HP P4000 SAN User Manual

Best practices for deploying citrix xenserver

Hide thumbs Also See for P4000 SAN:

Application notes (14 pages)

Release note (10 pages)

Release note (10 pages)

Table of Contents

Quick Links

Download this manual

Best practices for deploying Citrix XenServer

on HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN

Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 3

Business case ...................................................................................................................................... 3

High availability .............................................................................................................................. 4

Scalability ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Virtualization ................................................................................................................................... 4

XenServer storage model ...................................................................................................................... 5

Overview of XenServer iSCSI storage repositories ................................................................................... 6

iSCSI using the software initiator (lvmoiscsi) ........................................................................................ 6

iSCSI Host Bus Adapter (HBA) (lvmohba) ............................................................................................ 6

SAN connectivity ............................................................................................................................. 6

Benefits of shared storage ................................................................................................................. 7

Storage node .................................................................................................................................. 7

Configuring an iSCSI volume ................................................................................................................ 9

Example.......................................................................................................................................... 9

Configuring a XenServer Host ............................................................................................................. 13

Synchronizing time ......................................................................................................................... 14

Network configuration and bonding ................................................................................................. 16

Connecting to an iSCSI volume ........................................................................................................ 19

Creating a VM on the new SR ......................................................................................................... 28

Summary....................................................................................................................................... 30

Configuring for high availability .......................................................................................................... 31

HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN ...................................................................................................... 5

Storage repository ........................................................................................................................ 6

Virtual disk image ........................................................................................................................ 6

Physical block device .................................................................................................................... 6

Virtual block device ...................................................................................................................... 6

Clustering and Network RAID ........................................................................................................ 8

Networking bonding ..................................................................................................................... 8

Creating a new volume ............................................................................................................... 10

Configuring the new volume ........................................................................................................ 11

Comparing full and thin provisioning ............................................................................................ 12

Benefits of thin provisioning ......................................................................................................... 12

NTP for XenServer ...................................................................................................................... 15

Example .................................................................................................................................... 17

Determining or changing the host's IQN ....................................................................................... 19

Specifying IQN authentication ..................................................................................................... 21

Creating an SR .......................................................................................................................... 25

