SS1734 How It Works Storwize and
VMware Virtual Volumes
Carlos Fuente
Distinguished Engineer
IBM Systems Hursley, UK
Copyright IBM Corporation 2015
Technical University/Symposia materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Session objectives
Background to VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes
Overview of IBM Spectrum Virtualize solution for Virtual Volumes
Understand IBM Spectrum Control Base edition and options for policy based
management
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Background to vSphere Virtual Volumes
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vSphere 5.5 Servers and Storage
VCVA
VM2
vCenter
Virtual
Appliance
VM3
VM1
ESX1
ESX2
Datastore
Datastore
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vSphere 5.5 Data Layout
VM2
VM3
config
VM1
swap
vmdk
config
config
swap
vmdk
swap
vmdk
VMFS
datastore
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Why VMFS in 2003?
Provide flexible storage provisioning to match the dynamic and flexible virtual
server provisioning
Avoid multiple day cycles in requesting and configuring storage
system LUN to a server
Provide Copy Services functions (snapshot, clone, migration) at the scope of a
virtual machine
Same problems that IBM SAN Volume Controller was addressing at the time!
BUT this flexibility came at a cost:
Storage Systems only see datastore containing mixture of data from
many servers
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Why Virtual Volumes in 2015?
Storage Systems have become much more
flexible and capable
Following lead of systems like SVC and
Storwize
Leading to next generation of softwaredefined storage
Customers want to use enterprise-class
features from their storage systems
Uniformity with the rest of their nonVMware infrastructure
Better performance
More flexibility in choice of vendor and
solution
Better model to match storage features to an
applications needs
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Overview of SVC / Storwize solution
Solution components
Datastores, storage containers, and child pools
vmdks, VVols and Volumes
Copy Services
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SVC/Storwize VVol solution overview
There are 3 elements required for an
SVC VVol installation
vSphere 6.0 installation
Requires future version of IBM Spectrum
Control Base Edition
SVC/Storwize running 7.5.0 software
Adds functionality for VVols
VCVA
VASA 2.0
Including vCenter Virtual Appliance
management console and ESXi Servers
VASA Provider for SVC/Storwize
ESXi
SCSI
I/O
VASA Provider
Spectrum Control
Base Edition
Management
VVOL enablement
SVC + Storwize family
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Virtualize your Infrastructure
Single VASA Provider installation can provide Virtual Volumes support for your
entire infrastructure!
Storwize
Virtual Storage
Infrastructure
SAN Volume Controller
Storage Hypervisor
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Child Pools SVC/Storwize 7.4
Capacities
Used 15GiB
Free 50GiB
Silver1 : ChildPool1
Capacities
Silver1
Used 1.5TiB
Free 4TiB
New feature conceived for VVol support
Dedicates defined Total quota within an existing pool to
hold volumes (including VVols)
Otherwise behaves like a conventional storage pool
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VMware admin view of child pools
Child pool can be same as a
volume providing a VMFS
datastore
Capacity is dedicated to
VMware admin
Taken from a parent
storage pool of a specific
defined class
Other options possible
See later
VM admin sees datastore that
maps to Storwize child pool
that the storage admin has
given to VMware
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Virtual Machines and vdisks
2 Virtual Machines
6 VVols
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Virtual Machine disks in gory detail
1 volume for system disk
1 thin provisioned volume for
Vmware
configuration information
(~100MiB)
1 volume for swap space
* Plan is to hide VVols from storage admin view
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FlashCopy operations
Snapshot
Point in time image of
Virtual Machine
Clone
Create a new instance
of Virtual Machine
Migrate
Relocate compute or
storage for Virtual
Machine
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Snapshot viewed from SVC
System Disk snapshot
VVol
Memory snapshot
VVol
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What can Virtual Volumes manage
Policy-Based
Management
VM admin
Selection of Storage Class
Snapshots, Clones
Migration between classes of
storage
Storage admin
Allocation of Storage and Quota
Migration within a pool
IO throttling at VM level
Cache mode
Easy Tier
Load balancing across IO groups
Future
Metro Mirror and Global Mirror
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More Internal Details!
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Defining ESX hosts
Virtual Volume enabled vSphere
ESX hosts must be identified using
new host type
Enables new SCSI behaviour
VMware have defined for VVols
SCSI term
VMware term
Administrative LUN
Protocol Endpoint
Subsidiary LUN
Virtual Volume (VVol)
VVOL
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Protocol End-point design
SVC/Storwize system presents
between 2 and 8 protocol endpoints
Based on number of nodes in
the system
VVol is associated with one of the
protocol end-points when it is
created
PE 0300h
PE 0301h
Node 1
Node 2
Based on volume preferred
node
VMware can map VVol to ESX
host
Protocol End-point advertises
SCSI access through all SVC
nodes (2 to 8) at all times
1 node Active/Optimized
others Active/Non-optimized
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Protocol End-point and IO group rebalancing
movevdisk command can be used
to update preferred node for a
VVol at any time
Storwize initiates rebind operation
Notifies VMware
management stack that a
better path exists for that
VVol
PE 0300h
PE 0301h
Node 1
Node 2
VMware multi-pathing driver
updates association
IO is supported on old and new
Protocol Endpoints throughout
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Spectrum Control Base and Policy Based Management
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Viewing Storage in Spectrum Control Base
Storage
available to a
cloud admin
3 storage
systems
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Defining Storage Policy in Spectrum Control
Policy
Definitions
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Defining Storage Policy in Spectrum Control
Policy
Definitions
Policy
Definitions
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Range of management strategies
VM admin: I want a 100GiB system disk for my VM
VMware admin defines more
Make it!
1TiB quota
Encrypted
Thin-Provisioned
I want thin!
I want encrypted and thin!
Thin, Thick, or Compressed
1TiB quota
Encrypted
Thin, Thick, or
Compressed
1TiB quota
Encrypted
1TiB quota
Un-encrypted
Storage admin defines more
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Defining Policy in vCenter
VMware admin can define policies
for the types of storage they need
1-time configuration step
VMware will show the datastores
that are compatible with the defined
policy
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Using Policy in vCenter
Use Policy Definition when need to
create Virtual Machine System Disk
Can filter to find datastores that
support policy
Policy definition is passed
through to control options
within datastore
Or can just use default with any
datastore:
VVols No Requirements
Policy
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Session take-aways
Start planning for deploying vSphere 6 with VVols for your VMware environment
What storage is provided to your VMware environment?
How many storage systems?
How many classes of storage?
How is the storage consumed?
How many datastores?
What allocation polices are used today?
Thick, thin, compressed
How do VMware admins choose the right storage?
Choose which datastore and allocation type?
Do they choose differently per application class?
Think about how you want to use policies between the storage infrastructure
and VMware infrastructure!
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Backup Probably DELETE ME
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VMadmin view of pools 3 different names
Datastore == Carlos Datastore
Storage Container == vvol container
Child Pool == vvol_child_pool
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VVol/VASA Provider meta-data
SVC provides a new meta-data service to VASA provider to host
VVol key-value pairs
Some IBM-specific VASA Provider meta-data
(similar to XIV model)
Hosted on small amount of storage in ordinary storage pool
Thin provisioned disk to be efficient
Can be mirrored to second pool to ensure is not impacted by single pool
failure
e.g. stretched system deployments
SVC provides filesystem interface to make data access flexible
Access to manipulate filesystem contents provided in-band via configuration
node
Same channel as for other management tasks VP sends
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