614W: Platform Training on XenDesktop with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and NetApp

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614W: Platform Training on XenDesktop

with Cisco Unified Computing System

(UCS) and NetApp

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How to log into the lab environment

The student lab environment is hosted on a Citrix XenServer. Follow the directions below to access the server.

Note: Browser support: IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari (on MAC).

Step by step login instructions

Step Action

1. Launch your web browser and go to http://ilt.citrixsynergy.net

2. On the website, type in the session code provided by your instructor and your business email address. Click “Get started”.

3. Once you‟ve logged in, click the Start Lab button. This will launch your lab session. Note: Please wait for the application to launch.

4. Right-click XenCenter and select Add.

5. On the Add New Server screen enter the XenServer IP address provided on the website and in the Password field enter the password provided on the site.

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Cisco – Unified Computing System Manager

(UCSM)

Hands-on Training Module

This training module has the following details:

Objective  Provide hands-on experience UCSM configuring service profiles for hosting a XenDesktop environment.

Audience  Citrix Partners and Customers

Lab Environment Details

This section is used to describe the lab environment and the virtual machines that are used for this section of the lab:

VM Name IP Address Description

StudentVM DHCP Windows 7 Professional Cisco UCSM VM Static (Provided

on paper) CentOS open source Linux

Required Lab Credentials

Below you can find the login credentials required to connect to the environment and complete the lab exercises.

Domain/Machine Username Password Description

Training.lab Administrator Citrix123 Domain Administrator Local Administrator citrix Local Administrator

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Exercise 1: Connecting to UCS Manager

Overview

In this exercise we will connect from your StudentVM on XenServer to the UCS system you are going to configure for hosting a XenDesktop deployment. You will be using your web browser from your StudentVM to connect first to the UCSM launch page. From there you will launch UCSM and connect to the UCS simulator you will configure.

Step-by-step guidance

Estimated time to complete this lab: 10 minutes.

Step Action

1. The lab exercises start here with XenCenter. Click on the StudentVM and select the Console tab. On top right, Click Switch to Remote Desktop button to get better console performance. At the bottom of the page, click on the Undock button.

2. Open the web browser on your StudentVM desktop and enter your unique Cisco UCSM IP address assigned to you on the printed paper.

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Step Action

3. When you connect you will see the following screen.

4. Click the Launch UCS Manager button to launch the UCSM java client 5.

When the UCS login appears login using User: admin | Password: cisco123

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7. And the content pane on the right.

Notes  The Nav-Pane and the Content Pane will be used to help reference navigating the UCSM GUI through out the UCS exercises.

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Exercise 2: Creating a XenDesktop Site with a Personal vDisk enabled Desktop Group Page 9

Exercise 2: Create Pools in UCSM

Overview

In this exercise, you will create resources pools for your organization “VDI-callcen01”. The organization already exists and you will be creating resource pools for several resource types. Organization allow for resource segmentation assuming you choose to have multiple tenants to this UCS system. While you could assign specific resources at the time you are creating a service profile, resource pools allow this to be more dynamic, in particular when using templates which in turns allows us to scale easily and quickly. In this exercise we will create a pool for server blades.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. In the UCSM GUI look under the nav-pane and click on the “Server”tab. 2. In the Filter drop down box below the server tab select “Pools”.

3. Under your organization point to the “Server Pool” object and right click. From the subsequent pop-up menu select “Create Server Pool” as depicted in the graphic below:

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4. In the “Create Server Pool” pop-up windows enter the pool name “VDI-01-INF” and then click “Next” to continue:

5. On the “Add Servers” pop-up window select all the servers with the exception of the blades 3, 4, 5 and 7 on chassis 1. Let‟s assume these 4 blades belong to a different workload. (If you have time you can later check the features of these different blades).

Note: We are placing all blades in the pool regardless of their type. We use different types of blades for different purposes and it is often considered easier to create pools that contain only 1 type of blades. In our case we will use the capabilities of UCSM to select specifically the correct blade out of ths pool.

6.

When your blades are selected, click the to move them into your organizations server pool

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Step Action

7. Click the “Finish” button to complete this task and the “OK” button on the confirmation pop-up.

END OF EXERCISE

Notes  Upon completion you have created the following:

o Server-Pool: We created a single server pool and will use qualifiers to select specific blades:

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Exercise 3: Resetting and resizing the Personal vDisk Page 12

Exercise 3: Create Policies in UCSM

Overview

You will now create policies that will be consumed by the resources of the service profile. Remember that policies are used to apply behaviors characteristics to objects in a service profile. An example of this would be a QoS policy that will be applied to adapters in the service profile. In this exercise we will create a boot policy and 2 QoS policies for our adapters.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. In the nav-pane, in the filter drop down box, select the “Policies”.

2. Under the “Sub Organization” branch and then your organizations branch point to “Boot Policies” object and right click on it. When the pop-up menu appears select “Create Boot Policy” as depicted below:

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Step Action

3. In the “Create Boot Policy” pop-up window, enter the name “VDI-01-SAN”in the name filed:

4. After entering the name in the boot device options menus on the left side of the pop-up window, click on the double arrow button to expand the vHBAs object.

5. Click on the “Add SAN Boot” link under vHBAs as seen in the picture below.

6. In the “vHBA” field put “fc0” ; select the “Primary” radio button; and click the “OK” button to complete.

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8. In the “vHBA” field put “fc1”; select the “Secondary” radio button if needed; and click the “OK” button to complete.

