EMC VSPEX with Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD

Transcription

1 Proven Infrastructure EMC VSPEX with Brocade Networking Solution for PRIVATE CLOUD Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade VCS Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup EMC VSPEX Abstract This document describes the EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure solution for private cloud deployments with Brocade VDX networking, Microsoft Hyper- V, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup for up to 125 virtual machines. August 2014

2 2014 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ADX, AnyIO, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, OpenScript, VCS, VDX, and Vyatta are registered 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. Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. Published August 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. EMC 2, 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. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup Part Number 2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

3 Contents Chapter 1 Executive Summary 15 Introduction Target audience Document purpose Business needs Chapter 2 Solution Overview 19 Introduction Virtualization Compute Networking Storage EMC next-generation VNXe EMC Powered Backup Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview 29 Overview Summary of key components Virtualization Overview Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel ports Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager High availability with Hyper-V Failover Clustering Hyper-V Replica Hyper-V snapshot Cluster-Aware Updating EMC Storage Integrator Compute Network Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 3

4 Contents Overview Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switch for Block Based Storage Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric switch for file based storage Storage Overview EMC VNXe EMC VNXe Virtual Provisioning Windows Offloaded Data Transfer EMC PowerPath VNXe FAST Cache VNXe FAST VP VNXe file shares ROBO Backup and recovery Overview EMC Avamar deduplication EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems EMC RecoverPoint Other technologies EMC XtremCache Chapter 4 Solution Architecture Overview 51 Overview Solution architecture Overview Logical architecture Key components Hardware resources Software resources Server configuration guidelines Overview Hyper-V memory virtualization Memory configuration guidelines Network configuration guidelines Overview VLAN Enabling jumbo frames (iscsi or SMB only) Enabling link aggregation (SMB only) Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

5 Contents Brocade Virtual Link Aggregation Group (vlag) Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunks Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) Pause Flow Control Storage configuration guidelines Overview Hyper-V storage virtualization for VSPEX VSPEX storage building blocks VSPEX Private Cloud validated maximums High availability and failover Overview Virtualization layer Compute layer Brocade Network layer Storage layer Validation test profile Profile characteristics EMC Powered Backup and configuration guidelines Sizing guidelines Reference workload Overview Defining the reference workload Applying the reference workload Overview Example 1: Custom-built application Example 2: Point-of-Sale system Example 3: Web server Example 4: Decision-support database Summary of examples Implementing the solution Overview Resource types CPU resources Memory resources Network resources Storage resources Implementation summary Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 5

6 Contents Quick assessment of customer environment Overview CPU requirements Memory requirements Storage performance requirements IOPS I/O size I/O latency Storage capacity requirements Determining equivalent reference virtual machines Fine-tuning hardware resources EMC VSPEX Sizing Tool Chapter 5 VSPEX Configuration Guidelines 99 Overview Pre-deployment tasks Overview Deployment prerequisites Customer configuration data Prepare, connect, and configure Brocade network switches Overview Prepare Brocade Storage Network Infrastructure Complete Network Cabling Configure Brocade VDX 6740 switch (File Storage) Step 1: Verify and apply Brocade VDX NOS licenses Step 2: Configure logical chassis VCS ID and RBridge IDs on the VDXs 111 Step 3: Assign Switch Name Step 4: Brocade VCS Fabric ISL Port Configuration Step 5: Create required VLANs Step 6: Create vlags for Microsoft Hyper-V hosts Step 7: Create vlags for VNX ports Step 8: Connecting the VCS Fabric to an existing Infrastructure through Uplinks Step 9: Configure MTU and Jumbo Frames Step 10: Enable Flow Control Support Step 11: Auto QOS for NAS Configure Brocade 6510 Switch storage network (Block Storage) Providing power to the switch Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

7 Contents Configuring the 6510 switch Step 1: Initial Switch Configuration Step 2: FC Switch Licensing Step 3: FC Zoning Configuration Step 4: Switch Management and Monitoring Preparing and configuring storage array VNXe configuration for block protocols VNXe configuration for file protocols FAST VP configuration (optional) FAST Cache configuration (optional) Installing and configuring Hyper-V hosts Overview Installing Windows hosts Installing Hyper-V and configuring failover clustering Configuring Windows host networking Installing PowerPath on Windows servers Planning virtual machine memory allocations Installing and configuring SQL Server database Overview Creating a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server Installing Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine Installing SQL Server Configuring a SQL Server for SCVMM System Center Virtual Machine Manager server deployment Overview Creating a SCVMM host virtual machine Installing the SCVMM guest OS Installing the SCVMM server Installing the SCVMM Management Console Installing the SCVMM agent locally on a host Adding a Hyper-V cluster into SCVMM Adding file share storage to SCVMM (file variant only) Creating a virtual machine in SCVMM Performing partition alignment, and assigning File Allocation Unite Size159 Creating a template virtual machine Deploying virtual machines from the template virtual machine Summary Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 7

8 Contents Chapter 6 Verifying the Solution 161 Overview Post-installing checklist Deploying and testing a single virtual server Verifying the redundancy of the solution components Block and File environments Chapter 7 System Monitoring 165 Overview Key areas to monitor Performance baseline Servers Brocade Networking Storage VNXe resources monitoring guidelines Monitoring block storage resources Monitoring file storage resources Summary Appendix A Bill of Materials 183 Bill of materials Appendix B Customer Configuration Data Sheet 187 Customer configuration data sheet Appendix C Server Resources Component Worksheet 191 Server resources component worksheet Appendix D References 193 References EMC documentation Brocade documentation Other documentation Appendix E About VSPEX 199 About VSPEX Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

9 Figures Figure 1. Next-generation VNXe with multicore optimization Figure 2. Active/active processors increase performance, resiliency, and efficiency Figure 3. EMC Powered Backup solutions Figure 4. VSPEX Private Cloud components Figure 5. Compute layer flexibility Figure 6. Example of highly available Brocade Block Based storage network design Figure 7. Brocade VDX with VCS Fabrics in a highly available file based storage network design Figure 8. Storage pool rebalance progress Figure 9. Thin LUN space utilization Figure 10. Examining storage pool space utilization Figure 11. Logical architecture for block storage Figure 12. Logical architecture for file storage Figure 13. Hypervisor memory consumption Figure 14. Required networks for block storage Figure 15. Required networks for file storage Figure 16. Hyper-V virtual disk types Figure 17. Building block for 15 virtual servers Figure 18. Building block for 125 virtual servers Figure 19. Storage layout for 125 virtual machines using VNXe Figure 20. Maximum scale levels and entry points of different arrays Figure 21. High availability on the virtualization layer Figure 22. Redundant power supplies Figure 23. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNXe) block storage network variant Figure 24. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNXe) file storage. 77 Figure 25. VNXe series HA components Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 9

10 Figures Figure 26. Resource pool flexibility Figure 27. Required resource from the reference virtual machine pool Figure 28. Aggregate resource requirements stage Figure 29. Pool configuration stage Figure 30. Aggregate resource requirements - stage Figure 31. Pool configuration stage Figure 32. Customizing server resources Figure 33. Sample Brocade network architecture File storage Figure 34. Sample Brocade network architecture Block storage Figure 35. Port types Figure 36. Port Groups of the VDX Figure 37. Port Groups of the VDX 6740T and Brocade VDX6740T-1G Figure 38. Creating VLANs Figure 39. Example VCS/VDX network topology with Infrastructure connectivity Figure 40. Configure NAS Server Address Figure 41. Configure NAS Server type Figure 42. Fast VP tab Figure 43. Scheduled Fast VP relocation Figure 44. Fast VP Relocation Schedule Figure 45. Create Fast Cache Figure 46. Advanced tab in the Create Storage Pool dialog box Figure 47. Settings tab in the Storage Pool Properties dialog box Figure 48. Storage Pool Alert settings Figure 49. Storage Pool Snapshot settings Figure 50. Storage Pools panel Figure 51. LUN Properties dialog box Figure 52. System Panel Figure 53. System Health panel Figure 54. IOPS on the LUNs Figure 55. IOPS on the drives Figure 56. Latency on the LUNs Figure 57. SP CPU Utilization Figure 58. VNXe file statistics Figure 59. System Capacity panel Figure 60. File Systems panel Figure 61. File System Capacity panel Figure 62. System Performance panel displaying file metrics Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

11 Figures Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 11

12 Tables Tables Table 1. VNXe customer benefits Table 2. Solution hardware Table 3. Solution software Table 4. Hardware resources for compute layer Table 5. Hardware resources for network Table 6. Hardware resources for storage Table 7. Number of disks required for different number of virtual machines Table 8. Profile characteristics Table 9. Virtual machine characteristics Table 10. Blank worksheet row Table 11. Reference virtual machine resources Table 12. Example worksheet row Table 13. Example applications stage Table 14. Example applications - stage Table 15. Server resource component totals Table 16. Deployment process overview Table 17. Tasks for pre-deployment Table 18. Deployment prerequisites checklist Table 19. Tasks for switch and network configuration Table 20. Brocade VDX 6740 Configuration Steps Table 21. Brocade switch default settings Table 22. Brocade 6510 FC switch Configuration Steps Table 23. Brocade switch default settings Table 24. Tasks for VNXe configuration for block protocols Table 25. Storage allocation table for block Table 26. Tasks for storage configuration for file protocols Table 27. Storage allocation table for file Table 28. Tasks for server installation Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

13 Tables Table 29. Tasks for SQL Server database setup Table 30. Tasks for SCVMM configuration Table 31. Tasks for testing the installation Table 32. Rules of thumb for drive performance Table 33. Best practice for performance monitoring Table 34. List of components used in the VSPEX solution for 125 virtual machines Table 35. Common server information Table 36. Hyper-V server information Table 37. Array information Table 38. Brocade Network infrastructure information Table 39. VLAN information Table 40. Service accounts Table 41. Blank worksheet for determining server resources Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 13

