Category: Equallogic & VMWare (虛擬化技術)

Scale Out 磁碟陣列擴充彈性大解放 (轉文)

By admin, December 1, 2012 12:27 pm

From iT home Taiwan, it seemed Equallogic is no longer the only player who can provide Scale-Out iSCSI SAN as well as Auto Tiering.

Scale Out不僅在針對檔案儲存服務的NAS產品領域大行其道,在提供區塊儲存服務的磁碟陣列領域亦復如是,這次我們將介紹Scale-Up擴充功能的Scale-Out式SAN儲存設備現況,並藉由實測一款普安ESVA磁碟陣列,進一步了解這類型產品的特性。

Scale Out結合Scale Up 磁碟陣列擴展概念

Scale Out擴充架構是現在的顯學,不過傳統Scale Up架構亦有容量擴展更便利的優點,許多Scale Out磁碟陣列產品也保留了Scale Up擴充功能,可更靈活的滿足不同用戶的擴充需求。

由多個節點組成叢集共同提供服務,並在需要時,以增加節點方式擴充系統能力的Scale-Out擴展概念,不僅由來已久,也普遍被應用在許多領域,從高效能運算用伺服器、儲存設備、網路設備,到資安設備等,都可見到這種做法。

近年來,為了更靈活的因應資料量持續暴漲所帶來的資料處理與存放需求,Scale-Out架構更成了當前儲存領域的「顯學」,只需增加更多節點,就能同步擴展系統效能與容量,而無須替換掉既有的節點設備。

我們曾在第565期的NAS採購大特輯與第570期封面故事中,介紹過採用Scale-Out架構的NAS產品,這次我們則將把目光轉到儲存設備的另外一大類型–SAN儲存設備上,介紹同樣採用Scale-Out架構,但以提供區塊(Block)存取服務為目的的SAN儲存產品。

兩種Scale-Out區塊儲存設備類型
對於提供檔案存取服務的NAS設備來說,主要是透過在個別NAS作業系統上安裝叢集檔案系統,來達到提供Scale-Out擴展能力的目的,除了商售產品外,目前還有許多開源的叢集檔案系統,可讓用戶自行建置具備Scale-Out特性的NAS。

不過在SAN儲存設備領域,就沒有這類方便的開源管道可用。目前的Scale-Out架構SAN儲存設備,基本上都是由個別廠商自行開發、專以提供區塊存取服務為目的、支援多節點平行處理的專屬分散式作業系統,搭配專屬硬體所構成,大致可分為兩種典型架構:

一是採用分散式快取記憶體統一編址架構,運作方式類似多處理器平行處理領域的NUMA(非一致性記憶體存取,Non-Uniform Memory Access)架構,也就是將分散在各節點上的快取記憶體統一編址,讓各節點的記憶體透過映射被結合為一個大型、連續的全域記憶體,各節點的控制器可利用專屬的內部交換網路,互相存取彼此的快取記憶體與後端磁碟空間。

由於必須採用基於專門設計、成本也十分高昂的控制器-記憶體互連匯流排硬體,這種NUMA Scale-Out架構的SAN儲存設備大都是高階產品,如EMC的Symmetrix VMAX、HDS VSP、HP 3PAR的T系列等。

另一種Scale-Out架構是MPP(大型平行處理器,Massive Parallel Processors)平行處理架構,各節點有各自獨立的CPU與區域快取記憶體,再透過外部網路彼此互連,系統底層則藉由儲存虛擬化技術,把邏輯磁碟區的區塊打散到每個節點的磁碟空間上,因而前端主機存取磁碟區時,便能利用到所有節點的I/O效能。

MPP架構可使用標準化的硬體與網路設備組成節點,成本相對較低,採用這種Scale-Out架構的SAN儲存設備大都為中階型產品,如HP的LeftHand P4000系列、IBM XIV系列、Dell Equallogc的PS系列,以及國內普安公司推出的ESVA系列等。

無論是NUMA或MPP式架構的Scale-Out磁碟陣列產品,都具備了整體效能隨著節點數增加而線性增長的特性。用戶可從少數節點起步,日後隨著應用規模的擴大,再藉由增加更多節點,同步的擴展效能與儲存空間。

相較下,傳統的雙控制器模組化磁碟陣列,控制器本身的處理器、匯流排與傳輸介面規格,就決定了系統的最大處理效能與傳輸頻寬上限,雖然可藉由串接更多JBOD磁碟櫃來擴充儲存容量,但除非換掉整臺控制器,否則效能無法提升。這種只能串接磁碟櫃擴充容量、必須藉由更換更高階控制器才能升級效能的架構,也就被稱作「Scale-Up」綜向式擴展。

對純粹的Scale-Out架構來說,每個節點都含有控制器與磁碟空間,每增加一個節點,系統的處理效能與容量都將同步的增加。不過問題在於,多數情況下,用戶對於儲存空間的需求,較存取效能的需求更為迫切,許多時候用戶只是單純的需要增加儲存容量,而沒有同步提高存取效能的需求。

對這些只需要更多容量的用戶來說,Scale-Out式擴充便顯得有些「奢侈」,儘管只有單純的容量擴充需求,但Scale-Out所增加的新節點雖然能提供更多儲存空間,卻同時也連帶包含了用戶暫時還不需要的額外控制器效能,以這種方式來取得額外容量,顯得成本過高。