9. Click on the “Add SAN Boot Target” link under vHBAs as seen in the picture below.

10. In the pop-up menu select “Add San Boot Target to SAN Primary”

In the “Add SAN Boot Target” pop-up window enter “0” in the “Boot Target LUN” field. In the “Boot Target WWPN” field enter “50:00:00:25:b5:be:ef:01”

Select the “Primary” radio button if it is not already selected and click the “OK” button and the subsequent “OK” button on the confirmation window to complete.

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Step Action

12. In the pop-up menu select “Add San Boot Target to SAN Secondary”

In the “Add SAN Boot Target” pop-up window enter “0” in the “Boot Target LUN” field. In the “Boot Target WWPN” field enter “50:00:00:25:b5:be:f0:00”

Select the “Secondary” radio button if it is not already selected and click the “OK” button and the subsequent “OK” button on the confirmation window to complete.

13. Click on the double arrow button to expand the Local Devices object 14. Click on the “Add CD-ROM” object to add this to the boot sequence.

Note: This allows us to boot a service profile and if there is not boot image it will boot from a virtual media we could assign, like an ISO file that would allow us to install the OS onto the LUN 0 defined as our boot LUN.

15. Your boot order should look like the following. Click “OK” to complete followed by the “OK” button on the subsequent confirmation window.

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16. On the nav-pane click on the “LAN” tab and then in the filter drop down box, select “Policies”

17. In the nav-pan expand the “Sub Organizations” branch and then the sub branch of your organization so you can see the policy object for your org.

18. Point to the “QoS Policy” object and right click. Select the “Create QoS Policy” from the pop-up menu as in the example:

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Step Action

19. In the “Create QoS Policy” enter the name “VDI-01-prod” In the priority drop down , select “Platinum”

In the “Burst (Bytes)” field set that to 65535 and leave all other parameters as they are.

20. Click the OK button to complete and the “OK” button once again on the pop-up confirmation window.

21. Point to the “QoS Policy” object and right click. Select the “Create QoS Policy” from the pop-up menu as in the example:

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22. In the “Create QoS Policy” enter the name “VDI-01-nonprod” In the priority drop down , select “Bronze”

In the “Burst (Bytes)” field set that to 32000

In the “Rate (Kbps)” field enter 1000000. Remember 1000000 Kbps is equal to 1Gbps. If you leave it at “Line Rate” means it is 10 Gbps. Leave all other parameters as they are and leave all other parameters as they are.

23. Click the OK button to complete and the “OK” button once again on the pop-up confirmation window.

END OF EXERCISE Notes

At the end of the exercise you now have the following:

 SAN Boot Policy. This is where you define what fibre channel interface you will boot from, the LUN id from the array, and the WWPN of the target the fibre channel interfaces boot from

 QoS Policy. You created 2 of these policies one for production traffic (our virtual desktops) which receives the highest priority and the other for nonproduction management traffic which requires less priority.

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Exercise 4: Capturing and reviewing PvD log files

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Exercise 4: Creating Resource Templates

Overview

In this exercise, you will create vNIC and vHBA templates. By creating these as templates we can easily define vNIC parameters each time we instantiated a new service profile. Without a template these parameters would have to be defined individually each time you add a vNIC to the service profile. You will be creating templates for vNICs (Ethernet Traffic) and for vHBA (Fibre Channel Traffic). Since we have 2 fabrics (A and B) we will create 2 production templates (one for A one for B) and 2 non-production templates (one for A and one for B). We will also create a template for the vHBAs (one for A and one for B).

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. On the nav-pane click on the “LAN” tab and then in the filter drop down box, select “Policies”

2. In the nav-pane expand the “Sub Organizations” branch and then the sub branch of your organization so you can see the policy objects for your org.

3. Point to the “vNIC Templates” object and right click. Select the “Create vNIC Template” from the pop-up menu as in the example

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5. In the “Fabric ID” box select the “Fabric A” radio button and the check box to enable failover.

In the “Template Type” box select the “Updating Template” radio button

In the VLAN selection box, locate by scrolling to “prod-101” When you locate it by name in the box click the check box to assign it.

In the MAC Pool drop down box select default In the QoS drop down box select “VDI-01-prod”

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Step Action

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 once more this time creating an identical template for fabric B. Make sure to select fabric B for this template.

Note: When you complete this you will have a production template for both fabric A and B now you need to create one for non-production traffic.

7. Point to the “vNIC Templates” object and right click. Select the “Create vNIC Template” from the pop-up menu as in the example

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9. In the “Fabric ID” box select the “Fabric A” radio button and the check box to enable failover.

In the “Template Type” box select the “Updating Template” radio button

In the VLAN selection box, locate by scrolling to “nonprod-201” When you locate it by name in the box click the check box to assign it.

In the MAC Pool drop down box select default In the QoS drop down box select “VDI-01-nonprod”

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Step Action

10. Repeat steps 7 through 9 once more this time creating an identical template for fabric B. Make sure to select fabric B for this template.

Note: When you complete this you will have a non-production template for both fabric A and B now you need to create your vHBA templates

11. On the nav-pane click on the “SAN” tab and then in the filter drop down box, select “Policies”

12. In the nav-pane expand the “Sub Organizations” branch and then the sub branch of your organization so you can see the policy objects for your org.

13. Point to the “vHBA Templates” object and right click. Select the “Create vHBA Template” from the pop-up menu as in the example:

14. In the “Create vHBA Template” pop-up window enter the name “VDI-SAN01-A” 15. In the “Fabric ID” box select the “Fabric A” radio button

In the VSAN selection leave it on “default”.