Table of Contents

Summary of Contents for HP P4000 SAN

Page 1: Table Of Contents
High availability ... 4 Scalability ... 4 Virtualization ... 4 XenServer storage model ... 5 HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN ... 5 Storage repository ... 6 Virtual disk image ... 6 Physical block device ... 6 Virtual block device ... 6 Overview of XenServer iSCSI storage repositories ...
Page 2 Implementing Network RAID for SRs ... 33 Configuring Network RAID ... 34 Pooling XenServer hosts ... 35 Configuring VMs for high availability ... 36 Creating a heartbeat volume ... 36 Configuring the resource pool for HA ... 37 Configuring multi-site high availability with a single cluster ... 39 Configuring multi-site high availability with multiple clusters ...
Page 3: Executive Summary
Enterprise IT infrastructures are powered by storage. HP StorageWorks P4000 SANs offer scalable storage solutions that can simplify management, reduce operational costs, and optimize performance in your environment. Easy to deploy and maintain, HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN storages help to ensure that crucial business data remains available; through innovative double-fault protection across the entire SAN, your storage is protected from disk, network, and storage node faults.
Page 4: High Availability
Comprehensive, cost-effective capabilities for high availability and disaster recovery (DR) applications are built into every HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN. There is no need for additional upgrades; simply install a storage node and start using it. When you need additional storage, higher performance, or increased availability, just add one or more storage nodes to your existing SAN.
Page 5: Xenserver Storage Model
A SAN can be defined as an architecture that allows remote storage devices to appear to a server as though these devices are locally-attached. In an HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN implementation, data storage is consolidated on a pooled cluster of storage nodes to enhance availability, resource utilization, and scalability. Volumes are allocated to XenServer hosts via an Ethernet infrastructure (1 Gb/second or 10 Gb/second) that utilizes the iSCSI block-based storage protocol.
Page 6: Storage Repository
Performance, capacity and availability can be scaled on-demand and on-line. Storage repository A storage repository (SR) is defined as a container of storage to which XenServer Virtual Machine data will be stored. Although SRs can support locally connected storage types such as IDE, SATA, SCSI and SAS drives, remotely connected iSCSI SAN storage will be discussed in this document.
Page 7: Benefits Of Shared Storage
Backup and DR are also simplified and enhanced by the ability to move VM data anywhere an Ethernet packet can travel. Storage node The storage node is the basic building block of an HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN and includes the following components:  CPU ...
Page 8: Clustering And Network Raid
Since an individual storage node would represent a single point of failure (SPOF), the HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN supports a cluster of storage nodes working together and managed as a single unit. Just as conventional RAID can protect against a SPOF within a disk, Network RAID can be used to spread a volume’s data blocks across the cluster to protect against single or multiple...
Page 9: Configuring An Iscsi Volume
 How does your DR approach affect the data? Example An HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN is configured using the Centralized Management Console (CMC). In this example, the HP-Boulder management group defines a single storage site for a XenServer host resource pool (farm) or a synchronously-replicated stretch resource pool. HP-Boulder can be thought of as a logical grouping of resources.
Page 10: Creating A New Volume
Figure 2. Using CMC to obtain detailed information about volume XPSP2-01 Creating a new volume The CMC is used to create volumes such as XPSP2-01, as shown in Figure 3.
Page 11: Configuring The New Volume
Figure 3. Creating a new volume It is a best practice to create a unique iSCSI volume for each VM in an SR. Thus, HP suggests matching the name of the VM to that of the XenServer SR and of the volume created in the CMC. Using this convention, it is always clear which VM is related to which storage allocation.
Page 12: Comparing Full And Thin Provisioning
Figure 4. Configuring 2-Way Replication and Thin Provisioning You can change volume properties at any time. However, if you change volume size, you may also need to update the XenServer configuration as well as the VM’s OS in order for the new size to be recognized.
Page 13: Configuring A Xenserver Host
This section provides guidelines and best practices for configuring a XenServer host so that it can communicate with an HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN, ensuring that the storage bandwidth for each VM is optimized. For example, since XenServer iSCSI SRs depend on the underlying network configuration, you can maximize availability by bonding network interfaces;...
Page 14: Synchronizing Time
The section ends with a summary. Synchronizing time A server’s BIOS provides a local mechanism for accurately recording time; in the case of a XenServer host, its VMs also use this time. By default, XenServer hosts are configured to use local time for time stamping operations.
Page 15: Ntp For Xenserver
Figure 5. Turning on NTP using the CMC NTP for XenServer Although NTP Server configuration may be performed during a XenServer installation, the console may also be used post installation. Within XenCenter, highlight the XenServer and select the Console tab. Enable NTP using xsconsole. Enable NTP as shown in Figure 6.
Page 16: Network Configuration And Bonding