相較下,傳統的Scale-Up式雙控制器磁碟陣列,反而更能因應這種只需要擴充容量、而不需要「同步擴展容量與效能」的情況,只要在後端外接JBOD磁碟櫃就能提供更多容量,而典型的JBOD磁碟櫃是一種僅含磁碟機、背版、SAS或FC連接介面與電源的單純裝置,必須藉由前端的控制器才能提供存取服務,但成本也遠低於同時含有控制器與磁碟機的完整儲存節點。

於是為了兼顧更多樣化的用戶需求,便有一些Scale-Out儲存設備也同時提供了Scale-Up升級能力,允許個別節點透過SAS或FC埠,在後端串接JBOD磁碟櫃,單獨擴充容量而無需同步擴充效能。

換言之,對這種兼具Scale-Up擴充特性的Scale-Out儲存設備來說,控制器節點與磁碟櫃單元是彼此獨立的,可各自獨立擴充,用戶可選擇只增添控制器或是只增添磁碟櫃。當用戶有擴充效能的需求、或同時需要擴充效能與容量時,可以選擇新增控制器節點。若用戶只有單純的擴充儲存空間的需求,可以選擇在某個節點上串接JBOD磁碟櫃。

因此兼具縱向與橫向、雙向擴充能力的Scale-Out+Scale-Up機型,顯然比純粹的Scale-Out,或是純粹的Scale-Up架構,能更精準、且更具彈性的滿足用戶需求。

Scale-Up、Scale-Out與Scale-Out+Scale-Up
Scale-Up擴充架構必須更換整臺控制器才能提高效能,效能提升缺乏彈性,成本也高,不過只要串接簡單的JBOD磁碟櫃,就能擴充容量,容量提升較為簡單。

Scale-Out擴充架構只要增加節點數量,就能同步的擴展效能與容量,無須替換原有控制器,效能升級較為方便與彈性。不過對於單純只需擴充容量的用戶來說(用戶只想增加磁碟空間,而不需要增加控制器效能),必須增加一整個節點才能取得額外容量的作法,顯得成本過高。

Scale-Out+Scale-Up雙向擴充架構則兼具前兩者之長,而無兩者之短。當用戶有擴充效能的需求、或同時需要擴充效能與容量時,可以選擇新增控制器節點。若只有單純的擴充儲存空間的需求,可以選擇在某個節點上串接JBOD磁碟櫃。

1

英特爾:2015年將是Scale-out儲存的天下

英特爾預言,Scale-out儲存系統將取代現有的Scale-up架構,並在2015年達到8成全球儲存網路市占率,解決巨量資料挑戰

整體而言,英特爾將企業儲存系統從過去到未來的演進分為3階段,分別為Scale-up架構、Scale-out架構,以及無所不在儲存服務(Ubiquitous Storage)。英特爾儲存事業部總經理David Tuhy表示,目前Scale-out架構正在取代現有的Scale-up架構,全球市占率將於2015年達到8成,成為主流的儲存架構。

儲存從Scale-up轉Scale-out,但高價仍是普及瓶頸
第一種是目前最普遍的Scale-up架構儲存系統,在這樣的架構之下,企業只能利用單臺安裝了儲存系統的控制器來擴充儲存容量,因而受限於單臺控制器的硬體規格,萬一儲存容量暴增,以至於超過單臺控制器的極限,企業就必須汰換舊有設備,新採購更高硬體規格的控制器。此外,全套儲存系統都要透過內網互相連結,導致企業難以跨不同儲存系統集中控管與調配資源。

基於這些特性,Scale-up儲存系統經常造成企業彈性擴充與管理上的限制。英特爾舉例,Scale-up架構難以在公有雲與私有雲資料中心之間傳遞資料,而且不利於快速擴充,若企業未來要擴充至PB等級的儲存容量,則被迫要不斷投資儲存的硬體設備。此外,IT人員只能獨立管理不同套的儲存系統,難以透過單一平臺集中控管多套系統,無法規畫為儲存資源池,來有效配置儲存資源。

為了解決Scale-up儲存系統的限制,Scale-out架構應運而生,而且英特爾認為,現階段Scale-out正在逐步取代Scale-up儲存系統。Scale-out儲存系統不受限於單臺控制器節點的硬體規格,每臺安裝儲存系統的控制器將如同資料中心儲存網路的模組化元件,透過外部網路互相連結,可視為單一套儲存系統來集中控管。更重要的是,當未來企業要擴充儲存容量時,只要添購儲存控制器的數量,就能繼續擴充同一套儲存系統的容量。

而且每臺控制器提供如同一臺伺服器的規格,來執行更高階的管理功能,包括熱抽換、壓縮、精簡配置(Provisioning)、資料重複刪除等,讓企業集中控管所有控制器節點的運作,利於企業擴充、配置儲存資源。