In the “Template Type” box select the “Updating Template” radio button In the “WWN Pool” drop down box select “VDI-01”

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Click the OK button to complete and the “OK” button once again on the pop-up confirmation window.

16. Repeat steps 13 through 15 and create a second template this time for fabric B

END OF EXERCISE

Notes

After completing this exercise you have created 2 production templates for vNICs and 2 non-production templates for vNICs as well as 2 for vHBA or fibre channel connectivity. Each template consumed resources created in previous exercise. Now we need to build the templates for the service profiles that will use all the resources created.

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Exercise 5: Preparing the PVS vDisk for PVD Page 25

Exercise 5: Creating Service Profile

Templates

Overview

In this exercise, you will create service profile templates for 2 types of XenServer Hosts. The first will be for the infrastructure VMs (PVS, XenApp, Licensing, AD, DHCP, etc.). Once we have created it we will repeat the steps to create a second template for our desktop hosts. Both these service profile templates will be designed to use the SAN boot policy for stateless ness that we created in previous exercise. The servers you create will already have XenServer installed on their boot LUN, so we should be able to create multiple service profiles from theses templates.

Step by-step guidance

Step Action

1. In the nav-pane, click on the “Server” tab and then in the “Filter” drop down box select “Service Profile Templates”

2. In the nav-pane expand the “Sub Organizations” branch and then click and select your organization.

3. In the “Actions Menu”, click on the action, “Create Service Profile Template” as seen following this step:

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4. In the name field enter the name “VDI-HOST”

In the “Type” box select the “Initial Template” radio button.

In the “UUID Assignment” drop down box, click and select the “default” pool

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Step Action

6. On the “Local Storage” drop down box select the policy “default”

On the page where it asks, “How do you want to configure SAN connectivity?” click on the “Expert” radio button.

In the select “WWNN Assignment” Drop down select “node-default”

Near the bottom of the page click on the “Add” button to open the “Create vHBA” pop-up window.

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7. On the “Create vHBA” pop-up window, enter “fc0” for the name of the vHBA and then click to mark the box for “Use SAN Connectivity Template”.

In the “vHBA Template” drop down box select “VDI-SAN01-A”

Click the “Ok” button to complete 8.

When you return to the storage configuration window click on the “Add” button again to add a second vHBA.

9. On the “Create vHBA” pop-up window, enter “fc1” for the name of the vHBA and then click to mark the box for “Use SAN Connectivity Template”.

In the “vHBA Template” drop down box select “VDI-SAN01-B”

Click the “OK” button to complete. 10. Click the “Next” button to continue

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Step Action

11. On the page where it asks, “How do you want to configure LAN connectivity?” click on the “Expert” radio button.

Near the bottom of the page click on the “Add” button to open the “Create vNIC” pop-up window

12. In the “Name” field enter “eth0”

Click in the check box for “Use LAN Connectivity Template”

In the “vNIC Template” drop down box select the vNIC template “VDI-nonprod01-A” Click the “OK” button to complete this vNIC

13.

When you return to the storage configuration window click on the “Add” button again to add a second vNIC.

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In the “vNIC Template” drop down box select the vNIC template “VDI-nonprod01-B” Click the “OK” button to complete this vNIC

15.

When you return to the storage configuration window click on the “Add” button again to add a third vNIC.

In the “vNIC Template” drop down box select the vNIC template “VDI-prod01-A” Click the “OK” button to complete this vNIC

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Step Action

17.

When you return to the storage configuration window click on the “Add” button again to add a fourth vNIC.

In the “vNIC Template” drop down box select the vNIC template “VDI-prod01-B” Click the “OK” button to complete this vNIC

19. Click the “Next” button to continue

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21. In the “Boot Policy” drop down box select the SAN boot policy “VDI-01-SAN”

You should see a primary and secondary boot from SAN 22. Click “Next” to continue

23. On the Maintenance Policy page just click “Next” to continue

24. In the “Pool Assignment” drop down box, select the server pool “Assign Later” Select the “Down” radio button for the selected power state after association

25. Click “Next” to continue

26. Click “Next” on the Operational Policies page

27. Click “Finish” to complete this Service Profile Template followed by the “OK” button on the subsequent pop-up window.

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Notes  Now that this is complete you can see how easy it is to assemble service profiles after defining these types of resource objects

 This make deployments consistent and easily scalable

 Now we need to instantiate 2 Infrastructure hosts and 2 Virtual Desktop Hosts

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Exercise 6: Creating Streamed VM’s with Personal vDisk using PVS-XenDesktop Setup Wizard Page 34

Exercise 6: Deploying Service Profiles from

Template

Overview

This exercise will now bring together all the efforts we have done in the previous 5 exercises. First we will instantiate 2 service profiles for the infrastructure VM hosts. Next we will instantiate 2 more for the virtual desktop VM hosts. Once this is complete you can examine easily in UCSM resource

consumption from the resources you created. Finally you will instantiate a few more Infrastructure and desktop VM hosts while finally setting them to boot. Once you tell them to boot this exercise is complete. And you will continure by now setting up XenDesktop.

Step-by-step guidance

Estimated time to complete this lab: 40minutes.

Step Action

1. In UCSM click on the “Server” tab in the nav-pane, and then in the “Filter” drop down box select “Service Profile Templates”

In the nav-pane expand if needed the “Sub Organizations” branch and then the sub branch of your organization, finally right clicking on the template you just finished creating.

