Category Archives: Storage

Free eBook – Build Your Own NetApp ONTAP 9 Lab

Learning's, Storage, , , , ,

3dhow_to_build_a_netapp_ontap_9_lab_for_freeNeil Anderson over at Flackbox.com has written a guide giving step-by-step instructions on how to build a full NetApp ONTAP 9 lab. It’s all built with free virtualized software meaning you can build and run it for free of cost.

It features two NetApp simulator clusters along with Windows and Linux clients and it’s networked via a VyOS router. It gives you a working replica of a production storage environment which you can use for testing or study.

Download Link : http://www.flackbox.com/netapp-simulator/

Chapters:

Introduction
Lab Topology Diagram
Lab Topology Notes
IP Addressing Tables
Lab Notes
VMware Workstation Player Install
VyOS Router Build
NetApp Simulator Build
Windows Server Build
Linux Build
SuperPutty Install

Free e-learning course – VMware Virtual SAN Fundamentals [V5.5]

Learning's, Storage, ,

This training course focuses on deploying and managing a software-defined storage solution with VMware Virtual SAN 5.5. This course looks at how Virtual SAN is used as an important component in the VMware software-defined data center. The course is based on VMware ESXi 5.5 and VMware vCenter Server 5.5.

Module 1: Introduction to Virtual SAN

  • Software-Defined Storage
  • The Benefits of Virtual SAN
  • Advantages of Virtual SAN over Traditional Storage and VSA.

Module 2: Software-Defined Data Center

  • Use Cases
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
  • Test and development
  • Disaster recovery
  • Management cluster storage
  • DMZ
  • Remote office/branch office
  • POC Pre-Qualification Checklist

Module 3: Virtual SAN Architecture

  • Virtual SAN Architecture
  • Virtual SAN Objects and Components
  • Virtual SAN prerequisites
  • Virtual SAN cluster sizing requirements

Module 4: Configuring Virtual SAN (Optional)

  • Enable Virtual SAN on a cluster
  • Create disk group
  • Storage policies
  • Expand Virtual SAN cluster

Register Now

Understanding VMDirectPath I/O

Storage

What is VMDirectPath I/O

VMDirectPath I/O is a VMware technology that can be used with I/O hardware to reduce the CPU impact of high-bandwidth throughput workload’s by ‘‘bypassing’’ the hypervisor. It is supported for specific networking adapters in vSphere ESX 4, and it is experimental for specific storage adapters in vSphere ESX 4.

By allowing virtual machines to directly access the underlying hardware devices, VMDirectPath I/O device access enhances CPU efficiency in handling workload’s that require constant and frequent access to I/O devices. VMDirectPath I/O for networking I/O devices is fully supported with the Intel 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller and Broadcom 57710 and 57711 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

Prerequisites

1. To use VMDirectPath, verify that the host has Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) or AMD I/O Virtualization Technology (IOMMU) enabled in the BIOS. Refer to my earlier post.
2. Verify that the PCI devices are connected to the host and marked as available for passthrough.
3. Verify that the virtual machine is using hardware version 7.

Drawbacks

Use of the VMDirectPath disables many advanced VMware functions for the virtual machine, so be careful before you start using VMDirect Path.
1. VMotion
2. High availability
3. Suspend and resume
4. Record and replay
5. Fault tolerance
6. Memory overcommitment and page sharing
7. Hot add/remove of virtual devices
8. No Snapshot backup

Few Good links about VMDirect Path I/O

1. A video is posted here by chad which will show you step by step instructions. All though this link is for Cisco Unified Computing (UCS) but still     it will help –  Link
2. VMware VMDirect Path I/O by Simon Long
3. To check for device compatibility please visit here
4. Configure VMDirect Path article 1010789
5. Troubleshooting VMDirect Path
6. http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11089
7. Scott Lowe blog about VMDirect Path

Checking the queue depth of the storage adapter and the storage device

Storage

To identify the storage adapter queue depth:

  1. Run the esxtop command in the service console of the ESX host or the ESXi shell (Tech Support mode). For more information, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.0 (1017910) or Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677) for ESXi 3.5 and 4.0.
  2. Press d.
  3. Press f and select Queue Stats F.
  4. The value listed under AQLEN is the queue depth of the storage adapter. This is the maximum number of ESX VMKernel active commands that the adapter driver is configured to support.

To identify the storage device queue depth:

  1. Run the esxtop command in the service console of the ESX host or the ESXi shell (Tech Support mode). For more information, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.0 (1017910) or Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677) for ESXi 3.5 and 4.0.
  2. Press u.
  3. Press f and select Queue Stats F.
  4. The value listed under DQLEN is the queue depth of the storage device. This is the maximum number of ESX VMKernel active commands that the device is configured to support.

Notes:

  • The value listed under LQLEN is the LUN queue depth. This is the maximum number of ESX/ESXi VMkernel active commands supported by the LUN.
  • The value listed under %USD is the percentage of queue depth (adapter, LUN, or world) used by ESX/ESXi VMkernel active commands.

Storage Basics

Storage

I have been concentrating on storage for some time now and if you are trying to understand storage basis, here is a great list of documents covered by Josh Townsend  in his blog.

I was lucky to hit this early than many of you wanted to, I hope this helps you to get a clear understanding on the basic ground of storage.  Josh has smartly split down storage in VIII different units starting from basic to advanced concept, which makes it very easy to understand.  I have added topic and link to respective portion in Josh blog. I am sure you will find it very useful.

Thanks to Josh for his contribution.

Part I: An Introduction

Part II: IOPS

Part III: RAID

Part IV: Interface

Part V: Controllers, Cache and Coalescing

Part VI: Storage Workload Characterization

Part VII: Storage Alignment

Part VIII – The Difference in Consumer vs. Enterprise Class Disks and StorageArrays; or ‘Why is the SAN you are proposing so darn expensive?’