Dell PowerVault MD3000i User Manual
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Dell PowerVault MD3000i User Manual

Dell md storage array vcenter plug-in user’s guide
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Dell MD Storage Array vCenter
Plug-in
User's Guide

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  • Page 1 Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in User’s Guide...

  • Page 2: Notes And Cautions

    © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, and PowerVault™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. ® ®...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    ... . Enhanced IE Security ....Uninstalling the Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in ..Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in Features .
  • Page 4 Preventing Slow Script Warning Messages ..Manually Unregistering the Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in 42 Restrictions ......

  • Page 5: Overview

    Dell MD Storage Arrays, create, map, delete storage virtual disks from the Dell MD Storage Array to the ESX host, and view the vCenter datastores to Dell storage array virtual disks. The plug-in will also allow for the creation of hardware Snapshots, and Virtual Disk Copies, if these premium features are enabled on the storage array.

  • Page 6: Installation Requirements

    Installation Requirements The following requirements must be met in order to install and use the Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in. • VMware vCenter 4.x server (installed) • Dell storage array with VMware certified firmware • An application server running an MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in supported operating system as defined in the Support Matrix at support.dell.com/manuals.

  • Page 7: Recommended Configurations

    Storage Administrator User Recommended Configurations The Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in utilizes SMI-S to communicate with the storage arrays that will be managed within the vSphere infrastructure. Due to the nature of the SMI-S protocol, numerous procedure calls must be made to obtain and send changes to the storage array, which require large amounts of data to be passed between the storage arrays, application server and vSphere Client.

  • Page 8: Software Installation

    Software Installation Obtain the correct version of the Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in for your environment (x86 or x64) from the Download and Drivers area at support.dell.com. See the Support Matrix at support.dell.com/manuals for the most current versions. The file should be copied to the application server.

  • Page 9: Application And Vcenter Server Configuration

    The default Jetty TCP port number is 8084 and 8081. After the application server and vCenter server have been configured, you should now see the Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in icon on the home page of the vSphere Client under the Solution and Application section as shown in Figure 2.

  • Page 10: Configuring The Storage Administrator Role

    Figure 2. vCenter Plug-in Configuring the Storage Administrator Role By default, all defined vCenter user IDs will have no rights to the Dell storage arrays. This means that any user that requires read or read/write permissions will need to have their role modified to access the Dell vCenter Plug-in.
  • Page 11 3 Select the permissions that member or members of this role will need. 4 In addition to the permissions selected above, select the appropriate permission from the Storage Administrator group to allow for Read Only or Read Write access to the storage arrays. See Figure 4. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 12 The administrator user must then be added to this role as the following procedure details. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 13: Adding A User Id To A Role

    2 Right-click and select Add Permission to define the users who will be members of the role. NOTE: To assign permissions to a user, the user must already exist as a valid Windows user. Figure 5. Assign Storage Administrator Role Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 14: No Access

    After the storage administrator role has been defined and the appropriate user IDs have been configured with the role, some final installation tasks might need to be performed. The Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in uses SSL to secure communications between the vSphere Client and application server.

  • Page 15: Enhanced Ie Security

    OK to close. Enhanced IE Security If the vSphere client system has Microsoft's Enhanced IE Security installed, the warning message appears. See Figure 8. Click Add to configure a trust relationship with the application server. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 16: Uninstalling The Dell Storage Vcenter Plug-In

    C:\Program Files\Dell Storage vCenter Plug-In\Uninstall Dell Storage vCenter Plug-In\Uninstall Dell Storage vCenter Plug-In.exe. You can also uninstall the Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in from the Application Server by launching Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features on Windows 2008), and selecting Dell Storage vCenter Plug-In to uninstall the plug-in and SMI-S provider packages.

  • Page 17: Dell Md Storage Vcenter Plug-In Features

    Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in Features The Dell MD Storage vCenter Plug-in allows for integrated management of Dell storage arrays using the features that follow. These features are described in the following sections. • Configuring storage arrays to manage •...

  • Page 18: Adding A New Storage Array

    Clicking the icon will open the Storage Array Manager view where you can manage Dell storage arrays. The Storage Array Manager view displays a list of known storage arrays and lets additional storage arrays be added or removed. See Figure 10.

  • Page 19: Networking Configuration For Software Iscsi Storage

    Figure 11. Figure 11. Port Binding Single vSwitch Another alternative is to create a separate vSwitch for each network adapter and VMkernel port pair, as shown in Figure 12. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 20: Activate Multipathing For Software Iscsi Initiator

    1 Identify the names of VMkernel iSCSI ports assigned to physical adapters. The vSphere Client displays the port's name below the network label. Example 1: Figure 13 shows the ports' names as vmk1 and vmk2. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 21 This example shows how to connect the software iSCSI initiator vmhba33 to VMkernel ports vmk1 and vmk2. 1 Connect vmhba33 to vmk1: esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk1 -d vmhba33 2 Connect vmhba33 to vmk2: esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk2 -d vmhba33 Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 22: Esx Host Configuration Wizard

