EMC VSPEX Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD

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EMC VSPEX

Abstract

This document describes the EMC^® VSPEX^® Proven Infrastructure solution for private cloud deployments with Brocade VDX networking, Microsoft Hyper-V, EMC Next-Generation VNX^®, and EMC next

generation Backup for up to 1,000 virtual machines.

May, 2014

EMC ^® VSPEX ^™ Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD

Microsoft

^®

Windows

^®

Server 2012 with Hyper-V

^™

for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines

Enabled by Brocade VCS

^®

Fabrics, EMC VNX

^™

and EMC next -

Generation Backup

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Published May 2014

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

EMC², EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to the technical documentation and advisories section on the EMC Online Support website.

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trademarks, and HyperEdge, The Effortless Network, and The On-Demand Data Center are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes features that may not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability. Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, and EMC Next- Generation VNX and EMC Powered Backup

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Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNX, and EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Powered Backup

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Chapter 1 Executive Summary 17

Introduction ... 18

Target audience ... 18

Document purpose ... 18

Business needs ... 19

Chapter 2 Solution Overview 21

Introduction ... 22

Virtualization ... 22

Compute ... 22

Network ... 22

Storage ... 24

EMC Next-Generation VNX ... 25

EMC backup and recovery ... 29

Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview 31

Overview ... 32

Summary of key components ... 33

Overview ... 34

Microsoft Hyper-V ... 34

Virtual Fibre Channel ports ... 34

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager ... 35

High availability with Hyper-V Failover Clustering ... 35

Hyper-V Replica ... 35

Hyper-V snapshot ... 36

Cluster-Aware Updating ... 36

EMC Storage Integrator ... 36

Compute ... 37

Network ... 38

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Overview ... 38

Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switch for Block Based Storage ... 39

Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric switch for file based storage ... 40

Storage ... 42

Overview ... 42

EMC VNX family ... 42

EMC VNX Snapshots ... 43

EMC VNX SnapSure ... 44

EMC VNX Virtual Provisioning ... 44

Windows Offloaded Data Transfer ... 49

EMC PowerPath ... 50

EMC FAST Cache ... 50

VNX file shares ... 50

ROBO ... 50

SMB 3.0 features ... 51

Overview ... 51

SMB versions and negotiations ... 51

VNX and VNXe storage support ... 52

SMB 3.0 VHD/VHDX storage support ... 52

SMB 3.0 Continuous Availability ... 53

SMB Multichannel ... 55

SMB 3.0 Copy Offload ... 57

SMB 3.0 BranchCache ... 58

SMB 3.0 Remote VSS ... 59

SMB 3.0 encryption ... 60

SMB 3.0 PowerShell cmdlets ... 62

SMB 3.0 Directory Leasing ... 66

Summary of feature defaults ... 67

Backup and recovery ... 68

Overview ... 68

EMC Avamar deduplication ... 68

EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems ... 68

VMware vSphere data protection ... 68

Continuous Availability ... 68

EMC RecoverPoint ... 68

EMC VNX Replicator ... 69

Other technologies ... 69

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EMC XtremSW Cache ... 69

Chapter 4 Solution Architecture Overview 73

Overview ... 74

Solution architecture ... 74

Overview ... 74

Logical architecture ... 75

Key components ... 76

Hardware resources ... 79

Software resources ... 83

Server configuration guidelines ... 84

Overview ... 84

Hyper-V memory virtualization ... 86

Memory configuration guidelines ... 87

Network configuration guidelines ... 88

Overview ... 88

VLAN ... 89

Zoning (Block Storage FC only) ... 89

Enable jumbo frames (iSCSI or SMB only) ... 91

Link aggregation (SMB only) ... 92

Brocade Virtual Link Aggregation Group (vLAG) ... 92

Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunks ... 92

Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) ... 92

Pause Flow Control ... 93

Storage configuration guidelines ... 93

Overview ... 93

Hyper-V storage virtualization for VSPEX ... 96

VSPEX storage building blocks ... 98

VSPEX private cloud validated maximums ... 100

High-availability and failover ... 107

Overview ... 107

Virtualization layer ... 107

Compute layer ... 107

Brocade Network layer ... 108

Storage layer ... 109

Validation test profile ... 110

Profile characteristics ... 110

Backup and recovery configuration guidelines ... 110

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Overview ... 110

Backup characteristics ... 110

Backup layout ... 111

Sizing guidelines ... 111

Reference workload ... 111

Overview ... 111

Defining the reference workload ... 111

Applying the reference workload ... 112

Overview ... 112

Example 1: Custom-built application ... 112

Example 2: Point-of-Sale system ... 113

Example 3: Web server... 113

Example 4: Decision-support database ... 114

Summary of examples... 114

Implementing the solution... 114

Overview ... 114

Resource types ... 115

CPU resources ... 115

Memory resources ... 115

Network resources ... 115

Storage resources ... 116

Implementation summary ... 117

Quick assessment of customer environment ... 117

Overview ... 117

CPU requirements ... 118

Memory requirements ... 118

Storage performance requirements ... 118

IOPS ... 119

I/O size ... 119

I/O latency ... 119

Storage capacity requirements ... 120

Determining equivalent reference virtual machines ... 120

Fine-tuning hardware resources ... 127

EMC VSPEX Sizing Tool ... 131

Chapter 5 VSPEX Configuration Guidelines 133

Overview ... 134

Pre-deployment tasks ... 135

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Overview ... 135

Deployment prerequisites ... 136

Customer configuration data ... 137

Prepare, connect and configure Brocade network switches ... 138

Overview ... 138

Prepare Brocade Storage Network Infrastructure ... 138

Complete Network Cabling ... 141

Configure Brocade VDX 6740 switch (File Storage) ... 142

Step 1: Verify and apply Brocade VDX NOS licenses ... 144

Step 2: Configure logical chassis VCS ID and RBridge IDs on the VDXs 145 Step 3: Assign Switch Name ... 147

Step 4: Brocade VCS Fabric ISL Port Configuration ... 147

Step 5: Create required VLANs ... 150

Step 6: Create vLAGs for Microsoft ... 152

Hyper-V hosts ... 152

Step 7: ... 155

Create vLAGs for VNX portsStep 7: Configure Switch Interfaces for VNXe155 Step 8: Connecting the VCS Fabric to an existing Infrastructure through Uplinks ... 157