不過,目前Scale-out儲存系統的初期採購成本過高,導致企業難以普遍採用。臺灣IDC伺服器與儲存分析師高振偉表示,Scale-out儲存系統架構需要許多搭載更高規格處理器的控制器,才能提供高階的擴充與管理功能,導致整套Scale-out儲存系統的價格居高不下。此外,企業導入Scale-out儲存系統時,通常必須重新規畫儲存網路架構,因而需要搭配廠商的系統整合服務,來整合既有的儲存資源,這也成為另一筆成本負擔。

高振偉表示,近兩年來,主要是HP、IBM等大廠推出Scale-out儲存系統,目前台積電、聯發科等高科技製造業,以及教育研究機構、政府單位等產業陸續導入。這些企業主要是看重Scale-out架構的擴充彈性,不僅用來儲存與日俱增的結構化資料庫,高科技業者還用來儲存大量非結構化的客戶資料與晶圓設計資料,利於快速擴充儲存容量。他坦言,目前較小的儲存廠商仍主打傳統Scale-up產品,明年才會陸續推出Scale-out產品,可望壓低價格,降低企業的導入門檻。

到了2015年,儲存系統將基於Scale-out儲存系統,來提供Ubiquitous無所不在的儲存服務,將能夠支援混合雲型態、自動化與終端覺知。

透過這3項特性,企業的資料可以安全地在公、私有雲端基礎架構運作,並提供自動化管理功能,包括動態擴充、搜尋、復原系統內的資料等。此外,儲存系統還會具備終端覺知的功能,由於使用者的各種終端裝置將進行大量的資料產出與取用,像是上網、拍照、看影片等,不僅造成資料量暴增,還必須快速地存取與傳遞這些資料。因此,儲存系統必須有效控管終端裝置的資料產出與使用,才能實現無所不在的儲存服務。

既有主要Scale-Out SAN儲存設備概覽

目前包括EMC、HDS、IBM、HP與Dell在內的跨國大廠,都已陸續為旗下的中階與高階SAN磁碟陣列產品線,納入了Scale-Out架構產品,另外臺灣本土的普安,與中國的華為、龍存等廠商,也能提供Scale-Out架構產品線,用戶的選擇已相當多。

而這眾多Scale-Out產品中,多數也提供了Scale-Up縱向擴展能力,可向用戶提供更靈活、更多樣化的擴充選擇。以下我們便簡單介紹幾款在臺灣能找到的產品。

EMC Symmetrix VMAX
VMAX是EMC用於接替老牌的Symmetrix DMX系列高階磁碟陣列的新一代旗艦產品,如同產品名稱所示,新的VMAX系列捨棄了先前DMX的直連矩陣(Direct Matrix)架構,改用新的虛擬矩陣(Virtual Matrix)架構。

VMX的控制器基本單元稱為VMAX引擎,每個VMAX引擎都含有Intel Xeon處理器、快取記憶體與前、後端I/O介面。多個VMAX引擎之間可透過稱為RapidIO的內部網路彼此互連,共享快取記憶體與後端儲存資源。用戶只要增加VMAX引擎數量,就能擴展整個VMAX的處理效能與傳輸頻寬,這也就是Scale-Out橫向擴展。

除此之外,VMAX也能提供Scale-Up縱向擴展能力。由於VMAX的磁碟空間是由獨立的DAE磁碟櫃提供,用戶可從連接1組DAE磁碟櫃起步,視需求單獨加入更多磁碟櫃來提供更多空間,藉由靈活的組合不同數量的VMAX引擎與DAE磁碟櫃,來滿足不同的效能與空間需求。

不同等級的VMAX機型,允許的Scale-Out與Scale-Up擴展能力各有不同,如最低階的VMAX 10K允許最多4組VMAX引擎與1,560臺硬碟,最高階的VMAX 40K則允許最多8組VMAX引擎與3,200臺硬碟。

HDS VSP
VSP是HDS繼USP系列後推出的新一代旗艦產品,相較於採用傳統Scale-Up架構的USP系列,新的VSP引進了新的Scale-Out架構。

VSP的控制器把所有主要單元,都作成互相分離、且可抽換的板卡模組型式,包括提供處理器的虛擬儲存導向器(VSD)、提供快取記憶體的快取記憶體卡(DCA)、提供前端主機介面的前端導向器(FED)、提供後端磁碟機介面的後端導向器(BED),以及讓各控制器單元互連的網格交換器(GSW)等單元,每種單元都可各自獨立的擴充。

這也就是說,VSP控制器內的各個單元,各自都可以Scale-Out方式橫向擴充,用戶可藉由在VSP機櫃的控制器機箱中,安插不同數量的VSD、DCA、FED與BED模組板卡,組合成擁有不同等級I/O處理與傳輸能力的控制器。

每個VSP控制器機箱最多可安裝4個VSD模組、8個DCA模組、8個FED模組、4個BED模組與4個GSW模組,且每套系統最大可擴充到2套控制器機箱,所以前述單元的擴充數量上限還會加倍。

除了控制器內的各個單元可視需要以Scale-Out型式組合與擴充,VSP控制器後端也可視用戶需要,連接不同類型與數量的磁碟櫃,也就是以類似傳統Scale-Up擴展方式,藉由單獨增添新磁碟櫃來擴充容量。