    ESX host to another storage array. 3 To automatically configure the ESX host to the Dell storage array, click the storage array to be configured, and click the Suggest button.
  • Page 23 The wizard then displays progress while the requested configuration changes are being made. Close the progress window manually after the changes are complete. See Figure 16. Figure 14. ESX Host Configuration Wizard Menu Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 24 The ESX host has now been configured to the storage array. The next step is to create new virtual disks on the storage array to be used by the ESX host. New virtual disks are created using the Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 25: Storage Array Summary

    The storage array event log is also accessible from this tab by clicking on the View Event Log link. See "Storage Array Event Log" for additional event log details. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 26: Create Disk Group

    This view also allows you to create new disk groups and virtual disks. Additionally, existing virtual disks and disk groups may be modified or deleted here. To create a new disk group, click the Create Disk Group link. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 27 See Figure 19. During this process, you will need to choose from the available free physical disks the physical disks that will make up the new disk group and select the RAID level to be used. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 28: Making Lun Decisions

    You might want fewer, larger LUNs for the following reasons: • More flexibility to create virtual machines without asking the storage administrator for more space. • More flexibility for resizing virtual disks, doing snapshots, and so on. • Fewer VMFS datastores to manage. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 29: Using The Predictive Scheme To Make Lun Decisions

    5 Disk shares are relevant only within a given host. The shares assigned to virtual machines on one host have no effect on virtual machines on other hosts. 6 Run the applications to determine whether virtual machine performance is acceptable. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 30: Using The Adaptive Scheme To Make Lun Decisions

    Figure 20. On the wizard, you can enter the virtual disk name, select the disk group to use for the new virtual disk, enter the size of the new virtual disk, and set the I/O characteristics of the virtual disk. Click OK to create the virtual disk. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 31: Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk

    After the size of the snapshot exceeds the percentage size of the source virtual disk, the snapshot fails and is no longer available for use until it is re-established with the Recreate Snapshot link. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 32: Disabling And Re-Creating Snapshots

    Recreate Snapshot link, which then creates a new copy of the source virtual disk that may be used. NOTE: Re-creating a snapshot disables the original snapshot before creating a new snapshot. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 33: Creating A Virtual Disk Copy

    Virtual Disk Copy operation uses the Snapshot virtual disk to establish the virtual disk copy with. This action lets continued read- write operations to the source virtual disk from the host during the establish period. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 34 Figure 23. Create Virtual Disk Copy Wizard Click Next to select the target virtual disk for the virtual disk copy, and select the copy priority to use. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 35: Mapping A Virtual Disk

    ESX host for use. See Figure 25. From this view, you can manage hosts, host groups, and virtual disk mappings. To present a new virtual disk to an ESX host, click the Add Mapping link to start the Add Mapping wizard. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 36 Adapters for the ESX host being configured. See Figure 26. NOTE: It may be necessary to run the rescan twice to detect all of the new storage virtual disks that have been mapped to the ESX host. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 37 From this view, you can also verify that the correct number of paths have been configured. By right-clicking on one of the devices listed under the storage adapter and selecting Manage Paths, a window is displayed that shows the number of paths for the target device. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 38: Datastores View

    This view also displays the details of the datastore, such as the extent, LUN number, and health status. The Datastores view is context sensitive, so selecting a VM in the tree only displays storage elements for the selected VM. See Figure 28. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 39: Storage Array Event Log

    Figure 28. Datastores View Storage Array Event Log The Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in also provides the ability to view the Storage Array Event Log for a specific storage array. The event log is accessed from the View Event Log link under the Storage Array Summary screen. Although the event log output can be somewhat cryptic and many events may have duplicate entries, the details are critical in identifying storage array faults.

  • Page 40: Troubleshooting

    Application Server Logs All procedures that are performed from the vCenter Plug-In are logged into a log file on the application server (C:\Program Files\Dell Storage vCenter Plug-In\jetty\logs\ vcenter2-logx.y. csv). This file is archived every 24 hours and stored for 10 days before being overwritten. The file is in CSV format and may be viewed with Notepad, CSVed or similar viewer (to view the current log file which is locked, create a copy of the file and view the copied file.

  • Page 41: Common Errors

    Verify the cimserver/Pegasus server service is started on the Application Server. — Verify the Jetty6-Service is started on the Application Server. • Unable to create/delete objects – Verify the current user ID has correct storage administrator privileges assigned to their role. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 42: Maximize Client Performance

    Maximize Client Performance The Dell Storage vCenter Plug-in is a client side intensive application and as such, it is recommended to use a fast CPU client, with sufficient memory to avoid page swapping, from which to run the vSphere Client.
  • Page 43 Figure 31. Manual Unregister Extension Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 44: Restrictions

    P200085831 The Plug-In displays Due to the limited return codes improper error messages in from SMI-S provider, some error some situations. codes might be erroneous. Include all information and details when troubleshooting these errors. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

  • Page 45: Conclusions

    (vCenter) to manage all of their day-to-day storage needs along with their VMware infrastructure. This alleviates the need for vCenter administrators to learn another management tool and focus instead on the entire virtual infrastructure. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...
  • Page 46 Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in...

This manual is also suitable for:

Powervault md3200iPowervault md3220Md storage array vcenter

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