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15 Chapter 1 Executive Summary This chapter presents the following topics: Introduction Target audience Document purpose Business needs Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 15

16 Executive Summary Introduction Target audience Document purpose The VSPEX Private Cloud for VSPEX for Microsoft Hyper-V and Brocade VDX networking solution provides a complete system architecture capable of supporting up to 125 virtual machines validated and modular architectures; are built with proven superior technologies to create complete virtualization solutions that enable you to make an informed decision at the hypervisor, compute, backup, storage, 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, expanded choices, 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 and networking hardware that meet or exceed the stated minimums. 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 customer s environment. Individuals focusing on selling and sizing a VSPEX end-user computing solution for Microsoft Hyper-V private cloud infrastructure must pay particular attention to the first four chapters of this document. After the 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. 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 16 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

17 Executive Summary Business needs 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 and network components, which are defined by the VSPEX partners, are laid out to be redundant and sufficiently powerful to handle the processing and data needs of the virtual machine environment. The 125 virtual machine Hyper-V Private Cloud solution described in this document is based on the EMC VNXe3200 and 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 larger environments, solutions for up to 1,000 virtual machines based on the EMC VNX series are described in the EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Proven Infrastructure Guide. 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 applications are moving into consolidated compute, network, and storage environments. EMC VSPEX private cloud solutions use Microsoft Hyper-V to reduce the complexity of configuring every component of a traditional deployment model. The complexity of integration management is reduced while maintaining the application design flexibility and implementation options. Administration is unified, while process separation can be adequately controlled and monitored. The business needs for the VSPEX private cloud solutions for Microsoft Hyper-V are: Providing an end-to-end virtualization solution to effectively utilize the capabilities of the unified infrastructure components. Providing a VSPEX private cloud solution for Microsoft Hyper-V to efficiently virtualize up to 125 virtual machines for varied customer use cases. Providing a reliable, flexible, and scalable reference design. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 17

18 Executive Summary 18 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

19 Chapter 2 Solution Overview This chapter presents the following topics: Introduction Virtualization Compute Networking Storage Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 19

20 Solution Overview Introduction Virtualization Compute Networking The EMC VSPEX with Brocade Networking Solution for Private Cloud for Microsoft Hyper-V provides a complete system architecture capable of supporting up to 125 virtual machines with a redundant server or network topology and highly available storage. The core components that make up this particular solution are virtualization, compute, networking, storage, and EMC Powered Backup. Microsoft Hyper-V is a key 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 Migrations automatically to balance loads, make Hyper-V a solid business choice. With the release of Windows Server 2012 R2, a Microsoft virtualized environment can host virtual machines with up to 64 virtual CPUs and 1 TB of virtual random access memory (RAM). 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 within the environment 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. 20 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

21 Solution Overview 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 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 21

22 Solution Overview Storage The EMC VNXe storage series provides both file and block access with a broad feature set, which makes it an ideal choice for any private cloud implementation. VNXe storage includes the following components, sized for the stated reference architecture workload: I/O ports (for block and file): Provide host connectivity to the array, which supports CIFS/ Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), Fibre Channel (FC), and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iscsi). Storage processors The compute components of the storage array, used for all aspects of data moving into, out of, and between arrays. Unlike the VNX family, which requires external processing units known as Data Movers to provide file services, the VNXe contains integrated code that provides file services to hosts. Disk drives Disk spindles and solid state drives (SSDs) that contain the host or application data and their enclosures The 125 virtual machine Hyper-V Private Cloud solution described in this document is based on the VNXe3200 storage array. The VNXe3200 can currently support a maximum of 50 drives. The VNXe 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 Thin provisioning Snapshots or checkpoints File-level retention Quota management EMC nextgeneration VNXe Features and enhancements EMC now offers customers even greater performance and choice than before with the inclusion of the next generation of VNXe Unified Storage into the VSPEX family of Proven Infrastructures. The next-generation VNXe, led by the VNXe3200, offers a hybrid, unified storage system for VSPEX customers who need to centralize and simplify storage when transforming their IT. Customers who need to virtualize up to 125 virtual machines with VSPEX Private Cloud solutions will now see the benefits that the new Multicore (MCx) VNXe3200 brings. The new architecture distributes all data services 22 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

23 Solution Overview across all the system s cores. Cache management and backend RAID management processes scale linearly and benefit greatly from the latest Intel multicore CPUs. Simply put, I/O operations in VSPEX run faster and more efficiently than ever before with the new VNXe3200. The VNXe3200 is ushering in a profoundly new experience for small and medium-sized VSPEX customers as it delivers performance and scale at a lower price. The VNXe3200 is a significantly more powerful system than the previous VNXe series and ships with many enterprise-like features and capabilities such as auto-tiering, file deduplication, and compression, which add to the simplicity, efficiency, and flexibility of the VSPEX Private Cloud solution. EMC FAST Cache and FAST VP, features that have in the past been exclusive to the VNX, are now available to VSPEX customers with VNXe3200 storage. FAST Cache dynamically extends the storage system s existing read/write caching capacity to increase system-wide performance and lower the cost per virtual machine. FAST Cache uses high-performing flash drives that are positioned between the primary cache (DRAM-based) and the hard disk drives. This feature boosts the performance of highly transactional applications and virtual desktops by keeping hot data in the cache, so it is available when you need it. VNXe3200 FAST Cache and FAST VP auto-tiering lowers the total cost of ownership through policy-based movement of your data to the right storage type. Doing so maximizes the cost investment and speed benefit of SSDs across the system intelligently while leveraging the capacity of lesscostly spinning drives. This avoids over-purchasing and exhaustive manual configuration. The EMC VNXe 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, The VNXe combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of today s virtualized application environments. VNXe includes many features and enhancements designed and built upon the success of the next generation VNX family. 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 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 23

24 Solution Overview Flash-optimized hybrid array VNXe is a flash-optimized hybrid array that provides automated tiering to deliver the best performance for 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 flashoptimized VNXe 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 migrates 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. Note: This reference architecture does not make use of FAST Cache or FAST VP. Lab testing has demonstrated performance increases of approximately 10 20%, depending upon protocol using the VSPEX workload. VSPEX Proven Infrastructures deliver private cloud, end-user computing, and virtualized application solutions. With VNXe, customers can realize an even greater return on their investment. VNXe provides out-of-band, filebased deduplication that can dramatically lower the costs of the flash tier. VNXe Intel MCx Code Path Optimization The advent of flash technology has been a catalyst in totally changing the requirements of VNXe 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 VNXe data services across all cores, as shown in Figure 1. The VNXe series with MCx has dramatically improved the file performance for transactional applications like databases or virtual machines over network-attached storage (NAS). 24 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

25 Solution Overview Figure 1. Next-generation VNXe 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 VNXe come from the modularization of the back-end data management processing, which enables MCx to seamlessly scale across all processors. VNXe performance Performance enhancements VNXe 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). VNXe 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 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 25

26 Solution Overview Active/active array storage processors The new VNXe 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 or deduplication. 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 R2, 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 Windows Server 2012 R2 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 host server by 20 percent, and eliminated network traffic. 26 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

27 Solution Overview EMC Powered Backup EMC Powered Backup solutions, EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain, deliver the protection and confidence needed to accelerate the deployment of VSPEX Private Clouds. Optimized for virtual environments, EMC Powered Backup 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 3. EMC Powered Backup solutions EMC Powered Backup solutions used in this VSPEX solution include the EMC Avamar deduplication software and system, and the EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 27

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29 Chapter 3 Solution Technology Overview This chapter presents the following topics: Overview Summary of key components Virtualization Compute Network Storage Backup and recovery Other technologies Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 29

30 Solution Technology Overview Overview This solution uses the VNXe array, Brocade network Fabric switches, and Microsoft Hyper-V to provide storage and server hardware consolidation in a VSPEX 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 4 depicts the solution components. Figure 4. VSPEX Private Cloud components The following sections describe the components in detail. 30 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

31 Solution Technology Overview 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 EMC VNXe storage 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. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 31

32 Solution Technology Overview Virtualization Overview 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 Microsoft Hyper-V is a Windows Server role that was introduced in Windows Server 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 minimal performance impact. Virtual Fibre Channel ports Windows Server 2012 R2 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 R2 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 R2 as the guest operating system. 32 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

33 Solution Technology Overview Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 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. High availability with Hyper-V Failover Clustering The Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering feature provides highavailability 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 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 Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 33

34 Solution Technology Overview Hyper-V snapshot 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 Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) was introduced in Windows Server 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. 34 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

35 Solution Technology Overview EMC Storage Integrator 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 Compute The choice of a server platform for a 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 5, 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. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 35

36 Solution Technology Overview Figure 5. Compute layer flexibility 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. 36 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

37 Solution Technology Overview 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 Overview 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-T 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 6 and Figure 7 depict examples of this highly available Brocade storage network topology. Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switch for Block Based Storage 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 6 Depicts an example of the Brocade network topology for file based storage. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 37

38 Solution Technology Overview Figure 6. Example of highly available Brocade Block Based storage network design 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 38 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

39 Solution Technology Overview Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric switch for file based storage 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 7 depicts an example of the Brocade network topology for file based storage. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 39

40 Solution Technology Overview Figure 7. 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. 40 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

41 Solution Technology Overview Storage Overview The storage layer is also a key component of any cloud infrastructure solution that serves data generated by applications and operating system in data center storage processing systems. This increases storage efficiency, management flexibility, and reduces total cost of ownership. In this VSPEX solution, EMC VNXe series arrays provide features and performance to enable and enhance any virtualization environment. EMC VNXe 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 VNXe 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, highscalability requirements of midsize and large enterprises. Table 1 shows the customer benefits that are provided by the VNXe series. Table 1. VNXe customer benefits Feature Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized applications Capacity optimization features including compression, deduplication, thin provisioning, and application-consistent copies High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability Automated tiering with FAST VP 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 Benefit Tight integration with Microsoft Windows and System Center allows for advanced array features and centralized management Reduced storage costs, more efficient use of resources and easier recovery of applications Higher levels of uptime and reduced outage risk More efficient use of storage resources without complicated planning and configuration Reduced management overhead and toolsets required to manage environment Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 41