IBM XIV
XIV是IBM新一代的中高階SAN磁碟陣列,基本單元稱為資料模組(Data Module),每個資料模組其實就是一臺以Linux為基礎的x86架構儲存伺服器,含有Intel 四核心處理器、24GB記憶體與12臺SATA硬碟。用戶可藉由連接多組資料模組,以Scale-Out的型式同步擴展系統的整體I/O處理能力、傳輸頻寬與儲存容量。

與其他同屬MPP架構的Scale-Out產品相較,IBM XIV一大不同之處在於採用非對稱式節點架構,所有資料模組(節點)中,有一部分兼有負責連接前端主機的介面模組角色,含有連接前端主機用的FC埠,以及與其他資料模組互連用的傳輸埠。剩餘的節點則是單純的資料模組,只含有與其他資料模組互連用的傳輸埠。相較下,其他MPP式Scale-Out產品如Equallogic PS系列、LeftHand P4000及普安ESVA都採用對稱式架構,所有模組都是對等、相同的。

前幾代的XIV,資料模組與資料模組之間,是以一般的GbE網路互連,最新的第三代XIV改用高頻寬的InfiniBand作為節點間的互連網路,單一系統最多可擴展到15臺資料模組。不過由於XIV不提供獨立、不含控制器的JBOD磁碟櫃選項,擴充時是以一臺同時含有控制器與12臺硬碟的資料模組節點為單位,不具備單獨擴充磁碟的Scale-Up擴充能力。

Dell Equallogic PS系列
Equallogic的PS系列,是最早導入Scale-Out架構的中階SAN磁碟陣列產品之一。每個PS系列節點都是一臺含有雙控制器,且內含12、24或48臺硬碟的iSCSI磁碟陣列,利用Scale-Out方式可支援最多16個節點。每臺PS系列的節點雖然都有雙控制器,不過Equallogic只提供Active-Standby模式,所以實際上每組節點只有一臺控制器可用。

與IBM XIV相似,Equallogic PS系列的擴充也是以一臺含有雙控制器與12/24/48臺硬碟的完整磁碟陣列為單位,沒有不含控制器的單純JBOD磁碟櫃選項,用戶無法以Scale-Up的方式單獨擴充磁碟空間。

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HP 3PAR
3PAR是Scale-Out磁碟陣列產品的先驅者之一,當3PAR被併入HP旗下後,目前HP這條產品線一共有3PAR原有的F-Class、T-Class,與新推出的P10000 V系列等三個產品系列,用戶可透過增加控制器節點的Scale-Out擴充方式,增加整個系統的處理能力與傳輸頻寬,入門級的F-Calss可選擇擴充到2~4組控制器節點,T-Class與P10000 V系列則可擴充到2~8組控制器節點。

較早期的T-Class在控制器與控制器之間,是利用背板上的PCI-X介面以網狀方式彼此互連,最新的P10000 V系列背板則改用頻寬更大的PCIe介面。每組控制器的機箱內都提供了擴充插槽,可視需要安裝不同型式、數量的主機端連接介面卡(FC或iSCSI)或後端磁碟連接介面卡(FC)。

由於HP 3PAR的儲存空間是由獨立的FC介面磁碟櫃來提供,所以允許以Scale-Up方式,為個別控制器節點增添串接的磁碟櫃,以便單獨的擴展容量。

HP LeftHand P4000
P4000是HP透過併購LeftHand取得的iSCSI磁碟陣列產品線,這系列產品的核心是稱為SAN/iQ的虛擬化軟體,每組P4000控制器節點,實際上就是安裝了SAN/iQ軟體的HP Proliant伺服器,P4000系列目前已經發展到第二代的G2,有2U機箱的P4300 G2與P4900 G2、4U機箱的P4500 G2與刀鋒式機箱的P4800 G2等多種款式,一組機箱或一個刀鋒模組就是一臺控制器節點。每種款式都可由最小2個控制器節點起步,以Scale-Out方式擴展到最大32個控制器節點。

除了刀鋒型式的P4800 G2外,所有機架式機箱的P4000系列節點都採用控制器結合磁碟機箱的型式,控制器節點兼具提供儲存空間的功能,每組控制器機箱都內含一定數量的硬碟(8或12臺),擴充時也必須以一整臺控制器機箱為單位,沒有單獨擴充磁碟空間的獨立JBOD磁碟櫃選項,所以也就沒有Scale-Up擴充能力。

普安ESVA
ESVA是普安公司推出的中階SAN磁碟陣列產品家族,也是臺灣本土廠商研發的第一款Scale-Out式SAN儲存設備。目前ESVA家族已經發展到第3代,除了可藉由Scale-Out方式同步擴充效能與容量外,也提供以Scale-Up方式單獨擴充容量的功能。

ESVA的控制器節點是內含雙控制器與16個硬碟槽的3U機箱設備,藉由Scale-Out擴展可讓最多12臺ESVA控制器節點(一共有24組控制器)組成單一系統。另外每組ESVA控制器都含有用於外接JBOD磁碟櫃的SAS擴充埠,因此用戶也可以為個別控制器串接JBOD磁碟櫃,單獨地擴展磁碟容量。