2. In the nav-pane expand if needed the “Sub Organizations” branch and then the sub branch of your organization , finally right clicking on the template “VDI-HOST”

3. In the pop-up menu select “Create Service Profiles From Template” following this task is an example of this

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Step Action

4. In the “Create Service Profiles From Template” pop-up Window in the “Naming Prefix” field enter a name “Infra-host” and leave the number of service profiles at 2

5. Click the “OK” button to continue and once again on the confirmation pop-up

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 again only this time use the naming prefix “VDI-HOST-VDH” 7. In the “Filter” drop down box in the nav-pane now select “Service Profiles”

In the nav-pane under the “Sub Organizations” branch and finally under your organization you should see 4 service profile.

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8. In the corresponding content pane; click on the button “Change Service Profile Association” in the “Actions” menu.

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Step Action

9. In the “Associate Service Profile” pop-up window; then in the “Server Assignment” drop down box select the pool “VDI-01-INF

In the “Server Pool Qualification:” drop down box select the qualification “VDI01-INF” Click “OK” button and then the subsequent “YES” and “OK” in the confirmation pop-ups to complete.

Note: What we are doing is using a common pool for all blade types. The qualifier tells UCSM specifically what kind of blade to choose from a pool that contains multiple blade types. This way we need only 1 blade pool and can easily add blades to the pool and assign them easily from this single pool using qualifiers.

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11. In the nav-pane under the “Sub Organizations” branch and finally under your organization you should see 4 service profile.

Point to the third service profile (VDI-HOST-VDH1)and left click on it 12. In the corresponding content pane; click on the button “Change Service Profile

Association” in the “Actions” menu.

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Step Action

13. In the “Associate Service Profile” pop-up window; then in the “Server Assignment” drop down box select the pool “VDI-01-INF

In the “Server Pool Qualification:” drop down box select the qualification “VDI01-VDH” Click “OK” button and then the subsequent “YES” and “OK” in the confirmation pop-ups to complete.

Note: This qualifier does the same thing the previous qualifier does. Specifically in this qualifier I am stating that the service profile can only use a B250 blade type. The pool contains B200 and B250 blades, so this is how we ensure that the virtual desktop hosts will get the proper blade needed for performance and sizing.

14. Repeat steps 11 through 13 for VDI-HOST-VDH2”

15. When the change is made the profile will immediately select a blade and begin to do the “Association process” which is configuring the blade with all that is specified in the profile. When they complete association they will be marked as down meaning they need to boot 16. Take some time to examine your service profiles. Check out their adapter configurations as

well as the differences in the blades they have selected from their respective pools 17. When you are ready select each service profile and boot it separately by selecting it in the

nav-pane and then choosing Boot Server from the actions menu.

18. The servers are actually on an emulator so we cannot monitor boot however you can see how easy it is to instantiate them.

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19. Examine your resources especially your server pools and see if you have exhausted any of your pools.

20. At this point you would be running the KVM built into UCSM to either monitor boot or install an OS. Either way this lab is complete and you are ready now to begin to install and configure XenDesktop

END OF EXERCISE

Notes  This completes this exercise. Thank You for participating in UCS and Citrix XenDesktop.

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NetApp Section 1: Provisioning Storage with

the NetApp VSC for Citrix XenServer

Hands-on Training Module

This training module has the following details:

Objective Give you the opportunity to test-drive NetApp storage and management

technology. The lab will demonstrate how NetApp tools help you improve efficiency, optimize capacity, and increase operational agility.

Audience Citrix Partners and Customers; Citrix XenDesktop administrators,

engineers and architects.

Lab Environment Details

This section is used to describe the lab environment and the virtual machines that are used for this section of the lab:

VM Name IP Address Description

StudentVM DHCP Windows 7 Professional Data ONTAP Simulator Static (Provided on paper) NetApp ONTAP OnCommand

BALANCE Static (Provided on paper) Linux

Required Lab Credentials

Below you can find the login credentials required to connect to the environment and complete the lab exercises.

Domain/Machine Username Password Description

Training.lab Administrator Citrix123 Domain Administrator Local Administrator citrix Local Administrator

ONTAP root netapp12 NetApp Simulator

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Exercise 1: Access the NetApp VSC plugin

on Citrix XenCenter

Overview

This exercise focuses on the NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) plugin for Citrix XenCenter. This section looks at how Citrix administrators can use NetApp VSC to improve efficiency by simplifying the provisioning and management of storage in a Citrix XenServer environment.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. The lab exercises start here with XenCenter. Click on the StudentVM and select the Console tab. At the bottom of the page, click on the Undock button.

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Step Action

2. On the StudentVM Desktop, your first exercises will use the Citrix XenCenter.

Additional exercises will use NetApp OnCommand System Manager and NetApp Insight Balance operational analytics software, accessed with the Internet Explorer browser. To begin the lab, double-click on the Citrix XenCenter icon.

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4. On the Add New Server screen enter the XenServer IP address provided on the Synergy website and in the Password field enter the password provided on the site. This is the same XenServer you added earlier. You are re-adding it in the Student VM since the NetApp VSC plugin is installed on the XenCenter instance within this Student VM.

5. Click on the newly added XenServer host then click on the Networking tab. Note the Gateway IP address of the Public Management interface. In the image below it is

37.58.85.65 subtract one from the last number and make note of this IP address as it will be needed in step 7. In this example our new IP address will be 37.58.85.64.

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Step Action

6. We can now adjust VSC preferences for your environment. Select Tools, NetApp User Preferences

7. A VSC User Preferences screen will appear. Double-click on NFS Mount Networks. Take the IP address of the Gateway minus 1 and enter it into the NFS Mount Networks. In this example the gateway address was 37.58.85.65, so the NFS Mount Networks will be 37.58.85.64.