Step 9 -Configure MTU and Jumbo Frames ... 159

Step 10 – Enable Flow Control Support ... 159

Step 11- Auto QOS for NAS ... 159

Configure Brocade 6510 Switch storage network (Block Storage) ... 160

Step 1: Initial Switch Configuration ... 161

Step 2: FC Switch Licensing ... 167

Step 3: FC Zoning Configuration ... 168

Step 4: Switch Management and Monitoring ... 170

Prepare and configure storage array ... 171

VNX configuration for block protocols ... 171

VNX configuration for file protocols ... 175

FAST VP configuration ... 184

FAST Cache configuration ... 186

Install and configure Hyper-V hosts ... 189

Overview ... 189

Install Windows hosts ... 189

Install Hyper-V and configure failover clustering ... 189

Configure Windows host networking ... 190

Install PowerPath on Windows servers ... 190

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Plan virtual machine memory allocations ... 190

Install and configure SQL Server database ... 191

Overview ... 191

Create a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server ... 191

Install Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine ... 192

Install SQL Server ... 192

Configure a SQL Server for SCVMM ... 192

System Center Virtual Machine Manager server deployment ... 193

Overview ... 193

Create a SCVMM host virtual machine ... 194

Install the SCVMM guest OS ... 194

Install the SCVMM server ... 194

Install the SCVMM Management Console ... 194

Install the SCVMM agent locally on a host... 195

Add a Hyper-V cluster into SCVMM ... 195

Add file share storage to SCVMM (file variant only) ... 195

Create a virtual machine in SCVMM ... 195

Perform partition alignment, and assign File Allocation Unite Size ... 195

Create a template virtual machine ... 195

Deploy virtual machines from the template virtual machine ... 196

Summary ... 196

Chapter 6 Verifying the Solution 197

Overview ... 198

Post-install checklist ... 199

Deploy and test a single virtual server ... 199

Verify the redundancy of the solution components ... 199

Block environments... 199

File environments ... 200

Chapter 7 System Monitoring 201

Overview ... 202

Key areas to monitor ... 202

Performance baseline ... 203

Servers ... 203

Brocade Networking ... 204

Storage ... 204

VNX resources monitoring guidelines ... 205

Monitoring block storage resources ... 205

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Monitoring file storage resources ... 212

Summary ... 217

Chapter 8 Validation with Microsoft Fast Track v3 219

Overview ... 220

Business case for validation ... 220

Process requirements ... 221

Step 1: Core prerequisites ... 221

Step 2: Select the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure platform ... 221

Step 3: Define additional Microsoft Hyper-V Fast Track Program components ... 222

Step 4: Build a detailed bill of materials ... 223

Step 5: Test the environment ... 223

Step 6: Document and publish the solution ... 223

Additional resources ... 224

Appendix A Bill of Materials 225

Bill of materials ... 226

Appendix B Customer Configuration Data Sheet 233

Customer configuration data sheet ... 234

Appendix C Server Resources Component Worksheet 237

Server resources component worksheet ... 238

Appendix D References 239

References ... 240

EMC documentation... 240

Brocade documentation ... 240

Appendix E About VSPEX 243

About VSPEX ... 244

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Figures

Figure 1. Next-Generation VNX with multicore optimization ... 26

Figure 2. Active/active processors increase performance, resiliency, and efficiency ... 27

Figure 3. New Unisphere Management Suite ... 28

Figure 4. EMC backup and recovery solutions... 29

Figure 5. VSPEX private cloud components ... 32

Figure 6. Compute layer flexibility ... 37

Figure 7. Example of highly available Brocade Block Based storage network design ... 39

Figure 8. Brocade VDX with VCS Fabrics in a highly available file based storage network design ... 41

Figure 9. Storage pool rebalance progress ... 45

Figure 10. Thin LUN space utilization ... 46

Figure 11. Examining storage pool space utilization ... 47

Figure 12. Defining storage pool utilization thresholds ... 48

Figure 13. Defining automated notifications - for block ... 48

Figure 14. SMB 3.0 baseline performance comparison point ... 52

Figure 15. SMB 3.0 Continuous Availability ... 53

Figure 16. CA – application performance ... 54

Figure 17. SMB Multichannel fault tolerance ... 56

Figure 18. Multichannel network throughput ... 56

Figure 19. Copy Offload ... 57

Figure 20. Enabling the Encrypt Data parameter ... 61

Figure 21. Enabling encryption: Client CPU utilization ... 62

Figure 22. Enabling encryption: Data Mover CPU utilization ... 62

Figure 23. PowerShell execution of Show Shares ... 65

Figure 24. PowerShell execution of Get-SmbServerConfiguration ... 65

Figure 25. SMB 3.0 Directory Leasing ... 66

Figure 26. Logical architecture for block storage ... 75

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Figure 27. Logical architecture for file storage ... 76

Figure 28. Hypervisor memory consumption ... 86

Figure 29. Required Brocade networks for block storage ... 90

Figure 30. Required Brocade networks for file storage ... 91

Figure 31. Hyper-V virtual disk types ... 96

Figure 32. Building block for 13 virtual servers ... 99

Figure 33. Building block for 125 virtual servers ... 99

Figure 34. Storage layout for 300 virtual machines using VNX5400 ... 101

Figure 35. Storage layout for 600 virtual machines using VNX5600 ... 103

Figure 36. Storage layout for 1,000 virtual machines using VNX5800 ... 105

Figure 37. Maximum scale levels and entry points of different arrays .... 106

Figure 38. High availability at the virtualization layer ... 107

Figure 39. Redundant power supplies... 107

Figure 40. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNX) – block storage network variant ... 108

Figure 41. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNX) – file storage . 108 Figure 42. VNX series HA components ... 109

Figure 43. Resource pool flexibility ... 114

Figure 44. Required resource from the reference virtual machine pool 121 Figure 45. Aggregate resource requirements – stage 1 ... 123

Figure 46. Pool configuration – stage 1 ... 123

Figure 47. Aggregate resource requirements - stage 2 ... 125

Figure 49. Aggregate resource requirements for stage 3 ... 127

Figure 51. Customizing server resources ... 128

Figure 52. Sample Brocade network architecture – File storage ... 139

Figure 53. Sample Brocade network architecture – Block storage ... 140

Figure 54. Port types ... 148

Figure 55. Port Groups of the VDX 6740 ... 149

Figure 56. Port Groups of the VDX 6740T and Brocade VDX6740T-1G .... 149

Figure 57. Creating VLANs ... 151

Figure 58. Example VCS/VDX network topology with Infrastructure connectivity ... 157