Oracle Pillar Axiom 1600
這是Oracle併購Pillar Axiom後取得的中階儲存產品線。

Pillar Axiom 600基本單元是採用FC、SSD或SATA硬碟的Brick磁碟模組,搭配Slammer控制器模組組成。

每個Brick磁碟模組本身擁有2組RAID控制器,但並不直接向終端用戶提供儲存空間,而是透過Slammer控制器的中介,由將空間提供給前端用戶使用。每組Slammer控制器也內含兩組控制器,一共有有FC SAN、iSCSI SAN、FC+iSCSI SAN與NAS等4種Slammer控制器型式可供選擇。

以Brick磁碟模組搭配不同型式的Slammer控制器模組,便能提供不同類型的儲存服務。前端的多組Slammer控制器與後端的多臺Brick磁碟模組之間,透過FC網路形成的網狀連接,任一Slammer控制器都能存取後端任一Brick模組的空間。

Pillar Axiom 600的架構相當特別,典型的磁碟陣列通常是由控制器與JBOD磁碟櫃組成,控制器負責提供I/O處理、RAID運算、快取記憶體以及與前端主機連接的介面,後端的JBOD磁碟櫃則只單純提供磁碟空間。

Pillar Axiom 600則把傳統控制器的工作拆成兩部分,RAID運算功能由底層Brick磁碟模組內含的RAID控制器負責,至於I/O處理、快取記憶體以及與前端主機的連接等功能,則由Slammer控制器負責。

所以Brick磁碟模組不是簡單的JBOD磁碟櫃, Slammer控制器也不是傳統意義上的磁碟陣列控制器,而是由Slammer控制器結合Brick磁碟模組內的控制器,分工完成完整的I/O處理作業。

Slammer控制器與Brick磁碟模組都可以Scale-Out方式橫向擴充,一套Axiom最多可有4組Slammer控制器與64組Brick磁碟模組。兩種單元的擴充是互相獨立的,可以只單獨的增添Slammer或Brick模組。每組Slammer控制器都有26個用於連接後端Brick磁碟模組的FC埠,因此用戶能為個別Slammer控制器,連接更多的Brick磁碟模組,來增加儲存容量,以Scale-Up的方式擴展容量。

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vCenter Operations (vCOPS) v5.0.3, Is It Really for SMB?

By admin, November 25, 2012 2:29 pm

Finally I’ve got time to test drive vCenter Operations v5.0.3 Enterprise as it is one of the most important products VMware is trying to push over the past year.

vcops

I came across this 3 parts blog posts which really gave me many insights into this product regarding installation tips, how to use it and pros/cons about vCOPS. If you are like me who don’t like reading the thick official manuals and prefer to be on a quick track type, then the following is a must reading.

Using vCenter Operations v5 – Introduction and deployment (1/3)

Using vCenter Operations v5 – What’s new (2/3)

Using vCenter Operations v5 – Capacity features and conclusions (3/3)

The last part really brings out the fruit as the price of vCOPS is significantly higher than competitor’s product such as Veeam ONE, vFoglight or VMTurbo. I’ve tried all 4 of them, each product has it’s selling point and I would like to see a combination of the four: an intuitive overview, quick showing the top 10 problem VMs and recommended solution, of course capacity planning is a nice add-on. However there is none, that’s why I uses 3 of them at the same time for troubleshooting. :)

vfoglight started out at $230k four months ago and ended at ~90k for 150 sockets plus 1 week of onsite professional services/training and the first year of maintenance.

vC Ops mgr enterprise started at $1.2 million and came down to $135k. No professional services or training. Add 22% of list price per year for maintenance. So the final cost is still unknown.

Somehow the final price is really negotiable which I didn’t know until today, of course don’t expect you will get $1,000 if the list is $100,000.

Two more things I wasn’t quite satisfied with:

The first thing is the two fat VMs vCOPS is trying to deploy, at the end I reduced UI VM to 1GB (later proved needs at least 2 GB) and Analytics VM to 2GB, both with 1 vCPU and Thin Provisioned disks, still more than enough, probably at my testing vCenter environment has less than 50 VMs.

The other thing is No Equallogic Plugin (or Adpater) for vCOPS, it would be nice to see how vCOPS predicts the What If scenario for storage usage in terms of IOPS, but isn’t SANHQ already did a fantastic job? So why need another tool? :)

In my own opinion, for daily virtual infrastructure performance troubleshooting, I think Veeam Monitor (or latest called Veeam ONE) FREE Edition is more than enough for organization who has less than 100 VMs, so I intend to agree with many other’s opinion that vCOPS is just an oversized beast for SMB.

Limiting Disk I/O From a Specific Virtual Machine

By admin, October 19, 2012 10:48 pm

I just saw this very useful article from VMware KB.

Purpose

This article provides a method to limit the disk I/O from a specific virtual machine in vSphere Client 4.1. For alternative methods, see Additional Information.

Resolution

To manually configure disk I/O limits for a virtual machine:

  1. Power off the virtual machine in preparation for changing the configuration parameters.
  2. Locate the virtual machine in the vSphere Client inventory.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
  4. Click the Resources tab.
  5. Select Disk, and enter the desired IOPs value under Limit – IOPs for each disk. By default, this is set to Unlimited.
  6. Start the virtual machine. The virtual machine I/O is limited to the specified values.