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8. You will now use the VSC to add a storage controller to your XenCenter environment. Select Tools, NetApp  Discovery and Management

9. Click on the “Add a Controller” button to add NetApp storage to your XenCenter environment.

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Step Action

10. The New Controller Wizard will launch. Ensure “Add a single controller” is selected and enter the address given to you and root/netapp12 as the credentials. Click Next.

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11. You will see the interface used to connect to the storage controller is on the left side and the storage aggregates that can be used to create new storage repositories is on the right side. Ensure aggr0 is not selected because it is used for the storage controllers operating system and is best practice to not put any other data on it. Click Finish to continue.

END OF EXERCISE

Note You have now added NetApp storage to your XenCenter environment utilizing the NetApp VSC for Citrix XenServer tool. It is now ready for performing storage repository provisioning and cloning operations.

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Exercise 2: Simplifying Storage Repository

(SR) Provisioning, Provisioning SRs Quickly

and Easily

Overview

In this exercise you will create a storage repository using the NetApp VSC for XenServer tool.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. Notice that the XenServer in your lab is not a cluster. Choosing to act at the server-level allows VSC to connect the new storage repository to this specific XenServer host. If there were a cluster, you could provision the new storage repository at the cluster level and assign it to every XenServer in the cluster.

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3. Select the default target controller. Click the Next button on the bottom right of the dialog to continue.

The NetApp Storage Repository Provisioning Wizard will appear and you can select the target controller that will house the new volume.

4. Enter the following values in their respective fields, ignoring all others: Size: 200GB

Storage Repository name: vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> Aggregate: aggr1

ThinProv: Checked Click Next to continue.

Notice that the aggregate only contains 98.44 GB. By using Thin Provisioning, a volume will only consume storage capacity as needed. That is why the 200GB of virtual space can "fit" in the 98.44 GB of space available.

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Step Action

5. Confirm the settings and click Finish.

6. A new task will appear in the lower left hand corner. A new NFS storage repository will be created on the NetApp storage controller attached to the XenServer host with settings that are optimized specifically for XenServer.

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7. Click on the XenServer host and click the Storage tab. Here you can validate the values you entered.

The new storage is now connected to this XenServer host. Note: The usage is at 51% due to thin provisioning.

8. Highlight the newly created storage repository, right click on it and select “Set as Default”.

END OF EXERCISE

Notes In this exercise you created a new Storage Repository using the NetApp VSC for XenServer tool.

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Exercise 3: Growing or Shrinking Live

Storage Repositories with Ease and

Non-disruptively

Overview

In this exercise you will resize the storage repository you created in the previous exercise.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. Click on the XenServer host and select the Storage tab. Highlight the vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> storage repository. Right-click on it then select NetApp > Resize Storage Repository.

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2. This interface presents the Volume Settings information for the

vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> storage repository and offers the ability to resize that storage repository by entering a new value.

Clear the New Size field value and enter the new value of 100.00. Click Ok.

3. Click on the XenServer host and select the Storage tab. Highlight the

vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> storage repository and note the new size of the storage repository is now 100GB.

END OF EXERCISE

Notes In this exercise the storage repository created in the previous exercise was quickly and easily resized on a live storage repository without disrupting production.

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Exercise 4: Cloning Virtual Machines with

the NetApp VSC for XenServer

Overview

In this exercise you will clone 10 virtual machines using the NetApp VSC for XenServer.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. First we will create a new virtual machine using the storage repository created earlier in the lab. Highlight your XenServer, right click and select New VM.

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2. Select Win7Template and click Next.

3. Enter the name of your new VM that you will clone with NetApp VSC. Enter VM_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial>. Click Next.

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Step Action

4. Click “Boot from network” and click Next.

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6. For processor and memory resources enter: Number of vCPUs: 1

Memory: 1024

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Step Action

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8. Next you will add virtual disk to your new virtual machine. Enter the following values: Name: NetApp_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial>

Size: 10GB

Location: vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> Click Add to continue and Next on the New VM screen.

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Step Action

9. Accept the defaults for Networking and click Next.

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11. Highlight the newly created machine and select the Storage tab. You will notice that the new virtual machine has been created on NetApp storage.

12. From XenCenter, right click on VM_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial>and select NetApp VSC > Clone Virtual Machine.

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Step Action

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14. Enter the following information regarding the naming and number of clones to create. Number of Clones: 10

Base Clone Name: Clone_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> Starting Clone Number: 1

Clone Increment: 1

Power On: Leave unchecked. Click Next to continue.

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Step Action

15. Enter the following regarding the vCPU and memory each clone will be assigned. Number of vCPUs: 1

Memory: 1024 MB Click Next to continue.

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16. The storage repository will default to vscSR1_<YourFirstName>_<LastInitial> as its storage repository. Click Next.

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Step Action

18. After the cloning process is completed you will notice that no additional storage space has been used. The reason is that thee clones are thin provisioned and will only begin using storage when changes are made to them.

END OF EXERCISE

Notes In this exercise you created a new virtual machine on NetApp storage and created 10 NetApp clones using the NetApp VSC for XenServer.

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NetApp Section 2: Storage 101 with NetApp

System Manager

Exercise 1: Logging in and Discovering

Storage

Overview

In this exercise you will log into NetApp System Manager and discover storage.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. Double click on the NetApp OnCommand System Manager icon to launch System Manager.

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Step Action

2. Once System Manager has launched you will be at the Home screen, click on the Add button to add a new storage controller.

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4. The new storage controller will now appear on the Home screen. Click the Login button to login to the storage controller.

