Veritas InfoScale™ 7.3.1 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (7.3.1)
  1. Section I. Overview
    1. Overview of Veritas InfoScale solutions in a VMware environment
      1.  
        Overview of the Veritas InfoScale Products Virtualization Guide
      2. Introduction to using Veritas InfoScale solutions in the VMware virtualization environment
        1. How Veritas InfoScale solutions work in a VMware environment
          1.  
            How Veritas InfoScale product components enhance VMware capabilities
          2.  
            When to use Raw Device Mapping and Storage Foundation
          3.  
            Array migration
          4.  
            Veritas InfoScale component limitations in an ESXi environment
          5.  
            I/O fencing considerations in an ESXi environment
      3. Introduction to using Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware
        1.  
          About the SmartPool feature
      4.  
        About the Veritas InfoScale components
      5. About Veritas InfoScale solutions support for the VMware ESXi environment
        1.  
          Veritas InfoScale products support for VMware functionality
      6.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by Veritas InfoScale products
  2. Section II. Deploying Veritas InfoScale products in a VMware environment
    1. Getting started
      1.  
        Veritas InfoScale products supported configurations in an VMware ESXi environment
      2.  
        Storage configurations and feature compatibility
      3.  
        About setting up VMware with Veritas InfoScale products
      4.  
        Veritas InfoScale products support for VMware environments
      5.  
        Installing and configuring storage solutions in the VMware virtual environment
  3. Section III. Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware environment
    1. Storage to application visibility using Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      1. About storage to application visibility using Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
        1.  
          About Control Hosts in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      2. About discovering the VMware Infrastructure using Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
        1.  
          Requirements for discovering vCenter and ESX servers using Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
        2.  
          How Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager discovers vCenter and ESX servers
        3.  
          Information that Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager discovers on the VMware Infrastructure components
        4.  
          About the datastores in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
        5. About the multi-pathing discovery in the VMware environment
          1.  
            About the user privileges for multi-pathing discovery in the VMware environment
        6. About near real-time (NRT) update of virtual machine states
          1.  
            Setting-up near real-time (NRT) update of virtual machine states
          2.  
            Configuring the VMware vCenter Server to generate SNMP traps
      3.  
        About discovering LPAR and VIO in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      4.  
        About LPAR storage correlation supported in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
    2. Application availability using Cluster Server
      1.  
        About application availability with Cluster Server (VCS) in the guest
      2.  
        About VCS support for Live Migration
      3.  
        About the VCS for vSphere setup
      4.  
        Implementing application availability
      5.  
        Assessing availability levels for Cluster Server in the VMware guest
    3. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
    4. Improving storage visibility, availability, and I/O performance using Dynamic Multi-Pathing
      1.  
        Use cases for Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in the VMware environment
      2.  
        About Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware
      3. How DMP works
        1. How DMP monitors I/O on paths
          1.  
            Path failover mechanism
          2.  
            I/O throttling
          3.  
            Subpaths Failover Group (SFG)
          4.  
            Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)
        2.  
          Load balancing
        3.  
          About DMP I/O policies
      4.  
        About storage visibility using Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in the hypervisor
      5.  
        Example: achieving storage visibility using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      6.  
        About storage availability using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      7.  
        Example: achieving storage availability using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      8.  
        About I/O performance with Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      9.  
        Example: improving I/O performance with Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      10.  
        About simplified management using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor and guest
      11.  
        Example: achieving simplified management using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor and guest
    5. Improving I/O performance using SmartPool
      1.  
        Improving I/O performance with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest and DMP for VMware in the ESXi host
      2.  
        Implementing the SmartIO and SmartPool solution
    6. Improving data protection, storage optimization, data migration, and database performance
      1.  
        Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware guest
      2. Protecting data with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About point-in-time copies
        2.  
          Point-in-time snapshots for Veritas InfoScale products in the VMware environment
      3. Optimizing storage with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About SmartTier in the VMware environment
        2.  
          About compression with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        3.  
          About thin reclamation with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        4.  
          About SmartMove with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        5.  
          About SmartTier for Oracle with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
      4. Migrating data with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          Types of data migration
      5. Improving database performance with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About Veritas InfoScale product components database accelerators
      6.  
        Simplified storage management with Veritas InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
    7. Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability on VMware disks
      1.  
        About use cases for Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability in the VMware guest
      2.  
        Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability operation in VMware virtualized environments
      3.  
        Storage Foundation functionality and compatibility matrix
      4. About setting up Storage Foundation Cluster File High System High Availability on VMware ESXi
        1.  
          Planning a Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) 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 Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA)
          2.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server service group
          3.  
            Configuring a Cluster Server (VCS) single node cluster
        5.  
          Deploying Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) software
        6.  
          Configuring Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA)
        7.  
          Configuring non-SCSI3 fencing
      5. Configuring storage
        1.  
          Enabling disk UUID on virtual machines
        2.  
          Installing Array Support Library (ASL) for VMDK on cluster nodes
        3.  
          Excluding the boot disk from the Volume Manager configuration
        4.  
          Creating the VMDK files
        5.  
          Mapping the VMDKs to each virtual machine (VM)
        6.  
          Enabling the multi-write flag
        7.  
          Getting consistent names across nodes
        8.  
          Creating a clustered file system
  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.  
        Veritas InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Service and support
      3.  
        About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

About the Veritas InfoScale components

Veritas InfoScale products is a set of components that provide storage administration and management in a heterogeneous storage environment.