Figure 59. Network Settings for File dialog box ... 176

Figure 60. The Create Interface dialog box ... 177

Figure 61. The Create CIFS Server dialog box ... 179

Figure 62. The Create File System dialog box ... 182

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Figure 63. The File System Properties dialog box ... 183

Figure 64. The Create File Share dialog box ... 184

Figure 65. The Storage Pool Properties dialog box ... 185

Figure 66. Manage Auto-Tiering dialog box ... 185

Figure 67. The Storage System Properties dialog box ... 186

Figure 68. The Create FAST Cache dialog box ... 187

Figure 69. Advanced tab in the Create Storage Pool dialog ... 188

Figure 70. Advanced tab in the Storage Pool Properties dialog ... 188

Figure 71. Storage Pool Alerts area ... 205

Figure 72. Storage Pools panel ... 206

Figure 73. LUN Properties dialog box ... 207

Figure 74. Monitoring and Alerts panel ... 207

Figure 75. IOPS on the LUNs ... 208

Figure 76. IOPS on the disks ... 209

Figure 77. Latency on the LUNs ... 210

Figure 78. SP utilization ... 211

Figure 79. Data Mover statistics ... 212

Figure 80. Front-end Data Mover network statistics ... 213

Figure 81. Storage Pools for File panel ... 213

Figure 82. File Systems panel ... 214

Figure 83. File System Properties window... 215

Figure 84. File System I/O Statistics window ... 216

Figure 85. CIFS Statistics window ... 217

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Tables

Table 1. VNX customer benefits ... 42

Table 2. Thresholds and settings under VNX OE Block Release 33 ... 49

Table 3. SMB dialect used between client and server... 51

Table 4. Storage migration improvement with Copy Offload ... 58

Table 5. Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets ... 63

Table 6. EMC-provided PowerShell cmdlets ... 63

Table 7. Default status of SMB 3.0 features ... 67

Table 8. Solution hardware ... 79

Table 9. Solution software ... 83

Table 10. Hardware resources for compute layer ... 85

Table 11. Hardware resources for network ... 88

Table 12. Hardware resources for storage ... 94

Table 13. Number of disks required for different number of virtual machines ... 100

Table 14. Profile characteristics ... 110

Table 15. Virtual machine characteristics ... 112

Table 16. Blank worksheet row ... 117

Table 17. Reference virtual machine resources ... 120

Table 18. Example worksheet row ... 121

Table 19. Example applications – stage 1 ... 122

Table 20. Example applications - stage 2 ... 124

Table 21. Example applications - stage 3 ... 125

Table 22. Server resource component totals ... 129

Table 23. Deployment process overview ... 134

Table 24. Tasks for pre-deployment ... 135

Table 25. Deployment prerequisites checklist ... 136

Table 26. Tasks for switch and network configuration ... 138

Table 27. Brocade VDX 6740 Configuration Steps ... 143

Table 28. Brocade switch default settings ... 161

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Table 29. Brocade 6510 FC switch Configuration Steps ... 161

Table 30. Brocade switch default settings ... 161

Table 31. Tasks for VNX configuration for block protocols ... 171

Table 32. Storage allocation table for block ... 173

Table 33. Tasks for storage configuration for file protocols ... 175

Table 34. Storage allocation table for file ... 180

Table 35. Tasks for server installation ... 189

Table 36. Tasks for SQL Server database setup ... 191

Table 37. Tasks for SCVMM configuration ... 193

Table 38. Tasks for testing the installation ... 198

Table 39. Hyper-V Fast Track component classification ... 222

Table 40. List of components used in the VSPEX solution for 300 virtual machines ... 226

Table 41. List of components used in the VSPEX solution for 600 virtual machines ... 228

Table 42. List of components used in the VSPEX solution for 1,000 virtual machines ... 230

Table 43. Common server information... 234

Table 44. Hyper-V server information ... 234

Table 45. Array information ... 235

Table 46. Brocade Network infrastructure information ... 235

Table 47. VLAN information ... 235

Table 48. Service accounts ... 236

Table 49. Blank worksheet for determining server resources ... 238

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Chapter 1 Executive Summary

This chapter presents the following topics:

Introduction ... 18

Target audience ... 18

Document purpose ... 18

Business needs ... 19

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Introduction

VSPEX with Brocade networking solutions, validated and modular

architectures are built with proven best-of-breed technologies to create complete virtualization solutions that enable you to make an informed decision in the hypervisor, compute, backup, networking and storage layers. VSPEX helps to reduce virtualization planning and configuration burdens. When embarking on server virtualization, virtual desktop

deployment, or IT consolidation, VSPEX accelerates your IT Transformation by enabling faster deployments, choice, greater efficiency, and lower risk.

This document is a comprehensive guide to the technical aspects of this solution. Server capacity is provided in generic terms for required

minimums of CPU, memory, and network interfaces; the customer is free to select the server that meet or exceed the stated minimums. Brocade networking solutions are defined for the networking requirements for each of the VSPEX reference architectures covered in this document.

Target audience

The readers of this document should have the necessary training and background to install and configure Microsoft Hyper-V, Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric or Connectrix-B Fibre Channel series switches, EMC VNX series storage systems, and associated infrastructure as required by this implementation. External references are provided where applicable, and the readers should be familiar with these documents.

Readers should also be familiar with the infrastructure and database security policies of the custom installation.

Users focusing on selling and sizing a Microsoft Hyper-V private cloud infrastructure must pay particular attention to the first four chapters of this document. After purchase, implementers of the solution should focus on the configuration guidelines in Chapter 5, the solution validation in Chapter 6, and the appropriate references and appendices.

Document purpose

This proven infrastructure guide includes an initial introduction to the VSPEX architecture, an explanation of how to modify the architecture for specific engagements, and instructions on how to effectively deploy and monitor the system.

The VSPEX private cloud architecture provides the customer with a

modern system capable of hosting many virtual machines at a consistent performance level. This solution runs on the Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization layer backed by the highly available Brocade fabrics network switch series, and VNX family of storage. The compute components, which are

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19 sufficiently powerful to handle the processing and data needs of the virtual machine environment.

The 300, 600, and 1000 virtual machine environments are based on a defined reference workload. Since not every virtual machine has the same requirements, this document contains methods and guidance to adjust your system to be cost-effective when deployed. For smaller

environments, solutions for up to 100 virtual machines based on the EMC VNXe series arrays are described in EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 100 Virtual Machines.

