The VSPEX private cloud solution for VMware vSphere with EMC VNX validates at four different points of scale, one configuration with up to 200 virtual machines, one configuration with up to 300 virtual machines, one configuration with up to 600 virtual machines, and one configuration with up to 1,000 virtual machines. The defined configurations form the basis of creating a custom solution.
Note: : VSPEX uses the concept of a reference workload to describe and define a virtual machine. Therefore, one physical or virtual server in an existing environment may not be equal to one virtual machine in a VSPEX solution. Evaluate your workload in terms of the reference to arrive at an appropriate point of scale. This document describes the process in
Applying the reference workload
59 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide The architecture diagrams in this section show the layout of major components in the solutions. Storage for block and file based systems are shown in the following diagrams.
Figure 17 characterizes the infrastructure validated with block-based storage, where an 8 Gb FC/FCoE or 10 Gb-iSCSI SAN carries storage traffic, and 10 GbE carries management and application traffic.
Figure 17. Logical architecture for block storage
Logical architecture
60 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Figure 18 characterizes the infrastructure validated with file-based storage, where 10 GbE carries storage traffic and all other traffic.
Figure 18. Logical architecture for file storage
This architecture includes the following key components:
VMware vSphere 5.5—Provides a common virtualization layer to host a server environment. The specifics of the validated environment are listed in Table 3. vSphere 5.5 provides highly available infrastructure through such features as:
vMotion—Provides live migration of virtual machines within a virtual
infrastructure cluster, with no virtual machine downtime or service disruption. Storage vMotion—Provides live migration of virtual machine disk files within
and across storage arrays with no virtual machine downtime or service disruption.
vSphere High-Availability (HA)—Detects and provides rapid recovery for a failed virtual machine in a cluster.
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)—Provides load balancing of computing capacity in a cluster.
Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS)—Provides load balancing across multiple datastores based on space usage and I/O latency.
VMware vCenter Server—Provides a scalable and extensible platform that forms the foundation for virtualization management for the VMware vSphere cluster. vCenter manages all vSphere hosts and their virtual machines.
SQL Server—VMware vCenter Server requires a database service to store
configuration and monitoring details. This solution uses a Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 server.
61 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide DNS Server—Use DNS services for the various solution components to perform name resolution. This solution uses the Microsoft DNS Service running on Windows 2012 R2 server.
Active Directory Server—Various solution components require Active Directory services to function properly. The Microsoft AD Service runs on a Windows Server 2012 R2 server.
Shared Infrastructure—Add DNS and authentication/authorization services, such as AD Service, with existing infrastructure or set up as part of the new virtual
infrastructure.
IP Network—A standard Ethernet network carries all network traffic with redundant cabling and switching. A shared IP network carries user and management traffic. Storage network
The storage network is an isolated network that provides hosts with access to the storage array. VSPEX offers different options for block-based and file-based storage.
Storage network for block:
This solution provides three options for block-based storage networks.
Fibre Channel (FC)—A set of standards that define protocols for performing high speed serial data transfer. FC provides a standard data transport frame among servers and shared storage devices.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)—A newer storage networking protocol that supports FC natively over Ethernet, by encapsulating FC frames into Ethernet frames. This allows the encapsulated FC frames to run alongside traditional Internet Protocol (IP) traffic.
10 Gb Ethernet (iSCSI)—Enables the transport of SCSI blocks over a TCP/IP network. iSCSI works by encapsulating SCSI commands into TCP packets and sending the packets over the IP network.
Storage network for file:
With file-based storage, a private, non-routable 10 GbE subnet carries the storage traffic.
VNX storage array
The VSPEX private cloud configuration begins with the VNX family storage arrays, including:
EMC VNX5200 array—Provides storage to vSphere hosts for up to 200 virtual machines.
EMC VNX5400 array—Provides storage to vSphere hosts for up to 300 virtual machines.
EMC VNX5600 array—Provides storage to vSphere hosts for up to 600 virtual machines.
EMC VNX5800 array—Provides storage to vSphere hosts for up to 1,000 virtual machines.
62 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
VNX family storage arrays include the following components:
Storage processors (SPs)—Support block data with UltraFlex I/O technology that supports Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and FCoE protocols The SPs provide access for all external hosts, and for the file side of the VNX array.
Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE)—Is 3U in size, and houses the SPs and the first tray of disks. The VNX5200, VNX5400, VNX5600, and VNX5800 use this component.
X-Blades (or Data Movers)—Access data from the back end and provide host access using the same UltraFlex I/O technology that supports the NFS, CIFS, MPFS, and pNFS protocols. The X-Blades in each array are scalable and provide redundancy to ensure that no single point of failure exists.
The Data Mover Enclosure (DME)—Is 2U in size and houses the Data Movers (X-Blades). All VNX for file models use a DME.
Standby power supply (SPS)—Is 1U in size and provides enough power to each SP to ensure that any data in-flight de-stages to the array’s vault area in the event of a power failure. This ensures that no writes are lost. On restart of the array, the pending writes are reconciled and made persistent.
