Veritas InfoScale™ 7.4.1 Virtualization Guide - Linux on ESXi

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (7.4.1)
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 Storage Foundation
        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 Veritas InfoScale products
  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
    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 storage visibility, availability, and I/O performance using Dynamic Multi-Pathing
      1.  
        Use cases for Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in the VMware environment
      2. How DMP works
        1. How DMP monitors I/O on paths
          1.  
            Path failover mechanism
          2.  
            I/O throttling
          3.  
            Subpaths Failover Group (SFG)
          4.  
            Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)
        2.  
          Load balancing
        3.  
          About DMP I/O policies
      3.  
        Achieving storage visibility using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      4.  
        Achieving storage availability using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      5.  
        Improving I/O performance with Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor
      6.  
        Achieving simplified management using Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the hypervisor and guest
    4. 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
    5. Setting up virtual machines for fast failover using Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability on VMware disks
      1.  
        About use cases for InfoScale Enterprise in the VMware guest
      2.  
        Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability operation in VMware virtualized environments
      3.  
        Storage Foundation functionality and compatibility matrix
      4. About setting up Storage Foundation Cluster File High System High Availability on VMware ESXi
        1.  
          Planning a Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) 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 Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA)
          2.  
            Configuring a Coordination Point server service group
          3.  
            Configuring a Cluster Server (VCS) single node cluster
        5.  
          Deploying Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA) software
        6.  
          Configuring Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability (SFCFSHA)
        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.  
        Veritas InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Service and support
      3.  
        About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

Array migration

When a virtual machine (VM) is selected for movement of disk files to a new disk storage (DS) using Storage vMotion, the following takes place:

  • The VM home directory (config, log, swap, snapshots) is copied to the destination DS.

    A "shadow" VM is started on the destination DS using the copied files. The "shadow" VM idles waiting for the copying of the VM disk file(s) to complete.

  • An initial copy of the VMs disk file(s) is made to the target DS. During the copy changes made to the source are tracked (change block tracking).

  • Storage vMotion iteratively repeats this process of copying the changed blocks from the source DS to the destination DS.

  • When the amount of outstanding changed blocks is small enough, vMotion invokes a Fast Suspend and Resume (FSR) of the VM (similar to vMotion) to transfer the running VM over to the idling shadow VM. As is the case with regular vMotion, this transfer normally happens so quickly that it will be completely transparent to the VM.

  • After the FSR completes the old home directory the VM disk files are deleted from the source DS.

Figure: Virtual machine data migration with ESXi tools describes the high level process for VMware.

Figure: Virtual machine data migration with ESXi tools

Virtual machine data migration with ESXi tools

In VMware, you can add disks to the ESXi server and the virtual machine without rebooting. This functionality makes it possible to offer a better process using Storage Foundation together with raw device mapped storage for online data migration.

Figure: Virtual machine data migration with Storage Foundation describes the high level process for Storage Foundation.

Figure: Virtual machine data migration with Storage Foundation

Virtual machine data migration with Storage Foundation

Data migration for Storage Foundation can be executed either locally in the virtual machine with Veritas Volume Manager or in a central location, migrating all storage from an array utilized by Storage Foundation managed hosts. This powerful, centralized data migration functionality is available in InfoScale Operations Manager.

See the following Web site for information about InfoScale Operations Manager.

https://www.veritas.com/product/storage-management/infoscale-operations-manager