5. Enter the following credentials and click Sign in. User name: root

Password: netapp12

END OF EXERCISE

Notes In this section you logged into NetApp System Manager and added a storage controller, which allows you to administer NetApp storage from a GUI.

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Exercise 2: Validating a Volume and

Examining an Aggregate

Overview

In this exercise you will validate that the storage repository you created with VSC for XenServer is visible in NetApp System Manager and examine a storage aggregate.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. Click on the arrow to the left of Storage and then click on Volumes. You will validate that the storage repository created earlier shows up in NetApp System Manager. In System Manager the storage repository is known as a Volume.

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3. Click on aggr1 and click on Edit.

4. The Edit Aggregate window will appear. You will notice that the RAID type is set to Dual Parity or DP and the RAID Group Size is set to 16. RAID DP provides redundant parity protection for the data drives in aggr1. The RAID Group Size is not the number of drives in the aggregate, only the number of drives per RAID grouping. Best practice is to make your aggregates as large as possible for best performance. Click Cancel to continue.

Notes In this section you validated that a storage repository / volume you created in

NetApp VSC for XenServer was available in NetApp System Manager and examined a storage aggregate.

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Exercise 3: Validating the CIFS Service and

Creating a New CIFS Share

Overview

In this exercise you will validate that CIFS has been setup and is running, create a new CIFS share using NetApp System Manager and create and restore a file using NetApp Snapshot copies.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. You will now verify that the CIFS service is running. Click on the arrow next to Configuration, and then click on Protocols and next on CIFS.

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2. Here you can see that CIFS is started and ready to have a share added to it.

3. Click on the Shares icon and click Create to create a new CIFS share.

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Step Action

5. Click on the arrow next to root and aggr1. Here you should see the storage repository / volume you created in VSC for XenServer. It should be named

vscSR1_<YourLastName>_<First Initial>. Click on this storage repository /volume and click OK.

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6. You will notice that the Folder to Share and Share Name are now populated. Click Create to create the new CIFS share.

7. In System Manager you will now see the newly created CIFS share.

8. Next you will mount your CIFS share from your virtual machine. Click the Windows Start button.

9. In the run box, type in the address of your ONTAP storage controller given to you at the beginning of the lab and hit enter.

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Step Action

10. You will now see your CIFS share listed in the window that opens. Since you are logged in as the administrator of this virtual machine you were not asked for a user name and

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11. Double click the vscSR1_<YourLastName>_<First Initial> folder and create a new text file in that directory called <YourLastName>_<First Initial>.txt to ensure the CIFS share is working successfully.

12. Go back into NetApp System Manager. Click on Volumes, Snapshot Copies and select Create.

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Step Action

14. At the bottom of NetApp System Manager, click on the Snapshot Copies tab to see the snapshot copy that was created.

15. Go back to your virtual machine and delete the text file named <YourLastName>_<First Initial>.txt. You will restore it using the NetApp Snapshot copy you just created.

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16. Go back to NetApp System Manager and click on the Restore button at the bottom of the screen. A Restore Volume menu will appear, check the “Restore volume from this

Snapshot copy” box and click Restore.

17. Go back to Windows Explorer and refresh the CIFS share. You will notice the file you deleted has been restored using NetApp Snapshot copies.

Notes In this section you validated that the CIFS service was running, created and mounted a new CIFS share and created and restored a NetApp Snapshot copy.

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NetApp Section 3: Optimizing Performance

and Capacity

Exercise 1: Troubleshooting Your

Environment

Overview

This portion of the NetApp Hands-on-Lab will introduce you to OnCommand Insight Balance. Insight Balance is a powerful operational analytics software package that gathers performance and capacity information about your environment and analyzes it to help you identify both existing and emergent performance issues. The Insight Balance portion of the lab will call on your abilities to use this performance information:

 Investigate a problem

 Gather information about it

 Identify the root causes

 Recommend a solution strategy

The exercises are intended to demonstrate how you can use the information Insight Balance contains to improve the performance and efficiency of your infrastructure.

Step-by-step guidance

Step Action

1. Launch OnCommand Insight Balance.

Double-click Internet Explorer browser icon to access NetApp Insight Balance.

2. Enter the IP address of the Insight Balance VM provided to you in the URL bar, to access your NetApp Insight Balance environment.

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3. If prompted, click on Continue to this website to dismiss the message.

4. Login to the Web Console by entering the following information in the respective fields: User: admin

Password: password Click Login.

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Step Action

5. Understanding the Insight Balance Dashboard

When the Insight Balance interface appears, maximize the size of the window. The top section (highlighted in RED) presents a set of tabs that allows you to select a segment of infrastructure on which to focus.

The next section, abnormal storage events during the last 72 hours (highlighted in

YELLOW), presents any abnormalities in storage for the past three days.

The third section (highlighted in GREEN) presents the Top 5 VMs in trouble / at risk, which is a historical view of virtual machines with CPU, Memory or Storage issues.

The forth section (highlighted in BLUE), presents virtual hosts in trouble / at risk, which is ESX, ESXi or Hyper-V hosts with CPU, Memory or Storage issues.

The final section, Monitored environment summary (highlighted in PURPLE), displays an overall summary of the monitored environment.

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6. Looking Into the Database Performance Problem

Upon looking at the dashboard, notice that the database server, Windows2003_1_MsSQL, hosting the Microsoft SQL database in on the list of top 5 VMs in trouble / at risk,

suggesting there is a problem.

Looking at the right side of the interface, you will notice that both the memory and CPU status are normal. However, the storage status is critical (RED). This combination of statuses suggests that the server is experiencing an issue related to storage.