Impact/Risks

All limit values are consolidated per virtual machine per LUN.

Example 1
Virtual machine with 4 virtual discs: all virtual discs located on one LUN. Each virtual disk IOPs set to 100 IOPs.

As each disc is limited100, the total IOPs for the datastore is 400 IOPs, i.e. if disc 1, 2 and 3 issue 10 IOPs each, disc 4 could issue 370 IOPs without being restricted.

Example 2
Virtual machine with 4 discs: discs 1 and 2 on LUN A , discs 3 and 4 on LUN B. All limits are set to 100 IOPs per disc.

In this case the IOPs would be consolidated to 200 IOPs to LUN A and 200 IOPs on LUN B and same as above applies if one of the discs does not issue all its given IOPs.

Example 3
Virtual machine with 4 virtual discs: all virtual discs located on one LUN. One disk is set to Unlimited, all other disks are set to 100 IOPs.

In this case, as one of the disks on the LUN is set to Unlimited, the IOPs for the LUN will also be Unlimited for that datastore.

The Next Big Thing: Equallogic PS6500ES/PS6510ES

By admin, October 3, 2012 12:42 pm

PS6500ES

Dell has just announced the availability of Equallogic PS6500ES and PS6510ES Arrays coming in fall 2012. Personally, I think this product fills the gap between the high end (XS series) and the low end (E series) and it’s probably going to be one of the best selling SMB iSCSI in coming years.

The reason is quite simple as most of the small to medium virtualized environment hardly have any continuous high IOPS pattern over time, and most of them requires very large amount of data capacity. The new Equallogic PS65×0ES series is exactly designed for this purpose. Try to imagine 48 Spindles 7200RPM 2TB NL SAS with SSD Caching indeed is very impressive.

The only concern I have is the infamous constant failed 7200RPM NL SAS drives issue occur since Firmware 4.x time, it’s been kept reporting the same issue even till EQL Firmware 5.2.x. IMOP I think it’s not related to software (ie, firmware) but most likely relates to hardware side, as underneath it’s still basically a SATA with SAS conversion connector, so they are prompt to have much higher failure rate than SAS. Imagine the time to rebuild a RAID50 or/and the probability having the 2nd disk failed is equally NOT impressive at all, so this may definitely hold off the purchase decision if your application is mission critical.

Finally, Equallogic has also announced the followings coming in fall 2012.

- Host Integration Tools (HIT) for VMware 3.5
- Host Integration Tools (HIT) for Microsoft 4.5
- SAN Headquarters (SANHQ) 2.5

Dell Poweredge 12G Server Memory Configuration Tool

By admin, September 5, 2012 9:47 pm

Marien left a comment in my blog, in which he pointed out a very useful tool for correctly selecting Dell Poweredge 12G server memory configuration.

For me, highest speed (now it’s in 1600Mhz) is always my first choice, sometimes, I would rather trace off less total memory for the speed as memory is the top competing resource among many VMs on the same host. Therefore, you do need to know DPC (Dimm per Channel) inside out.

Memory power consumption is the 2nd most important factor, so I always select Low Voltage (LV) 1.35 Volts as they do save quite a bit when you add up all the sticks.

Finally, 16GB is becoming the norm these days, a 288GB ESX host is no longer a dream especially when the good news of vSphere 5.1 removed the vTax limitation.

dell_mem

PS. Another thing I learn about the new R720 is the latest 12G server uses at least 1/4 less power than previous 11G R710 which is a great news!

VMware Returns to Per Processor License, vRam has GONE!

By admin, August 30, 2012 8:37 am

Last-Import-22

NO MORE vTax YEAH!!!

VMware finally has to face the truth: Sales Record is going Down and competitor Microsoft is chasing like a dog, almost onto its foot.

It’s a great start this week’s VMWorld 2012 by announcing the cancellation of vTax from VMW’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger and even the exiting CEO Paul Martiz said the vRam thing was indeed TOO COMPLICATED to implement.

So I am sure we will see 1TB/2TB ESX host to become a norm pretty soon and not to mention the cost per VM will be greatly driving down and become much more competitive than Hyper-V or XEN.

Bravo! It’s time to buy some more VMW now!

Finally, I can’t wait to attend the latest VMware conference in Hong Kong and experience those exciting new features from ESX 5.1!

PS. Congratulations to Equallogic, they have won The Finalist of the Category New Technology in VMworld 2012 Awards.

Update: Sep 10, 2012

VMware vRAM still in place for VSPPs
VMware isn’t completely “striking the word vRAM from the vocabulary of the vDictionary,” as CEO Pat Gelsinger said at VMworld. The controversial pricing model will still apply to those running vSphere in public clouds.

Participants in the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) will continue to charge according to the amount of memory allocated per virtual machine (VM). Some service providers said they have no major problems with vRAM licensing and pricing because it aligns well with the public cloud’s pay-per-use business model.

“We’re fairly happy with where we are right now,” said Pat O’Day, chief technology officer of VSPP partner BlueLock LLC.

But a West Coast-based VSPP partner said VMware vRAM can put VSPPs at a disadvantage against other service providers, especially when it comes to high-density hosts.