A private cloud architecture is a complex system offering. This document facilitates its setup by providing up-front software and hardware material lists, step-by-step sizing guidance and worksheets, and verified

deployment steps. After the last component has been installed, validation tests and monitoring instructions ensure that your customer’s system is running correctly. Following the instructions in this document ensures an efficient and expedited journey to the cloud.

Business needs

VSPEX solutions are built with proven best-of-breed technologies to create complete virtualization solutions that enable you to make an informed decision in the hypervisor, server, and networking layers. VSPEX solutions accelerate your IT transformation by enabling faster deployments, choice, greater efficiency, and lower risk.

Business applications are moving into consolidated compute, network, and storage environments. The EMC VSPEX Private Cloud with Brocade using Microsoft Hyper-V reduces the complexity of configuring every component of a traditional deployment model. The complexity of integration management is reduced while maintaining the application design and implementation options. Administration is unified, while process separation can be adequately controlled and monitored. The business needs for the VSPEX private cloud for Microsoft Hyper-V architectures are:

 Provide an end-to-end virtualization solution to use the capabilities of the unified infrastructure components.

 Provide a VSPEX private cloud solution for Microsoft Hyper-V to efficiently virtualize up to 1000 virtual machines for varied customer use cases.

 Provide a reliable, flexible, and scalable reference design.

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Chapter 2 Solution Overview

Introduction ... 22

Compute ... 22

Network ... 22

Storage ... 24

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Introduction

The EMC VSPEX with Brocade Networking Solution for Private Cloud for Microsoft Hyper-V provides complete system architecture capable of supporting up to 1,000 virtual machines with a redundant server, network topology, and highly available storage. The core components that make up this particular solution are virtualization, compute, storage, and

Brocade networking.

Virtualization

Microsoft Hyper-V is a leading virtualization platform in the industry. For years, Hyper-V has provided flexibility and cost savings to end users by consolidating large, inefficient server farms into nimble, reliable cloud infrastructures.

Features such as Live Migration which enables a virtual machine to move between different servers with no disruption to the guest operating system, and Dynamic Optimization which performs Live Migration automatically to balance loads, make Hyper-V a solid business choice.

With the release of Windows Server 2012, a Microsoft virtualized

environment can host virtual machines with up to 64 virtual CPUs and 1 TB of virtual random access memory (RAM).

Compute

VSPEX provides the flexibility to design and implement the customer’s choice of server components. The infrastructure must conform to the following attributes:

 Sufficient cores and memory to support the required number and types of virtual machines.

 Sufficient network connections to enable redundant connectivity to the system switches.

 Excess capacity to withstand a server failure and failover in the environment.

Network

Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric and Fibre Channel Fabric switch technology enable the implementation of high performance, efficient, and resilient networks validated with the VSPEX proven architectures. Brocade Ethernet and Fibre Channel fabrics provide an open standards based solution that unleashes the full potential of high-density server virtualization, private cloud architectures, and EMC VNX storage.

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23 Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabrics networking solutions provides the following attributes:

 Offers flexibility to deploy 1000BASE-T and upgrade to 10GBASE-T for higher bandwidth

 Delivers high performance and reduces network congestion with 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports, low latency, and 24 MB deep buffers

 Improves capacity with the ability to create up to a 160 GbE uplink with Brocade ISL Trunking

 Manages an entire multitenant Brocade VCS fabric as a single switch with Brocade VCS Logical Chassis

 Provides efficiently load-balanced multipathing at Layers 1, 2, and 3, including multiple Layer 3 gateways

 Simplifies Virtual Machine (VM) mobility and management with automated, dynamic port profile configuration and migration

 Supports Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies within data, control, and management planes

The Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel Fabric switch is the purpose-built, data center-proven network infrastructure for storage, delivering unmatched reliability, simplicity, and 4/8/16 Gbps performance. The Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel Fabrics networking solution provides the following attributes:

 Provides exceptional price/performance value, combining flexibility, simplicity, and enterprise-class functionality in a 48-port switch

 Enables fast, easy, and cost-effective scaling from 24 to 48 ports using Ports on Demand (PoD) capabilities

 Simplifies management through Brocade Fabric Vision technology, reducing operational costs and optimizing application performance

 Simplifies deployment and supports high-performance fabrics by using Brocade ClearLink Diagnostic Ports (D_Ports) to identify optic and cable issues

 Simplifies and accelerates deployment with the Brocade EZSwitchSetup wizard and Dynamic Fabric Provisioning (DFP)

 Maximizes availability with redundant, hot-pluggable components and non-disruptive software upgrades

 Simplifies server connectivity by deploying as a full-fabric switch or a Brocade Access Gateway

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Storage

The EMC VNX storage family is the leading shared storage platform in the industry. VNX provides both file and block access with a broad feature set, which makes it an ideal choice for any Private Cloud implementation.

VNX storage includes the following components sized for the stated reference architecture workload:

 Host adapter ports (For block) – Provide host connectivity through fabric to the array.

 Storage processors – The compute components of the storage array, which are used for all aspects of data moving into, out of, and between arrays.

 Disk drives – Disk spindles and solid state drives that contain the host or application data and their enclosures.

 Data Movers (For file) – Front-end appliances that provide file services to hosts (optional if CIFS services are provided).

Note: The term Data Mover refers to a VNX hardware component, which has a CPU, memory, and I/O ports. It enables Common Internet File System (CIFS-SMB) and Network File System (NFS) protocols on the VNX.

The Microsoft Hyper-V private cloud solutions for 300, 600, and 1,000 virtual machines described in this document are based on the EMC VNX5400, EMC VNX5600 and the EMC VNX5800 storage arrays respectively. The VNX5400 array can support a maximum of 250 drives, the VNX5600 can host up to 500 drives, and the VNX5800 can host up to 750 drives.

The EMC VNX series supports a wide range of business-class features that are ideal for the private cloud environment, including:

 EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP^™)

 EMC FAST Cache

 File-level data deduplication and compression

 Block deduplication

 Thin provisioning

 Replication

 Snapshots or checkpoints

 File-level retention

 Quota management

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25 Features and Enhancements

The EMC VNX flash-optimized unified storage platform delivers innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block, and object storage in a single, scalable, and easy-to-use solution. Ideal for mixed workloads in physical or virtual environments, VNX combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of today’s virtualized application environments.

VNX includes many features and enhancements designed and built upon the first generation’s success. These features and enhancements include:

 More capacity with multicore optimization with Multicore Cache, Multicore RAID, and Multicore FAST Cache (MCx)

 Greater efficiency with a flash-optimized hybrid array

 Better protection by increasing application availability with active/active storage processors

 Easier administration and deployment by increasing productivity with a new Unisphere Management Suite

VSPEX is built with the next generation of VNX to deliver even greater efficiency, performance, and scale than ever before.

