VSAN

Configure VSAN on HP Servers

For a new End User Computing (EUC) project I installed a Hybrid Virtual SAN (VSAN) configuration on HP Proliant server hardware. VSAN will be used as storage layer for VDIs. Each HP Proliant DL360 Gen9 server has the following components:

  • HP Workload Accelerator as caching device
  • HP Smart Array P440 controller with several 10k SAS disks as capacity tier

To enable VSAN the the first thing to do is to check the VSAN HCL(link)

HCL1

HCL2

The VSAN HCL gives important information about:

  • What hardware is supported?
  • What configuration does the  HP Smart Array controller support?
  • VSAN supported version(s)
  • Device driver and firmware versions including the download location of the driver.

All the hardware is supported and the firmware levels are listed in the HCL. So the next step is to do is to configure the HP Smart Array P440 controller in Pass-Through mode. HP calls this “HBA mode”. In HBA mode, all physical drives are presented directly to the operating system and the hardware RAID engine is disabled. This can be done in the Smart Storage Administrator.

HBAmode

After enabling the HBA mode the hosts needs a reboot.

The next step it to install the server with the HP Custom ESXi image . After the installation the ESXi, the HP Smart Array Controller is not recognized because the driver is not included. This same is for the HP Workload Accelerator that will serve for the caching tier. Download both drivers and add them to vSphere Update Manager. After both drivers are installed check the HP Smart Array Controller by using the following command (included in the HP Customed ESXi image):

esxcli hpssacli cmd -q "controller "slot=1" show config detail"

esxi command

The “slot=” option depends on the slot number the HP Smart Array P440 controller is installed.

To list the drives attached to the controller with the following command:

esxcli hpssacli cmd -q "controller slot=1 physicaldrive all show"

The Workload Acccelerator status can be displayed with the following command:

fio-status

The last step is to  open the vSphere Web Client, start enabling VSAN and claiming the disks.

Virtual SAN (VSAN) ROBO and SMB environment considerations

Virtual SAN requires minimal 3 ESXi hosts. With version 6.1 of Virtual SAN, Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) and small SMB customer environments are supported with Virtual SAN on 2 ESXi nodes. With a 2 node Virtual SAN cluster options such as HA, DRS and vMotion are fully supported.

In a ROBO configuration you have two Virtual SAN data nodes and one witness node. The Virtual SAN data nodes can be in one location. The witness node can reside in the same or another location (not on the Virtual SAN).

A virtual witness appliance is needed when a split brain occurs or performing maintenance to figure out what VMs does have quorum (more than 50% VMs  objects needs to be available). This can can be 1 ESXi host with Virtual SAN and the witness or 2 ESXi hosts with Virtual SAN.

A Virtual SAN ROBO environment example looks like this:

vsan robo

  • 2 VMware ESXI with Virtual SAN enabled
  • A witness appliance is running on a ESXi server in the same or other site.

Here are some considerations for using Virtual SAN ROBO:

Witness

  • With Virtual SAN ROBO, a witness appliance is needed. The witness appliance is placed on a third ESXi server. This hosts does not need a Virtual SAN license and SSD disk.
  • The witness appliance is a nested ESXi host (ESXi running in a VM).
  • It is not supported to run the witness on Virtual SAN.
  • The witness hosts stores only VM witness components (metadata).
  • The VMs are only protected by a single failure (FTT=1).

FFT1

  • The virtual witness appliance can be configured in the following flavors (depending on the supported VMs):
Tiny

<=10 VMs)

 Normal

<=500 VMs

 Large

> 500 VMs
vCPUs 2 2 2
RAM 8 16 32
Virtual disks (*1) 8 GB boot

10 GB SSD

15 GB HDD

 8 GB boot

10 GB SSD

350 GB HDD

 8 GB boot

10 GB SSD

350 GB HDD
MAX witness components  750  22000  45000

(*1) The SSD and HDD are virtual disks. There is no need to have a physical SSD disksin the ESXi host were the witness appliance resides. 

witness2

Hardware

  • Deploy Virtual SAN on certified hardware. Check the Virtual SAN HCL!
  • For a Virtual SAN disk configuration a minimal of 1 SSD and 1 Magnetic disk is needed. These disk cannot be used for booting ESXi
  • For booting ESXi use a USB, SD or SATADOM device
  • A small ESXi host can be used for the witness appliance. The witness appliance has no data, only metadata.

Networking

  • Cross connecting 2 Virtual SAN ESXi nodes is NOT supported
  • For 10 or less VMs a 1 Gbps network connection can be used. For >10 VMs use 10 Gbps
  • Network bandwith to the witness: 1.5 Mbps
  • Latency to the witness: 500 Milliseconds RTT
  • Latency between the data nodes: 5 Milliseconds RTT

Licensing

  • Virtual SAN is licensed separately.
  • Virtual SAN for ROBO is a license that includes a 25 VM pack license. This license does not include the stretched cluster and All-flash options.
  • A maximum of 1 Virtual SAN for ROBO license may be used per site.
  • When running less than 25 VMs consider a VSAN standard of advanced license. The standard and advanced licenses are licensed per CPU socket.
  • Consider single socket CPU servers to decrease the licensing costs.
  • Consider vSphere Essentials (plus) for licensing the vSphere environment to reduce licensing costs.
  • Consider ESXi Hypervisor (free) for placing the witness appliance. ESXi Hypervisor cannot be managed by a vCenter Server!
  • For each ROBO Virtual SAN you need a dedicated witness appliance.

vCenter Server

  • When running the vCenter Server on top of Virtual SAN, powering down the Virtual SAN cluster involves a special procedure (link). Consider placing the vCenter Server on the witness host for simplicity.

 

VMware VSAN, vSphere 5.5 Update 1, VMware Horizon View 5.3.1 and PowerCLI 5.5 R2 released

This week the following new VMware update are released:

  • VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1. This update has support for Virtual SAN (VSAN) 5.5. VMware Virtual SAN is a software-defined storage technology that is available with vSphere 5.5 Update 1 (or later). A minimum of three nodes is needed. To check what hardware is supported, see the VSAN VMware Compatibility Guide for VSAN. Link. VSAN licensing is as follows:

image 

vSphere 5.5 Update 1 supports vCenter on Windows Server 2012 R2. The release notes can be found here. Link

  • VMware Horizon View Client for Windows 8,1 Store. The new version 2.3 has supports the PCoIP protocol. Link
  • Horizon View 5.3.1 support for Virtual SAN (VSAN). There are no other new features in Horizon View 5.3.1 update besides VSAN.  VSAN Desktop is licensing is per user ($50 per user). More information:
  1. Release Notes. Link 
  2. VDI Performance benchmarking on VMware VSAN 5.5. Link
  3. Horizon View 5.3.1 on VMware Virtual SAN – Quick Start Guide (2073795). Link
  • VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 R2. This new release includes support for Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and expands current capabilities. More information link.