InfoScale™ 9.0 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (9.0)
Platform: Linux,VMware ESX
  1. Section I. Overview
    1. About Veritas InfoScale solutions in a VMware environment
      1.  
        Overview of the InfoScale Virtualization Guide
      2. How InfoScale™ solutions work in a VMware environment
        1.  
          How InfoScale™ product components enhance VMware capabilities
        2.  
          When to use Raw Device Mapping and InfoScale
        3.  
          Array migration
        4.  
          InfoScale™ component limitations in an ESXi environment
        5.  
          I/O fencing considerations in an ESXi environment
      3.  
        About InfoScale™ solutions support for the VMware ESXi environment
      4.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by InfoScale
  2. Section II. Deploying Veritas InfoScale products in a VMware environment
    1. Getting started
      1.  
        Storage configurations and feature compatibility
      2.  
        About setting up VMware with InfoScale™ products
      3.  
        InfoScale™ products support for VMware environments
      4.  
        Installing and configuring storage solutions in the VMware virtual environment
      5.  
        Recommendations for improved resiliency of InfoScale clusters in virtualized environments
    2. Understanding Storage Configuration
      1.  
        Configuring storage
      2.  
        Enabling disk UUID on virtual machines
      3.  
        Installing Array Support Library (ASL) for VMDK on cluster nodes
      4.  
        Excluding the boot disk from the Volume Manager configuration
      5.  
        Creating the VMDK files
      6.  
        Mapping the VMDKs to each virtual machine (VM)
      7.  
        Enabling the multi-write flag
      8.  
        Getting consistent names across nodes
      9.  
        Creating a file system
  3. Section III. Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware environment
    1. Application availability using Cluster Server
      1.  
        About application availability with Cluster Server (VCS) in the guest
      2.  
        About VCS support for Live Migration
    2. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
    3. Improving data protection, storage optimization, data migration, and database performance
      1.  
        Use cases for InfoScale™ product components in a VMware guest
      2. Protecting data with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About point-in-time copies
        2.  
          Point-in-time snapshots for InfoScale™ products in the VMware environment
      3. Optimizing storage with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        1. About Flexible Storage Sharing
          1.  
            Limitations of Flexible Storage Sharing
        2.  
          About SmartTier in the VMware environment
        3.  
          About compression with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        4.  
          About thin reclamation with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        5.  
          About SmartMove with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        6.  
          About SmartTier for Oracle with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
      4. Migrating data with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          Types of data migration
      5. Improving database performance with InfoScale™ product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About InfoScale™ product components database accelerators
    4. Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using InfoScale Enterprise on VMware disks
      1.  
        About use cases for InfoScale Enterprise in the VMware guest
      2.  
        InfoScale Enterprise operation in VMware virtualized environments
      3.  
        InfoScale functionality and compatibility matrix
      4. About setting up InfoScale Enterprise on VMware ESXi
        1.  
          Planning a InfoScale Enterprise configuration
        2.  
          Enable Password-less SSH
        3.  
          Enabling TCP traffic to coordination point (CP) Server and management ports
        4. Configuring coordination point (CP) servers
          1.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server for InfoScale Enterprise
          2.  
            Configuring a Cluster Server (VCS) single node cluster
          3.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server service group
        5.  
          Deploying InfoScale Enterprise software
        6.  
          Configuring InfoScale Enterprise
        7.  
          Configuring non-SCSI3 fencing
  4. Section IV. Reference
    1. Appendix A. Known issues and limitations
      1.  
        Prevention of Storage vMotion
    2. Appendix B. Where to find more information
      1.  
        Arctera InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Service and support
      3.  
        About Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

Enabling the multi-write flag

Enable the multi-write flag if you plan to setup an InfoScale Enterprise configuration. For detailed instructions on how to enable the multi-writer flag, see the steps in the following VMware article:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1034165

The steps given below illustrate the example where five VMDK files are configured and are shared by four virtual machines (VMs). These VMs constitute the four nodes of the cluster and they are powered off. Now it is time to enable the multi-writer flag for each of the VMs.

To enable the multi-write flag for a virtual machine

  1. On the vSphere Client, right-click on the cfs01 virtual machine. Go to Edit Settings > Advanced Parameters.
  2. .Enter scsi1:0.sharing in the Attribute column.
  3. Enter multi-writer in the Value column.
  4. Repeat steps 2 through 4 and enter the multi-writer value for the rest of the SCSI controllers and targets. For the example configuration:
    scsi1:1.sharing multi-writer
scsi1:2.sharing multi-writer
scsi1:3.sharing multi-writer
scsi1:4.sharing multi-writer

    Once those steps are done, the VM configuration will resemble:

    disk.EnableUUID

    true

    scsi1:0.sharing

    multi-writer

    scsi1:1.sharing

    multi-writer

    scsi1:2.sharing

    multi-writer

    scsi1:3.sharing

    multi-writer

    scsi1:4.sharing

    multi-writer

  5. Press OK to confirm.
  6. Repeat steps 1 to 6 for the other virtual machines (cfs02, cfs03 and cfs04 in the example configuration).
  7. Once all the virtual machines have been configured correctly, power them on and verify that there are no issues. Note that the disks have been added to each of the hosts.

    Example configuration for cfs01:

    # vxdisk list
DEVICE         TYPE         DISK         GROUP         STATUS
vmdk0_0        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
vmdk0_1        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
vmdk0_2        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
vmdk0_3        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
vmdk0_4        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
vmdk0_5        auto:none    -            - online      invalid
[root@cfs01 ~]#