Flash-optimized hybrid array

VNX is a flash-optimized hybrid array that provides automated tiering to deliver the best performance to your critical data, while intelligently moving less frequently accessed data to lower-cost disks.

In this hybrid approach, a small percentage of flash drives in the overall system can provide a high percentage of the overall IOPS. A flash- optimized VNX takes full advantage of the low latency of flash to deliver cost-saving optimization and high performance scalability. The EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering Suite (FAST Cache and FAST VP) tiers both block and file data across heterogeneous drives and boosts the most active data to the flash drives, ensuring that customers never have to make concessions for cost or performance.

Data is typically used most frequently at the time it is created; therefore new data is first stored on flash drives for the best performance. As that data ages and becomes less active over time, FAST VP moves the data from high-performance to high-capacity drives automatically, based on customer-defined policies. EMC has enhanced this functionality with four times better granularity and with new FAST VP solid-state disks (SSDs) based on enterprise multi-level cell (eMLC) technology to lower the cost per gigabyte. FAST Cache dynamically absorbs unpredicted spikes in system workloads. All VSPEX use cases benefit from the increased efficiency.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures deliver private cloud, end-user computing, and virtualized application solutions. With VNX, customers can realize an EMC Next-

Generation VNX

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even greater return on their investment. VNX provides out-of-band, block- based deduplication that can dramatically lower the costs of the flash tier.

VNX Intel MCx Code Path Optimization

The advent of flash technology has been a catalyst in totally changing the requirements of midrange storage systems. EMC redesigned the midrange storage platform to efficiently optimize multicore CPUs to provide the highest performing storage system at the lowest cost in the market.

MCx distributes all VNX data services across all cores—up to 32, as shown in Figure 1. The VNX series with MCx has dramatically improved the file performance for transactional applications like databases or virtual machines over network-attached storage (NAS).

Figure 1. Next-Generation VNX with multicore optimization Multicore Cache

The cache is the most valuable asset in the storage subsystem; its efficient use is key to the overall efficiency of the platform in handling variable and changing workloads. The cache engine has been modularized to take advantage of all the cores available in the system.

Multicore RAID

Another important part of the MCx redesign is the handling of I/O to the permanent back-end storage—hard disk drives (HDDs) and SSDs. Greatly increased performance improvements in VNX come from the

modularization of the back-end data management processing, which enables MCx to seamlessly scale across all processors.

VNX performance

Performance enhancements

VNX storage, enabled with the MCx architecture, is optimized for FLASH 1^st and provides unprecedented overall performance, optimizing for

transaction performance (cost per IOPS), bandwidth performance (cost per GB/s) with low latency, and providing optimal capacity efficiency (cost per GB).

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27 VNX provides the following performance improvements:

 Up to four times more file transactions when compared with dual controller arrays

 Increased file performance for transactional applications by up to three times, with a 60 percent better response time

 Up to four times more Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server OLTP transactions

 Up to six times more virtual machines Active/active array storage processors

The new VNX architecture provides active/active array storage processors, as shown in Figure 2, which eliminate application timeouts during path failover since both paths are actively serving I/O.

Figure 2. Active/active processors increase performance, resiliency, and efficiency

Load balancing is also improved and applications can achieve an up to two times improvement in performance. Active/active for block is ideal for applications that require the highest levels of availability and

performance, but do not require tiering or efficiency services like compression, deduplication, or snapshot.

With this VNX release, VSPEX customers can use virtual Data Movers (VDMs) and VNX Replicator to perform automated and high-speed file system migrations between systems. This process migrates all snaps and settings automatically, and enables the clients to continue operation during the migration.

Note: The active/active processors are only available for classic logical unit numbers (LUNs), not for pool LUNs.

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Unisphere Management Suite

The new Unisphere Management Suite extends Unisphere’s easy-to-use, interface to include VNX Monitoring and Reporting for validating

performance and anticipating capacity requirements. As shown in Figure 3, the suite also includes Unisphere Remote for centrally managing up to thousands of VNX and VNXe systems with new support for XtremSW Cache.

Figure 3. New Unisphere Management Suite Virtualization Management

EMC Storage Integrator

EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) is targeted towards the Windows and Application administrator. ESI is easy to use, delivers end-to end

monitoring, and is hypervisor agnostic. Administrators can provision in both virtual and physical environments for a Windows platform, and

troubleshoot by viewing the topology of an application from the underlying hypervisor to the storage.

Microsoft Hyper-V

With Windows Server 2012, Microsoft provides Hyper-V 3.0, an enhanced hypervisor for private cloud that can run on NAS protocols for simplified connectivity.

Offloaded Data Transfer

The Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) feature of Microsoft Hyper-V enables data transfers during copy operations to be offloaded to the storage array, freeing up host cycles. For example, using ODX for a live migration of a SQL Server virtual machine doubled performance, decreased migration time by 50 percent, reduced CPU on the Hyper-V sever by 20 percent, and eliminated network traffic.

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29 EMC backup and recovery solutions, EMC Avamar and EMC Data

Domain, deliver the protection confidence needed to accelerate the deployment of VSPEX Private Clouds.

Optimized for virtual environments, EMC backup and recovery reduces backup times by 90 percent and increases recovery speeds by 30 times, even offering virtual machines instant access for worry-free protection.

EMC backup appliances add another layer of assurance with end-to-end verification and self-healing to ensure successful recoveries.

Our solutions also deliver big saving. With industry-leading deduplication, you can reduce backup storage by 10 to 30 times, backup management time by 81 percent, and WAN bandwidth by 99 percent for efficient disaster recovery, delivering a seven-month payback period on average.

You will be able to scale storage easily and efficiently as your environment grows.

Figure 4. EMC backup and recovery solutions

EMC backup and recovery solutions used in this VSPEX solution include EMC Avamar deduplication software and system, EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system.

EMC backup and recovery

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31

Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview

Overview ... 32 Summary of key components ... 33 Virtualization ... 34 Compute ... 37 Network ... 38 Storage ... 42 SMB 3.0 features ... 51 Backup and recovery ... 68 Continuous Availability ... 68 Other technologies ... 69

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Overview

This solution uses the EMC VNX series, Brocade network Fabric switches, and Microsoft Hyper-V to provide storage and server hardware

consolidation in a private cloud. The new virtualized infrastructure is

centrally managed, to provide efficient deployment and management of a scalable number of virtual machines and associated shared storage.