“We’re seeing a lot of large service providers and industry players moving off of VMware and into open source … and that’s putting competitive pressure on us,” said the partner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

How VMware vRAM works for VSPPs

The VMware vRAM allocation limits for VSPPs are different from those abolished at VMworld, which were for business customers purchasing vSphere. For VSPPs, vRAM is capped at 24 GB of reserved memory per VM, and VSPPs are charged for at least 50% of the memory they reserve for each VM.

Also, unlike with the licenses for private organizations, VSPP vRAM is not associated with a CPU-based entitlement, and it does not require the purchase of additional licenses to accommodate memory pool size limits.

The infrastructure for BlueLock Virtual Datacenters runs on Hewlett-Packard servers, packing in 512 GB of RAM each. VMware licensing is a very small percentage of BlueLock’s overall costs, O’Day said. Given the 24 GB per VM cap, the company could probably add even more RAM to each server, O’Day said.

“But that’s not worth disrupting our business model to do,” he added.
VSPPs’ VMware vRAM reactions

VMware discontinued the wildly unpopular vRAM licensing and pricing model for business customers after more than a year of discontent. Some VSPPs worried the move away from vRAM on the enterprise side would also affect their businesses, according to an email one VSPP software distributor sent to service provider clients.

“We have received feedback from quite a few partners who have expressed concern to us over the announcement that VMware is moving away from vRAM,” the distributor said in the email, which was obtained by SearchCloudComputing.com. “The question to a person seems to be, ‘How does this impact me as a VSPP partner whose billing is completely based around vRAM?’ The answer is, not at all.”

But the West Coast partner, who received that email, said the cost of memory on high-density hosts can eat into VSPPs’ margins or force VSPPs to pass the costs on to end-user customers. This partner offers services including hosted virtual desktops that don’t run on VMware View, and vRAM can cost as much as $7 per gigabyte under this model.

“If you’re trying to provision a desktop with four gigabytes of RAM … the memory alone is $30,” the partner said. “You’re at a significant disadvantage as the market tries to bring the price down.”

Furthermore, the complexity of the licensing model makes it difficult to set the monthly costs of vRAM based on usage, the partner said.

“You basically hand VMware your wallet and let them take whatever they want,” the partner added. “… The pricing is so complicated, we have no way to estimate how much we’re going to pay VMware at the end of the month.”

In a blog post discussing the continuation of vRAM for VSPPs, VMware said the vRAM model allows service providers to sell more computing capability from the same infrastructure, and to control the memory oversubscription and service profit margin through allocated vRAM delivered to customers.

VMware vRAM timeline

July 2011: VRAM licensing and pricing model announced at vSphere 5 launch.

Aug. 2011: VMware increases vRAM limits in response to complaints.

Aug. 2012: At VMworld, VMware eliminates vRAM licensing and pricing for business customers.

Best practices for the use of RAID 5 and RAID 50 on Dell EqualLogic arrays have changed

By admin, August 17, 2012 10:13 am

Just received the latest EQL news update this morning, two things caught my eyes.

With the release of firmware version 5.2.5
- Faster recovery from a drive failure, especially with the 7200 RPM drives
- Dell is also providing, for download, an update to hard drive firmware for selected 500GB, 1TB and 2TB SATA 7200 RPM hard drives. This new drive firmware will help to improve the overall life expectancy of the drives. Updating drive firmware takes approximately 15 minutes.

My view is still the same and I’ve heard different bad stories about those bigger 7200RPM 2TB/3TB on EQL or Powervault that they tend to fail Much more often  than SAS 10K/15K, so if your application is mission critical, I would stay away from those drives but opt for IOPS instead (ie, SAS 10K/15K)

Please be advised that the best practices for the use of RAID 5 and RAID 50 on Dell EqualLogic arrays have changed. The changes to the RAID policy best practice recommendations are being made to offer enhanced protection for your data.

  • RAID 5 is no longer recommended for any business critical information on any drive type
  • RAID 50 is no longer recommended for business critical information on Class 2 7200 RPM drives of 1TB and higher capacity.

What? It seemed to my that Dell Equallogic is implicitly saying RAID10 is the ONLY CHOICE for business critical application due to it’s superior performance and reliability, and RAID60 is the optimal choice for space concern application, but and again 7200 RPM drives bigger than 1TB is not recommended for high demanding application according to the above.

So after all, can we conclude that the Near-Line (NL) SATA or SAS based 7200 RPM drive is not a suitable candidate for mission critical application after all even with highest RAID5 protection (ie, RAID50), the answer seemed YES.

Dell spills its hot cache Fluid, hopes to beat off rivals (by theregister)

By admin, July 30, 2012 9:22 am

Dell recently lifted the lid on its “Hermes” project, named for the speedy chap from Greek mythology, at the Dell Storage Forum. The product, which Dell hopes will smack down EMC’s VFCache, will carry writes between flash caches in a Dell cluster to make sure they all carry the same data. That’s a big deal, so project “Hermes” has to be quick.

Caching is pretty straightforward; you put hot data from a slow storage medium in a small chunk of faster, and more expensive, storage in front of it. This procedure means that accesses to the cached data are faster than to data in the slow storage. We have flash caches in front of disk drive arrays or in in array controllers to perform this function. They cache data to be read from the array and data to be written to the array.

