Veritas InfoScale™ 7.4.1 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi
- Section I. Overview
- About Veritas InfoScale solutions in a VMware environment
- Section II. Deploying Veritas InfoScale products in a VMware environment
- Getting started
- Understanding Storage Configuration
- Configuring storage
- Enabling disk UUID on virtual machines
- Installing Array Support Library (ASL) for VMDK on cluster nodes
- Excluding the boot disk from the Volume Manager configuration
- Creating the VMDK files
- Mapping the VMDKs to each virtual machine (VM)
- Enabling the multi-write flag
- Getting consistent names across nodes
- Creating a file system
- Section III. Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware environment
- Application availability using Cluster Server
- Multi-tier business service support
- Improving storage visibility, availability, and I/O performance using Dynamic Multi-Pathing
- Use cases for Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in the VMware environment
- How DMP works
- Achieving storage visibility using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
- Achieving storage availability using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
- Improving I/O performance with Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
- Achieving simplified management using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor and guest
- Improving data protection, storage optimization, data migration, and database performance
- Use cases for InfoScale product components in a VMware guest
- Protecting data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Optimizing storage with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- About SmartTier in the VMware environment
- About compression with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- About thin reclamation with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- About SmartMove with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- About SmartTier for Oracle with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Migrating data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Improving database performance with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
- Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability on VMware disks
- About use cases for InfoScale Enterprise in the VMware guest
- Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability operation in VMware virtualized environments
- Storage Foundation functionality and compatibility matrix
- About setting up Storage Foundation Cluster File High System High Availability on VMware ESXi
- Planning a Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) configuration
- Enable Password-less SSH
- Enabling TCP traffic to coordination point (CP) Server and management ports
- Configuring coordination point (CP) servers
- Deploying Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) software
- Configuring Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA)
- Configuring non-SCSI3 fencing
- Section IV. Reference
Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability operation in VMware virtualized environments
Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) has two supported modes of operation when used inside a guest operating system operating system (OS) that is running on a VMware hypervisor:
Mode 1: SFCFSHA is connected to external storage via RDM-P
Use SFCFSHA running in a guest OS and connected to external storage via RDM-P when you require highly reliable SCSI-3 PGR keys for split-brain protection and data fencing
Mode 2: SFCFSHA connected to VMFS with the VMFS multi-writer flag enabled
Use SFCFSHA running in a guest OS and connected to VMFS with the VMFS multi-writer flag enabled when you require guest OS mobility via VMware vMotion.
Requirements for Mode 1:
SFCFSHA must be connected to a physical LUN has been mapped to a virtual machine disk (VMDK) using the VMware raw disk mapping physical (RDMP) compatibility mode.
This option provides full SFCFSHA high availability support for fast failover, split brain protection, and data fencing, but does not allow use of VMware snapshots, vMotion, or other VMware HA features.
SFCFSHA snapshots, clones, deduplication, and other storage optimization features are fully supported in this configuration.
Requirements for Mode 2:
The guest OS must use a VMFS virtual machine disk (VMDK).
VMFS normally prohibits multiple guest OSes from connecting to the same virtual disk, thus precluding use of that VMDK with a parallel file system such as SFCFSHA. However, by enabling a new VMFS option, multi-writer (VMware k/b article 1034165), an administrator can create a VMDK that can be read/written to by multiple guest OSes simultaneously.
Since VMFS does not allow SFCFSHA to see the SCSI-3 persistent group reservation (PGR) bit on the LUN, SCSI-based I/O fencing will not work. To use SFCFSHA with the VMFS multi-writer option, Coordination Point Servers (CPS) must be used for split-brain protection.
For information on configuring CPS fencing, see the Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability Administrator's Guide.
CPS does not support data protection via fencing, so care must be taken to prevent inadvertent data corruption caused by a non-SFCFSHA guest OS writing to a VMDK. SFCFSHA snapshots, clones, deduplication, and other storage optimization features are fully supported in this configuration.
Veritas support for SFCFSHA in a guest OS:
Veritas will attempt to resolve any issues as if they were occurring in a physical OS environment. Once a potential problem has been identified, Veritas support personnel will recommend an appropriate solution that would be applicable on the native OS on a physical server.
If that solution does not work in the VMware virtualized environment, Veritas reserves the right to ask the customer to replicate the problem in a physical environment. In some cases the customer may be referred to VMware for support.