7. Click on Windows2003_1_MsSQL, on the left side of the interface. 8. Server Summary Page

The Server page presents detailed information about the database server, Windows2003_1_MsSQL.

Tabs at the top of the screen (CPU, Memory or Storage) provide access to basic statistics for this virtual machine. However, Insight Balance adds a powerful analytics engine that translates those statistics into information that you can use to identify and remediate performance issues in the infrastructure; even at a VM-granular level.

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Step Action

9. Trouble with storage.

Notice the red exclamation (!) on the Storage tab. The presence of an error on this tab points to storage-related performance issues.

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Step Action

11. Drilling In To Diagnose the Issue

The top chart, Infrastructure Response Time (IRT), presents the average total response time for the VM's data processing events, broken down by CPU Response Time and Storage Response Time. At the top of the chart are several statistical sample periods (from one day to one year) to choose from.

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13. Identifying Relative Contributions to IRT

The information in the IRT chart is very telling.

The IRT values for transactions processed by MSSQL VM are hovering in the range of 900 to 1100 milliseconds (ms), in the PINK band. Of that time, the CPU is contributing only 4 ms; a contribution so small it is barely visible on the chart (GREEN). On the other hand, storage latency is creating the remainder of the IRT; approximately 900 - 1095 ms (RED). If we managed to cut the CPU response time in half, the IRT would only decrease by 2 ms, improving performance by less than one percent.

However, if we halved the storage response time, the IRT would be cut in half, reducing the IRT by over 450 ms.

As storage is contributing over 99% of transactional latency, it appears we should focus our efforts there.

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Step Action

14. Drilling Into the Data Topology

Now that we know the storage layer is introducing the vast majority of the transactional latency, it's time to drill into the environment and see what infrastructure components are involved in the flow of data. The Data Topology tab provides just such a view.

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16. Observations

The Data Topology view provides a clear layout of how the pieces of the infrastructure supporting the MSSQL service are connected; from the database, to the VM, to the virtualization host, to the storage.

In this case, two VMs are hosting database instances: Windows2003_1_MsSQL and MasterMsSQL. The MasterMsSQL instance has objects on two volumes: the C: and E: drives. The status of the C: drive is GREEN, while the status of the E: drive is RED. It appears that the storage volume supporting the E: drive, disk group 1 (a RAID-5 set composed of 3 drives), is experiencing performance issues. We will need to take a closer look at the E: drive.

Applications VMs with Volumes/LUNs

ESX servers with Datastores and LUNs

Array with LUNs/Disks

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Step Action

17. Drilling In Further

18. Click on the E: drive to take a closer look. 19. Making the Path Clearer

Selecting the E: drive highlights its entire data path. As the flow is now highlighted, it becomes clear that all objects on the path are experiencing performance issues. Notice that the icons representing the database, the storage volume, the host connections, and the RAID group on the storage array are all red. In general, Insight Balance best practices recommend troubleshooting an issue from right to left in the interface, as "upstream" objects, like servers, inherit problems that are experienced at the physical disk-layer.

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20. Examining the RAID Group

Since it's best to begin troubleshooting this issue at the level of the RAID disk group, this view of the topology is not ideal. It would be helpful to re-orient the display so that the topology of the connections to the disk group was more clearly visible. Fortunately, Insight Balance offers the "Re-orient" feature, allowing you to shift the focus of the display to highlight a specific piece of the infrastructure.

21. Right-click on red Array disk group labeled 2(3) and select Re-orient Topology. 22. A Clearer View

After the re-orientation, the focus of the topology is now centered on disk group 2 (denoted by the yellow halo). In this view, all infrastructure dependencies on disk group 2 are now clearly evident.

Notice that there are multiple server volumes with a red status connected to the disk group. While this view is better, we can improve the clarity of this display even further.

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Step Action

24. Clearer Still

After shifting the placement of Disk Group 2, it is easy to see that multiple hosts

(highlighted by RED ARROWS) are being affected by the performance issue of this disk group.

As the issue is affecting multiple hosts, the need to isolate the cause of the issue becomes more urgent.

Now we really need to determine what storage dependency these hosts have in common. 25. Summary Page

26. To display information about these hosts, right-click the disk group and select Open Summary Page.

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27. The Performance Summary Page

The link will take you to the Performance Summary display. A little orientation will be helpful.

The top bar (highlighted in RED) indicates that we are on the Performance page.

The first graph (highlighted in YELLOW) presents a view of the Infrastructure Response Time.

The next graph (highlighted in GREEN) presents Throughput information. Measured in IOPS (Inputs/Outputs Operations Per Second), this chart indicates storage performance. The final section (highlighted in BLUE) presents I/O, Response Time, and Disk

Utilization information for the dependent hosts. The list of hosts is sorted by the resources each host is consuming, from highest to lowest.

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Step Action

Infrastructure Response Time vs. Disk Utilization

Please Note: The sample image provided is a composite of two samples for your convenience.

The dark grey section of the top graph indicates that disk utilization is approaching 100% (RED). This value represents the total of the disk utilization for all workloads using that disk group. This value is based on throughput, response time, and queue depth. As the dark grey section extends upward, disk utilization increases, peaking at a maximum value of 100%.

The light grey section of the graph represents response time for the host. As the light grey section extends downward, response time deteriorates, adding milliseconds to each transaction.

28. Mouse over the dark grey Disk Utilization section for the time period March 2, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Notice that the disk utilization has increased and remained quite high. 29. Now mouse over the light grey Response Time section for the time period March 2

10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Notice that, as disk utilization rises, response time increases. This information reinforces the conclusion that the performance issue is related to disk contention.