Currently there’s lots of activity putting PCIe flash caches in servers, such as EMC’s VFCache and Fusion-io’s ioDrive products, to accelerate applications by avoiding enforced waits for data to be fetched from slow disk drive arrays. When the servers have multiple nodes there is a caching problem with data writes. When one server writes data into its cache, such as an updated price for an XYZ dongle, that data is only in its cache. If an application in another server then looks up the price of an XYZ dongle, it gets a different price.

Typically this prevents write caching being implemented across multiple nodes, because the different caches don’t necessarily hold the same data; they are not coherent. Cache coherency problems generally prevent distributed write caches across a server cluster or a group of server blades in a single chassis.

Fast disk arrays with a very high speed controller inter-connect, like the VMAX’s virtual matrix, can solve that problem. But for ordinary x86 server nodes in a cluster it’s impractical, which is where Dell’s Hermes sprints into view. Carter George, Dell’s exec director for storage strategy, spoke about it in a keynote at Dell’s Storage Forum in Boston last week.

He said that a coherent distributed cache needs software technology to detect a write being made to one cache node and replicate it quickly to the other nodes (ie, so there will be a single XYZ dongle price across the cache).

In effect, a single virtual cache is formed from the individual ones. Dell acquired its virtual cache technology by buying RNA Networks [1] in June last year. Its Memory Virtualisation Acceleration (MVX) technology can pool server DRAM or flash into single virtual pools – with Ethernet or InfiniBand carrying the linking messages to ensure coherency across the physical instances of DRAM or flash.

Naturally Dell is calling this Fluid Cache, the “Fluid” tag being applied to most storage concepts on Dell these days, and says it will move its tier 1 storage from its arrays, the Compellent and maybe EqualLogic ones, and put it into the servers. Existing Compellent storage tiering software will be developed to place hot data into the Hermes physical caches for fast read access, and the RNA technology will be used to spread one server nodes’s fresh write data in its physical cache across the separate flash stores to provide a single version of the truth.

These caches will physically be PCIe flash cards. In this scheme there is no shared flash box sitting between the servers and the array, as is the case with EMC’s Project Thunder [2] and XtremIO technology. Dell would say that a networked flash box would not be as fast as a coherent server flash cache scheme because it still slows data access through network latency. This will provide Dell with a response to competition from networked all-flash arrays like those from Nimbus, Pure Storage and Violin Memory.

Dell could also use its RNA technology to aggregate a clustered server’s DRAM into a single virtual pool and so enable apps running in that cluster to use an in-memory database [3].

Going further, “Hermes” could then sprint between clustered X86 controllers in a storage array and give them either a coherent virtual memory pool or a coherent virtual flash pool, or both, and enable them to handle vastly more I/O traffic, meaning support more servers and more applications.

Dell’s RNA technology can support more than 100 server nodes in a cluster. The Hermes coherent distributed cache scheme has a first quarter 2013 target introduction date and should speed up applications significantly – especially those with a lot of write I/O which would not be so accelerated by read-only caching schemes such as VFCache. ®

IOPS, Seq. Read, Power, MTBF of Various 2.5/3.5 Inch Disk Drives

By admin, June 30, 2012 8:55 am

iops_cap

(Click on the above screen capture to get the full image)

Update: July 30, 2012

As you can see, the bigger the size, the higher cost for IOPS, so if you are looking for IOPS, then buy 15,000RPM disk, 3.5″ disks (300GB/450GB/600GB) and 2.5″ 300GB or even 10,000RPM 2.5″ 300GB will do the job.

iops_cost

Equallogic: Snapshots are not Backups

By admin, June 30, 2012 8:02 am

Got this interesting fact from the latest EqualLogic Customer Connection (June 2012).

So at the end you still need a proper backup solution from vendors like Veeam, PHD, Symantec or Acronis.

Question of the Month

Snapshots are not Backups

Q: Are Snapshots a replacement for backups?

A: Snapshots are point in time copies, stored with the original volume in a SAN. Snapshots provide improvements to backup operations in open file handling, and the ability to offload the backup copy operation to a different server than where the application is running.

While snapshots provide a fast and efficient way to create copies of SAN volumes, the snapshots are still stored with the SAN volumes. This means that both primary application data and its snapshots are vulnerable to catastrophic loss scenarios such as fire, flood and earthquake. Any administrative mistakes can not only open the possibility to loss of primary data, but also the snapshots of this data.

Snapshots are also inherently temporary – while an administrator can ask the system to keep many snapshots, they typically have a life span measured in weeks to months, rather than years as typical of backup archives. Depending on your system policy, they also may be deleted automatically to make room for newer snapshots.

Well-designed true backup environments ensure that copies of data are regularly created and stored separately from the primary volume data. Typically this backup data is stored in a secure location away from your primary storage devices, and retained for months to years depending on your organization’s policies. In this configuration, the backup data can be used both for small data recovery operations, such as user accidentally deleting a file, as well as to recover from a catastrophic failure such as a fire or flood in the data center.

Dell EqualLogic strongly recommends customers design and run a comprehensive back up environment, and consider utilizing snapshots as part of this environment to improve backup operations.

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