect Performance

Data

Analyze Performance

Data

Generate Performance Movement

Policy

Execute Data Movement

FAST ControllerMicrocode


Federated Live Migration• Fully nondisruptive data

migration for faster deployment of new technologies

• Leverages intelligence of storage array and host multi-pathing

• Supports Zero Space Reclaim for savings and efficiencies

• No remediation when migrating pre-qualified configurations

• Manage both array and host redirection from EMC Symmetrix Management Console or CLI

Complete technology refreshes in days versus months

Federated Live

Migration


Zero Space Reclaim

• Runs “in-line” as data is migrated from old Symmetrix DMX to VMAX

• Supports Federated Live Migration and EMC Open Replicator for Symmetrix migration solutions

Reclaim allocated, but unused capacity when migrating to a new Symmetrix VMAX

Migration

All allocated, but unwritten space is reclaimed after zero detection check is performed on incoming data

0101 0000 0101 0000 01010000 0101 0000 0101 00000000 0000 0000 0101 00000101 0000 0101 0000 0101

0101 0000 0101 0000 01010000 0101 0000 0101 00000000 0000 0000 0101 00000101 0000 0101 0000 0101

0101 0101 01010101 0101 01010101 0101 0101


10 Gigabit Ethernet Support

• Hot pluggable I/O modules to easily intermix and upgrade connectivity

• Supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet for iSCSI and EMC SRDF replication

Storage infrastructure to enable and accelerate data center network convergence


Enginuity Performance Enhancements

• Accelerates data warehousing/ business intelligence analytics

• Faster EMC TimeFinder/Clone and VLUN with less application impact

• Enabler for FAST VP sub-LUN relocations

• New and existing Symmetrix VMAX systems with Enginuity 5875

Software optimization improves performance for large-block sequential I/O

Up to two-times more I/O bandwidth

Gb/

s

Enginuity5874

Enginuity5875

2X


VMAX and vSphere Recommended Practices


VMAX FA Flag Settings for vSphere• SPC-2• SCSI 3 (Optional) No effect on ESX anymore.• Unique WWN (UWN)• Common Serial Number (C)• OS2007 (Optional)

Screenshot from within VirtualCenter using the VSI4


Connectivity Considerations with VMAX

• VMware ESX Servers should have multiple physical HBA

• VMware Servers should be connected to multiple directors

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

multiple engine configuration• Connect each HBA to a minimum of two ports on

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


Connectivity Considerations with VMAX− Cont.

HBA1 HBA2 HBA1 HBA2 VMware vSphere Servers

MinimumConfigurationIdealConfiguration


Connectivity Considerations with VMAX− Cont.

HBA1 HBA2 HBA1 HBA2 VMware vSphere Servers


Path Management with VMAX

• PowerPath/VE is strongly recommended for vSphere environment

– Avoid POC that do not represent real environments

• NMP policy is available with vSphere– Use Round Robin policy for Symmetrix arrays

• esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp -P VMW_PSP_RR -s VMW_SATP_SYMM

– May need additional tuning. Depends on workload


Using the VSI to configure Multipathing policy


VMAX FA Configuration for SPC-2

• Turned on per Fibre Channel port or per initiator

• Do not activate in a live system if not previously set

• Default from 5773 (DMX-4)


Performance and Storage Layout – vSphere with VMAX• Physical Disk Size and Protection

– Depends on the IO characteristics of the workload• Do not present SAN storage to ESX server farm as

one large SCSI disk • LUN Layout

– Avoid using same set of disks for applications with different I/O characteristics

• Use Virtual Provisioning– Always provides optimal balance in VMware environments

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

server


Partition Alignment (VMFS and Guest OS)• Intel-based systems are misaligned due to metadata written by the BIOS to handle LBA to CHS translation

– Partition Misalignment affects VMFS and Guest OS partitions• Host-based Partition Utilities can be used to Align Partitions:

– For Linux and VMFS Alignment use fdisk• Offset partition to 64 KB boundary• Aligned VMFS partitions are now automatically created by

vSphere Client– For Windows Operating Systems (2003 in particular) use the

diskpart utility• Create partition aligned on 64 KB boundary• Use diskpar for versions of pre-Windows 2003 System at SP1

– Earlier versions of diskpart will show partitions as aligned, even if they are not

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


Effects of Partition Misalignment• Symmetrix uses either 32 or 64K track size• In an Aligned System, the 64 KB write would be serviced by

a single drive• File-system misalignment affects performance in two ways:

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

– Misalignment causes stripe crossings: I/O broken across stripe elements

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


VMAX Virtual Provisioning in VMware vSphere Environments• vSphere provides native thin provisioning

– Either one can be used– Both features can be used but increases risk

• VMAX Virtual Provisioning simplifies drive and DA workload distribution

– Provides additional benefits besides optimizing storage use

– Ensure enough paths and TDEVs to support the workload

• VMAX Virtual Provisioning provides additional benefits

– Zero Reclaim and Rebalancing


VMAX Virtual Provisioning for vSphere–

Performance Considerations• RAID protection of data devices

– Balance between performance versus resiliency

• Fully allocate Virtually Provisioned devices if

– Applications sensitive to latency– The risk of oversubscription is too high

• Optimum performance when IOs are track aligned

– VMware File System is aligned on 64 KB boundary

– Virtual disks should be aligned• Including boot volumes


VMAX Virtual Provisioning for vSphere– Performance Considerations – Cont.• Striped versus Concatenated thin

metavolumes– Depends on type of workload

• Small block versus large block• Random versus sequential• Reads versus writes

– Influenced by presence or absence of SRDF– Concatenated thin metavolumes can be grown

• Frequently exploited feature in VMware environments• Striped metas can be grown as of 5875 and SE 7.2

• Most VMware environments have small block random read workload

– Beware of customer tests that do not represent reality


VMAX Zero Space Reclamation• Reclaims thin pool storage by deallocating unnecessary track

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

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

Symmetrix• Reclamation should be run prior to configuring any replication

relationships– Thin devices in active TimeFinder or SRDF relationships will be skipped

Thin Pool

100110010001111000000000000000010011001000111100000000000000000000000000000000


VMAX Zero Space Reclamation – Cont.• Very useful tool in VMware environments

– Relevant if customer upgraded to vSphere

VMware Thin

Zeroedthick Eagerzeroedthick


VMAX Virtual ProvisioningAutomated Pool Rebalancing

• Rebalances allocated tracks across data devices contained within thin pool

• Levels out imbalances caused by thin pool expansion– Or unbinding thin devices from the thin pool

• Scheduled process that runs at given intervals– User defines imbalance as a percentage utilization difference within

the pool (user configurable 1% to 50%)• In VMware environments, storage requirements can increase

rapidly– Mass VM deployment (VDI, testing environments, etc…)

• Virtual environments are very dynamic– Adding datastores, removing datastores

• Automated Pool Rebalancing maintains performance and gives best TCO

Thin

Poo

l


VMware vSphere and FAST

• FAST currently operates at the sub-LUN level– Great value in vSphere environments– RDMs, dedicated datastores

• Considerations are the same as that for physical servers• Configure a single standard size of device on all tiers

– Increases probability of like-sized devices being available to perform swap

• Meta devices are moved/swapped as a complete entity• For optimal system performance use Optimizer in

concert with FAST– Optimizer will balance load within a tier

• Utilize EMC Virtual Storage Integrator to identify the Storage Type


• EMC VMAX is an ideal platform for the private cloud• EMC VMAX provides highly available and scalable platform for virtualized datacenters• Future evolution of the platforms will support the virtualized data centers of the future

Summary


Q&A

86EMC CONFIDENTIAL—INTERNAL USE ONLY. 86EMC CONFIDENTIAL—INTERNAL USE ONLY.

THANK YOU

Date post:	25-Feb-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	dixie
View:	283 times
Download:	13 times

VMAX 101

Documents