This section can help you determine which product you need.

Table: Veritas InfoScale components comparisons shows the benefits of each product and its components.

Table: Veritas InfoScale components comparisons

Component

Components

Benefits

Cluster Server (VCS) connects multiple, independent systems into a management framework for increased availability. Each system, or node, runs its own operating system and cooperates at the software level to form a cluster. VCS links commodity hardware with intelligent software to provide application failover and control. When a node or a monitored application fails, other nodes can take predefined actions to take over and bring up services elsewhere in the cluster.

VCS

  • Minimizes downtime

  • Facilitates the consolidation and the failover of servers

  • Effectively manages a wide range of applications in heterogeneous environments

  • Provides data integrity protection through I/O fencing

  • Provides High Availability of applications

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides multi-pathing functionality for the storage devices configured on the system. The product creates DMP metadevices (also known as DMP nodes) to represent all the device paths to the same physical LUN.

Veritas provides the following stand-alone DMP offerings:

  • Dynamic Multi-Pathing for Linux/UNIX

    Provides limited multi-pathing within the ESXi guest.

  • Dynamic Multi-Pathing for VMware

    Provides integrated functionality in the ESXi host.

DMP

  • Extends DMP metadevices to support OS native logical volume managers (LVM)

  • Provides improved storage I/O performance with load balancing

  • Provides storage path failure protection and fast failover

  • Centralizes storage path management regardless of operating system or storage hardware

Veritas Replicator enables cost-effective replication of data over IP networks for disaster recovery, giving organizations an extremely flexible, storage hardware independent alternative to traditional array-based replication architectures.

VVR

VFR

Volume Replicator (VVR)

  • Provides block-based continuous replication

  • Provides effective bandwidth management

  • Supports cross-platform replication, and replication in a Portable Data Container (PDC) environment

File Replicator (VFR)

  • Provides file-based periodic replication

  • Supports reversible data transfer

  • Deduplication

  • Supports protection of the target file system from accidental writes

Storage Foundation (SF) is a storage management offering that consists of Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), Veritas File System (VxFS), and DMP.

Veritas Volume Manager is a storage management subsystem that enables you to manage physical disks and logical unit numbers (LUNs) as logical devices called volumes.

Veritas File System is an extent-based, intent logging file system.

DMP, VxVM, VxFS

  • Increased storage utilization across heterogeneous environments

  • Deduplication and compression

  • Automated storage tiering

  • Centralized storage management

  • Easy OS and storage migration with minimum downtime

  • All benefits of DMP

Veritas InfoScale products include all the functionalities of SF plus the high availability of VCS.

DMP, VxVM, VxFS, VCS

  • All benefits of DMP

  • All benefits of SF

  • All benefits of VCS

Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) extends Storage Foundation to support shared data in a storage area network (SAN) environment. Multiple servers can concurrently access shared storage and files transparently to applications. With the Flexible Storage Sharing (FSS) feature, you can use local or commodity storage for Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) or Cluster File System (CFS).

CVM extends VxVM to support shared disk groups. CFS extends VxFS to support parallel clusters.

DMP, VxVM, VxFS, VCS, CVM, SFCFSHA

  • All benefits of DMP

  • All benefits of SF

  • All benefits of VCS

  • Increased automation and intelligent management of availability and performance across shared storage

Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC (SFRAC) is an integrated suite of storage management and high-availability software. The software is engineered to improve performance, availability, and manageability of Real Application Cluster (RAC) environments.

DMP, VxVM, VxFS, VCS, CVM, SFCFSHA, plus support for Oracle RAC

  • All benefits of DMP

  • All benefits of SF

  • All benefits of VCS

  • All benefits of SFCFSHA

  • Support for Oracle RAC that simplifies database management while fully integrating with the Oracle clustering solution

Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager provides a centralized management console for Veritas InfoScale products. You can use Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager to monitor, visualize, and manage storage resources and generate reports.

N/A

  • Centralized, standardized way to manage the various features in the Veritas InfoScale products

  • Visual interface for managing individual hosts and their storage

  • Visibility into all instances of Veritas InfoScale products that are running in the datacenter, across multiple operating systems

Cluster Server (VCS) agents provide high availability for specific resources and applications. Each agent manages resources of a particular type. Typically, agents start, stop, and monitor resources and report state changes.

In addition to the agents that are provided in this release, other agents are available through an independent Veritas InfoScale offering called the High Availability Agent Pack. The agent pack includes the currently shipping agents and is re-released quarterly to add the new agents that are now under development.

You can download the latest agents from the Services Operations Readiness (SORT) website at:

https://sort.veritas.com/agents

VCS

All benefits of VCS