Category Archives: Storage

cloudpathshala 7:15 pm on August 24, 2018
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Learn SRM – Part 4.9 – Scheduling Array Based Replication

Alright mates, we are all set to configure Array based replication for our DR environment. This array will be used to replicate Virtual machines from one site(Protected) to another site(Recovery). Let me recall it again there there are two replication methods in VMware SRM. 1) vSphere Replication 2) Array-based Replication.

Here we are using Array based replication method in our environment. HP VSA is one which provides array-based replication for your home lab setup. In real environment, you will have to contact your storage team to set the replication for storage.

In earlier posts, we saw how to deploy and configure HP VSA Systems. Now we are going to setup and scheduling Array-based replication between Protected Site and Recovery Site.

  • Launch HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console (HP CMC) form Start Menu.

2018-08-22 01_11_48-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • Go to Protected Cluster and Click on Volumes.
  • Click on New Schedule in remote Snapshot Volumes.

2018-08-22 01_11_56-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • Provide Schedule Name.
  • Configure Time for Start at:
  • Configure Remote Snapshot Setup.
  • Verify other configurations as below and Click on OK.

2018-08-22 01_15_01-New Schedule to Remote Snapshot a Volume

  • Click on OK

2018-08-22 01_15_18-Make Volume Remote

  • Click on OK.

2018-08-22 01_15_30-Centralized Management Console

  • Verify the informaiton in HP CMC Console. Go to Snapshots tab in recovery cluster. You will see snapshot volumes here.

2018-08-22 01_17_04-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

That’s all from configuring replicated storage for Array based replication. In Next articles, we are moving to installing and setting up SRM for Disaster Recovery Solution.

Stay Tuned and Click on Next article to learn VMware SRM 8.1

Take a look in below topics, explore and learn Site Recovery Manager: –

Share this article if you found it useful.

 

cloudpathshala 4:28 pm on August 24, 2018
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Learn SRM – Part 4.5 – Create Management Group using HP StoreVirtual VSA

In previous topic, we explored that how to add HP VSA appliance in CMC console. Now we will see how to Create management group in HP VSA using HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console(CMC).

Configure RAID: –

Before creating Management group and add your system to Management Group, make sure that you have configured RAID for your available storage.

  • To do so, access HP VSA CMC console. Go to Available Systems and Select appliance which is configured for primary site.
  • Go to Storage option, and Click on Configure RAID.

2018-08-21 15_04_41-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • Select Stripe Option and Click on OK.

2018-08-21 15_04_44-Configure RAID

  • RAID has been configured now.
  • Perform same steps for Recovery HP VSA appliance.

2018-08-21 15_11_56-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

Create Management Group: –

Now once RAID Configuration is done, you need to create a management group and add your HP VSA system to management group.

  • Go to Start and Open HPE StoreVirtual CMC console.
  • Go to Getting Started tab and Click on Management Groups,  Clusters, and Volumes wizard in right panel.

2018-08-21 14_54_12-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • You will see HP VSA appliances under Available Systems tab.
  • Click on HP VSA which you have installed for Primary Site.

2018-08-21 14_57_15-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • Right Click on Appliance, Click on Add to New Management Group.

2018-08-21 14_57_19-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

  • Name your management group and select your HP VSA system. Here I have selected for Primary site HP VSA. Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_15_11-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Add Administrative user which will be used for login to VSA. Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_16_24-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Add NTP Server. Click on use a NTP Server.

2018-08-21 15_16_45-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Enter NTP Server and Click on OK.

2018-08-21 15_17_25-Add NTP Server

  • Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_17_29-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Provide DNS information. Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_18_14-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Provide SMTP settings or skip to proceed further.

2018-08-21 15_18_42-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Click on Accept Incomplete.

2018-08-21 15_18_45-Centralized Management Console

  • Select type of cluster as Standard Cluster. Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_18_55-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Give a name to Cluster. Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_19_33-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Add Virtual IP (VIP) which will you use to access iSCSI storage through ESXi host. When you will add iSCSI path in ESXi host, you will have to give Virtual IP which you are configuring now.