Figure 5 depicts the solution components.

Figure 5. VSPEX private cloud components

The following sections describe the components in more detail.

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33

Summary of key components

This section briefly describes the key components of this solution.

 Virtualization

The virtualization layer decouples the physical implementation of resources from the applications that use them. The application’s view of the available resources is no longer directly tied to the hardware. This enables many key features in the private cloud concept.

 Compute

The compute layer provides memory and processing resources for the virtualization layer software, and for the applications running in the private cloud. The VSPEX program defines the minimum amount of required compute layer resources, and enables the customer to implement the solution by using any server hardware that meets these requirements.

 Network

Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric or Connectrix-B Fibre Channel Fabric switches with Brocade Fabric networking technology connect the users of the private cloud to existing customer infrastructure with the compute and storage resources of the VSPEX solution. EMC VSPEX reference architecture with Brocade network Fabric switches provides the required connectivity and scalability. The EMC VSPEX with Brocade networking solutions enables the customer to

implement a solution that provides a cost effective, resilient, and operationally efficient virtualization platform.

 Storage

The storage layer is critical for the implementation of the private cloud. With multiple hosts accessing shared data, many of the use cases defined in the private cloud can be implemented. The VNX used in this solution provides high-performance data storage while maintaining high availability.

 Backup and recovery

The backup and recovery components of the solution provide data protection when the data in the primary system is deleted,

damaged, or unusable.

Solution architecture provides details on all the components that make up the reference architecture.

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Virtualization

The virtualization layer is a key component of any server virtualization or private cloud solution. It decouples the application resource requirements from the underlying physical resources that serve them. This enables

greater flexibility in the application layer by eliminating hardware

downtime for maintenance, and allows the system to physically change without affecting the hosted applications. In a server virtualization or private cloud use case, it enables multiple independent virtual machines to share the same physical hardware, rather than being directly

implemented on dedicated hardware.

Microsoft Hyper-V is a Windows Server role that was introduced in Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V virtualizes computer hardware resources, such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking. This transformation creates fully functional virtual machines that run their own operating systems and applications like physical computers.

Hyper-V works with Failover Clustering and Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) to provide high availability in a virtualized infrastructure. Live migration and live storage migration enable seamless movement of virtual machines or virtual machines files between Hyper-V servers or storage systems

transparently and with mimimal performance impact.

Windows Server 2012 provides virtual Fibre Channel (FC) ports within a Hyper-V guest operating system. The virtual FC port uses the standard N- port ID virtualization (NPIV) process to address the virtual machine WWNs within the Hyper-V host’s physical host bus adapter (HBA). This provides virtual machines with direct access to external storage arrays over FC, enables clustering of guest operating systems over FC, and offers an important new storage option for the hosted servers in the virtual

infrastructure. Virtual FC in Hyper-V guest operating systems also supports related features, such as virtual SANs, live migration, and multipath I/O (MPIO).

Prerequisites for virtual FC include:

 One or more installations of Windows Server 2012 with the Hyper-V role

 One or more FC HBAs installed on the server, each with an appropriate HBA driver that supports virtual FC

 NPIV-enabled SAN

Virtual machines using the virtual FC adapter must use Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 as the guest operating system.

Overview

Microsoft Hyper-V

Virtual Fibre Channel ports

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35 Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is a

centralized management platform for the virtualized data center. SCVMM allows administrators to configure and manage the virtualized host,

networking, and storage resources, and to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds. SCVMM simplifies provisioning, management, and monitoring in the Hyper-V environment.

The Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering feature provides high-

availability in Hyper-V. High availability is impacted by both planned and unplanned downtime, and Failover Clustering significantly increases the availability of virtual machines during planned and unplanned downtimes.

Configure Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering on the Hyper-V host to monitor virtual machine health, and migrate virtual machines between cluster nodes. The advantages of this configuration are:

 Enables migration of virtual machines to a different cluster node if the cluster node where they reside must be updated, changed, or rebooted.

 Allows other members of the Windows Failover Cluster to take ownership of the virtual machines if the cluster node where they reside suffers a failure or significant degradation.

 Minimizes downtime due to virtual machine failures. Windows Server Failover Cluster detects virtual machine failures and automatically takes steps to recover the failed virtual machine.

This allows the virtual machine to be restarted on the same host server, or migrated to a different host server.

Hyper-V Replica was introduced in Windows Server 2012 to provide asynchronous virtual machine replication over the network from one Hyper-V host at a primary site to another Hyper-V host at a replica site.

Hyper-V replicas protect business applications in the Hyper-V environment from downtime associated with an outage at a single site.

Hyper-V Replica tracks the write operations on the primary virtual machine and replicates the changes to the replica server over the network with HTTP and HTTPS. The amount of network bandwidth required is based on the transfer schedule and data change rate.

If the primary Hyper-V host fails, you can manually fail over the production virtual machines to the Hyper-V hosts at the replica site. Manual failover brings the virtual machines back to a consistent point from which they can be accessed with minimal impact on the business. After recovery, the primary site can receive changes from the replica site. You can perform a planned failback to manually revert the virtual machines back to the Hyper-V host at the primary site.

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager

High availability with Hyper-V Failover Clustering

Hyper-V Replica

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A Hyper-V snapshot creates a consistent point-in-time view of a virtual machine. Snapshots function as source for backups or other use cases.

Virtual machines do not have to be running to take a snapshot. Snapshots are completely transparent to the applications running on the virtual machine. The snapshot saves the point-in-time status of the virtual machine, and enables users to revert the virtual machine to a previous point-in-time if necessary.

Note: Snapshots require additional storage space. The amount of

additional storage space depends on the frequency of data change on the virtual machine and the number of snapshots being retained.

Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) was introduced in Windows Server 2012. It provides a way of updating cluster nodes with little or no disruption. CAU transparently performs the following tasks during the update process:

1. Puts one cluster node into maintenance mode and takes it offline (virtual machines are live-migrated to other cluster nodes).

2. Installs the updates.

3. Performs a restart if necessary.

4. Brings the node back online (migrated virtual machines are moved back to the original node).

5. Updates the next node in the cluster.

The node managing the update process is called the Orchestrator. The Orchestrator can work in a couple of different modes:

 Self-updating mode: The Orchestrator runs on the cluster node being updated.

 Remote-updating mode: The Orchestrator runs on a standalone

Windows operating system, and remotely manages the cluster update.