Figure 6. Turning on NTP using the XenServer xsconsole Network configuration and bonding Network traffic to XenServer hosts may consist of the following types:  XenServer management  VM LAN traffic  iSCSI SAN traffic Although a single physical network adapter can accommodate all these traffic types, its bandwidth would have to be shared by each.
Page 17: Example
Example In the following example, six separate network links are available to a XenServer host. Of these, two are bonded for VM LAN traffic and two for iSCSI SAN traffic. In general, the procedure is as follows: Ensure there are no VMs running on the particular XenServer host. Select the host in XenCenter and open the Network tab, as shown in Figure 7.
Page 18 Figure 8. Bonding network adapters NIC 4 and NIC 5 Figure 8 shows the creation of a network bond consisting of NIC 4 and NIC 5 to connect the host to the iSCSI SAN and, thus, the SRs that are common to all hosts. NIC 2 and NIC 3 had already been bonded to form a single logical network link for Ethernet traffic.
Page 19: Connecting To An Iscsi Volume
Figure 9. Renaming network bonds The iSCSI SAN Bond 1 interface is now ready to be used. In order for the bond’s IP address to be recognized, you can reboot the XenServer host; alternatively, use the host-management-reconfigure command. Connecting to an iSCSI volume While HP StorageWorks iSCSI volumes were created in a previous section, no access was assigned to those volumes.
Page 20 Figure 10. Determining the IQN of a particular XenServer host If desired, you can use the General tab’s Properties button to change the host’s IQN, as shown in Figure 11.
Page 21: Specifying Iqn Authentication
Figure 11. Changing the host’s IQN Note Once you have used the CMC to define an authentication method for an iSCSI volume, if the host’s IQN changes, you must update accordingly. Alternatively, you can update a host’s IQN via CMC’s command-line interface (CLI). Use the host- param-set command.
Page 22 Under HP-Boulder, highlight the Servers (0) selection. Note that the currently defined authentication rule method is currently zero (0). To obtain the New Server dialog box (as shown in Figure 13), either right-click on Servers (0) and select New ServerSelect Server TasksNew Server or utilize TasksServerNew Server.
Page 23 Alternatively, select TasksVolumeEdit VolumeSelecting the VolumeBasic tabAssign and Unassign Servers. The former option focuses on assigning volumes and snapshots to a particular server (Figure 14); the latter on assigning servers to a particular volume (Figure 15). Assign access for volume XPSP2-01 to the XenServer-55b-02.
Page 24 Figure 14. Assigning volumes and snapshots to server XenServer-55b-02 Figure 15. Assigning servers to volume XenServer-55b-02...
Page 25: Creating An Sr
Creating an SR Now that the XenServer host has been configured to access an iSCSI volume target, you can create a XenServer SR. You can configure an SR from HP StorageWorks SAN targets using LVM over iSCSI or LVM over HBA. Note LVM over HBA connectivity is beyond the scope of this white paper.
Page 26 Figure 17. Naming the SR XPSP2-01 As shown in Figure 18, specify the target host for the SR as 1.1.1.225 (the virtual IP address of the HP StorageWorks iSCSI SAN cluster). Next, select Discover IQNs to list visible iSCSI storage targets in a drop-down list. Match the Target IQN value to the IQN of volume XPSP2-01 as shown in the CMC.
Page 27 Figure 18. Specify the target IQN and LUN For an LVM over iSCSI SR, raw volumes must be formatted before being presented to the XenServer host for use as VM storage. As shown in Figure 19, any data on a volume that is not in an LVM format will be lost during the format operation.
Page 28: Creating A Vm On The New Sr
Figure 19. Warning that the format will destroy data on the volume Figure 20. Verifying that the enumerated SR is shown as available in XenCenter Creating a VM on the new SR Use the following procedure to create a VM on the SR you have just created. From XenCenter’s top menu, select VMNew.
Page 29 Note A XenServer host can create an ISO SR library or import a Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS) share. For more information, refer to your XenServer documentation. Specify the number of virtual CPUs required and the initial memory allocation for the VM.
Page 30: Summary
 A XenServer host was configured with high-resiliency network bonds for a dedicated SAN and a LAN.  An HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN was configured as a cluster of two storage nodes.  A virtualized 10GB iSCSI volume, XPSP2-01, was configured with Network RAID and allocated to the host.
Page 31: Configuring For High Availability
Figure 24. The sample environment Configuring for high availability After virtualizing physical servers that had been dedicated to particular applications and consolidating the resulting VMs on a XenServer host, you must ensure that the host will be able to run these VMs.
Page 32  Network RAID across the cluster of storage nodes. XenServer host machines also deliver a range of high-availability features, including:  Resource pools of XenServer hosts  Multiple network interfaces bonded together  The use of external, shared storage by VMs ...
Page 33: Configuration
Configuration Consider the following when configuring your infrastructure:  HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN bonds – You must configure the networking bonds for adaptive load balancing (ALB); Dynamic LACP (802.3ad) cannot be supported across multiple switch fabrics.  XenServer host bonds – SLB bonds can be supported across multiple switches.
Page 34: Configuring Network Raid
logical volumes. With Network RAID, which is configurable on a per-volume basis, data blocks are written multiple times to multiple nodes. In the example shown in Figure 26, Network RAID has been configured with Replication Level 2, guaranteeing that a volume remains available despite the failure of multiple nodes.
Page 35: Pooling Xenserver Hosts
Figure 27. Configuring Network RAID for a particular volume Pooling XenServer hosts Multiple XenServer hosts can be deployed to support VMs, with each host utilizing its own resources and acting as an individual virtualization platform. To enhance availability, however, consider creating a XenServer host resource pool (that is, a group of similarly-configured XenServer hosts working together as a single entity with shared resources, as shown in Figure 28).
Page 36: Configuring Vms For High Availability
From XenCenter, you can discover multiple XenServer hosts that are similarly configured with resources. Configuring VMs for high availability You can use XenServer’s High Availability (HA) feature to enhance the availability of a XenServer resource pool. When this option is enabled, XenServer continuously monitors the health of all hosts in a resource pool;...
Page 37: Configuring The Resource Pool For Ha
Figure 30. The properties of HP-Boulder-IT-HeartBeat Configuring the resource pool for HA XenServer HA maintains a failover plan that defines the response to the failure of one or more XenServer hosts. To configure HA functionality for a resource pool, select the Pool menu option in XenCenter and click High Availability.
Page 38  If you wish to shut down a protected VM to free up resources, you must first disable its HA protection. Unless HA is disabled, shutting down a protected VM would trigger a restart. You can also specify the number of server failures to be tolerated. Figure 31. Configuring resource pool HP-Boulder-IT for HA XenCenter provides a configuration event summary under the resource pool’s Logs tab.
Page 39: Configuring Multi-Site High Availability With A Single Cluster
Configuring multi-site high availability with a single cluster If your organization deploys multiple data centers in close proximity, communicating over low-latency, high-bandwidth connections , you can stretch a resource pool between both sites. In this scenario, an entire data center is no longer a SPOF. The stretched resource pool continuously constantly transfers pool status and management information over the network.
Page 40  Appropriate physical and virtual networks exist at both sites. Alternatively, the multi-site SAN feature can be implemented by correct physical node placement of single site cluster. In a two-site implementation, you need an even number of storage nodes whether you have chosen a single-site cluster or multi-site SAN.
Page 41: Configuring Multi-Site High Availability With Multiple Clusters
Note It is a best practice to physically separate the appropriate nodes or ensure the order is valid before creating volumes. Configuring multi-site high availability with multiple clusters If multiple data centers are located at some distance from each other or the connections between them are high-latency, low–bandwidth, you should not stretch a XenServer resource pool between these sites.
Page 42 When using an HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN, you would configure a management group at Site A. This management group consists of a cluster of storage nodes and volumes that serve Site A’s XenServer resource pool; all VMs rely on virtual disks stored on SRs; in turn, the SRs are stored on highly-available iSCSI volumes.
Page 43 Figure 36. Creating a new remote snapshot Set the Recurrence time (in minutes, hours, days, or weeks). Consider the following: – Ensure you leave enough time for the previous snapshot to complete. – Ensure there is adequate storage space at both sites. –...
Page 44 Throttling bandwidth Management groups support bandwidth throttling for data transfers, allowing you to manually configure bandwidth service levels for shared links. In the CMC, right-click the management group, and select Edit Management Group. As shown in Figure 37, you can adjust bandwidth priority from Fractional T1 (256 Kb/sec) to Gigabit Ethernet values.
Page 45: Disaster Recoverability
This section outlines different approaches to disaster recoverability. Although backup applications can be used within VMs, the solutions described here focus on the use of XenCenter tools and HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN features to back up data to disk and maximize storage efficiency. More information is provided on the following topics: ...
Page 46: Backing Up Configurations
For the restoration to be successful, the number of network interfaces and appropriately named NICs must match the resource pool at the time of backup. The following curl command can be used to transfer files from a server to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server. The command is as follows: curl –u <username>:<password>...
Page 47: Backing Up Metadata
Figure 40. Backing up the host configuration The resulting backup file contains the host configuration and may be extremely large. The host may be restored using the following command. xe host-restore host=<host> file-name=<restorefile> Original XenServer installation media may also be used for restoration purposes. Backing up metadata SRs contain the virtual disks used by VMs either to boot their operating systems or store data.
Page 48: San Based Snapshots
Figure 41. Backing up the VM metadata VM metadata backup data is stored on a special backup disk in this SR. The backup creates a new virtual disk image containing the resource pool database, SR metadata, VM metadata, and template metadata.
Page 49: San Based Snapshot Rollback
thru changing this data to work with individual snapshots and at best works for only changing the original volume’s UUID and persisting the old UUID with the snapshot. Best practice will suggest limiting the use of the snapshots to the previously suggested use cases. Although no storage limitation is implied with a snapshot as it is functionally equivalent to a read only volume, simplification is suggested over implementing limitless possibilities.
Page 50: Reattach Storage Repositories
Figure 43. Snapshot rollback It is a best practice to disconnect from the storage repository and reattach to the new rollback storage repository; however, as long as the virtual machine is in a shut down state, the volume may simply be rolled back and virtual machine restarted to the previous state to the rolled back volume.
Page 51: Virtual Machines (Vms)
Figure 45. Reattach storage repositories Once the volume is reattached, a VM needs to be created of the same type and reattached to the virtual disk on that storage repository. Create a new VM, select the appropriate operating system template, provide the appropriate name. The Virtual Disks option may select anything as this will need to be manually changed.
Page 52: Increasing Storage Repository Volume Size
console or from VSS enabled requestors, location of additional application data and logs (within XenServer virtual disks or separate iSCSI volumes), and planning for future growth. An operating system installation size depends upon features chosen during the installation as well as temporary file space.
Page 53: Uniqueness Of Vms
9GB virtual disk is changed to a 20GB virtual disk. Select OK. The virtual disk presented to the VM will now be 20GB. Start the VM. Depending upon the VM’s operating system, different tools must be used to extend a partition and make the extra space known as a file system to the virtual machine.
Page 54: Process Preparing A Vm For Cloning
Process preparing a VM for Cloning Create, install and configure the Windows VM   Apply Windows Updates and Service Packs Install Citrix XenTools paravirtualized drivers  Install applications and any other desired customization, apply application updates  Defragment the hard disk ...
Page 55 may leverage space efficiency and will not tie up XenServer host resources. The downside to this process is that although a unique iSCSI volume will be created with duplicated data, the UUIDs of both the storage repository and virtual disk will also be duplicated. Any host seen by XenCenter, including a resource pool, must not share storage repositories or virtual disks with duplicate UUIDs.
Page 56 /dev/sdd is the device path that is required for the next commands and is dependent upon configuration. For example, it may be /dev/sdg or /dev/sdaa. Note the relation of the device by- path to the iSCSI IQN target name for the volume. Step 4 –...
Page 57 Figure 48. Volume group successfully changed Step 7 – From the XenServer console in XenCenter. The XPSP2-02-RS-1storage repository volume group name, VG_XenStorage-13a7f4d6-75c7-8318-6679-eb6702b11de1, will be renamed to represent a new UUID for the storage repository. The “VG_XenStorage-13a7f4d6-75c7-8318-6679- eb6702b11de1” will be changed to “VG_XenStorage-13a7f4d6-75c7-8318-6679-eb6702b11de2”. Note that a unique UUID may be chosen by altering a single last alphanumeric.
Page 58 lvdisplay | grep “VG_XenStorage-da304b0f-fe27-40b2-9034-7799b97b197d” This example will only contain two virtual disks. The command returns two names starting with VHD and concatenated with the virtual disk UUID. Note that in XenServer 5.0, the names started with LV, as shown in Figure 49. Figure 49.New name.
Page 59 Figure 50. Each volume group renamed Step 10 – In XenCenter, highlight the XPSP2-02-RS-1 storage repository. Right click on the storage repository and select Detach Storage Repository. Select Yes that the storage repository is to be detached. Right click on the storage repository and select Forge Storage Repository. Select Yes that the storage repository is to be forged.
Page 60: Smartclone The Golden Image Vm
Attach to connect the XPSP2-02 VM to that virtual disk. This VM is now ready to be started. SmartClone the Golden Image VM HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN SmartClone volumes are space-efficient copies of existing volumes or snapshots that are created instantaneously and are fully featured, writeable volumes. SmartCloned volumes share the initial volume space.
Page 61 Figure 53.New SmartClone Volumes Figure 54. Five volumes All 5 of these SmartClone volumes are unique volumes with the original single volume occupying space on the SAN. Each of these volumes may be introduced into the XenServer resource pool as identified in the earlier step.
Page 62 initial deployment of SmartClone volumes takes no additional footprint on the SAN, these volumes are fully writeable and may ultimately be completely re-written to occupy an entire volume’s worth of space. Functions such as defragmentation at the file system level may count as additional new writes to the SAN as some operating systems prefer to write new blocks over claiming original blocks.
Page 63: For More Information
For more information HP StorageWorks P4000 SANs http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/p4000/ HP StorageWorks P4000 Manuals HP StorageWorks Networks Quick Start Guide http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=Su pportManual&lang=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=101&prodTypeId=12169&prodS eriesId=3936136 Citrix XenServer http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/457122-0-0-225-121.html http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=683148 HP Virtualization with Citrix (best practices and reference configurations) http://www.hp.com/go/citrix HP Solution Centers http://www.hp.com/products1/solutioncenters/?jumpid=go/solutioncenters To help us improve our documents, please provide feedback at http://h20219.www2.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/us/en/solutions/technical_tools_feedback.html.

This manual is also suitable for:

Storageworks p4000 san

HP P4000 SAN User Manual

Quick Links

Table of contents

Related Manuals for HP P4000 SAN

Summary of Contents for HP P4000 SAN

This manual is also suitable for:

Table of Contents