2018-08-21 15_21_35-Add VIP and Subnet Mask

  • If you have used Standard cluster then you can have only one VIP and Subnet Mask, if you have multi-site clusters than you can have multiple VIP.
  • Click on Next.

2018-08-21 15_21_43-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Give Volume Name. Click on Finish.

2018-08-21 15_23_02-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Now it will create Management group called “Pathshala-Protected-Group”. Click on Close, it will take some time.

2018-08-21 15_23_16-Centralized Management Console

2018-08-21 15_23_24-Management Groups, Clusters, and Volumes Wizard

  • Here you can see that Management group has been created and Prtoected site’s HP VSA appliance is part of this management group.

2018-08-21 15_25_55-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

Now you have created a Management Group for Protected Site’s System. You need to do the same for Recovery Site’s System. Follow the same steps and create a Management Group called Pathshala-Recovery-Group. Add HP VSA system for recovery site in that management group.

Here is what we have added in our lab.

2018-08-21 15_44_19-HPE StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console

 

That’s all from this article. Moving to next which is to Create Cluster and Volumes in HP VSA.

Take a look in below topics, explore and learn Site Recovery Manager: –

Share this article if you found it useful.

cloudpathshala 4:01 pm on August 24, 2018
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Learn SRM – Part 4.1 – Deploy HP StoreVirtual VSA

Hey Guys, we are in process of implementing Site Recovery Manager in our home lab. We need to ensure that we have replicated storage in place as we are going to use Array based Replication. HP StoreVirtual VSA is one of the solution which provides array based replication for your home lab setup.

Before installing SRM, we need to deploy HP VSA. Deploy the HP VSA on Protected and Recovery side using the below steps.

  • Download HP StoreVirtual VSA OVF from HP website. Click here.
  • Logged in to vCenter through the web client or access direct host using Web client. Here I am logged in directly to host.

2018-08-21 14_15_25-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Click on “Create Register VM” to deploy OVF

2018-08-21 14_15_31-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Select “Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file” and click next

2018-08-21 14_15_34-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Enter the Name of the VSA and click next:

2018-08-21 14_16_44-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Select the Storage, where you want to deploy the VSA

2018-08-21 14_16_48-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Click on license agreements as “I Agree”

2018-08-21 14_16_52-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Select Disk Provisioning and Check-in Power on automatically

2018-08-21 14_16_55-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • You got configuration summery, now click on Finish

2018-08-21 14_16_58-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

  • Now HP-VSA has deployed

2018-08-21 14_17_22-cp-host-pr-03.localdomain - VMware ESXi

You need follow the above steps and deploy HP VSA in Recovery site as well.

Moving to next article which is to Configure HP VSA Networking.

Take a look in below topics, explore and learn Site Recovery Manager: –

Share if you found it useful.

cloudpathshala 1:19 pm on July 29, 2018  

How to – Install OpenFiler Storage

Here is Step by Step procedure to install OpenFiler. We were exploring the same in our Home lab.

Steps: –

  • Click on New Virtual Machine and Select typical and Click Next.

1

  • Click on Installer Disc image file and click Next.

2

  • Select the Operating system and click Next

3

  • Click on browse and select the path drive and click Next.

4

  • Click on Next.

5

  • Click on customize hardware.

6

  • Click on Next.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-09-29

  • Select US Keyboard and click Next.

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  • Select No and click Next.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-10-08

  • Click Next.

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  • Choose  No  and click Next.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-12-13

  • Insert the host domain name and click next

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-12-45

  • Enable the IPv4 support and configure IP address and click next

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-13-10

  • Set manually host domain name and configure gateway primary DNS and click next

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-16-06

  • Select the time Zone Asia/Calcutta and click Next.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-16-23

  • Insert  the root password and click Next.

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  • Click on Next.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-17-06

  • Formatting setup.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-17-10

  • Press reboot system.

