Storage and Server Virtualization at Seton Hall Matt

Storage and Server Virtualization at Seton Hall Matt Stevenson IT Architect Seton Hall University stevenma@shu. edu Copyright Matt Stevenson 2008. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Overview n Storage Virtualization – Heterogeneous virtualization (in-band) – Array based virtualization (code on controller) n Server Virtualization – VMWare ESX/Infrastructure

History 2004/2005 - (1) n In 2004 SHU had stand alone servers and various disk islands n Most storage was direct attached n Standard “ 1 U” rack servers, one per application

History 2004/2005 - (2) n IBM 2105 - ESS “Shark” n Several stand alone IBM disk units n Each server had local disk – Direct attached via SCSI – Different controllers, RAID replacement procedures

Architecture Changes (1) n Implement SAN – Reduce dependency on direct attached disk – Provide more centralized management of disk n Reduce server sprawl – Research Virtual Machine technology n Focus on Blade technology – Smaller size, power, and cabling requirements

Systems (Blades) n IBM Blade Center Technology – Modular design – Includes Network, Storage Switch, and Management in single chassis – Lower power requirements for servers – 70 Servers per rack – Boot from SAN for no moving parts on blades

Architecture Changes (2) Implement SAN n Reduce server sprawl n Focus on Blade technology n - Storage Virtualization -

Storage (SAN) n n SAN Storage – – IBM Shark IBM DS 8000 Storage. Tek Flex 380 Infortrend SAN Switch/Infra – q. Logic SANBox 9000 (Blades) n n Up to 256 Ports Ability to expand SAN to other buildings/long distance (DR, etc)

Storage Virtualization (1) Blade 1 Blade 2 Blade 3 SAN Switch 1 SAN Switch 2 IPStor 1 IPStor 2 DS 8000 Flex 380 Blade 4

Storage Virtualization – (2) n Falcon. Stor IPStor software – “Virtualizes” all storage, allows resize, assign/remove on the fly – Allows mirroring/physical disk moves with no downtime (between multiple physical storage units) – Single “pane of glass” management for all storage – Freedom from vendor limitations (LUNs, sizes, etc) – Snapshots of live data possible

Storage Virtualization – (3) n Falcon. Stor IPStor software (v 5. 1) – In-band solution – Active/Active cluster – Single software interface for all management (Linux/Windows) – Clients available for snapshots for Oracle, Notes/Exchange, SQL Server, etc

Storage Virtualization – (4) n Tasks for administrators: – Mirror data (Upgrades, backups) – Move data – Add additional storage from selected tier – Add new servers to storage pool

Storage Virtualization – (5) n Mirror Command – – – n Move data “Swap” mirrors “Promote” mirror to primary storage Moving storage from one array to another

System Performance n Applications currently utilizing storage virtualization – 70+ server clients – Lotus Domino (campus wide) – Sungard Banner (Approx 12 instances with multiple add-ons) – File/Print services (campus wide) – Content management system – Luminis Portal – VMWare ESX Server

Additional Features n Replication n “Hot Zone” n Snapshots n Reports

Storage Virtualization - Future n Fully integrate Dynapath/Multipath n Full 4 Gbps SAN connections – Overcomes 2 Gbps queue depth issues n Increase number of targets to hosts

Storage Virtualization - Review n Single pane of glass for administration n Migration between physical disk arrays is a non-issue n Simplification means no full time storage administrator necessary n Avoid Single Point of Failure

Server Virtualization

Server Virtualization - History n Single standalone servers n One server per application n Development environment for each production environment

Server Virtualization (1) n VMWare Infrastructure Enterprise v 3 – Single pane of glass to monitor, configure, and provision new servers (Virtual. Center) – “VMotion” technology to move virtual machines between VMWare servers – Virtual machines will be “SMP” capable – Cluster aware filesystem (VMFS) – High Availability (Virtual. Center)

Server Virtualization (2) Seton Hall Environment n (4) VMWare ESX Servers – – IBM x 3850 “Virtual Infrastructure Enterprise 3” – 32 GB RAM each n Virtual. Center Management Server – Win 2 k 3 Blade

Server Virtualization (3) VMWare 1 VMWare 2 Virtual. Center Mgmt VMWare 3 VMWare 4

Server Virtualization – Virtual Center n Virtual Center – – Single management console to view all VMWare servers Can be single point of failure (won’t bring down VMs) Required for Vmotion, HA/DR Accounts can be from Active Directory

Server Virtualization - Vmotion n Vmotion – “Live” migration of virtual machines between VMWare servers – Requires dedicated Gig. E connection – Requires shared SAN disks (VMFS) – Requires “like” CPUs on VMWare servers n Review VMWare documentation closely – Virtual. Center can dynamically move VMs based on system load

Seton Hall Server Virtualization (1) n How Seton Hall is utilizing Server Virtualization – 55+ Virtual Machines – Production and Development systems – VMotion implemented to avoid VMware system downtime

Seton Hall Server Virtualization (2) – Remote access to development systems n From user’s desktop n Remote media mount (CD, Floppy, etc) – Storage flexibility (adding virtual disks on the fly) – “Virtual Appliances” n http: //www. vmware. com/appliances

Seton Hall Server Virtualization (3) – Migration of old hardware/servers n Out of date/out of warrantee physical hardware – Schedule restarts/power on-off/relocation of VMs

Server Virtualization - Performance n Sample Seton Hall Applications – – – – Oracle Identity Manager (Development) Cacti SNMP statistics (Production) ez. Proxy reverse proxy server (Production) R 25 Scheduling (Development) Active Directory (Development) Sungard Banner (Development) Lecture 123 (Production)

Server Virtualization - Performance n VMWare ESX Server and Virtual. Center provide performance graphs – Exportable to Excel

Seton Hall Server Virtualization (4) n Future Items – Migration to VMWare Infrastructure Enterprise 3. 5 – VMware Converter Enterprise Edition n Live migration of physical server to virtual machines n Clone of physical machines for DR

Seton Hall Server Virtualization (5) n Future Items for Seton Hall – Review and implement VMWare Update Manager n Automated patching for ESX Server and VMs – Lab replacement using VI 3/VDI n Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for lab machines

How it all works for SHU. . n Storage Virtualization – Dynamic allocation of virtual disks – Single pane of glass storage management – Sidestep vendor restrictions n Server Virtualization – – – Relies on Storage Virtualization for all storage Physical server consolidation Single pane of glass server management Live movement of VMs for high availability Remote access built in

Questions? Matt Stevenson IT Architect Seton Hall University stevenma@shu. edu