InfoScale™ 9.0 Virtualization Guide - Linux

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (9.0)
Platform: Linux
  1. Section I. Overview of InfoScale solutions used in Linux virtualization
    1. Overview of supported products and technologies
      1.  
        Overview of the InfoScale Virtualization Guide
      2. About InfoScale support for Linux virtualization environments
        1.  
          About SmartIO in the Linux virtualized environment
        2.  
          About the SmartPool feature
      3. About KVM technology
        1.  
          Kernel-based Virtual Machine Terminology
        2.  
          VirtIO disk drives
      4. About InfoScale deployments in OpenShift Virtualization environments
        1.  
          Configuring iSCSI for OpenShift VMs
      5.  
        About InfoScale deployments in OpenStack environments
      6.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by InfoScale
      7.  
        About virtual-to-virtual (in-guest) clustering and failover
  2. Section II. Implementing a basic KVM environment
    1. Getting started with basic KVM
      1.  
        Creating and launching a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) host
      2.  
        RHEL-based KVM installation and usage
      3.  
        Setting up a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) guest
      4.  
        About setting up KVM with InfoScale solutions
      5. InfoScale solutions configuration options for the kernel-based virtual machines environment
        1.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the KVM guest virtualized machine
        2.  
          DMP in the KVM host
        3.  
          SF in the virtualized guest machine
        4.  
          Enabling I/O fencing in KVM guests
        5.  
          SFCFSHA in the KVM host
        6.  
          DMP in the KVM host and guest virtual machine
        7.  
          DMP in the KVM host and SFHA in the KVM guest virtual machine
        8.  
          VCS in the KVM host
        9.  
          VCS in the guest
        10.  
          VCS in a cluster across virtual machine guests and physical machines
      6.  
        Installing InfoScale in a KVM environment
      7. Installing and configuring VCS in a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) environment
        1.  
          How VCS manages virtual machine guests
    2. Configuring KVM resources
      1.  
        About KVM resources
      2. Configuring storage
        1.  
          Consistent storage mapping in the KVM environment
        2. Mapping devices to the guest
          1.  
            Mapping DMP meta-devices
          2.  
            Consistent naming across KVM Hosts
          3.  
            Mapping devices using paths
          4.  
            Mapping devices using volumes
          5.  
            Mapping devices using the virtio-scsi interface
        3.  
          Resizing devices
      3. Configuring networking
        1. Bridge network configuration
          1.  
            Host network configuration
          2.  
            Configuring guest network
        2.  
          Network configuration for VCS cluster across physical machines (PM-PM)
        3.  
          Standard bridge configuration
        4.  
          Network configuration for VM-VM cluster
  3. Section III. Implementing InfoScale an OpenStack environment
    1. Installing and configring resources in an OpenStack environment
      1.  
        About installing and configuring the OpenStack environment
      2.  
        About installing and configuring InfoScale on OpenStack VMs
  4. Section IV. Implementing Linux virtualization use cases
    1. Application visibility and device discovery
      1.  
        About storage to application visibility using InfoScale Operations Manager
      2.  
        About KVM virtualization discovery in InfoScale Operations Manager
      3.  
        About Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization discovery
      4.  
        Virtual machine discovery in Microsoft Hyper-V
      5.  
        Storage mapping discovery in Microsoft Hyper-V
    2. Server consolidation
      1.  
        Server consolidation
      2.  
        Implementing server consolidation for a simple workload
    3. Physical to virtual migration
      1.  
        Physical to virtual migration
      2.  
        How to implement physical to virtual migration (P2V)
    4. Simplified management
      1.  
        Simplified management
      2. Provisioning storage for a guest virtual machine
        1.  
          Provisioning VxVM volumes as data disks for VM guests
        2.  
          Provisioning VxVM volumes as boot disks for guest virtual machines
      3. Boot image management
        1.  
          Creating the boot disk group
        2.  
          Creating and configuring the golden image
        3.  
          Rapid Provisioning of virtual machines using the golden image
        4.  
          Storage Savings from space-optimized snapshots
    5. Application availability using Cluster Server
      1.  
        About application availability options
      2.  
        Cluster Server in a KVM environment architecture summary
      3.  
        Virtual to Virtual clustering and failover
      4.  
        I/O fencing support for virtual-to-virtual clustering
      5.  
        Virtual to Physical clustering and failover
      6.  
        Recommendations for improved resiliency of InfoScale clusters in virtualized environments
    6. Virtual machine availability
      1.  
        About virtual machine availability options
      2.  
        VCS in host monitoring the Virtual Machine as a resource
      3.  
        Validating the virtualization environment for virtual machine availability
    7. Virtual machine availability for live migration
      1.  
        About live migration
      2.  
        Live migration requirements
      3. About Flexible Storage Sharing
        1.  
          Flexible Storage Sharing use cases
        2.  
          Limitations of Flexible Storage Sharing
      4.  
        Configure Storage Foundation components as backend storage for virtual machines
      5.  
        Implementing live migration for virtual machine availability
    8. Virtual to virtual clustering in a Hyper-V environment
      1.  
        Installing and configuring Cluster Server with Microsoft Hyper-V virtual-to-virtual clustering
    9. Virtual to virtual clustering in an OVM environment
      1.  
        Installing and configuring Cluster Server for Oracle Virtual Machine (OVM) virtual-to-virtual clustering
      2.  
        Storage configuration for VCS support in Oracle Virtual Machine (OVM)
    10. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
      3. Recovery of Multi-tier Applications managed with Virtual Business Services in InfoScale Operations Manager
        1.  
          Service Group Management in Virtual Business Services
    11. Managing Docker containers with InfoScale Enterprise
      1.  
        About managing Docker containers with InfoScale Enterprise
      2. About the Cluster Server agents for Docker, Docker Daemon, and Docker Container
        1.  
          Supported software
        2.  
          How the agents make Docker containers highly available
        3.  
          Documentation reference
      3. Managing storage capacity for Docker containers
        1.  
          Provisioning storage for Docker infrastructure from the Arctera File System
        2. Provisioning data volumes for Docker containers
          1.  
            Provisioning storage on Arctera File System as data volumes for containers
          2.  
            Provisioning VxVM volumes as data volumes for containers
          3.  
            Creating a data volume container
        3. Automatically provision storage for Docker Containers
          1.  
            Installing the InfoScale Docker volume plugin
          2.  
            Configuring a disk group
          3.  
            Creating Docker containers with storage attached automatically
          4.  
            Avoid noisy neighbor problem by using Quality of Service support
          5.  
            Provision to create snapshots
          6.  
            Configuring Veritas volume plugin with Docker 1.12 Swarm mode
        4.  
          About using InfoScale Enterprise features to manage storage for containers
      4. Offline migration of Docker containers
        1.  
          Migrating Docker containers
        2.  
          Migrating Docker Daemons and Docker Containers
      5. Disaster recovery of volumes and file systems in Docker environments
        1.  
          Configuring Docker containers for disaster recovery
      6.  
        Limitations while managing Docker containers
  5. Section V. Reference
    1. Appendix A. Troubleshooting
      1.  
        InfoScale logs for CFS configurations in OpenStack environments
      2.  
        Troubleshooting virtual machine live migration
      3.  
        The KVMGuest resource may remain in the online state even if storage connectivity to the host is lost
      4.  
        VCS initiates a virtual machine failover if a host on which a virtual machine is running loses network connectivity
    2. Appendix B. Sample configurations
      1. Sample configuration for a KVM environment
        1.  
          Sample configuration 1: Native LVM volumes are used to store the guest image
        2.  
          Sample configuration 2: VxVM volumes are used to store the guest image
        3.  
          Sample configuration 3: CVM-CFS is used to store the guest image
      2.  
        Sample configurations for OpenStack environments
    3. Appendix C. Where to find more information
      1.  
        InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Linux virtualization documentation
      3.  
        Service and support
      4.  
        About Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

Configuring iSCSI for OpenShift VMs

For InfoScale deployments in OpenShift environments, iSCSI is the only supported storage protocol for accessing external storage. This section provides instructions for configuring iSCSI initiators directly within the virtual machines (VMs) running on OpenShift Virtualization.

Prerequisites

Before configuring the iSCSI initiator within your VMs, make sure that the following requirements are met:

  • Static IP addresses are configured for all VMs that will use iSCSI connections

  • The underlying network infrastructure supports the iSCSI traffic requirements

  • The iSCSI target servers are accessible from the VM network

  • Network Attachment Definitions (NADs) have been created for dedicated iSCSI traffic

  • Node Network Configuration Policy (NNCP) has been properly configured for the underlying node network interfaces

Installing the iSCSI initiator package

Perform the following tasks on each VM that will connect to the iSCSI storage.

To install the required iSCSI initiator utilities

  1. For RHEL-based or CentOS-based VMs:

    # yum install iscsi-initiator-utils device-mapper-multipath

    For SLES-based VMs:

    # zypper install open-iscsi multipath-tools

  2. Verify the installation:

    # rpm -qa | grep -i iscsi

Configure the iSCSI initiator

To set the Initiator Name

  1. Check the current initiator name:

    # cat /etc/iscsi/<initiator_name>.iscsi

  2. If required, modify the initiator name to ensure uniqueness across all VMs:

    # echo "InitiatorName=iqn.$(date +%Y-%m).com.<example>.infoscale:$(hostname)" > /etc/iscsi/<initiator_name>.iscsi

  3. Enable and start the iSCSI services:

    # systemctl enable iscsid

    # systemctl enable iscsi

    # systemctl start iscsid

    # systemctl start iscsi

(Optional) To configure iSCSI CHAP Authentication

  1. If your iSCSI target requires CHAP authentication, edit the iSCSI configuration file:

    # vi /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf

  2. Configure CHAP settings by uncommenting and modifying these lines:
    node.session.auth.authmethod = CHAP
node.session.auth.username = username
node.session.auth.password = password
  3. Restart the iSCSI service:

    # systemctl restart iscsid

To discover and connect to iSCSI targets

  1. Discover available targets on the iSCSI storage server:

    # iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p <target_IP_address>:3260

  2. Log in to the discovered target:

    # iscsiadm -m node -T <target_IQN> -p <target_IP_address>:3260 -l

  3. Verify the connection:

    # iscsiadm -m session -P 3

  4. Verify the newly available storage devices:

    # ls -la /dev/disk/by-path/ip-*

Finally, make sure that the iSCSI connections persist across VM reboots.

To configure persistent iSCSI connections

  1. Enable automatic login for the discovered targets:

    # iscsiadm -m node -T <target_IQN> -p <target_IP_address>:3260 --op update -n node.startup -v automatic

  2. Verify the configuration:

    # iscsiadm -m node -T <target_IQN> -p <target_IP_address>:3260 --op show"

For details on configuring an iSCSI initiator, refer to the Red Hat documentation.

For details on configuring access to mass storage over IP networks, refer to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) documentation.