42 Solution Technology Overview Different software suites and packs are also available for the VNXe series, which provide multiple features for enhanced protection and performance. Software suites The following VNXe software suites are available: FAST Suite Automatically optimizes for the highest system performance and the lowest storage cost simultaneously. Security and Compliance Suite Keeps data safe from changes, deletions, and malicious activity. EMC VNXe Virtual Provisioning EMC VNXe 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, VNXe Snapshots, and compression. Pool LUNs also support a variety of additional features, such as LUN shrink, online expansion, and User Capacity Threshold setting. Virtual Provisioning allows you to expand the capacity of a storage pool from the Unisphere GUI after disks are physically attached to the system. VNXe systems have the ability to rebalance allocated data elements across all member drives to use new drives after the pool is expanded. The rebalance function starts automatically and runs in the background after an expand action. You can monitor the progress of a rebalance operation from the Jobs Panel in Unisphere, as shown in Figure Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

43 Solution Technology Overview Figure 8. Storage pool rebalance progress LUN expansion Use pool LUN expansion to increase the capacity of existing LUNs. It allows for provisioning larger capacity as business needs grow. The VNXe series has the capability to expand a pool LUN without disrupting user access. You can expand pool LUNs with a few simple clicks and the expanded capacity is immediately available. However, you cannot expand a pool LUN if it is part of a data-protection or LUN-migration operation. For example, snapshot LUNs or migrating LUNs cannot be expanded. For more detailed information of pool LUN expansion, refer to Virtual Provisioning for the New VNX Series. Alerting the user through the Capacity Threshold setting You must configure proactive alerts when using a file system or storage pools based on thin pools. Monitor these resources so that storage is available for provisioning when needed and capacity shortages can be avoided. Figure 9 explains why provisioning with thin pools requires monitoring. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 43

44 Solution Technology Overview Figure 9. Thin LUN space utilization Monitor the following values for thin pool utilization: Total capacity is the total physical capacity available to all LUNs in the pool. Total allocation is the total physical capacity currently assigned to all pool LUNs. Subscribed capacity is the total host-reported capacity supported by the pool. Over-subscribed capacity is the amount of user capacity configured for LUNs that exceeds the physical capacity in a pool. Total allocation must never exceed the total capacity, but if it nears that point, add storage to the pools proactively before reaching a hard limit. Figure 10 shows the Storage Pool Properties dialog box in Unisphere, which displays parameters such as Available Space, Used Space, Subscription, Alert Threshold and Total Space. Figure 10. Examining storage pool space utilization When storage pool capacity becomes exhausted, any requests for additional space allocation on thin-provisioned LUNs fail. Applications attempting to write data to these LUNs usually fail as well, and an outage is 44 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

45 Solution Technology Overview the likely result. To avoid this situation, monitor pool utilization, and be alerted when thresholds are reached, set the Percentage Full Threshold to allow enough buffer to take remedial action before an outage situation occurs. This alert is only active if there are one or more thin LUNs in the pool, because thin LUNs are the only way to oversubscribe a pool. If the pool only contains thick LUNs, the alert is not active because there is no risk of running out of space due to oversubscription. Windows Offloaded Data Transfer Windows Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) provides the ability to offload data transfer from the server to the storage arrays. This feature is enabled by default in Windows Server VNXe arrays are compatible with Windows ODX on Windows Server ODX supports the following protocols: iscsi Fibre Channel (FC) FC over Ethernet (FCoE) Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 The following data-transfer operations currently support ODX: Transferring large amounts of data via the Hyper-V Manager, such as creating a fixed size VHD, merging a snapshot, or converting VHDs Copying files in File Explorer Using the Copy commands in Windows PowerShell Using the Copy commands in the Windows command prompt Because ODX offloads the file transfer to the storage array, host CPU and network utilization are significantly reduced. ODX minimizes latencies and improves the transfer speed by using the storage array for data transfer. This is especially beneficial for large files, such as database or video files. ODX is enabled by default in Windows Server 2012, so when ODXsupported file operations occur, data transfers automatically offloaded to the storage array. The ODX process is transparent to users. EMC PowerPath EMC PowerPath is a host-based software package that provides automated data path management and load balancing capabilities for heterogeneous server, network, and storage deployed in physical and virtual environments. It offers the following benefits for the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure: Standardized data management across physical and virtual environments. Automated multipathing policies and load balancing to provide predictable and consistent application availability and performance across physical and virtual environments. Improved service-level agreements by eliminating application impact from I/O failures. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 45

46 Solution Technology Overview VNXe FAST Cache VNXe FAST VP VNXe file shares ROBO VNXe FAST Cache, enables flash drives to function as an expanded cache layer for the array. FAST Cache is an array-wide, nondisruptive cache, available for both file and block storage. Frequently accessed data is copied to the FAST Cache and subsequent reads and/or writes to the data chunk are serviced by FAST Cache. This enables immediate promotion of highly active data to flash drives. This dramatically improves the response time for the active data and reduces data hot spots that can occur within a LUN. The FAST Cache feature is an optional component of this solution. VNXe FAST VP can automatically tier data across multiple types of drives to leverage differences in performance and capacity. FAST VP is applied at the block storage pool level and automatically adjusts where data is stored based on how frequently it is accessed. Frequently accessed data is promoted to higher tiers of storage, while infrequently accessed data can be migrated to a lower tier for cost efficiency. This rebalancing is part of a regularly scheduled maintenance operation. In many environments it is important to have a common location to store files accessed by many different individuals. This is implemented as CIFS or NFS file shares from a file server. VNXe storage arrays can provide this service along with centralized management, client integration, advanced security options, and efficiency improvement features. Organizations with remote office and branch offices (ROBO) often prefer to locate data and applications close to the users in order to provide better performance and lower latency. In these environments, IT departments need to balance the benefits of local support with the need to maintain central control. Local Systems and storage should be easy for local personnel to administer, but also support remote management and flexible aggregation tools that minimize the demands on those local resources. With VSPEX, you can accelerate the deployment of applications at remote offices and branch offices. Customers can also leverage Unisphere Remote to consolidate the monitoring, system alerts, and reporting of hundreds of locations while maintaining simplicity of operation and unified storage functionality for local managers. 46 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

47 Solution Technology Overview Backup and recovery Overview Backup and recovery, another important component in this VSPEX solution, provides data protection by backing up data files or volumes on a defined schedule, and then restores data from backup for recovery after a disaster. EMC Powered Backup is a smart method of backup. It consists of best of class, integrated protection storage and software designed to meet backup and recovery objectives now and in the future. With EMC marketleading protection storage, deep data source integration, and featurerich data management services, you can deploy an open, modular protection storage architecture that allows you to scale while lowering cost and complexity. EMC Avamar deduplication EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems EMC RecoverPoint EMC Avamar provides fast, efficient backup and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution. Equipped with integrated variable-length deduplication technology, Avamar facilitates fast, daily full backups for virtual environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, network-attached storage (NAS) servers, and desktops/laptops. Learn more at EMC Data Domain Deduplication storage systems continue to revolutionize disk backup, archiving, and disaster recovery with highspeed, inline deduplication for backup and archive workloads. Learn more at EMC RecoverPoint is an enterprise-scale solution that protects application data on heterogeneous SAN-attached servers and storage arrays. EMC RecoverPoint runs on a dedicated appliance (RPA) and combines industry-leading continuous data protection technology with a bandwidth-efficient, no-data-loss replication technology, allowing it to protect data locally (continuous data protection, CDP), remotely (continuous remote replication, CRR), or both (local and remote replication, CLR). RecoverPoint CDP replicates data within the same site or to a local bunker site some distance away, and the data is transferred via FC. RecoverPoint CRR uses either FC or an existing IP network to send the data snapshots to the remote site using techniques that preserve write-order. In a CLR configuration, RecoverPoint replicates to both a local and a remote site simultaneously. RecoverPoint uses lightweight splitting technology on the application server, in the fabric or in the array, to mirror application writes to the RecoverPoint cluster. RecoverPoint supports several types of write splitters: Array-based Intelligent fabric-based Host-based Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 47

48 Solution Technology Overview Other technologies In addition to the required technical components for EMC VSPEX solutions, other items may provide additional value depending on the specific use case. EMC XtremCache EMC XtremCache is a server flash caching solution that reduces latency and increases throughput to improve application performance by using intelligent caching software and PCIe flash technology. Server-side flash caching for maximum speed XtremCache performs the following functions to improve system performance: Caches the most frequently referenced data on the server-based PCIe card to put the data closer to the application. Automatically adapts to changing workloads by determining the most frequently referenced data and promoting it to the server flash card. This means that the hottest data (most active data) automatically resides on the PCIe card in the server for faster access. Offloads the read traffic from the storage array, which allocates greater processing power to other applications. While one application accelerates with XtremCache, the array performance for other applications remains the same or slightly enhanced. Write-through caching to the array for total protection XtremCache accelerates reads and protects data by using a writethrough cache to the storage to deliver persistent high-availability, integrity, and disaster recovery. Application agnostic XtremCache is transparent to applications; there is no need to rewrite, retest, or recertify to deploy XtremCache in the environment. Minimum impact on system resources Unlike other caching solutions on the market, XtremCache does not require a significant amount of memory or CPU cycles, as all flash and wear-leveling management are done on the PCIe card without using server resources. Unlike other PCIe solutions, there is no significant overhead from using XtremCache on server resources. XtremCache creates the most efficient and intelligent I/O path from the application to the datastore, which results in an infrastructure that is dynamically optimized for performance, intelligence, and protection for both physical and virtual environments. 48 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

