building a successful virtualization lab environment – a real world approach

1© Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

BUILDING A

SUCCESSFUL

VIRTUALIZATION LAB

ENVIRONMENT

– A REAL WORLD APPROACH

Simon Seagrave

EMC vSpecialist

& Blogger

Kiwi_Si

[email protected]


Goal of this session

• This session will cover many of the considerations and aspects to designing, implementing and running your own successful VMware vSphere lab environment.

• Virtualization doesn't have to be expensive, I’ll show you how your business can implement a vSphere lab on a budget.

• I’ll explain how to navigate through the many different options you will face when architecting a vSphere environment to assist you in making the right decisions


Why should your business run a

VMware vSphere lab?

Common Reasons…

• Free up valuable production

resource.

• Reduce risk of test/dev

environments affecting

production systems.

• IT Staff product familiarisation

& training.

• Controlled patch & application

release environment.

• Easy first steps into

virtualisation & your

business’s journey to the

private cloud.


What makes up a vSphere lab?


Hardware Compatibility Guide

• The VMware Hardware Compatibility

Guide (HGC) lists all the various hardware

components that are supported by each

version of ESX & ESXi

• Split up into different sub-guides which

include systems (server make/models),

storage devices (SAN/iSCSI/NFS) and I/O

devices (NICs/Storage Controllers)

• Updated frequently with new hardware

being added and older hardware removed



• Why this guide is important?

– ESX/ESXi has a limited set of hardware

device drivers

– VMware only provides support for

hardware that is listed on the HCG

• Hardware may still work if not listed on the

HCG

• Critical area of compatibility is often found

with I/O adapters



• Check guide before buying hardware!

• Also check un-official guides (vm-help.com)

• For newer hardware not yet listed on HCG

contact the hardware vendor

http://www.vmware.com/resources/guides.html


Features that require specific

server hardware

Feature Hardware requirement

vSphere 64-bit CPU & Intel-VT or AMD-V

VMDirectPath Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU

Distributed Power Management NIC w/WOL, Server IPMI or HP iLO

Dynamic Voltage & Frequency

Scaling

Intel Enhanced Speedstep or AMD

Enhanced PowerNow

Fault Tolerance Specific CPU models in Intel’s Core 2 &

Core i7 & AMD’s 3rd Gen Opteron families

VMotion Similar CPU families, no cross vendor

Enhanced VMotion

Compatibility

Intel’s FlexMigration or AMD’s AMD-V

Extended Migration


vSphere Lab Servers

vSphere lab servers come in all

shapes & sizes…


CPU Considerations 101

• AMD CPU: AMD-V

• Intel CPU: EM64T & Intel VT

See VMware Knowledge Base article

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003945 for more

details regarding the prerequisites for running

x64-based VMs.

• Ensure AMD-V or Intel VT in enabled in BIOS

• Hyperthreading?

• Use the same processor make & model if

you want to use advanced features such

as VMotion incl. DRS, HA


For CPU Details including 64 bit details use

CPU ID Utility from VMware

CPU Considerations – CPU ID

Download from

http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html


CPU Considerations - EVC

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC)

Designed to further ensure CPU compatibility

between ESX hosts


List of Fault Tolerance (FT) compatible

CPUs:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008027

Also, VMware SiteSurvey

CPU Considerations – FT


• Enhanced SpeedStep by Intel

• Enhanced PowerNow! by AMD

These technologies enable a server to

dynamically switch CPU frequencies and

voltages (referred to as Dynamic Voltage &

Frequency Scaling or DVFS)

CPU Considerations – Power Saving


Memory

Memory is King!

DIMM Sockets – the

more the merrier


Memory – ECC & Registered

• More Lower Capacity DIMMs Vs Less Higher

Capacity DIMMS

• ECC or Non ECC? (That is the question)

• Registered versus Non-Registered DIMMS


Networking

A Few Basic Questions?

• How many NICs?

• Using VLANs?

• What ESX/ESXi

features?

• NIC Expansion Options:

- PCI, PCI-X, PCIe

• NIC Speeds – Gigabit highly

recommended


Networking

• Popular PCIe-based network card models is

the Intel Pro 1000 PT/MT range

• Quad port cards are good but expensive

• If budget is tight eBay is a good source of 2nd

hand cards


Networking - Switches

• Layer 2 switch is sufficient for most lab or

SMB environments.

• Features to look for:

• Gigabit ports

• Managed or Smart Switch

• VLAN tagging (IEEE 802.1Q)

• QoS

• Jumbo Frames

• If your budget won’t stretch to a

physical router, consider Vyatta

Core VA for lab routing

requirements – it’s free!


Disks & Storage Controller

• Disk/RAID Controller – the most

problematic component with regard to

compatibility

• Lots of choices: RAID, SAS, SATA, SSD.

IOPS versus Capacity

• ESXi can be run from USB memory

stick/SD Card & if shared storage appliance

used local disk controller not important


Disks & Storage Controller

• Onboard RAID controllers on entry level

servers & SMB/Home level mother/system

boards are often insufficient

• Dedicated hardware based (eg: PCIe) array

controllers are preferable

• Do you actually need RAID in your lab?

Production use = RAID essential!


Installing ESXi on to a USB

flash drive

• Very convenient and easy way to use ESXi

• Simple requirements: 1Gb+ flash drive,

ESXi Installable ISO image



flash drive

• Can use any flash drive, officially only

supported on hardware vendor supplied

flash drives

• Performance can vary widely between

brands, sizes & models

• Server must support booting from USB

drive

• Use internally instead of externally



flash drive

• Install ESXi as normal but select USB flash

drive instead

• Can also use Workstation to install to a VM

– though only appropriate for personal use

• Quality flash drives can last many years and

over 10,000 write cycles

• Use USB image tools to clone or backup

flash drives


Shared Storage – Physical Devices

Lots of entry level physical storage

devices to choose from:



Popular devices include:

Vendor Models

EMC NX4, NS-120

Iomega ix2-200, ix4-200d, ix12

Synology DS410, DS1010

Drobo Pro, Elite (no NFS support)

Netgear ReadyNAS NVX, Pro

HP MSA Range



• When using ethernet based shared storage,

1Gb networking is a must

• iSCSI/NFS are built into vSphere and work

with any pNICs

• Most affordable shared storage devices are

listed on VMware vSphere HCG

• Many units have lots of advanced features,

are multi-functional, multi-RAID levels &

multi-NICs



• Fibre storage connectivity a nice to have

though there are other options

• Choosing between iSCSI & NFS often

personal preference

• Some storage units support both

• Budget often dictates what you get

• In general, the more you spend, the better

performance you’ll get



• Many units offer special RAID technology,

try not to mix drive speeds/sizes

• More spindles – better performance

• Many units are expandable

• Low cost rack mount units available as well

(EMC NX4, Iomega ix12-300r, Drobo Pro or

Elite)


Shared Storage – Virtual Storage

Appliances (VSAs)

• Virtual Storage Appliances can turn local

storage into iSCSI/NFS shared storage

• Available to any ESX/ESXi host

• Often much cheaper than buying a

dedicated storage device

• Can be more complicated to setup and

maintain

• Performance often not as good as using a

physical storage appliance


Shared Storage – Virtual

Storage Appliances (VSAs)

• Many VSA products to chose from

• Paid Commercial & Free

Free VSA options Paid VSA options

EMC Celerra (UBER) StarWind iSCSI SAN

OpenFiler FalconStor NSS

FreeNAS HP Lefthand VSA

Datacore Virtual SAN

• MISCONCEPTION: Paid VSAs offer more

features such as de-dupe, replication and

snapshots. But this is not quite true….


VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSA

The Celerra UBER VSA v3.2:

• Free to download & use – even commercially

• ESX/ESXi & Workstation VSA formats – also

runs under Fusion

• Uses the same code as run in the EMC

Celerra storage appliances

• Fully featured eg: dedupe, replication

• Already optimised for performance

• UBER VSA running latest version

of DART 6.0.36.4

• Unisphere management console

• 64 bit

• Simple to install & configure

• Not intended for production use

IDEAL FOR A LAB ENVIRONMENT!


VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSAThe newly released storage management interface Unisphere is included for

free in this latest version of the Celerra UBER VSA (v3.0+)


Demonstration


VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSA

Download the Celerra UBER VSA v3 from http://nickapedia.com


Step by Step Guide – SRM in a box using

EMC VSA

Free step by step guide on how to setup

and configure VMware SRM with EMC

Celerra VSA

Download from:

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek

/2010/04/new-celerra-vsa-5648701-and-

updated-srm4-in-a-box-guide.html


VMware vCenter Server –EMC Virtual

Storage Integrator (VSI)


Plenty of great EMC vCenter Plugin

Information Available


Other Useful Tools & Resources

Scripts: www.virtu-al.net

vSphere Mini Monitor – Nickapedia.com

UltimateWhiteBox.com


THANK YOU!

http://www.techhead.co.uk

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com

http://nickapedia.com

building a successful virtualization lab environment – a real world approach

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