30. A Closer Look at Disk IOPS

Please Note: The sample image is a composite of two samples for your convenience. The next graph displays the IOPS the disks performed during that same time interval.

31. Mouse over the dark grey section (Read IOPS) for the time period March 2 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Notice that disk read activity varies from 439 IOPS to 437 IOPS during this period.

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32. Now mouse over the light grey section (Write IOPS) for the time period March 2 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Notice that, disk write activity varies from 866 IOPS to 856 IOPS. 33. In this example, the storage is using RAID-5 as its configuration. RAID-5 is optimized for

reading data, as each write requires the calculation and writing of parity data to allow data recovery in the event of a disk failure. RAID5 configurations are not particularly efficient. As a result, the number of IOPS is exceeding the I/O capacity of this disk group. The high percentage of writes also suggests that the I/O characteristics of the applications using it are incompatible with RAID-5. In that case, using this disk group was a poor choice,

Using this information, we can concluded that the performance problem with the Raid Group 2 is caused by:

An excessive amount of raw IO

Application IO characteristics that are too write-intensive for RAID-5.

Now, the critical question is: Which VM is consuming excessive resources? 34. Looking For a Bully

The set of graphs at the bottom of the page presents the list of servers/VMs using disk group 2, with those consuming the largest volume of resources at the top of the list. As virtualization relies on shared resources, any VM that consumes excessive resources may affect the operation of other VMs relying on those same resources; in essence "bullying" them by taking the resources they rely upon.

At the top of the list of VMs are Win2K3 Converter and the MasterMsSQL server. These two VMs are the most likely bullies. However, we will need more information to be certain. That information can be found on the Contention tab (at the top of the page) or simply by clicking on the win2k3_Converter server link in the current window.

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Step Action

36. VM IO Details

The win2k3_Converter server link brings you to the page presenting the total IOPS for Disk Group 2, the win2k3_Converter server's only disk group. If the VM used multiple disk groups, all would be displayed on this page.

The performance issue seems to be related to a specific disk on a VM, so it makes sense to look at the performance of the volume behind that disk.

37. Click on the Volumes (2) link to see the IO break down by volume instead of by disk group.

Note: The interface relies on Java. If the Java loading message appears and does not clear after a minute or two, please refresh the page by hitting the "Refresh" button on the browser menu bar.

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38. The Volume Summary Overview

The first thing that grabs your attention in the Volume Summary Overview pane is the red exclamation mark (!) next to the volume mapping to drive E:. This error state suggests there is a critical issue with that volume.

Combining the following:

The presence of that exclamation mark indicating a critical error

The IO for that VM placed it at the top of the list of resource consumers

This makes the VM is an excellent candidate for some additional scrutiny. Let's drill in further.

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Step Action

40. The Volume Details Overview Page

The Volume Details Overview page contains information about the performance of the selected volume. Let's examine it, as well.

The top graph, Perceived Disk Utilization (highlighted in RED), presents information about disk utilization from the server's (VM's) perspective.

The second graph, Outstanding IO (highlighted in YELLOW) presents the average length of the volume's IO queue waiting to be processed.

The third graph, Response Time (highlighted in PURPLE) presents response time for the volume.(Explained earlier)

The fourth graph, Throughput (highlighted in GREEN) conveys Read and Write IO statistics for the volume. (Explained earlier).

The final graph, Capacity (highlighted in BLUE), conveys the amount of available and consumed space on the volume.

For purposes of this exercise, we will be concerned with two data sets: Perceived Disk Utilization and Throughput.

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41. The Impact of Perceived Disk Utilization

So, how can we use Perceived Disk Utilization to diagnose the performance issue? In general, the amount of disk utilization reported by an operating system (OS) is not reliable, as the OS believes it is talking to a single disk rather than the multiple disks of a RAID group on shared storage. Since Insight Balance has end-to-end visibility into the storage infrastructure, it can correct that OS-derived value so that it represents the state of disk utilization accurately, taking into account all parts of the storage fabric.

Looking at the graph:

The yellow line represents the threshold at which a disk performance warning level has been reached.

The red line represents the threshold at which a critical state has been reached.

The green background represents the Perceived Disk Utilization the server is actually

experiencing.

In that the amount of Perceived Disk Utilization exceeds both the warning and critical thresholds by a significant amount, the server (VM) using this volume is clearly experiencing constrained IO.

We now know that the server is having difficulty getting enough throughput to this volume to service the I/O requests that applications are demanding. This information confirms that this volume on this server is the likely culprit.

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Step Action

42. Examining Throughput

Note: The sample image is a composite of two samples for your convenience. The fourth graph, throughput, presents the read and write IOPS for the volume under examination.

The data indicate that the volume of IO is exceeding a total of 430 IOPS (totaling read and write IO). This volume of IO cannot be sustained by a three-disk RAID set. As a result, Win2K3_converter is generating more traffic than the disk group can manage.

Compounding the problems caused by excessive IO, the ratio of read IOPS to write IOPS is nearly 1 to 1. As was mentioned earlier, RAID is optimized for read operations. A workload with this percentage of reads to writes is not compatible with a RAID-5 configuration; particularly a RAID group with only three disk spindles to share the load. This graph confirms the cause of the performance problem: an over utilized RAID group with excessive IO activity caused by a bullying VM.

43. Returning to the Data Topology View

44. Click on the Data Topology sub-tab. 45. Center the Data Topology Display

614W: Platform Training on XenDesktop with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and NetApp