CAU is integrated with Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). Powershell allows automation of the CAU process.

EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) is an agentless, free plug-in that enables application-aware storage provisioning for Microsoft Windows Server applications, Hyper-V, VMware, and Xen Server environments.

Administrators can provision block and file storage for Microsoft Windows or Microsoft SharePoint sites by using wizards in ESI. ESI supports the

following functions:

 Provisioning, formatting, and presenting drives to Windows servers

 Provisioning new cluster disks, and automatically adding them to the cluster

 Provisioning shared CIFS storage, and mounting it to Windows servers

 Provisioning SharePoint storage, sites, and databases in a single wizard Hyper-V

snapshot

Cluster-Aware Updating

EMC Storage Integrator

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37

Compute

The choice of a server platform for an VSPEX infrastructure is not only based on the technical requirements of the environment, but on the supportability of the platform, existing relationships with the server provider, advanced performance, management features, and many other factors.

For this reason, VSPEX solutions are designed to run on a wide variety of server platforms. Instead of requiring a specific number of servers with a specific set of requirements, VSPEX documents the minimum requirements for the number of processor cores, and the amount of RAM. This can be implemented with two or twenty servers, and still be considered the same VSPEX solution.

In the example shown in Figure 6, the compute layer requirements for a specific implementation are 25 processor cores and 200 GB of RAM. One customer might want to implement this by using white-box servers

containing 16 processor cores, and 64 GB of RAM, while another customer chooses a higher-end server with 20 processor cores and 144 GB of RAM.

Figure 6. Compute layer flexibility

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The first customer needs four of the chosen servers, while the other customer needs two.

Note: To enable high-availability at the compute layer, each customer needs one additional server to ensure that the system has enough capability to maintain business operations when a server fails.

Use the following best practices in the compute layer:

 Use several identical, or at least compatible, servers. VSPEX implements hypervisor level high-availability technologies, which may require similar instruction sets on the underlying physical hardware. By implementing VSPEX on identical server units, you can minimize compatibility problems in this area.

 If you implement high availability at the hypervisor layer, the largest virtual machine you can create is constrained by the smallest physical server in the environment.

 Implement the available high-availability features in the virtualization layer, and ensure that the compute layer has

sufficient resources to accommodate at least single server failures.

This enables the implementation of minimal-downtime upgrades and tolerance for single unit failures.

Within the boundaries of these recommendations and best practices, the compute layer for VSPEX can be flexible to meet your specific needs.

Ensure that there are sufficient processor cores, and RAM per core to meet the needs of the target environment.

Network

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure with Brocade networking solution provides the required redundant network links for each vSphere host, the storage array, and the switch interconnect ports, and the switch uplink ports. Brocade networking solutions provides options with Connectrix-B 6510 Fibre Channel switches for block storage and VDX 6740 Ethernet Fabric switches for file storage connectivity between compute and storage. The Brocade network is designed in the VSPEX reference architecture for block and file based storage traffic types to optimize throughput, manageability,

application separation, high availability, and security. The storage network solution is implemented with redundant network links for each host, and VNX storage array. If a link is lost with any of the Brocade network

infrastructure ports, the link fails over to another port. All network traffic is distributed across the active links. Figure 7 and Figure 8 depict examples of this highly available Brocade storage network topology.

Overview

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39 The Brocade® 6510 with Gen 5 Fibre Channel Technology simplifies the storage network infrastructure through innovative technologies and supports the VSPEX highly virtualized topology design. The Brocade validated network solution simplifies server connectivity by deploying as full-fabric switch and enables fast, easy effective scaling from 24 to 48 Ports on Demand (PoD). The Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switches

maximizes availability with redundant architecture for Block Based storage traffic and hot-pluggable components and non-disruptive upgrades.

For block, the EMC VNX a unified storage platform is attached to a highly available Brocade storage network by two ports per storage processor. If a link is lost on the storage processor front end port, the link fails over to another port. All storage network traffic is distributed across the active links.

Figure 7 Depicts an example of the Brocade network topology for file based storage.

Figure 7. Example of highly available Brocade Block Based storage network design

Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switch for Block Based Storage

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Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switches provide high availability for the VSPEX SAN infrastructure. Active – active links for all traffic from the

virtualized compute servers to the EMC VNX storage arrays. The Brocade^® 6510 Switch meets the demands of hyper-scale, private cloud VSPEX storage traffic environments with market-leading Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology and capability that supports the VSPEX virtualized architecture.

The failure of a link in a route causes the network to reroute any traffic that was using that particular link—as long as an alternate path is available.

Brocade Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) is a highly efficient routing algorithm that reroutes around failed links in less than a second.

ISL Trunking improves on this concept by helping to prevent the loss of the route. A link failure merely reduces the available bandwidth of the logical ISL trunk. In other words, a failure does not completely “break the pipe,”

but simply makes the pipe narrower. As a result, data traffic is much less likely to be affected by link failures, and the bandwidth automatically increases when the link is repaired

The Brocade® VDX with VCS Fabrics helps simplify networking

infrastructures through innovative technologies and VSPEX infrastructure topology design. The Brocade validated solution uses virtual local area networks (VLANs) to segregate network traffic of various types to improve throughput, manageability, application separation, high availability, and security with file storage traffic. Brocade VDX 6740 switches support this strategy by simplifying network architecture while increasing network performance and resiliency with Ethernet fabrics. Brocade VDX with VCS Fabric technology supports active – active links for all traffic from the virtualized compute servers to the EMC VNXe storage arrays.

This validated solution for file storage with the EMC unified storage platforms attaches to the highly available Brocade network by using link aggregation. Link aggregation enables multiple active (MAC) Ethernet connections to appear as a single link with a single MAC address, and potentially multiple IP addresses. In this solution, Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is configured on the VNX array, combining multiple Ethernet ports into a single virtual device. If a link is lost on the Ethernet port, the link fails over to another port. All network traffic is distributed across the active links.

Figure 8 depicts an example of the Brocade network topology for file based storage.

Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric switch for file based storage

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41 Figure 8. Brocade VDX with VCS Fabrics in a highly available file based

storage network design

The Brocade VDX 6740 Ethernet Fabric switches provide file based connectivity at 10 GbE in between the compute and VNX storage. The Brocade® VDX with VCS Fabric technology helps simplify networking infrastructures through innovative technologies for the VSPEX File storage network topology design. The Brocade network validated solution supports segregated network traffic of VSPEX reference architecture for SMB 3.0 File storage traffic. Brocade VDX switches enable a storage network with high availability and redundancy by using link aggregation for EMC VNX storage array.