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-19-53

  • Welcome to OpenFiler  Screen

cp-san-01-2018-07-24-04-20-39

For more detailed information on Installation of OpenFiler, please refer to below articles.

Installation of OpenFiler:

Step by Step Installation Guide for Using Openfiler as Shared Storage in ESXi and vSphere Environment

Configuration of OpenFiler:

Step by Step Configuration Guide for Using Openfiler as Shared Storage in ESXi and vSphere Environment

Thanks for visiting here. Share this article if you found it useful. Be sociable.

cloudpathshala 3:27 pm on July 8, 2018  

Deep Dive – Choosing Openfiler for your Home Lab

Hey All, Here we came with the new deep dive topic for choosing the Openfiler as storage for your virtual environment.

Here we are going to setup our lab before we explore anything new. Initially, we are using 4 physical machines to setup our Virtualization lab. Out of these 4 servers or can say workstations, we are going to use one machine for storage purpose as we do not have any storage in hand as of now. Hence we have planned to use OpenFiler for storage purpose which provides a simple way to deploy and manage networked storage.

You can download Openfiler from below given link.

https://www.openfiler.com/community/download

I am writing this blog to share our experience what we discussed last night while installing the Openfiler. Below points we discussed.

Environment: –

  • 4 Physical Machines
  • Out of four boxes, using one box for Openfiler as Storage.
  • Configuration of machine which we are using for Openfiler – i5/16GB/2 TB SATA/250GB SSD/2 NICs

Discussion Point: –

  1. Which Software shall we use for Free NAS purpose?
  2. Should be install Openfiler on each four servers and use virtual environment individually on each server? Or create a centralized storage using a single server as Openfiler box then share volumes with rest environment?
  3. If we are using Openfiler, should it be on VM workstation or install directly on bare-metal machine?
  4. If it will be on VM workstation, then how other Virtual environment exists in different physical servers will access the Volumes?
  5. What is performance impact on accessing the volumes over the LAN on other machines if we are installing Open filer on VM workstation?
  6. What are the performance benefits if we install OpenFiler directly on Bare-metal machine?
  7. Performance output when we access volumes over LAN.
  8. As of now we have two disks available in existing machine which we are using for Openfiler. We are not using any RAID configuring now. Now question was, where do we install it? Should it be installed on SATA or SSD?
  • SATA – 1 TB in Size
  • SSD – 240 Gig in Size

Conclusion: –

Here I am sharing our minutes of discussion.

  • We are going to use Openfiler as free NAS. We will use one server for Openfiler and rest 3 servers will be to create virtual environment I;e ESXi, vCenter, etc.
  • It will be installed directly on bare-metal machine.
  • Installation source will be USB stick, and destination will be SATA disk. We will add SSD disk as an additional volume.
  • While assessing the performance impact, we concluded that there will be definitely slight performance impact in comparison to use individually on each physical server. But as using 24 Port Gigabit switch to connect these all 4 physical servers, hence there won’t be much difference. Altogether we don’t need shared storage for all environment so this only solution left. Let me clear that we are not considering VSAN at this point.

Issues Reported: –

While started the installation of Openfiler directly on bare metal machine on one of the machine, we faced lot of errors mentioned below. To fix this, we had to format the physical disk as raw disk. Used CD Disk rather a USB stick to install the Openfiler.

Installation Stuck while choosing the source media.

Error:

What type of media contains the packages to be installed?

  • Local CD/DVD
  • Hard Drive
  • NFS directly
  • FTP
  • HTTP

Error - Installation of Openfiler

 

We didn’t see any option to choose USB Drive which we had plugged in as source file to install Openfiler. We proceeded to choose the options and we came to know that system is not detecting USB drivers. Hence, we used CD Disk to start the installation and it worked fine.

Please follow below article to Install and Configure Openfiler in your environment.

Step by Step Installation Guide for Using Openfiler

Step by Step Configuration Guide for Using Openfiler

Continue reading →