Veritas InfoScale™ 8.0.2 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (8.0.2)
Platform: Linux,VMware ESX
  1. Section I. Overview
    1. About Veritas InfoScale solutions in a VMware environment
      1.  
        Overview of the Veritas InfoScale Products Virtualization Guide
      2. How InfoScale solutions work in a VMware environment
        1.  
          How InfoScale product components enhance VMware capabilities
        2.  
          When to use Raw Device Mapping and InfoScale
        3.  
          Array migration
        4.  
          InfoScale component limitations in an ESXi environment
        5.  
          I/O fencing considerations in an ESXi environment
      3.  
        About InfoScale solutions support for the VMware ESXi environment
      4.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by InfoScale
  2. Section II. Deploying Veritas InfoScale products in a VMware environment
    1. Getting started
      1.  
        Storage configurations and feature compatibility
      2.  
        About setting up VMware with InfoScale products
      3.  
        InfoScale products support for VMware environments
      4.  
        Installing and configuring storage solutions in the VMware virtual environment
      5.  
        Recommendations for improved resiliency of InfoScale clusters in virtualized environments
    2. Understanding Storage Configuration
      1.  
        Configuring storage
      2.  
        Enabling disk UUID on virtual machines
      3.  
        Installing Array Support Library (ASL) for VMDK on cluster nodes
      4.  
        Excluding the boot disk from the Volume Manager configuration
      5.  
        Creating the VMDK files
      6.  
        Mapping the VMDKs to each virtual machine (VM)
      7.  
        Enabling the multi-write flag
      8.  
        Getting consistent names across nodes
      9.  
        Creating a file system
  3. Section III. Use cases for Veritas InfoScale product components in a VMware environment
    1. Application availability using Cluster Server
      1.  
        About application availability with Cluster Server (VCS) in the guest
      2.  
        About VCS support for Live Migration
    2. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
    3. Improving data protection, storage optimization, data migration, and database performance
      1.  
        Use cases for InfoScale product components in a VMware guest
      2. Protecting data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About point-in-time copies
        2.  
          Point-in-time snapshots for InfoScale products in the VMware environment
      3. Optimizing storage with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About SmartTier in the VMware environment
        2.  
          About compression with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        3.  
          About thin reclamation with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        4.  
          About SmartMove with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        5.  
          About SmartTier for Oracle with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
      4. Migrating data with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          Types of data migration
      5. Improving database performance with InfoScale product components in the VMware guest
        1.  
          About InfoScale product components database accelerators
    4. Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using InfoScale Enterprise on VMware disks
      1.  
        About use cases for InfoScale Enterprise in the VMware guest
      2.  
        InfoScale Enterprise operation in VMware virtualized environments
      3.  
        InfoScale functionality and compatibility matrix
      4. About setting up InfoScale Enterprise on VMware ESXi
        1.  
          Planning a InfoScale Enterprise configuration
        2.  
          Enable Password-less SSH
        3.  
          Enabling TCP traffic to coordination point (CP) Server and management ports
        4. Configuring coordination point (CP) servers
          1.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server for InfoScale Enterprise
          2.  
            Configuring a Cluster Server (VCS) single node cluster
          3.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server service group
        5.  
          Deploying InfoScale Enterprise software
        6.  
          Configuring InfoScale Enterprise
        7.  
          Configuring non-SCSI3 fencing
  4. Section IV. Reference
    1. Appendix A. Known issues and limitations
      1.  
        Prevention of Storage vMotion
    2. Appendix B. Where to find more information
      1.  
        InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Service and support
      3.  
        About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

InfoScale Enterprise operation in VMware virtualized environments

InfoScale Enterprise has two supported modes of operation when used inside a guest operating system operating system (OS) that is running on a VMware hypervisor:

  • Mode 1: InfoScale Enterprise is connected to external storage via RDM-P

    Use InfoScale Enterprise running in a guest OS and connected to external storage via RDM-P when you require highly reliable SCSI-3 PGR keys for split-brain protection and data fencing

  • Mode 2: InfoScale Enterprise connected to VMFS with the VMFS multi-writer flag enabled

    Use InfoScale Enterprise running in a guest OS and connected to VMFS with the VMFS multi-writer flag enabled when you require guest OS mobility via VMware vMotion.

Requirements for Mode 1:

  • InfoScale Enterprise must be connected to a physical LUN has been mapped to a virtual machine disk (VMDK) using the VMware raw disk mapping physical (RDMP) compatibility mode.

  • This option provides full InfoScale Enterprise high availability support for fast failover, split brain protection, and data fencing, but does not allow use of VMware snapshots, vMotion, or other VMware HA features.

  • InfoScale Enterprise snapshots, clones, deduplication, and other storage optimization features are fully supported in this configuration.

  • vmotion should work with RDM-P where the virtual SCSI controller is set to have SCSI Bus sharing enabled.

    https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/infoscale_support_vmware_vmotion_rdmp

Requirements for Mode 2:

  • The guest OS must use a VMFS virtual machine disk (VMDK).

  • VMFS normally prohibits multiple guest Operating Systems from connecting to the same virtual disk, thus precluding use of that VMDK with a parallel file system such as. However, by enabling a new VMFS option, multi-writer, an administrator can create a VMDK that can be read/written to by multiple guest Operating Systems simultaneously. This is described in the following VMware article - https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1034165

  • Since VMFS does not allow InfoScale Enterprise to see the SCSI-3 persistent group reservation (PGR) bit on the LUN, SCSI-based I/O fencing will not work. To use InfoScale Enterprise with the VMFS multi-writer option, Coordination Point Servers (CPS) must be used for split-brain protection.

    For information on configuring CPS fencing, see the Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability Administrator's Guide.

  • CPS does not support data protection via fencing, so care must be taken to prevent inadvertent data corruption caused by a non-Veritas InfoScale Enterprise guest OS writing to a VMDK. InfoScale Enterprise snapshots, clones, deduplication, and other storage optimization features are fully supported in this configuration.

Veritas support for InfoScale Enterprise in a guest OS:

  • Veritas will attempt to resolve any issues as if they were occurring in a physical OS environment. Once a potential problem has been identified, Veritas support personnel will recommend an appropriate solution that would be applicable on the native OS on a physical server.

  • If that solution does not work in the VMware virtualized environment, Veritas reserves the right to ask the customer to replicate the problem in a physical environment. In some cases the customer may be referred to VMware for support.