Control Station—Is 1U in size and provides management functions to the X-Blades. The Control Station is responsible for X-Blade failover. An optional secondary Control Station ensures redundancy on the VNX array.
Disk Array Enclosures (DAE)—House the drives used in the array. Table 3 lists the hardware used in this solution.
Table 3. Solution hardware
Component Configuration
VMware vSphere servers
CPU 1 vCPU per virtual machine 4 vCPUs per physical core For 200 virtual machines:
200 vCPUs
Minimum of 50 physical CPUs For 300 virtual machines:
300 vCPUs
Minimum of 75 physical CPUs For 600 virtual machines:
600 vCPUs
Minimum of 150 physical CPUs For 1,000 virtual machines:
1,000 vCPUs
Minimum of 250 physical CPUs Hardware
63 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Component Configuration
Memory 2 GB RAM per virtual machine
2 GB RAM reservation per VMware vSphere host For 200 virtual machines:
Minimum of 400 GB RAM
Add 2 GB for each physical server For 300 virtual machines:
Minimum of 600 GB RAM
Add 2 GB for each physical server For 600 virtual machines:
Minimum of 1200 GB RAM Add 2 GB for each physical server For 1,000 virtual machines:
Minimum of 2,000 GB RAM Add 2 GB for each physical server Network Block 2 x 10 GbE NICs per server
2 HBA per server
File 4 x 10 GbE NICs per server
Note: Add at least one additional server to the infrastructure beyond the minimum requirements to implement VMware vSphere High-Availability (HA) functionality and to meet the listed minimums.
Network infrastructure
Minimum switching capacity
Block 2 physical switches
2 x 10 GbE ports per VMware vSphere server 1 x 1 GbE port per Control Station for management
2 ports per VMware vSphere server, for storage network
2 ports per SP, for storage data File 2 physical switches
4 x 10 GbE ports per VMware vSphere server 1 x 1 GbE port per Control Station for management
2 x 10 GbE ports per Data Mover for data EMC Backup Avamar Refer to EMC Backup and Recovery Options for
VSPEX Private Clouds Design and Implementation Guide.
Data Domain Refer to EMC Backup and Recovery Options for VSPEX Private Clouds Design and
64 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Component Configuration
EMC VNX series storage array
Block Common:
1 x 1 GbE interface per control station for management
1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management 2 front end ports per SP
system disks for VNX OE For 200 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5200
75 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 4 x 200 GB flash drives
3 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare For 300 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5400
110 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 6 x 200 GB flash drives
4 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare For 600 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5600
220 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 10 x 200 GB flash drives
8 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare For 1,000 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5800
360 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 16 x 200 GB flash drives
12 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
65 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Component Configuration
File Common:
2 x 10 GbE interfaces per Data Mover 1 x 1 GbE interface per Control Station for
management
1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management system disks for VNX OE
For 200 virtual machines: EMC VNX5200
2 Data Movers (active / standby)
75 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 4 x 200 GB flash drives
3 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare For 300 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5400
2 Data Movers (active / standby)
110 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 6 x 200 GB flash drives
4 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as hot spare For 600 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5600
2 Data Movers (active / standby)
220 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 10 x 200 GB flash drives
8 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare For 1,000 virtual machines:
EMC VNX5800
3 Data Movers (2 x active /1 x standby) 360 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives 16 x 200 GB flash drives
12 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares
1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare Note:: In VNX5800, it is recommended to run no more than 600 virtual machines on a single active Data Mover. Configure two active Data Movers (2 x active/1 x standby) when scaling to 600 or larger in that case.
66 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Component Configuration
Shared infrastructure
In most cases, a customer environment already has infrastructure services such as Active Directory, DNS, and other services configured. The setup of these services is beyond the scope of this document.
If implemented without existing infrastructure, the new minimum requirements are:
2 physical servers 16 GB RAM per server 4 processor cores per server 2 x 1 GbE ports per server
Note:: These services can be migrated into VSPEX post-deployment; however, they must exist before VSPEX can be deployed.
Note:: The solution recommends using a 10 GbE network or an equivalent 1GbE network infrastructure as long as the underlying requirements around bandwidth and redundancy are fulfilled.
Table 4lists the software used in this solution.
Table 4. Solution software
Software Configuration
VMware vSphere 5.5
vSphere server Enterprise Edition vCenter Server Standard Edition
Operating system for vCenter Server Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard Edition Note: Any operating system that is supported for vCenter can be used.
Microsoft SQL Server Version 2008 R2 Standard Edition
Note: Any supported database for vCenter can be used.
EMC VNX
VNX OE for file 8.0
VNX OE for block 05.33
EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified
Storage Management Check for latest version EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage
Viewer
EMC PowerPath/VE Check for latest version EMC backup
Avamar Refer to EMC Backup and Recovery Options for Software resources
67 EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vSphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Mircosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, EMc VNX Series, and EMc Powered Backup-Proven Infrastructure Guide
Software Configuration
Data Domain OS VSPEX Private Clouds Design and Implementation Guide.
Virtual machines (used for validation – not required for deployment)
Base operating system Microsoft Window Server 2012 R2 Data Center Edition