49 Solution Technology Overview XtremCache active/passive clustering support The configuration of XtremCache clustering scripts ensures that stale data is never retrieved. The scripts use cluster management events to trigger a mechanism that purges the cache. The XtremCache-enabled active/passive cluster ensures data integrity, and accelerates application performance. XtremCache performance considerations XtremCache performance considerations include: On a write request, XtremCache first writes to the array, then to the cache, and then completes the application I/O. On a read request, XtremCache satisfies the request with cached data, or, when the data is not present, retrieves the data from the array, writes it to the cache, and then returns it to the application. The trip to the array can be in the order of milliseconds; therefore, the array limits how fast the cache can work. As the number of writes increases, XtremCache performance decreases. XtremCache is most effective for workloads with a 70 percent or greater read/write ratio, with small, random I/O (8 K is ideal). I/O greater than 128 K is not cached in XtremCache 1.5. Note: For more information, refer to the Introduction to EMC Xtrem Cache White Paper. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 49

50 Solution Technology Overview 50 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

51 Chapter 4 Solution Architecture Overview This chapter presents the following topics: Overview Solution architecture Server configuration guidelines Network configuration guidelines Storage configuration guidelines High availability and failover Validation test profile EMC Powered Backup and configuration guidelines Sizing guidelines Reference workload Applying the reference workload Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 51

52 Solution Architecture Overview Overview This chapter provides a comprehensive guide to the major architectural aspects of this solution. Server capacity is presented in generic terms for required minimums of CPU, memory, and network resources; the customer is free to select the server and networking hardware that meet or exceed the stated minimums. The specified storage architecture, along with a system meeting the server and network requirements outlined, has been validated by EMC to provide high levels of performance while delivering a highly available architecture for your private cloud deployment. Each VSPEX Proven Infrastructure balances the storage, network, and compute resources needed for a number of virtual machines validated by EMC. In practice, each virtual machine has its own set of requirements that rarely fit a predefined idea of a virtual machine. In any discussion about virtual infrastructures, it is important to first define a reference workload. Not all servers perform the same tasks, and it is impractical to build a reference that takes into account every possible combination of workload characteristics. 52 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

53 Solution Architecture Overview Solution architecture Overview The VSPEX solution for Microsoft Hyper-V Private Cloud with VNXe validates the configuration for up to 125 virtual machines. Note: VSPEX uses the concept of a reference workload to describe and define a virtual machine. Therefore, one physical or virtual server in an existing environment may not be equal to one virtual machine in a VSPEX solution. Evaluate your workload in terms of the reference to arrive at an appropriate point of scale. This document describes the process in Applying the reference workload. Logical architecture The architecture diagrams in this section show the layout of the major components in this solution. Two types of storage, block-based and filebased, are shown in the following diagrams. Figure 11 shows the infrastructure validated with block-based storage, where an 8 Gb FC or 10 Gb-iSCSI SAN carries storage traffic, and 10 GbE carries management and application traffic. Figure 11. Logical architecture for block storage Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 53

54 Solution Architecture Overview Figure 12 characterizes the infrastructure validated with file-based storage, where 10 GbE carries storage traffic and all other traffic. Figure 12. Logical architecture for file storage Key components The architectures include the following key components: Microsoft Hyper-V Provides a common virtualization layer to host a server environment. The specifics of the validated environment are listed in Table 2 on page 57. Hyper-V provides highly available infrastructure through features such as: Live Migration Provides live migration of virtual machines within a virtual infrastructure cluster, with no virtual machine downtime or service disruption. Live Storage Migration Provides live migration of virtual machine disk files within and across storage arrays with no virtual machine downtime or service disruption. Failover Clustering High Availability (HA) Detects and provides rapid recovery for a failed virtual machine in a cluster. 54 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

55 Solution Architecture Overview Dynamic Optimization (DO) Provides load balancing of computing capacity in a cluster with support of SCVMM. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) This solution does not require SCVMM. However, if deployed, it simplifies provisioning, management, and monitoring of the Hyper-V environment. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SCVMM, if used, requires a SQL Server database instance to store configuration and monitoring details. DNS Server Use DNS services for the various solution components to perform name resolution. This solution uses Microsoft DNS service running on Windows Server 2012 R2. Active Directory Server Various solution components require Active Directory (AD) services to function properly. The Microsoft AD Service runs on a Windows Server 2012 R2. IP network A standard Ethernet network carries all network traffic with redundant cabling and switching. A shared IP network carries user and management traffic. Storage network The storage network is an isolated network that provides hosts with access to the storage arrays. VSPEX offers different options for block-based and file-based storage. Brocade Storage network for block This solution provides three options for block-based storage networks. Fibre Channel (FC) is a set of standards that define protocols for performing high speed serial data transfer. FC provides a standard data transport frame among servers and shared storage devices. o Connectrix-B 6510 Fibre Channel Switch Provides fast and easy scaling from 24 to 48 Ports on Demand (PoD) and supports 2, 4, 8, or 16 Gbps for VNX series storage array. (Deployment of Connectrix-B 6510 FC switches demonstrated in Chapter 5.) Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is a storage networking protocol that supports FC natively over Ethernet, by encapsulating FC frames into Ethernet frames. This allows the encapsulated FC Frames to run alongside traditional Internet Protocol (IP) traffic. o Brocade VDX 6740 Ethernet Fabric Switch Provides efficient, easy to configure, resiliency that scales from 24 to 64 Ports on Demand (PoD) at 10GbE for FCoE attached VNX series. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 55

56 Solution Architecture Overview 10 Gb Ethernet (iscsi) enables the transport of SCSI blocks over a TCP/IP network. iscsi works by encapsulating SCSI commands into TCP packets and sending the packets over the IP network. o Brocade VDX 6740-T Ethernet Fabric Switch Provides efficient, easy to configure, resiliency that scales from 24 to 64 Ports on Demand (PoD) at 1 GbE or 10GbE for iscsi attached VNX series arrays. Brocade Storage network for file With file-based storage, a private, non-routable 10 GbE subnet carries the storage traffic. Brocade VDX 6740-T Ethernet Fabric Switch Provides efficient, easy to configure, resiliency that scales from 24 to 64 Port on Demand (PoD) at 1 GbE or 10GbE for file attached VNX series arrays. (Deployment of VDX Ethernet Fabric series switches demonstrated in Chapter 5.) VNXe storage array The VSPEX Private Cloud configuration begins with the VNXe series storage arrays, including: EMC VNXe3200 array Provides storage by presenting either Cluster Shared Volumes (for block) or CIFS (SMB 3.0) shares (for file) to Hyper- V hosts for up to 125 virtual machines. VNXe series storage arrays include the following components: Storage processors (SPs) support block data with UltraFlex I/O technology that supports FC and iscsi protocols. The SPs provide access for all external hosts, and for the file side of the VNXe array. Standby power supply (SPS) is 1U in size and provides enough power to each SP to ensure that any data in flight destags to the vault area in the event of a power failure. This ensures that no writes are lost. Upon restart of the array, the pending writes are reconciled and made persistent. Disk array enclosures (DAEs) house the drives used in the array. 56 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

57 Solution Architecture Overview Hardware resources Table 2 lists the hardware used in this solution. Table 2. Solution hardware Component Microsoft Hyper-V servers CPU Memory Configuration 1 vcpu per virtual machine 4 vcpus per physical core For 125 virtual machines: 125 vcpus Minimum of 32 physical CPUs 2 GB RAM per virtual machine 2 GB RAM reservation per Hyper-V host For 125 virtual machines: Minimum of 250 GB RAM Add 2GB for each physical server Network Block 2 x 10 GbE NICs per server 2 HBAs per server File 4 x 10 GbE NICs per server Note: Add at least one additional server to the infrastructure beyond the minimum requirements to implement Microsoft Hyper-V HA and meet the listed minimums. Brocade Network infrastructure Minimum switching capacity Block Brocade Connectrix-B Fibre Channel Switches Two Brocade 6510 switches 24 to 48 PoD 2 x 8 or 16 Gbps ports per VMware vsphere server, for storage network 2 x 8 Gbps ports per SP, for storage data File Brocade Ethernet Fabric Switch Two Brocade VDX 6740-T switches 24 to 64 PoD 4 x 10 GbE ports per VMware vsphere server 2 x 10 GbE ports per Data Mover for data Management 1 x 1 GbE port per Control Station for management EMC Backup Avamar Refer to EMC Backup and Recovery Options for VSPEX Private Clouds White Paper. Data Domain Refer to EMC Backup and Recovery Options for VSPEX Private Clouds White Paper. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 57

58 Solution Architecture Overview Component EMC VNXe series storage array Block File Configuration Common: 1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management 2 front end Fibre Channel ports per SP. system disks for VNXe OE For 125 virtual machines: EMC VNXe x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) drives 2 x 200 GB flash drives(optional) 4 x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares 1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare(optional) Common: 2 x 10 GbE interfaces per Storage Processor 1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management System disks for VNXe OE For 125 virtual machines EMC VNXe x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives 2 x 200 GB flash drives(optional) 2 x 600 GB 15k rpm 3.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares 1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare(optional) Shared infrastructure In most cases, a customer environment already has infrastructure services such as Active Directory, DNS, and other services configured. The setup of these services is beyond the scope of this document. If implemented without existing infrastructure, add the following: 2 physical servers 16 GB RAM per server 4 processor cores per server 2 x 1 GbE ports per server Note: These services can be migrated into VSPEX post-deployment; however, they must exist before VSPEX can be deployed. Note: The solution recommends using a 10 Gb network or an equivalent 1Gb network infrastructure as long as the underlying requirements around bandwidth and redundancy are fulfilled. 58 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

59 Solution Architecture Overview Software resources Table 3 lists the software used in this solution. Table 3. Solution software Software Microsoft Hyper-V Microsoft Windows Server Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition (Datacenter Edition is necessary to support the number of virtual machines in this solution) Version 2012 R2 Microsoft SQL Server EMC VNXe EMC VNXe OE 8.0 Version 2012 Enterprise Edition Note: Any supported database for SCVMM is acceptable. EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) EMC PowerPath Check for latest version Check for latest version Brocade Network Brocade FOS for block on 6510 FC series switch Brocade NOS for file on VDX 6740-T Ethernet Fabric series switch Fabric OS v7.3 Network OS v5.0.0 Next-Generation Backup EMC Avamar 6.1 SP1 EMC Data Domain OS 5.2 Virtual machines (used for validation not required for deployment) Base operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 59

60 Solution Architecture Overview Server configuration guidelines Overview When designing and ordering the compute or server layer of the VSPEX solution, several factors may impact the final purchase. From a virtualization perspective, if a system workload is well understood, features such as Dynamic Memory and Smart Paging can reduce the aggregate memory requirement. If the virtual machine pool does not have a high level of peak or concurrent usage, reduce the number of vcpus. Conversely, if the applications being deployed are highly computational in nature, increase the number of CPUs and memory purchased. Current VSPEX sizing guidelines specify a virtual CPU core to physical CPU core ratio of 4:1 (for Ivy Bridge or new processors, use a ratio of 8:1). This ratio was based upon an average sampling of CPU technologies available at the time of testing. As CPU technologies advance, OEM server vendors that are VSPEX partners may suggest differing (normally higher) ratios. Follow the updated guidance supplied by your OEM server vendor. Table 4 lists the hardware resources that are used for the compute layer. Table 4. Hardware resources for compute layer Component Microsoft Hyper-V servers CPU Memory Configuration 1 vcpu per virtual machine 4 vcpus per physical core For 125 virtual machines: 125 vcpus Minimum of 32 physical CPUs 2 GB RAM per virtual machine 2 GB RAM reservation per Hyper-V host For 125 virtual machines: Minimum of 250 GB RAM Add 2GB for each physical server Brocade Network Block File 2 x 10 GbE NICs per server 2 HBA per server 4 x 10 GbE NICs per server Note: Add at least one additional server to the infrastructure beyond the minimum requirements to implement Hyper-V HA and meet the listed minimums. 60 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

61 Solution Architecture Overview Hyper-V memory virtualization Microsoft Hyper-V has a number of advanced features to maximize performance, and overall resource utilization. The most important features relate to memory management. This section describes some of these features, and the items to consider when using these features in the VSPEX environment. In general, virtual machines on a single hypervisor consume memory as a pool of resources, as shown in Figure 13. Figure 13. Hypervisor memory consumption Understanding the technologies in this section enhances this basic concept. Dynamic Memory Dynamic Memory was introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 to increase physical memory efficiency by treating memory as a shared resource, and dynamically allocating it to virtual machines. The amount of memory used by each virtual machine is adjustable at any time. Dynamic Memory reclaims unused memory from idle virtual machines, which allows more virtual machines to run at any given time. In Windows Server 2012 R2, Dynamic Memory enables administrators to dynamically increase the maximum memory available to virtual machines. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 61

62 Solution Architecture Overview Smart Paging Even with Dynamic Memory, Hyper-V allows more virtual machines than the available physical memory can support. In most cases, there is a memory gap between minimum memory and startup memory. Smart Paging is a memory management technique that uses disk resources as temporary memory replacement. It swaps out less-used memory to disk storage, and swaps in when needed. Performance degradation is a potential drawback of Smart Paging. Hyper-V continues to use the guest paging when the host memory is oversubscribed because it is more efficient than Smart Paging. Non-Uniform Memory Access Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) is a multi-node computer technology that enables a CPU to access remote-node memory. This type of memory access degrades performance, so Windows Server 2012 R2 employs a process known as processor affinity, which pins threads to a single CPU to avoid remote-node memory access. In previous versions of Windows, this feature is only available to the host. Windows Server 2012 R2 extends this functionality to the virtual machines, which provides improved performance in symmetrical multiprocessor (SMP) environments. Memory configuration guidelines The memory configuration guidelines take into account Hyper-V memory overhead, and the virtual machine memory settings. Hyper-V memory overhead Virtualized memory has some associated overhead, which includes the memory consumed by Hyper-V, the parent partition, and additional overhead for each virtual machine. Leave at least 2 GB memory for the Hyper-V parent partition in this solution. Virtual machine memory In this solution, each virtual machine gets 2 GB memory in the fixed mode. 62 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

63 Solution Architecture Overview Network configuration guidelines Overview This section provides guidelines for setting up a redundant, highly available network configuration. The guidelines outlined in Table 5 consider jumbo frames, VLANs, and LACP on EMC unified storage. The client access network is for users of the system, or clients, to communicate with the infrastructure. Administrators use the Management Network as a dedicated way to access the management connections on the storage array, network switches, and hosts. The Storage Network is communication between the compute layer and the storage layer. The Brocade Storage Network provides the communication between the compute layer and the storage layer. For detailed Brocade storage network resource requirements, refer to Table 5. Table 5. Hardware resources for network Component Configuration Brocade Network infrastructure Minimum switching capacity Block Brocade Fibre Channel Switch Two Brocade 6510 switches 24 to 48 PoD 2 x 10 GbE ports per Hyper-V server* 1 x 1 GbE port per Control Station for management* 2 ports per Hyper-V server, for storage network 2 ports per SP, for storage data File Brocade Ethernet Fabric Switch Two Brocade VDX 6740-T switches 24 to 64 PoD 4 x 10 GbE ports per Hyper-V server 1 x 1 GbE port per Control Station for management* 2 x 10 GbE ports per Data Mover for data Note: The solution may use a 1 GbE network infrastructure as long as the underlying requirements around bandwidth and redundancy are fulfilled. VLAN Isolate the network traffic so that the traffic between hosts and storage, hosts and clients, and management traffic all move over isolated networks. In some cases, physical isolation may be required for regulatory or policy compliance reasons; but in many cases logical isolation with VLANs is sufficient. This solution calls for a minimum of three VLANs for the following usage: Client access Storage (for iscsi or SMB only) Management Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 63

64 Solution Architecture Overview Figure 14 depicts the VLANs and the network connectivity requirements for a block-based VNXe array. Figure 14. Required networks for block storage 64 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

65 Solution Architecture Overview Figure 15 depicts the VLANs and the network connectivity requirements for a file-based VNXe array. Figure 15. Required networks for file storage The client access network is for users of the system, or clients, to communicate with the infrastructure. The storage network provides communication between the compute layer and the storage layer. Administrators use the management network as a dedicated way to access the management connections on the storage array, network switches, and hosts. Note: Some best practices call for additional network isolation for cluster traffic, virtualization layer communication, and other features. Implement these additional networks if necessary. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 65

66 Solution Architecture Overview Enabling jumbo frames (iscsi or SMB only) This solution recommends setting the MTU to 9,000 (jumbo frames) for efficient storage and virtual machine migration traffic. Refer to the switch vendor guidelines to enable jumbo frames for storage and host ports on the switches. Enabling link aggregation (SMB only) A link aggregation resembles an Ethernet channel, but uses the LACP IEEE 802.3ad standard. The IEEE 802.3ad standard supports link aggregations with two or more ports. All ports in the aggregation must have the same speed and be full duplex. In this solution, LACP is configured on VNXe, combining multiple Ethernet ports into a single virtual device. If a link is lost in the Ethernet port, the link fails over to another port. All network traffic is distributed across the active links. Brocade Virtual Link Aggregation Group (vlag) Brocade Virtual Link Aggregation Groups (vlags) are used for the Microsoft Hyper-V host and customer infrastructure. In the case of the VNX, a dynamic Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) vlag is not used with MC/S and iscsi. While Brocade ISLs are used as interconnects between Brocade VDX switches within a Brocade VCS fabric, industry standard LACP LAGs are supported for connecting to other network devices outside the Brocade VCS fabric. Typically, LACP LAGs can only be created using ports from a single physical switch to a second physical switch. In a Brocade VCS fabric, a vlag can be created using ports from two Brocade VDX switches to a device to which both VDX switches are connected. This provides an additional degree of device-level redundancy, while providing active-active link-level load balancing. Brocade Inter- Switch Link (ISL) Trunks This solution uses Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking within the Brocade VCS fabric to provide additional redundancy and load balancing between the iscsi clients and iscsi storage. Typically, multiple links between two switches are bundled together in a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) to provide redundancy and load balancing. Setting up a LAG requires lines of configuration on the switches and selecting a hash-based algorithm for load balancing based on source-destination IP or MAC addresses. All flows with the same hash traverse the same link, regardless of the total number of links in a LAG. This might result in some links within a LAG, such as those carrying flows to a storage target, being over utilized and packets being dropped, while other links in the LAG remain underutilized. Instead of LAG-based switch interconnects, Brocade VCS Ethernet fabrics automatically form ISL trunks when multiple connections are added between two Brocade VDX switches. Simply adding another cable increases bandwidth, providing linear scalability of switch-to-switch traffic, and this does not require any configuration on the switch. In addition, ISL trunks use a frame-by-frame load balancing technique, which evenly balances traffic across all members of the ISL trunk group. 66 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

67 Solution Architecture Overview Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) A standard link-state routing protocol that runs at Layer 2 determines if there are Equal-Cost Multipaths (ECMPs) between RBridges in an Ethernet fabric and load balances the traffic to make use of all available ECMPs. If a neighbor switch is reachable via several interfaces with different bandwidths, all of them are treated as equal-cost paths. While it is possible to set the link cost based on the link speed, such an algorithm complicates the operation of the fabric. Simplicity is a key value of Brocade VCS Fabric technology, so an implementation is chosen in the test case that does not consider the bandwidth of the interface when selecting equal-cost paths. This is a key feature needed to expand network capacity, to keep ahead of customer bandwidth requirements. Pause Flow Control Brocade VDX Series switches support the Pause Flow Control feature. IEEE 802.3x Ethernet pause and Ethernet Priority-Based Flow Control (PFC) are used to prevent dropped frames by slowing traffic at the source end of a link. When a port on a switch or host is not ready to receive more traffic from the source, perhaps due to congestion, it sends pause frames to the source to pause the traffic flow. When the congestion is cleared, the port stops requesting the source to pause traffic flow, and traffic resumes without any frame drop. When Ethernet pause is enabled, pause frames are sent to the traffic source. Similarly, when PFC is enabled, there is no frame drop; pause frames are sent to the source switch. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 67

68 Solution Architecture Overview Storage configuration guidelines Overview This section provides guidelines for setting up the storage layer of the solution to provide high availability and the expected level of performance. Hyper-V allows more than one method of using storage when hosting virtual machines. The tested solutions described below use different protocols FC /iscsi(for blocks) and CIFS (for files), and the storage layout described adheres to all current best practices. A customer or architect with the necessary training and background can make modifications based upon their understanding of the system usage and load if required. However, the building blocks described in this document ensure acceptable performance. The VSPEX storage building blocks section provides specific recommendations for the customization. Table 6 lists hardware resources for storage. Table 6. Hardware resources for storage Component EMC VNXe series storage array Block File Configuration Common: 1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management 2 front end Fibre Channel ports per SP system disks for VNXe OE For 125 virtual machines: EMC VNXe x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives 2 x 200 GB flash drives(optional) 2 x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares 1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare(optional) Common: 2 x 10 GbE interfaces per SP 1 x 1 GbE interface per SP for management System disks for VNXe OE For 125 virtual machines: EMC VNXe x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives 2 x 200 GB flash drives(optional) 2 x 600 GB 10k rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives as hot spares 1 x 200 GB flash drive as a hot spare(optional) 68 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

69 Solution Architecture Overview Hyper-V storage virtualization for VSPEX This section provides guidelines to set up the storage layer of the solution to provide high-availability and the expected level of performance. Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and Failover Clustering use Cluster Shared Volumes v2 and VHDX features to virtualize storage presented from external shared storage system to host virtual machines. In Figure 16, the storage array presents either block-based LUNs (as CSV), or file-based CIFS share (as SMB shares) to the Windows hosts to host virtual machines. Figure 16. Hyper-V virtual disk types CIFS Windows Server 2012 R2 supports using CIFS (SMB 3.0) file shares as shared storage for a Hyper-V virtual machine. CSV A Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) is a shared disk containing a New Technology File System (NTFS) volume that is made accessible by all nodes of a Windows Failover Cluster. It can be deployed over any SCSI-based local or network storage. Pass Through Windows 2012 also supports Pass Through, which allows a virtual machine to access a physical disk mapped to the host that does not have a volume configured on it. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 69

70 Solution Architecture Overview SMB 3.0 (file-based storage only) The SMB protocol is the file sharing protocol that is used by default in Windows. With the introduction of Windows Server 2012 R2, it provides a vast set of new SMB features with an updated (SMB 3.0) protocol. Some of the key features available with Windows Server 2012 SMB 3.0 are: SMB Transparent Failover SMB Scale Out SMB Multichannel SMB Direct SMB Encryption VSS for SMB file shares SMB Directory Leasing SMB PowerShell With these new features, SMB 3.0 offers richer capabilities that, when combined, provide organizations with a high performance storage alternative to traditional Fibre Channel storage solutions at a lower cost. Note: For more details about SMB 3.0, refer to Chapter 3. ODX Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) is a feature of the storage stack in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 that gives users the ability to use the investment in external storage arrays to offload data transfers from the server to the storage arrays. When used with storage hardware that supports the ODX feature, file copy operations are initiated by the host, but performed by the storage device. ODX eliminates the data transfer between the storage and the Hyper-V hosts by using a token-based mechanism for reading and writing data within storage arrays and reduces the load on your network and hosts. Using ODX helps to enable rapid cloning and migration of virtual machines. Because the file transfer is offloading to the storage array when using ODX, the host resource usage, such as CPU and network, is significantly reduced. By maximizing the use of storage array, ODX minimizes latencies and improve the transfer speed of large files, such as database or video files. When performing file operations that are supported by ODX, data transfers are automatically offloaded to the storage array and are transparent to users. ODX is enabled by default in Windows Server 2012 R2. 70 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

71 Solution Architecture Overview VHDX Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 contains an update to the VHD format called VHDX, which has much larger capacity and built-in resiliency. The main features of the VHDX format are: Support for virtual hard disk storage with the capacity of up to 64 TB. Additional protection against data corruption during power failures by logging updates to the VHDX metadata structures. Optimal structure alignment of the virtual hard disk format to suit large sector disks. The VHDX format also has the following features: Larger block size for dynamic and differential disks, which enables the disks to better meet the needs of the workload. The 4 KB logical sector virtual disk that enables increased performance when used by applications and workloads that are designed for 4 KB sectors. The ability to store custom metadata about the files that the user might want to record, such as the operating system version or applied updates. Space reclamation features that can result in smaller file size and enable the underlying physical storage device to reclaim unused space (for example, TRIM requires direct-attached storage or SCSI disks and TRIM-compatible hardware). VSPEX storage building blocks Sizing the storage system to meet virtual server IOPS is a complicated process. When I/O reaches the storage array, several components such as the SPs, back-end dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cache, FAST Cache or FAST VP (if used), and disks serve that I/O. Customers must consider various factors when planning and scaling their storage system to balance capacity, performance, and cost for their applications. VSPEX uses a building block approach to reduce this complexity. A building block is a set of disk spindles that can support a certain number of virtual servers in the VSPEX architecture. Each building block combines several disk spindles to create a storage pool that supports the needs of the private cloud environment. VSPEX solutions have been engineered to provide a variety of sizing configurations which afford flexibility when designing the solution. Customers can start out by deploying smaller configurations and scale up as their needs grow. At the same time, customers can avoid overpurchasing by choosing a configuration that closely meets their needs. To accomplish this, VSPEX solutions can be deployed using one or both of the scale-points below to obtain the ideal configuration while guaranteeing a given performance level. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 71

72 Solution Architecture Overview Building block for 15 virtual servers The first building block can contain up to 15 virtual servers, with five SAS drives in a storage pool, as shown in Figure 17. Figure 17. Building block for 15 virtual servers This is the smallest building block qualified for the VSPEX architecture. This building block can be expanded by adding five SAS drives and allowing the pool to restripe to add support for 15 more virtual servers. Building block for 125 virtual servers The second building block can contain up to 125 virtual servers. It contains 40 SAS drives, as shown in Figure 18. This figure also shows the four drives required for the VNXe operating system. The preceding sections outline an approach to grow from 15 virtual machines in a pool to 125 virtual machines in a pool. Figure 18. Building block for 125 virtual servers 72 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

73 Solution Architecture Overview Implement this building block with all of the resources in the pool initially, or expand the pool over time as the environment grows. Table 7 lists the flash and SAS requirements in a pool for different numbers of virtual servers. Table 7. Number of disks required for different number of virtual machines Virtual servers SAS drives * Note: Due to increased efficiency with larger stripes, the building block with 40 SAS drives can support up to 125 virtual servers. To grow the environment beyond 125 virtual servers, create another storage pool using the building block method described here. VSPEX Private Cloud validated maximums VSPEX Private Cloud configurations are validated on the VNXe3200 platforms. Each platform has different capabilities in terms of processors, memory, and disks. For each array, there is a recommended maximum VSPEX private cloud configuration. In addition to the VSPEX private cloud building blocks, each storage array must contain the drives used for the VNXe Operating Environment (OE), and hot spare disks for the environment. Notes: Allocate at least one hot spare for every 30 disks of a given type and size. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 73

74 Solution Architecture Overview VNXe3200 VNXe3200 is validated for up to 125 virtual servers. Figure 19 shows a typical configuration. Figure 19. Storage layout for 125 virtual machines using VNXe3200 This configuration uses the following storage layout: Forty 600 GB SAS disks are allocated to a block-based storage pool for 125 virtual machines Two 600 GB SAS disks are configured as hot spares For blocks, allocate at least two LUNs to the Hyper-V Failover Cluster from a single storage pool to serve as CSV For files, allocate at least two SMB shares to the Hyper-V Failover Cluster from a single storage pool for the virtual servers Optionally configure two 200 GB flash drives for FAST VP Optionally configure one 200 GB as a hot spare Optionally configure flash drives as FAST Cache (up to 200 GB) in the array. LUNs or storage pools where virtual machines reside that have a higher than average I/O requirement can benefit from the FAST Cache feature. These drives are an optional part of the solution, and additional licenses may be required to use the FAST Suite. Using this configuration, the VNXe3200 can support 125 virtual servers as defined in the Reference workload section. Conclusion The scale levels listed in Figure 20 highlight the entry points and supported maximums values for the arrays in the VSPEX Private Cloud environment. The entry points represent optimal model demarcations in terms of the number of virtual machines within the environment. This helps you to determine which VNXe array to choose based on your requirements. You can choose to configure any of the listed arrays with a smaller number of virtual machines than the maximum values supported by using the building block approach described earlier. 74 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

75 Solution Architecture Overview Figure 20. Maximum scale levels and entry points of different arrays Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 75

76 Solution Architecture Overview High availability and failover Overview This VSPEX solution provides a highly available virtualized server, network, and storage infrastructure. When implemented in accordance with this guide, business operations survive from single-unit failures with little or no impact. Virtualization layer Configure high availability in the virtualization layer, and configure the hypervisor to automatically restart failed virtual machines. Figure 21 illustrates the hypervisor layer responding to a failure in the compute layer. Figure 21. High availability on the virtualization layer By implementing high availability on the virtualization layer, even in a hardware failure, the infrastructure attempts to keep as many services running as possible. Compute layer While the choice of servers to implement in the compute layer is flexible, use enterprise class servers designed for the data center. This type of server has redundant power supplies, as shown in Figure 22. Connect these servers to separate power distribution units (PDUs) in accordance with your server vendor s best practices. Figure 22. Redundant power supplies To configure HA in the virtualization layer, configure the compute layer with enough resources to meet the needs of the environment, even with a server failure, as demonstrated in Figure Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

77 Solution Architecture Overview Brocade Network layer The advanced networking features of the VNX family and Brocade VDX Ethernet Fabric and Connectrix-B 6510 Fibre Channel Family of switches provide protection against network connection failures at the array. Each vsphere host has multiple connections to user and storage networks to guard against link failures, as shown in Figure 23 and Figure 24. Spread these connections across multiple Brocade Fabric switches to guard against component failure in the network. Figure 23. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNXe) block storage network variant Figure 24. Brocade Network layer high availability (VNXe) file storage Ensure that there is no single point of failure (SPOF) to allow the compute layer to access storage, and communicate with users even if a component fails. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 77

78 Solution Architecture Overview Storage layer The VNXe series design is for five 9s availability by using redundant components throughout the array. All of the array components are capable of continued operation in case of hardware failure. The RAID disk configuration on the array provides protection against data loss caused by individual disk failures, and the available hot spare drives can be dynamically allocated to replace a failing disk, as shown in Figure 25. Figure 25. VNXe series HA components EMC storage arrays support HA by default. When configured according to the directions in their installation guides, no single unit failures result in data loss or unavailability. 78 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

79 Solution Architecture Overview Validation test profile Profile characteristics The VSPEX solution was validated with the environment profile described in Table 8. Table 8. Profile characteristics Profile characteristic Value Number of virtual machines 125 Virtual machine OS Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition Processors per virtual machine 1 Number of virtual processors per physical CPU core RAM per virtual machine Average storage available for each virtual machine Average IOPS per virtual machine Number of LUNs or CIFS shares to store virtual machine disks Number of virtual machines per LUN or CIFS share 4* 2 GB 100 GB 25 IOPS 6/10/16 62 or 63 per LUN of CIFS share Disk and RAID type for LUNs or CIFS shares RAID 5, 600 GB, 10k rpm, 2.5- inch SAS disks *For Ivy Bridge or later processors, use 8 vcpu per physical core Note: This solution was tested and validated with Windows Server 2012 R2 as the operating system for Hyper-V hosts and virtual machines; however it also supports Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server Hyper- V hosts on all supported versions of Windows Server use the same sizing and configuration. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 79

80 Solution Architecture Overview EMC Powered Backup and configuration guidelines Sizing guidelines Reference workload For complete EMC Powered Backup guidelines for this VSPEX Private Cloud solution, refer to the EMC Backup and Recovery Options for VSPEX Private Clouds Design and Implementation Guide. The following sections provide definitions of the reference workload used to size and implement the VSPEX architectures. The sections include instructions on how to correlate those reference workloads to customer workloads, and how that may change the end delivery from the server and network perspective. Modify the storage definition by adding drives for greater capacity and performance, and by adding features such as FAST Cache and FAST VP. The disk layouts provide support for the appropriate number of virtual machines at the defined performance level and for typical operations such as snapshots. Decreasing the number of recommended drives or stepping down an array type can result in lower IOPS per virtual machine, and a reduced user experience caused by higher response time. Overview When you move an existing server to a virtual infrastructure, you can gain efficiency by right-sizing the virtual hardware resources assigned to that system. Each VSPEX Proven Infrastructure balances the storage, network, and compute resources needed for a set number of virtual machines, as validated by EMC. In practice, each virtual machine has its own requirements that rarely fit a pre-defined idea of a virtual machine. In any discussion about virtual infrastructures, first define a reference workload. Not all servers perform the same tasks, and it is impractical to build a reference that considers every possible combination of workload characteristics. Defining the reference workload To simplify the discussion, this section presents a representative customer reference workload. By comparing your actual customer usage to this reference workload, you can determine which reference architecture to choose. For the VSPEX solutions, the reference workload is a single virtual machine. Table 9 lists the characteristics of this virtual machine. 80 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

81 Solution Architecture Overview Table 9. Virtual machine characteristics Characteristic Value Virtual machine operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition Virtual processors per virtual machine 1 RAM per virtual machine Available storage capacity per virtual machine I/O operations per second (IOPS) per virtual machine I/O pattern 2 GB 100 GB 25 Random I/O read/write ratio 2:1 This specification for a virtual machine does not represent any specific application. Rather, it represents a single common point of reference to measure other virtual machines. Applying the reference workload Overview When you consider an existing server for movement into a virtual infrastructure, you have the opportunity to gain efficiency by right sizing the virtual hardware resources assigned to that system. The solution creates a pool of resources that are sufficient to host a target number of reference virtual machines with the characteristics shown in Table 9 on page 81. The customer virtual machines may not exactly match the specifications. In that case, define a single specific customer virtual machine as the equivalent of some number of reference virtual machines together, and assume these virtual machines are in use in the pool. Continue to provision virtual machines from the resource pool until no resources remain. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 81

82 Solution Architecture Overview Example 1: Custom-built application A small custom-built application server must move into this virtual infrastructure. The physical hardware that supports the application is not fully utilized. A careful analysis of the existing application reveals that the application can use one processor, and needs 3 GB memory to run normally. The I/O workload ranges between 4 IOPS at idle time to a peak of 15 IOPS when busy. The entire application consumes about 30 GB on local hard drive storage. Based on these numbers, the resource pool needs the following resources: CPU of one reference virtual machine Memory of two reference virtual machines Storage of one reference virtual machine I/Os of one reference virtual machine In this example, an appropriate virtual machine uses the resources for two of the reference virtual machines. If implemented on a VNXe3200 storage system which can support up to 125 virtual machines, resources for 123 reference virtual machines remain. Example 2: Point-of-Sale system The database server for a customer s Point-of-Sale system must move into this virtual infrastructure. It is currently running on a physical system with four CPUs and 16 GB memory. It uses 200 GB storage and generates 200 IOPS during an average busy cycle. The requirements to virtualize this application are: CPUs of four reference virtual machines Memory of eight reference virtual machines Storage of two reference virtual machines I/Os of eight reference virtual machines In this case, the one appropriate virtual machine uses the resources of eight reference virtual machines. If implemented on a VNXe3200 storage system which can support up to 125 virtual machines, resources for 117 reference virtual machines remain. Example 3: Web server The customer s web server must move into this virtual infrastructure. It is currently running on a physical system with two CPUs and 8 GB memory. It uses 25 GB storage and generates 50 IOPS during an average busy cycle. The requirements to virtualize this application are: CPUs of two reference virtual machines Memory of four reference virtual machines Storage of one reference virtual machine 82 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

83 Solution Architecture Overview I/Os of two reference virtual machines In this case, the one appropriate virtual machine uses the resources of four reference virtual machines. If implemented on a VNXe3200 storage system which can support up to 125 virtual machines, resources for 121 reference virtual machines remain. Example 4: Decision-support database The database server for a customer s decision support system must move into this virtual infrastructure. It is currently running on a physical system with 10 CPUs and 64 GB memory. It uses 5 TB storage and generates 700 IOPS during an average busy cycle. The requirements to virtualize this application are: CPUs of 10 reference virtual machines Memory of 32 reference virtual machines Storage of 52 reference virtual machines I/Os of 28 reference virtual machines In this case, one virtual machine uses the resources of 52 reference virtual machines. If implemented on a VNXe3200 storage system which can support up to 125 virtual machines, resources for 73 reference virtual machines remain. Summary of examples These four examples illustrate the flexibility of the resource pool model. In all four cases, the workloads reduce the amount of available resources in the pool. All four examples can be implemented on the same virtual infrastructure with an initial capacity for 125 reference virtual machines, and resources for 59 reference virtual machines remain in the resource pool as shown in Figure 26. Figure 26. Resource pool flexibility In more advanced cases, there may be tradeoffs between memory and I/O or other relationships where increasing the amount of one resource decreases the need for another. In these cases, the interactions between resource allocations become highly complex, and are beyond the scope of the document. Examine the change in resource balance and determine the new level of requirements. Add these virtual machines to the infrastructure with the method described in the examples. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 83

84 Solution Architecture Overview Implementing the solution Overview Resource types This solution requires a set of hardware to be available for the CPU, memory, network, and storage needs of the system. These are general requirements that are independent of any particular implementation except that the requirements grow linearly with the target level of scale. This section describes some considerations for implementing the requirements. The solution defines the hardware requirements in terms of these basic resources: CPU resources Memory resources Network resources Storage resources This section describes the resource types, their use in the solution, and key implementation considerations in a customer environment. CPU resources Memory resources The solution defines the number of CPU cores that are required, but not a specific type or configuration. New deployments should use recent revisions of common processor technologies. It is assumed that these perform as well as, or better than, the systems used to validate the solution. In any running system, monitor the utilization of resources and adapt as needed. The reference virtual machine and required hardware resources in the solution assume that there are four virtual CPUs for each physical processor core (4:1 ratio). (For Ivy Bridge or later processors, use 8 vcpus per physical core.) Usually, this provides an appropriate level of resources for the hosted virtual machines; however, this ratio may not be appropriate in all use cases. Monitor the CPU utilization at the hypervisor layer to determine if more resources are required. Each virtual server in the solution must have 2 GB of memory. In a virtual environment, it is common to provision virtual machines with more memory than is installed on the physical hypervisor server because of budget constraints. Memory over-commitment assumes that each virtual machine does not use all its allocated memory. To oversubscribe the memory usage to some degree makes business sense. The administrator has the responsibility to proactively monitor the oversubscription rate such that it does not shift the bottleneck away from the server and become a burden to the storage subsystem via page file swapping. 84 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

85 Solution Architecture Overview This solution is validated with statically assigned memory and no overcommitment of memory resources. If a real-world environment uses overcommitted memory, monitor the system memory utilization and associated page file I/O activity consistently to ensure that a memory shortfall does not cause unexpected results. Network resources The solution outlines the minimum needs of the system. If additional bandwidth is needed, add capability at both the storage array and the hypervisor host to meet the requirements. The options for network connectivity on the server depend on the type of server. The storage arrays have a number of included network ports, and can add ports using EMC UltraFlex I/O modules. For reference purposes in the validated environment, each virtual machine generates 25 IOPS with an average size of 8 KB. This means that each virtual machine is generating at least 200 KB/s traffic on the storage network. For an environment rated for 100 virtual machines, this comes out to a minimum of approximately 20 MB/sec. This is well within the bounds of modern networks. However, this does not consider other operations. For example, additional bandwidth is needed for: User network traffic Virtual machine migration Administrative and management operations The requirements for each network depend on how it will be used. It is not practical to provide precise numbers in this context. However, the network described in the solution should be sufficient to handle average workloads for the previously described use cases. Regardless of the network traffic requirements, always have at least two physical network connections shared for a logical network so that a single link failure does not affect the availability of the system. Design the network so that the aggregate bandwidth in the event of a failure is sufficient to accommodate the full workload. Storage resources The storage building blocks described in this solution contain layouts for the disks used in the system validation. Each layout balances the available storage capacity with the performance capability of the drives. Consider a few factors when examining storage sizing. Specifically, the array has a collection of disks assigned to a storage pool. From that storage pool, provision CIFS shares to the Windows cluster. Each layer has a specific configuration that is defined for the solution and documented in Chapter 5. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 85

86 Solution Architecture Overview It is acceptable to Replace drives with larger capacity drives of the same type and performance characteristics, or with higher performance drives of the same type and capacity. Similarly, Change the placement of drives in the drive shelves in order to comply with updated or new drive shelf arrangements. Increase the scale using the building blocks with larger numbers of drives up to the limit defined in the VSPEX Private Cloud validated maximums section. Observe the following best practices: Use the latest best practices guidance from EMC regarding drive placement within the shelf. Refer to Applied Best Practices Guide: EMC VNX Unified Best Practices for Performance. When expanding the capability of a storage pool using the building blocks described in this document, use the same type and size of drive in the pool. Create a new pool to use different drive types and sizes. This prevents uneven performance across the pool. Configure at least one hot spare for every type and size of drive on the system. Configure at least one hot spare for every 30 drives of a given type. In other cases where there is a need to deviate from the proposed number and type of drives specified, or the specified pool and datastore layouts, ensure that the target layout delivers the same or greater resources to the system and conforms to EMC published best practices. Implementation summary The requirements in the reference architecture are what EMC considers the minimum set of resources to handle the workloads required based on the stated definition of a reference virtual machine. In any customer implementation, the load of a system varies over time as users interact with the system. However, if the customer virtual machines differ significantly from the reference definition, and vary in the same resource group, add more of that resource type to the system to compensate. 86 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

87 Solution Architecture Overview Quick assessment of customer environment Overview An assessment of the customer environment helps to ensure that you implement the correct VSPEX solution. This section provides an easy-to-use worksheet to simplify the sizing calculations and assess the customer environment. First, summarize the applications planned for migration into the VSPEX private cloud. For each application, determine the number of virtual CPUs, the amount of memory, the required storage performance, the required storage capacity, and the number of reference virtual machines required from the resource pool. Applying the reference workload provides examples of this process. Fill out a row in the worksheet for each application, as listed in Table 10. Table 10. Blank worksheet row Application CPU (virtual CPUs) Memor y (GB) IOPS Capacity (GB) Equivalent reference virtual machines Example applicati on Resource requirement s Equivalent reference virtual machines N/A Fill out the resource requirements for the application. The row requires inputs on four different resources: CPU Memory IOPS Capacity Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 87

88 Solution Architecture Overview CPU requirements Memory requirements Storage performance requirements IOPS Optimizing CPU utilization is a significant goal for almost any virtualization project. A simple view of the virtualization operation suggests a one-to-one mapping between physical CPU cores and virtual CPU cores regardless of the physical CPU utilization. In reality, consider whether the target application can effectively use all CPUs presented. Use a performance-monitoring tool, such as perfmon in Microsoft Windows to examine the CPU utilization counter for each CPU. If they are equivalent, implement that number of virtual CPUs when moving into the virtual infrastructure. However, if some CPUs are used and some are not, consider decreasing the number of virtual CPUs required. In any operation that involves performance monitoring, collect data samples for a period of time that includes all operational use cases of the system. Use either the maximum or 95th percentile value of the resource requirements for planning purposes. Server memory plays a key role in ensuring application functionality and performance. Therefore, each server process has different targets for the acceptable amount of available memory. When moving an application into a virtual environment, consider the current memory available to the system and monitor the free memory by using a performance-monitoring tool, such as Microsoft Windows perfmon, to determine memory efficiency. In any operation involving performance monitoring, collect data samples for a period of time that includes all operational use cases of the system. Use either the maximum or 95th percentile value of the resource requirements for planning purposes. The storage performance requirements for an application are usually the least understood aspect of performance. Several components become important when discussing the I/O performance of a system: The number of requests coming in or IOPS. The size of the request, or I/O size, For example, a request for 4 KB of data is easier and faster to process than a request for 4 MB of data. The average I/O response time, or I/O latency. The reference virtual machine calls for 25 IOPS. To monitor this on an existing system, use a performance-monitoring tool such as Microsoft Windows perfmon. Perfmon provides several counters that can help. The most common are: Logical Disk or Disk Transfer/sec Logical Disk or Disk Reads/sec Logical Disk or Disk Writes/sec 88 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

89 Solution Architecture Overview Note: At the time of publication, Windows perfmon does not provide counters to expose IOPS and latency for CIFS-based VHDX storage. Monitor these areas from the VNXe array as discussed in Chapter 7. The reference virtual machine assumes a 2:1 read: write ratio. Use these counters to determine the total number of IOPS, and the approximate ratio of reads to writes for the customer application. I/O size I/O latency The I/O size is important because smaller I/O requests are faster and easier to process than large I/O requests. The reference virtual machine assumes an average I/O request size of 8 KB, which is appropriate for a large range of applications. Most applications use I/O sizes that are even powers of 2, such as 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, or 32 KB. The performance counter does a simple average; it is common to see 11 KB or 15 KB instead of the actual I/O sizes. The reference virtual machine assumes an 8 KB I/O size. If the average customer I/O size is less than 8 KB, use the observed IOPS number. However, if the average I/O size is significantly higher, apply a scaling factor to account for the large I/O size. A safe estimate is to divide the I/O size by 8 KB and use that factor. For example, if the application is using mostly 32 KB I/O requests, use a factor of four (32 KB/8 KB = 4). If that application generates 100 IOPS at 32 KB, the factor indicates to plan for 400 IOPS since the reference virtual machine assumes 8 KB I/O sizes. You can use the average I/O response time, or I/O latency, to measure how quickly the storage system processes I/O requests. The VSPEX solutions meet a target average I/O latency of 20 ms. The recommendations in this document allow the system to continue to meet that target, and at the same time, monitor the system and reevaluate the resource pool utilization if needed. To monitor I/O latency, use the Logical Disk\Avg. Disk sec/transfer counter in Microsoft Windows perfmon. If the I/O latency is continuously over the target, reevaluate the virtual machines in the environment to ensure that these machines do not use more resources than intended. Storage capacity requirements The storage capacity requirement for a running application is usually the easiest resource to quantify. Determine the disk space used, and add an appropriate factor to accommodate growth. For example, virtualizing a server that currently uses 40 GB of a 200 GB internal drive with anticipated growth of approximately 20 percent over the next year, requires 48 GB. In addition, reserve space for regular maintenance patches and swapping files. Some file systems, such as Microsoft NTFS, degrade in performance if they become too full. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 89

90 Solution Architecture Overview Determining equivalent reference virtual machines With all of the resources defined, determine an appropriate value for the equivalent reference virtual machines line by using the relationships in Table 11. Round all values up to the closest whole number. Table 11. Reference virtual machine resources Resource Value for reference virtual machine Relationship between requirements and equivalent reference virtual machines CPU 1 Equivalent reference virtual machines = resource requirements Memory 2 Equivalent reference virtual machines = (resource requirements)/2 IOPS 25 Equivalent reference virtual machines = (resource requirements)/25 Capacity 100 Equivalent reference virtual machines = (resource requirements)/100 For example, the Point of Sale system used in Example 2: Point-of-Sale system requires four CPUs, 16 GB memory, 200 IOPS, and 200 GB storage. This translates to four reference virtual machines of CPU, eight reference virtual machines of memory, eight reference virtual machines of IOPS, and two reference virtual machines of capacity. Table 12 demonstrates how that machine fits into the worksheet row. Table 12. Example worksheet row Application CPU (virtual CPUs) Memory (GB) IOPS Capacity (GB) Equivalent reference virtual machines Example application Resource requirements Equivalent reference virtual machines N/A Use the highest value in the row to fill in the Equivalent reference virtual machines column. As shown in Figure 27, the example requires eight reference virtual machines. 90 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup

91 Solution Architecture Overview Figure 27. Required resource from the reference virtual machine pool Implementation example stage 1 A customer wants to build a virtual infrastructure to support one custombuilt application, one Point of Sale system, and one web server. The customer computes the sum of the Equivalent reference virtual machines column on the right side of the worksheet as listed in Table 13 to calculate the total number of reference virtual machines required. The table shows the result of the calculation, along with the value, rounded up to the nearest whole number. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines Enabled by Brocade Network Fabrics, EMC VNXe3200, and EMC Powered Backup 91