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Storage

The storage layer is also a key component of any cloud infrastructure solution that serves data generated by applications and operating systems in data center storage processing systems. This increases storage

efficiency, management flexibility, and reduces total cost of ownership. In this VSPEX solution, EMC VNX series arrays provide features and

performance to enable and enhance any virtualization environment.

The EMC VNX family is optimized for virtual applications; and delivers industry-leading innovation and enterprise capabilities for file and block storage in a scalable, easy-to-use solution. This next-generation storage platform combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of today’s enterprises.

Intel^® Xeon processors power the VNX series for intelligent storage that automatically and efficiently scales in performance, while ensuring data integrity and security. It is designed to meet the high performance, high- scalability requirements of midsize and large enterprises.

Table 1 shows the customer benefits that are provided by the VNX series.

Table 1. VNX customer benefits Feature

Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized applications



Capacity optimization features including compression,

deduplication, thin provisioning, and application-centric copies



High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability  Automated tiering with FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools) and FAST Cache that can be optimized for the

highest system performance and lowest storage cost simultaneously



Simplified management with EMC Unisphere™ for a single management interface for all NAS, SAN, and replication needs



Up to three times improvement in performance with the latest Intel Xeon Multicore processor technology, optimized for flash



Different software suites and packs are also available for the VNX series, which provide multiple features for enhanced protection and

performance.

Overview

EMC VNX family

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43 Software suites

The following VNX software suites are available:

 FAST Suite — Automatically optimizes for the highest system performance and the lowest storage cost simultaneously.

 Local Protection Suite — Practices safe data protection and repurposing.

 Remote Protection Suite — Protects data against localized failures, outages, and disasters.

 Application Protection Suite — Automates application copies and proves compliance.

 Security and Compliance Suite — Keeps data safe from changes, deletions, and malicious activity.

Software packs

The following VNX software packs are available:

 Total Efficiency Pack — Includes all five software suites.

 Total Protection Pack — Includes local, remote, and application protection suites.

VNX Snapshots is a software feature that creates point-in-time data copies.

VNX Snapshots can be used for data backups, software development and testing, repurposing, data validation, and local rapid restores. VNX

Snapshots improves on the existing ENC VNX SnapView^™ snapshot functionality by integrating with storage pools.

Note: LUNs created on physical RAID groups, also called RAID LUNs, support only SnapView snapshots. This limitation exists because VNX Snapshots requires pool space as part of its technology.

VNX Snapshots supports 256 writeable snapshots per pool LUN. It supports branching, also called ‘Snap of a Snap’, as long as the total number of snapshots for any primary LUN is less than 256, which is a hard limit.

VNX Snapshots uses redirect on write (ROW) technology. ROW redirects new writes destined for the primary LUN to a new location in the storage pool. Such an implementation is different from copy on first write (COFW) used in SnapView, which holds the writes to the primary LUN until the original data is copied to the reserved LUN pool to preserve a snapshot.

This release also supports consistency groups (CGs). Several pool LUNs can be combined into a CG and snapped concurrently. When a snapshot of a CG is initiated, all writes to the member LUNs are held until snapshots have been created. Typically, CGs are used for LUNs that belong to the same application.

EMC VNX Snapshots

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EMC VNX SnapSure^™ is an EMC VNX File software feature that enables you to create and manage checkpoints that are point-in-time, logical images of a production file system (PFS). SnapSure uses a copy-on-first-modify principle. A PFS consists of blocks. When a block within the PFS is modified, a copy containing the block’s original contents is saved to a separate volume called the SavVol.

Subsequent changes made to the same block in the PFS are not copied into the SavVol. The original blocks from the PFS in the SavVol and the unchanged PFS blocks remaining in the PFS are read by SnapSure according to a bitmap and block map data-tracking structure. These blocks combine to provide a complete point-in-time image called a checkpoint.

A checkpoint reflects the state of a PFS at the time the checkpoint was created. SnapSure supports these types of checkpoints:

 Read-only checkpoints — Read-only file systems created from a PFS

 Writeable checkpoints — Read/write file systems created from a read-only checkpoint

SnapSure can maintain a maximum of 96 read-only checkpoints and 16 writeable checkpoints per PFS, while allowing PFS applications continued access to real-time data.

Note: Each writeable checkpoint associates with a read-only checkpoint, referred to as the baseline checkpoint. Each baseline checkpoint can have only one associated writeable checkpoint.

For more detailed information, refer to the document Using VNX SnapSure.

EMC VNX Virtual Provisioning^™ enables organizations to reduce storage costs by increasing capacity utilization, simplifying storage management, and reducing application downtime. Virtual Provisioning also helps

companies to reduce power and cooling requirements and reduce capital expenditures.

Virtual Provisioning provides pool-based storage provisioning by

implementing pool LUNs that can be either thin or thick. Thin LUNs provide on-demand storage that maximizes the utilization of your storage by allocating storage only as needed. Thick LUNs provide high performance and predictable performance for your applications. Both types of LUNs benefit from the ease-of-use features of pool-based provisioning.

Pools and pool LUNs are also the building blocks for advanced data services such as FAST VP, VNX Snapshots, and compression. Pool LUNs also support a variety of additional features, such as LUN shrink, online

EMC VNX SnapSure

EMC VNX Virtual Provisioning

EMC VSPEX Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD

EMC VSPEX

EMC ® VSPEX ™ Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD

Microsoft

Windows

Server 2012 with Hyper-V

for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines

Enabled by Brocade VCS

Fabrics, EMC VNX

and EMC next -

Generation Backup

Contents

Chapter 1 Executive Summary 17

Chapter 2 Solution Overview 21

Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview 31

Chapter 4 Solution Architecture Overview 73

Chapter 5 VSPEX Configuration Guidelines 133

Chapter 6 Verifying the Solution 197

Chapter 7 System Monitoring 201

Chapter 8 Validation with Microsoft Fast Track v3 219

Appendix A Bill of Materials 225

Appendix B Customer Configuration Data Sheet 233

Appendix C Server Resources Component Worksheet 237

Appendix D References 239

Appendix E About VSPEX 243

Figures

Tables

Chapter 1 Executive Summary

Introduction

Target audience

Document purpose

Business needs

Chapter 2 Solution Overview

Introduction

Virtualization

Compute

Network

Storage

Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview

Overview

Summary of key components

Virtualization

Compute

Network

Storage

EMC ^® VSPEX ^™ Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD