VMware VSphere Virtual Volume Deployment Guide Based On Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System 03

VMware Virtual Volume Deployment Guide Based on
Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage Systems
Michael Liu (liujianbo09@huawei.com)
Huawei Enterprise BG, IT Storage Solution Dept
2018-04-11, Issue 03
VMware VVol Deployme nt Guide Based on Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System
Contents
1 Overview......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Su mmary .............................................................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Pu rpose ................................................................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Audience ..............................................................................................................................................................................3
2 VMware vSphere and Virtual Volume ..................................................................................... 4

2.1 VM ware vSphere ...............................................................................................................................................................4
2.2 VM ware Virtual Vo lu me ...................................................................................................................................................4
2.2.1 Arch itecture ..............................................................................................................................................................4
2.2.2 Key Co mponents .....................................................................................................................................................5
3 Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System ..................................................................................... 7

3.1 Introduction to Huawei OceanStor V3 ...........................................................................................................................7
3.2 Product Highlights .............................................................................................................................................................8
3.2.1 Cloud-Oriented Storage Software .........................................................................................................................8
3.2.2 Industry-Leading Storage Hardware ....................................................................................................................9
4 Deploying VMware VVol on Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage Systems ........................... 10

4.1 Deploy ment Solution Architecture ...............................................................................................................................10
4.2 Deploy ment Workflow....................................................................................................................................................11
4.3 Prerequisites Check .........................................................................................................................................................11
4.4 Deploy ment Guide ...........................................................................................................................................................12
4.4.1 Configuring Storage ..............................................................................................................................................12
4.4.2 Obtaining, Deploying, and Configuring Huawei VA SA Storage Provider ..................................................13
4.4.3 Configuring the vSphere Platfo rm......................................................................................................................29
5 Configuration Recommendations............................................................................................ 50
5.1 Mult ipathing .....................................................................................................................................................................50
5.2 PE-LUN .............................................................................................................................................................................50
5.3 VA SA Storage Provider HA ...........................................................................................................................................50
5.4 Cascading Snapshots .......................................................................................................................................................50
6 Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 51
6.1 Reference Docu ments .....................................................................................................................................................51
6.2 Terms and Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................51
Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2

1 Overview
1.1 Summary
This deployment guide provides the detailed instructions for deploying and configuring
VMware Virtual Volume (VVol for short) on Huawei OceanStor 5500/5600/5800/18000 V3
hyper-converged storage systems and Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider.
1.2 Purpose
This deployment guide is intended as references for establishing virtualized data centers by
using VMware Virtual Volume and Huawei OceanStor V3 hyper-converged storage systems.
1.3 Audience
This document is intended for IT administrators or administration of VMware vSphere
infrastructures. Before using this guide, the intended audience is supposed to be familiar with:
 Huawei OceanStor V3 hyper-converged storage system
 Huawei OceanStor UltraPath, OceanStor DeviceManager, OceanStor eSDK VASA
Storage Provider
 VMware vSphere infrastructures
 VVol

2 VMware vSphere and Virtual Volume
2.1 VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere, the industry-leading virtualization platform, empowers users to virtualize
scale-up and scale-out applications with confidence, redefines availability, and simplifies the
virtual data center. The result is a highly available, resilient, on-demand infrastructure that is
the ideal foundation of any cloud environment. This can drive down data center cost, increase
system and application uptime, and drastically simplify the way IT runs the data center.
vSphere is purpose-built for the next generation of applications and serves as the core
foundational building block for the Software-Defined Data Center.
vSphere accelerates the shift to cloud computing for existing data centers and also underpins
compatible public cloud offerings, forming the foundation for the industry's only hybrid cloud
model. With the support of more than 3,000 applications from more than 2,000 ISV partners,
vSphere is the trusted platform for any application.
2.2 VMware Virtual Volume

Virtual Volumes is an integration and management framework for external storage (SAN and
NAS). This framework allows customers to easily assign and manage storage capabilities on a
per-application (per-VM) basis at the hypervisor level using Storage Policy-Based
Management (SPBM).
Virtual Volumes is an industry-wide initiative that will allow customers to leverage the unique
capabilities of their current storage investments and transition without disruption to a simpler
and more efficient operational model optimized for virtual environments that works across all
storage types.
2.2.1 Architecture
The following figure shows the architecture of VMware vSphere Virtual Volume based on
external SAN/NAS storage.

Figure 2-1 VMware Virtual Volume architecture
2.2.2 Key Components

Virtual volumes constitute five major components namely VVoL Device, Protocol End Point,
Storage Container, VASA Provider and Array, and all these components are
managed/used/handled by different components in vSphere Stack such as Virtual Center
(VASA, SPBM) and ESXi (Hostd, VVOLD, VVOL FDS Driver). It becomes necessary to get
a holistic view of environment and configuration.
Vendor Provider (VP)

The vendor provider, also known as the VASA storage provider, is a storage-side software
component that acts as a storage awareness service for vSphere and mediates out-of-band
communication between vCenter Server and ESXi hosts on one side and a storage system on
the other. Storage vendors exclusively develop vendor providers. ESXi hosts and vCenter
Server connect to the Vendor Provider and obtain information about available storage
topology, capabilities, and status.
Subsequently, vCenter Server provides this information to vSphere clients, exposing the
capabilities around which the administrator might craft storage policies in SPBM.
Vendor Providers are typically setup and configured by the vSphere administrator in one of
two ways:
 Automatically via the array vendors' plug-in
 Manually through the vCenter server
Storage Containers (SC)

Unlike traditional LUN and NFS based vSphere storage, the Virtual Volumes functionality
does not require pre-configured volumes on a storage side. Instead, Virtual Volumes uses a

storage container, which is a pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage

capabilities that a storage system can provide to virtual volumes.
Protocol Endpoint (PE)

Although storage systems manage all aspects of virtual volumes, ESXi hosts have no direct
access to virtual volumes on the storage side. Instead, ESXi hosts use a logical I/O proxy,
called the protocol endpoint, to communicate with virtual volumes and virtual disk files that
virtual volumes (VVols) encapsulate.
ESXi uses protocol endpoints to establish a data path on demand from virtual machines to
their respective virtual volumes.
Protocol Endpoints are compatible with all SAN/NAS industry standard protocols:
 iSCSI
 NFS v3
 Fiber Channel (FC)
 Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Virtual Volumes (VVols)

Virtual Volumes are a new type of virtual machine objects, which are created and stored
natively on the storage array. VVols are stored in storage containers and mapped to virtual
machine files/objects such as VM swap, VMDKs and their derivatives.
There are five different types of Virtual Volumes object types and each of them maps to a
different and specific virtual machine file.
 Config - VM Home, configuration files, logs
 Data - Equivalent to a VMDK
 Memory - Snapshots
 SWAP - Virtual machine memory swap
 Other - vSphere solution specific object
Virtual Datastore
A Virtual Datastore represents a storage container in a vCenter Server instance and the
vSphere Web Client. A vSphere Virtual Datastore represents a one-to-one mapping to the
storage system's storage container.
The storage container (or Virtual Datastore) represents a logical pool where individual Virtual
Volumes created VMDKs are created.

3 Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System
3.1 Introduction to Huawei OceanStor V3

Huawei OceanStor 5300/5500/5600/5800/6800 V3 and 18000 V3 unified storage systems are
next-generation hyper-converged storage products specifically des igned for enterprise-class
applications. Employing a storage operating system built on a cloud-oriented architecture, a
powerful new hardware platform, and a suite of intelligent management software, the
OceanStor V3 storage systems deliver industry-leading functionalities, performance,
efficiency, reliability, and ease-of-use.
Figure 3-1 OceanStor V3 series hyper-converged storage systems
The OceanStor V3 storage systems are ideal for applications such as large-database Online
Transaction Processing (OLTP)/Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), file sharing, and cloud
computing. Further, these systems offer a wide range of efficient backup and disaster recovery
solutions.
With a versatile set of capabilities, the V3 series storage systems can be widely applied in
industries ranging from government, finance, telecommunications, energy, to Media and
Entertainment (M&E).

3.2 Product Highlights

3.2.1 Cloud-Oriented Storage Software
Multiple Controllers
 Scale-out capability
OceanStor V3 supports online scale-out to a maximum of eight controllers, 1 TB of
cache, and 12 PB of storage capacity.
 Load balancing
OceanStor V3 storage systems implement load balancing among controllers and
eliminates single points of failure, thereby ensuring high system availability and the
stability of online services. Multiple controllers concurrently process the same host
service significantly improves service processing efficiency and smashes the
performance bottleneck encountered when only a single controller works.
Convergence
 Convergence of SAN and NAS
SAN-NAS convergence allows for elastic storage, simplifies service deployment,
improves storage resource utilization, and reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Underlying storage resource pools provide both block and file services and shorten
storage resource access paths to ensure equivalent I/O efficiency for both block and file
services.
 Convergence of heterogeneous storage systems
The OceanStor V3 built-in virtualization function can efficiently manage storage systems
from multiple vendors and unify resource pools for flexible, centralized resource
allocation, and protect different storage systems' data. In addition, it allows other-vendor
storage systems' data to be migrated to OceanStor V3, thereby further accelerating
service efficiency. OceanStor V3 mid-range storage supports gateway mode.
 Convergence of mission-critical, mid-range, and entry-level storage systems
OceanStor V3 series can interwork seamlessly with any other mission-critical, mid-range,
or entry-level systems, allowing data to freely flow among these different storage
products, with no need for additional hardware or software support.
 Convergence of SSDs and HDDs
Combining the advantages of both rotating media drive and solid-state drive, OceanStor
V3 series offer an optimal balance between performance and cost. With all-flash storage
configuration, they can provide highest performance and a lowest latency of 1 ms.
 Convergence of primary and backup storage
The OceanStor V3 series built-in backup functionality provides backup capabilities with
no need for additional backup software and meanwhile simplifies backup management.
Intelligence
 Multi-tenant and Service Level Agreement (SLA)
OceanStor V3 series storage systems enable intelligent allocation of storage resources in
cloud computing environments. The systems apply data isolation functions and data
security policies (such as data encryption and reliable destruction of obsolete data). With
four SLAs, the systems allocate storage resources based on service priorities, to ensure

that higher-priority services always have preference for occupying system resources and
thereby enjoy faster response.
 Smart efficiency improvement
OceanStor V3 series storage systems leverage dynamic storage tiering (SmartTier),
intelligent data migration (SmartMotion), and innovative heterogeneous-system
virtualization (SmartVirtualization) to achieve cross-tier, cross-Huawei storage, and
cross-storages from different vendors, significantly improving storage resource
utilization.
 Hyper data protection
Functions such as remote replication, snapshot, and LUN copy provide local, remote,
and multi-branch data protection to ensure business continuity and data availability.
 Advanced active-active solution
HyperMetro implements active-active mirroring with load balancing and cross-site
takeover without service interruption, preventing data loss and system breakdown from
occurring in critical application systems. Additionally, OceanStor V3 series'
gateway-free design can effectively reduce the purchase cost, simplify system
deployment, and enable the active-active solution to be smoothly upgraded to the
Disaster Recovery Data Center Solution (Geo-Redundant Mode).
Easy to Manage
 Unified management
Powerful storage management software provides global topology views, capacity
analys is, performance analysis, fault diagnosis, and end-to-end GUI-based service
management, thereby simplifying management of various devices.
3.2.2 Industry-Leading Storage Hardware

 Outstanding performance
OceanStor V3 mid-range storage systems employ the latest Intel multi-core processors,
16 Gbps Fiber Channel, 10 Gbps FCoE, and 56 Gbps InfiniBand host ports, PCIe 3.0
buses, and 12 Gbps SAS 3.0 disk ports. System bandwidth as high as 28 GB/s efficiently
handles video and other large files, and supports million-level IOPS performance.
 Exclusive SmartIO cards
Each SmartIO card supports 8 Gbps Fibre Channel, 16 Gbps Fibre Channel, 10 Gbps
Ethernet and 10 Gbps FCoE.
 Industry-leading deduplication/compression cards
An accelerator card provides deduplication and compression functionalities. You can
configure accelerator cards based on your site requirements, efficiently reducing data
storage costs.
For detailed information about Huawei OceanStor V3 Hyper-Converged Storage systems, please refer
to:
 Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V3 Storage Systems Data Sheet
 Huawei OceanStor 5300,5500, 5600, and 5800 V3 Storage Systems Technical White Paper
 Huawei OceanStor 6800 V3 M ission Critical Storage System Data Sheet
 Huawei OceanStor 6800 V3 M ission Critical Storage System Technical White Paper
 Huawei OceanStor 18000 V3 Data Sheet
 Huawei OceanStor 18000 V3 Technical White Paper

4 Deploying VMware VVol on Huawei

OceanStor V3 Storage Systems
4.1 Deployment Solution Architecture

The following figure shows the architecture of a solution to deploying VMware VVol on
Huawei OceanStor V3 series hyper-converged storage systems. In this solution, Huawei
OceanStor V3 storage systems provide SAN-based VVol feature via FC/iSCSI/FCoE
interconnections.
Figure 4-1 Architecture for deploying VMware VVol on OceanStor V3 storage systems
The combination of VMware VVol and Huawei OceanStor V3 series hyper-converged storage
systems allow the following features to be delivered:
 SnapShot

With VMware VVol, the snapshot operation for VMs is offloaded to the native array.
Since the storage array is aware of each VM, data services are performed at the
individual virtual machine level, which results in faster snapshot and clone operations.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
With VMware VVol, the QoS policy is delivered per virtual machine disk (VMDK)
instead of per LUN, which results in better performance management. The QoS policy
makes it easy to implement SLAs for different business VMs.
 Auto-Tiering
Huawei OceanStor V3 storage systems provide customers with an Auto-Tiering feature
when using VMware VVol over SmartTier. Auto-Tiering provides a higher business
performance while minimizing SSD investments.
 Integrated Management via a Huawei OceanStor vCenter Plugin
Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider can be integrated with an OceanStor eSDK
vCenter Plugin to simplify storage management. It means that the storage management
operations can be implemented via the Huawei eSDK vCenter plugin.
1. Auto-Tiering can be enabled only if you have purchased the SmartTier license and the storage
pools include multiple tiers.
2. The integrated management via a vCenter plugin is still under test, and is planned to be released in
the next product version. This deployment guide still uses an independent web management
interface for VASA storage provider.
4.2 Deployment Workflow

The following figure shows the flowchart for deploying Huawei eSDK VASA storage
provider and VVol on Huawei OceanStor V3series hyper-converged storage systems.
Figure 4-2 Flowchart for deploying vSphere VVol on OceanStor V3 storage systems
4.3 Prerequisites Check

Before deployment, you need to check a few items.

Table 4-1 Prerequisites to be checked before deploying VVol on Huawei OceanStor V3 storage
system
Vendor Software Component Remarks
VMware vSphere Center 6.0 or later
vSphere ESXi 6.0 or later
vSphere Web Client 6.0 or later
Huawei VASA storage provider eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx_.zip
Storage Software  V300R003C20SPC200

 V300R005C00SPC500
Multipath VMware NMP or Huawei OceanStor

UltraPath V100R008C50 for
VMware_vSphere
4.4 Deployment Guide

4.4.1 Configuring Storage
This section describes the steps to configure storage systems via Huawei OceanStor Storage
DeviceManager.
Figure 4-3 Workflow for configuring OceanStor V3 storage systems via OceanStor
DeviceManager
For detailed instructions on creating a disk domain, storage pool, PE LUN, LUN group, host,
host group, and mapping view, please refer to:
Section "Configuring Basic Storage Services (for VMware VVol Scenarios Only)" in the
OceanStor 5300 V3&5500 V3&5600 V3&5800 V3&6800 V3 Storage System V300R003 Basic
Storage Service Guide for Block.
1. The only difference in the configuration process between traditional SAN-LUN and SAN-VVol is
the LUN type. For VVol, traditional LUNs are no longer needed; instead, the PE-LUNs would be
used for interconnection between ESXi hosts and storage system to which multipath software
connects.
2. To achieve high availability, it is advisable to create at least two PE-LUNs for each storage pool.

3. The steps for creating PE-LUN are listed as follows:
Step 1 Log in to the Huawei OceanStor DeviceManager via a web browser, and in its Navigation
Bar, click .
Step 2 Click in the Function pane.

Step 3 On the Huawei.Storage > Provisioning > LUN page, click the LUN Tab. On the LUN tab
page, click the Create button to start the Create LUN dialog box.
Step 4 In the Create LUN dialog box, finish the following sub-steps:
a. Input LUN Name.
b. Click All options, and then select PE LUN as Use Type.
c. Input LUN Quantity, and select Owning Storage Pool.
d. Click the Advance button to select Owner Controller if needed.
e. Click OK to finish PE-LUN creation.
----End
4.4.2 Obtaining, Deploying, and Configuring Huawei VASA

Storage Provider
This section describes the process for obtaining, deploying, and configuring Huawei
OceanStor VASA storage provider software.
Limitations
Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider has the following limitations:
 Each VASA storage provider can manage a maximum of 4 storage arrays.
 Each VASA storage provider can register with a maximum of 5 vCenter servers.
 Each VASA storage provider supports a maximum of 4096 VMs.
 For fast clone of VMs while ensuring system performance, it is advisable to configure at
most 2 levels of cascading snapshots.
 For each OceanStor V3 storage device, it is advisable to ensure that the result of Number
of PE-LUNs x Number of connected ESXi hosts is equal to or smaller than 30. For
example, if 2 PE LUNs are configured, at most15 ESXi hosts could be connected.
Obtain
You can download the Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider software package as a .zip
file from Huawei official support website http://support.huawei.com/enterprise/softdownload
(by choosing Vertical Industries Solutions > eSDK Solution > eSDK Storage). After
obtaining the .zip file, follow the steps to deploy and configure the Huawei VASA storage
provider.

The Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider is provided in .zip format and named as
eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx.zip, in which x.x.xx stands for the VASA storage provider version
number.
Prerequisites Check
Before deploying the Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider, you need to verify some
prerequisites.
The VASA storage provider can be deployed on a VM only, and cannot be deployed on the same VM as
vCenter Server.
 Operating System and Software Package Requirements
Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider has the following requirements for VASA
VM OS, vCPU, vMemory and other pre-installed software packages.
Table 4-2 Requirements for VASA storage provider VM OS, vCPU, vMemory and other
pre-installed software packages
Item Requirements
Operating system  The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 x86_64

operating system is required.
 No service systems of customers are installed on the
operating system. Otherwise, the installation may fail.
CPU cores At least 8 virtual CPU cores must be configured for VASA
storage provider.
Memory At least 8 GB virtual memory capacity is required for

VASA storage provider.
Disk space If the operating system has only the root partition, the
minimum free space of the root partition is 20 GB. If the
operating system has multiple partitions:
 The minimum free space of the partition where the root
directory locates is 10 GB.
 The minimum free space of the partition where the
/var/log directory locates is 20 GB.
 The minimum free space of the partition where the /opt
directory locates is 20 GB.
Software packages The VM for housing VASA storage provider must have no
Apache2 package preinstalled. If any Apache2 package is
preinstalled, uninstall it first.
 Supported Storage Device Types

The VASA 2.0 storage provider supports only these devices listed in the following table.

Table 4-3 Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider-supported storage types
Device Model Version
OceanStor 18500/18800 V3 V300R003C20SPC200

V300R005C00SPC500
OceanStor V300R003C20SPC200
5300/5500/5600/5800/6800 V3 V300R005C00SPC500
 Host Name Requirements

Before deploying the VASA storage provider, you need to plan the host name of the VM
intended for housing the VASA storage provider. The host name must meet the following
requirements:
− The host name must be unique and contain only digits 0 to 9, letters a to z, A to Z,
and hyphens (-).
− Do not use the hostname command to change the host name, because the command
changes the host name only temporarily. After the VASA storage provider VM
restarts, the host name will change back to the original one.
− You can configure the VM host name can be configured by using the operating
system interface or by using commands during the installation of VASA storage
provider.
1. During the VASA storage provider installation process, the host name for the VASA VM can be
changed.
2. After the VASA storage provider is installed, the host name of the VASA storage provider VM
cannot be changed. Otherwise, some programs will malfunction.
 Time Zone and NTP Server Settings
Before deploying the VASA storage provider, you need to configure the time zone and
time settings, thereby ensuring the time zones and time of the vCenter Server, ESXi
hosts, VASA storage provider VM, and storage array are consistent. The NTP server
configuration is optional.
1. If they are inconsistent, there would be some problems and you have to uninstall and reinstall the
VASA storage provider software package.
2. The time zone and NTP server for the VASA VM can be changed during the VASA Storage
Provider installation process.
The following table shows the requirements for time zone settings, including NTP server and
time zone.
Table 4-4 Requirements for time zone settings, including NTP server and time zone
Item Description Example
(Optional) NTP It is in the same network 192.168.100.251,

server IP segment as the management 192.168.100.252
address network, and provided by
customers.
Customers are advised to
provide two NTP server IP

Item Description Example

addresses separated by
commas (,).
Time zone Time zone in which a site Europe/Prague
resides (customer-supplied)
The method for querying the To query the time zone
time zone of a site: of a site at the Czech
Log in to the node as user Republic, access the
root, execute the cd Europe directory, and
/usr/share/zoneinfo find the Prague
command, and then query directory. The time
the time zone directory based zone information of the
on the physical location of site is Europe/Prague.
the site.
Deploy
This section describes the steps to deploy Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider.
Before deploying, ensure that a VM meeting the requirements for housing the VASA storage provider
has been prepared.
Step 1 Upload the OceanStor VASA storage provider software package to the /root directory of the
VM via a file transfer tool such as WinSCP or Xmanager.
Step 2 Connect to the VM as user root via PuTTY or Xshell using the management IP address, and
then change directory to /root.
Step 3 Execute the following command to decompress the software package:
OceanStorDJ # unzip eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx.zip
Step 4 Change directory to eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx, and execute the following

command to start the VASA installation process:
OceanStorDJ # sh install.sh
Then, configure the VASA storage provider as prompted.
No. Installation Prompt Message Operation
1 To install and enable VASA Enter y and change the default password
Provider, the OS encryption encryption algorithm of the OS to sha256.
algorithm needs to be set to sha256.
Press 'Y/y' to confirm the operation, To enhance the OS security, you are advised to
or 'N/n' to exit the installation. change the encryption algorithm of the OS running
(y/n): on a physical server or VM to sha256. Otherwise,
the password of the djmanager maintenance
account created during the software installation
may be encrypted using the default encryption
algorithm MD5. MD5 is insecure.
2 Checking the status of If the firewall is disabled, this message will

No. Installation Prompt Message Operation

SuSEfirewall2 be prompted and the system will
automatically jump to the next step.
3 Checking the status of This prompt message is displayed if the
SuSEfirewall2 running firewall is running.
Firewall is enabled. To install and  Enter y to disable the system firewall.
enable VASA Provider, the firewall  Enter n to exit the installation program.
needs to be disabled. Press 'Y/y' to
confirm the operation, or 'N/n' to
exit the installation. (y/n):
4 Please make sure the host name is This prompt message is displayed if the
independent and the host name current host name meets the requirements of
contains only letters, digits, and the naming rule.
hyphens (-). Do you want to change  Enter n. The host name will not be
your host name.(y/n): changed and prompt message 4 is
displayed.
 Enter y and enter the new host name after
"please input hostname(upper letter, lower
letter, number and dash(-) are allowed): "
5 The system time zone needs to be  If you have not changed the system time
the same as that shared by all zone before the installation, enter y and
OceanStor storage arrays managed manually select a time zone.
by VASA Provider.  If you have changed the system time zone
You can use the NTP server to and time before the installation, or you
synchronize the time zone, or have configured the NTP service to
manually select a time zone. synchronize the system time, enter n.
The current system time zone is:
Asia/Chongqing
Do you want to select the time zone
manually? (y/n):
6 Do you want to use the NTP server  If you enter n at the last step but you have
to synchronize the time zone? 'Y' is not changed the system time zone or time
recommended. (y/n): before the installation, enter y and
configure the NTP service.
 If you have changed the system time zone
before the installation or at the last step,
enter n.
Step 5 When the configuration process is completed, the VASA storage provider is automatically
installed successfully only if the following message is displayed.
2016-12-19 15:22:52 [INFO] Config auto start

succeeded. ............. ............................ 100%
################ Installing OceanStor VASA Provider succeeded ##################
Step 6 After the deployment of VASA provider is finished, start a web browser and enter the
following address to access the VASA provider:

https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:19543/esdkom/pages/login.html,
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx stands for the management IP address of the VASA storage provider VM.
Step 7 Select Language, enter User Name, Password and Captcha, and click Login button.
For the first time login, the default User Name is admin, the default password is Change_Me, and the
password changing operation is mandatory.
Step 8 On the Change password page, enter Old Password, New Password, and Confirm
Password, and click the Change button.
----End
Import Storage Devices' Certificates

Before adding storage devices to a VASA provider, import the storage devices' certificates.
Perform the following steps to import a storage device's certificate.
Step 1 Obtain the certificate file from local Huawei Storage Service Engineers.
Step 2 Connect to the VASA storage provider VM as user djmanager by using PuTTY or Xshell,
execute the mkdir -p /home/djmanager/ca command to create a ca directory, and upload the
certificate or CA certificate chain to the VASA provider VM via WinSCP or xFTP.
The default password of user djmanager is DJ@123$%. To ensure system security, you are advised to
change the password regularly.
Step 3 Change directory to /opt/Huawei/dj/bin/digital_certificate, and execute the following

commands to import the storage certificate.
djmanager@OceanStorDJ2:~> cd /opt/Huawei/dj/bin/digital_certificate
djmanager@OceanStorDJ2:~>./import_ca.sh -d /home/djmanager/ca/

If you want to import the certificate to a standard system path, execute the following command:
djmanager@OceanStorDJ2:~> ./import_ca.sh -d /home/djmanager/ca/ -t ssl.
----End
Register Storage Devices

This section describes how to register Huawei OceanStor storage devices with a VASA
storage provider.
Step 1 Log in to the Huawei OceanStor VASA provider via a web browser by using the address
https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:19543/esdkom, select Language, enter User Name, Password and
Captcha, and click the Login button.
Step 2 In the eSDK Unified Management Portal page, navigate to Function > Storage Device
Management > Storage Array in the left pane, and click the Add Array button in the right
pane.
Step 3 In the right pane of the eSDK Unified Management Portal, select the storage Model, enter the
storage management IP Address, access Port, management User Name, and Password, click
the OK button to start adding a storage array.

Step 4 In the Add Array dialog box, click OK to continue.
Back to the right pane, the Operation Succeeded information would be shown as follows.
----End
Create Storage Containers

This section describes how to create storage containers on Huawei OceanStor storage devices
by using a VASA storage provider.
Step 1 Log in to the Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider via a web browser by using the
address https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:19543/esdkom, select Language; enter User Name,
Password, and Captcha, and then click the Login button.
Step 2 In the eSDK Unified Management Portal page, navigate to Function > Resource
Management > Storage Container in the left pane, and click the Create Storage Container
button in the right pane.

Step 3 Enter the Name and Desc of Storage Container, and click the OK button.
Step 4 In the Create Storage Container dialog box, click the OK button to continue.

Step 5 Back to the right pane, the new-added storage container would be shown in the list. Select the
destination storage container, and then click the Manage Storage Container button.
Step 6 Click the Add Storage Pool button in the right pane to configure a storage pool for the
selected storage container.
Step 7 In the right pane, select Array from the Arrays drop-down menu. Select the TierStrategy
Support checkbox only if you have configured at least one storage pool with multiple disk
layers, choose the storage pool in the Available StoragePools list, click to add the
selected Storage Pool to the Selected StoragePools list, and then click the OK button.

Then, the Operation Succeeded information would be shown as follows.
Step 8 Click the Back button.

The selected storage pool would be shown in the list as follow s.
----End

Create Storage Capacity Profiles

Step 1 Log in to the Huawei OceanStor VASA provider via a web browser by using the address
https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:19543/esdkom, select Language, enter User Name, Password, and
Captcha, and then click the Login button.
Step 2 In the eSDK Unified Management Portal page, navigate to Function > Resource
Management > Storage Capability Profiles in the left pane, and then click the Create
Storage Profile button in the right pane.
Step 3 In the right pane, enter the storage profile parameters, and click the OK button.
The following table describes the storage profile parameters.

Table 4-5 Storage profile parameters
No. Parameter Description
1 Name Indicates the storage profile name.
2 Storage Indicates the storage container corresponding to the profile.

Container
3 QoS Indicates whether to enable SmartQoS for the storage profile.
 On
 Off
4 QoS Control Indicates the control type. Its value may be:
Type  Read I/O
 Write I/O
 Read/Write I/O
5 Control Policy Indicates the control policy. Its value may be:
 Upper limit control
 Lower limit control

6 Control Indicates the control objective. Its value may be:
Objective  Bandwidth
 IOPS
 Latency
Latency is displayed only after Control Policy is set to Lower limit

control.
7 SmartTier Indicates whether to enable SmartTier for the storage profile.

 On
 Off
If SmartTier is enabled for the storage profile, you need to enable

SmartTier for the storage pool in the storage container associated with
the storage profile.
Step 4 In the Create Storage Profile dialog box, click the OK to continue.
The Operation Succeeded information will be shown as follows.

Step 5 Click the Back button to complete.

Then, the new-added storage capability profile would be shown in the list of the right pane.
----End
Register the VASA Provider to vCenter

This section describes how to register a Huawei OceanStor VASA Provider to a vCenter
server.
1. The following steps are suitable only for VM ware vSphere clients. The steps for vSphere Web
Clients would be slightly different.
2. At least one host has been added to the vCenter server before registering the VASA provider.
Step 1 Connect to the vSphere Center via a vSphere client. Within the vSphere client, navigate to
Home > Storage Providers. Then, click Add….

Step 2 In the Add Vendor Provider dialog box, enter the provider Name, service URL provided by
the VASA provider and the registered user information, and then click OK.
The default Login user is cloud_admin and default Password is CloudService@123!.
Step 3 In the Security Alert dialog box, click the Yes to continue.

Step 4 When the Add Vendor VASA provider process is finished, the newly-added Huawei VASA
provider will be shown in the Vendor Providers list.
After selecting the Huawei VASA Storage provider, its detailed information would be shown
as follows, including Provider Name, API Version, Provider Status, Default Namespace,
and Provider Version.
----End

4.4.3 Configuring the vSphere Platform

Configure Multipathing
To maintain constant connections between hosts and its storage, ESXi supports multipathing,
allowing customers to use more than one physical path for transferring data between the hosts
and external SAN-based storage devices.
 VMware Native Multipathing
Huawei OceanStor V3 hyper-converged storage systems support:
 Two native Storage Array Type Plug-Ins (SATPs) provided by VMware:
VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA and VMW_SATP_ALUA
 Three Path Selection Policies (PSPs): Most Recently Used (MRU), Fixed (Fixed) and
Round Robin (RR).
Table 4-6 Recommendation for Huawei OceanStor V3 storage systems based on VMware native
multipathing
Storage Recommended SATP Policy Recommended PSP

Configuration Policy
Single engine VMW_SATP_ALUA VMW_PSP_ALUA
Multiple engines VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA VMW_PSP_Fixed
1. The VM W_SATP_ALUA policy applies only to OceanStor V3 with a single engine.

2. For OceanStor V3 with multiple engines, it is strongly recommended to set VM W_PSP_Fixed as
the default PSP policy.
When using VMW_SATP_ALUA as the default SATP policy, ensure that the ALUA feature is
enabled on the storage devices; otherwise, the storage devices may fail to be found in ESXi
hosts.
Perform the following steps to configure VMware native multipathing on each ESXi host.
Step 1 Connect to the vSphere Center server via a vSphere client. Within the vSphere client, select
each ESXi host needed to connect to Huawei OceanStor V3 storage device in the inventory.
In the left Software pane, click Security Profile; in the right pane, click the Configuration
tab. On the Configuration tab page, click the Properties button in the upper right corner.

Step 2 In the Service Properties dialog box, select the SSH item and click the Options button.
Step 3 In the SSH (TSM-SSH) Options dialog box, select the Start and stop with host option in
the Startup Policy area, click the Start button, and then click the OK button.

Step 4 Back to the Service Properties dialog box, click OK to finish the SSH setting.
Step 5 Connect to ESXi hosts via PuTTY or Xshell, and execute the following commands to add
Huawei vendor information to ESXi hosts and configure the default SATP policy.
 Set VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA as the default SATP policy:
~# esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp=VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA --vendor="HUAWEI"
--description "OceanStor"
Or
 Set VMW_SATP_ALUA as the default SATP policy:
~# esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp=VMW_SATP_ALUA --vendor="HUAWEI"
--description "OceanStor"
Step 6 Configure the default PSP policy for SATP. For example:
 Set VMW_PSP_FIXED as the default PSP policy for VMW_SATP_ DEFAULT_AA:
# esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp=VMW_PSP_FIXED --satp VMW_SATP_
DEFAULT_AA
Or
 Set VMW_PSP_RR as the default PSP policy for VMW_SATP_ ALUA:
# esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp=VMW_PSP_RR --satp VMW_SATP_ ALUA
Step 7 Reboot ESXi hosts to complete the VMware Native multipathing configuration for Huawei
OceanStor V3 storage systems.
~# reboot
----End

If VMW_SATP_ALUA has been set as the default SATP policy, you must enable the
ALUA feature on the storage devices.
Perform the following steps to enable ALUA feature on Huawei OceanStor V3 storage
systems:
Step 1 Log in to the Huawei OceanStor DeviceManager via a web browser, and in the Navigation
Bar, click .
Step 2 Click in the Function pane.
Step 3 On the Huawei.Storage > Provisioning > Host page, select the ESXi host, select its initiator
on the Initiator tab page, and then click the Modify tab.
Step 4 In the displayed Modify Initiator dialog box, select the User third-party multipath
software option, select early-version ALUA as the Switchover Mode, keep Path Type
default, and then click the OK button.

Step 5 Repeat Steps 3 and 4, and make sure that all the ESXi hosts to be connected to the storage
devices have the ALUA feature enabled.
Huawei VA SA storage provider management is integrated with the Huawei OceanStor eSDK vCenter
plugin, and so would be multipathing management (including both VM ware native multipathing and
Huawei OceanStor UltraPath).
----End
 Huawei OceanStor UltraPath

OceanStor UltraPath for VMware vSphere is a Huawei-provided multipathing software,
which runs on the VMware Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) as a third-party
plug-in and works with VMware's Native Multipathing Plugin (NMP) seamlessly.
For details on how to install and configure Huawei OceanStor UltraPath on each ESXi
host, please refer to:
OceanStor UltraPath for vSphere V100R008C50 User Guide
Rescan Storage Devices in the vSphere Center

When PE-LUNs are mapped to ESXi hosts, re-scan for storage devices is needed.
This section describes how to rescan storage devices in the vSphere Center web client.
Step 1 Connect to vSphere Center via a vSphere web client. Within the vSphere Web Client,
navigate to Home > Hosts and Clusters, and right-click an ESXi host or cluster that has been
mapped PE-LUNs, then select Storage > Rescan Storage….

Step 2 In the Rescan Storage dialog box, make sure that the Scan for new Storage Devices option
is selected, and then click the OK button.
Step 3 Select each ESXi host in the cluster, and choose Manage > Storage > Storage Devices in the
right pane.
The mapped PE-LUNs will be displayed in the Storage Devices list, where the PE-LUN
capacity would be shown as 0.00 B and the detailed information would be shown in the
Device Detailed area.

----End
Create a VVol DataStore

This section describes how to create a VVol datastore in vSphere Center Web Client.
1. A VVol datastore can only be created via the vSphere CWeb Client, vSphere Client is not
supported.
2. A VVol datastore can be created only if PE-LUNs have been found online in ESXi hosts.
Step 1 Connect to vSphere Center via vSphere Web Client. Within the vSphere Web Client, navigate
to Home > Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi cluster to add a VVol datastore, and navigate
to Related Objects > Datastores in the right pane.

Step 2 Click in the right pane to start the New Datastore wizard. In the New Datastore
wizard, click the Next button to continue.
Step 3 Select VVOL in the Type page, and click the Next button.
Step 4 Enter Datastore Name, select the destination Storage Container, confirm the detailed
information for Backing Storage Container Details, and click the Next button.

Step 5 Select the ESXi hosts that access the datastore, and click the Next button.
Step 6 On the Ready to complete page, click the Finish button to complete the VVol datastore
creation.

Then, the newly-added VVol datastore would be shown in the datastore list.
----End
Create VM Storage Policies

This section describes how to create VM storage policies in vSphere Center Web Client.
The VM storage policies can only be created via vSphere Web Client, vSphere Client is not supported.
to Home, and click VM Storage Policies in the right pane.

Step 2 Click in the middle pane to start the Create New VM Storage Policy wizard.
Step 3 On the Name and Description page of the Create New VM Storage Policy wizard, enter the
Name and Description, and click the Next button.

Step 4 On the Rule-Sets page, click the Next button to continue.

Step 5 On the Rule-Set 1 page, select com.huawei.vasaprovider for Rules based on data services
firstly.
Click <Add rule>, select a target rule from the drop-down list, and set the related values.

1. M ultiple rules can be set in the same VM storage policy, and these rules take effect together.
2. The VM storage policy must be compatible with at least one VVol datastore. Otherwise, the
storage policy is invalid.
After the rule adding process is completed, click the Next button to continue.
The following table describes the rule parameters.

Table 4-7 Rule parameters and descriptions
No. Parameter Description
1 com.huawei.vasaprovider. Flow control type, to which the flow control policy will
FlowControlType.label be applied and should be the same as that specified
during the storage profile creation process
Supported control types:
 Read I/O
 Write I/O
 Read/Write I/O
2 com.huawei.vasaprovider. Flow control policy, which should be the same as that
FlowControlPolicy.label specified during the storage profile creation process.
Supported policy types:
 Control upper bound
 Control lower bound

3 com.huawei.vasaprovider. IOPS, to which a flow control policy will be applied
IOPS.label and should be the same as that specified during the
storage profile creation process
4 com.huawei.vasaprovider. Bandwidth, to which a flow control policy will be
Bandwidth.label applied and should be the same as that specified during
the storage profile creation process
5 com.huawei.vasaprovider. Latency, to which a flow control policy will be applied
Latency.label and should be the same as that specified during the
storage profile creation process
Latency rules can take effect only if

com.huawei.vasaprovider.FlowControlPolicy.label is set to
Control lower bound.
6 com.huawei.vasaprovider. Supported SmartTier policies :

SmartTier.label  No relocation
 Auto relocation
 Relocation to high-performance
 Relocation to low-performance
The SmartTier rules can take effect only if S martTier Policy

is set to ON during the storage profile creation process.
Step 6 On the Storage Compatibility page, select the compatible datastore and click the Next
button.

Step 7 On the Ready to complete page, confirm the parameter settings and click the Finish button.
Then, the newly-added VM storage policy would be shown in the list as follow s.

----End
Provision VMs and Pend VM Storage Policies

This section describes how to create VMs based on a VVol datastore with VM storage policy
by using the vSphere Web Client.
to Home > Hosts and Clusters, right-click the target cluster, and choose New Virtual
Machine > New Virtual Machine from the shortcut menu.
Step 2 Select the Create a new virtual machine option on the Select a creation type page of New
Virtual Machine wizard, and click the Next button.

Step 3 Enter the name for the VM, select the destination datacenter on the Select a name and folder
page, and click the Next button.
Step 4 Select the destination cluster on the Select a compute resource page, and click the Next
button.

Step 5 Select the VM Storage Policy and VVol-based datastore on the Select Storage page, and
click the Next button.
Step 6 Select a compatible ESXi version from the Compatible with option box on the Select
compatibility page, and click the Next button.

Step 7 Select Guest OS Family and Guest OS Version on the Select a guest OS page, and click the
Next button.
Step 8 Set VM parameters, and click the Next button.

Step 9 On the Ready to complete page, confirm the parameter settings and then click the Finish
button.
Then, the newly-created VM would be shown in the VM list as follows.

----End

5 Configuration Recommendations
5.1 Multipathing
With VMware VVol and Huawei OceanStor V3 storage systems deployed, it is advisable to
use the Huawei OceanStor UltraPath as the default multipathing software.
5.2 PE-LUN
For each storage pool, it is advisable to create at least two PE-LUNs to keep high availability,
and set these PE-LUNs to be owned by different storage controllers.
5.3 VASA Storage Provider HA

Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider's clustered mode is still under development, and
will be available in the next version. For higher availability, it is recommended to deploy the
VASA VM in a HA ESXi cluster.
5.4 Cascading Snapshots

For better performance, it is recommended that the levels of cascading snapshots should be
not more than 2, even though VMware supports up to 32 cascading snapshots.

6 Appendix
6.1 Reference Documents

VMware vSphere Datasheet:
http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmw
are-vsphere-datasheet.pdf
Solution Overview - VMware Virtual Volumes Management and Integration Framework for
SAN/NAS:
http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/solutionoverview/prod
ucts/virtualvolumes/vmware_virtual_volumes_solutionsoverview.pdf
VMware Virtual Volume FAQs:
http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/virtualvolum
es/vmware-virtual-volumes-faq.pdf
6.2 Terms and Abbreviations

Table 6-1 Terms and abbreviations
Terms and Abbreviations Full Spelling
ALUA Asymmetrical Logical Unit Access
ESXi Elastic Sky X Integrated

HA High Availability
IOPS Input/Output Operations Per Second
LUN Logical Unit Number
PE Protocol Endpoint
SATP Storage Array Type Plug-In

SC Storage Container

Terms and Abbreviations Full Spelling
SPBM Storage Policy-Based Management
VASA vSphere API for Storage Awareness

VM Virtual Machine
VP Vendor Provider
VVol Virtual Volume

Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2018. All rights re served.

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Trademark Notice
, HUAWEI, and are trademarks or registered trademarks of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Other trademarks, product, service and company n ames mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
General Disclaimer HUAW EI TECHNOLOGI ES

CO., LTD.
The information in this document may contain predictive statements including, without limitation,
statements regarding the future financial and operating results, future product portfolio, new Huawei Industrial Base
technology, etc. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to Bantian Longgang
differ materially from those expressed or implied in the predictive statements. Therefore, such Shenzhen 518129, P.R. China
information is provided for reference purpose only and constitutes neither an offer nor an Tel: +86-755-28780808
acceptance. Huawei may change the information at any time without notice.
www.huawei.com

VMware VSphere Virtual Volume Deployment Guide Based On Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System 03

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

VMware VSphere Virtual Volume Deployment Guide Based On Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System 03

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

VMware Virtual Volume Deployment Guide Based on

Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage Systems

Michael Liu (liujianbo09@huawei.com)

Huawei Enterprise BG, IT Storage Solution Dept

2 VMware vSphere and Virtual Volume ..................................................................................... 4

3 Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System ..................................................................................... 7

4 Deploying VMware VVol on Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage Systems ........................... 10

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 3

2 VMware vSphere and Virtual Volume

2.1 VMware vSphere

2.2 VMware Virtual Volume

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 4

Figure 2-1 VMware Virtual Volume architecture

2.2.2 Key Components

Vendor Provider (VP)

Storage Containers (SC)

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 5

storage container, which is a pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage

Protocol Endpoint (PE)

Virtual Volumes (VVols)

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 6

3 Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System

3.1 Introduction to Huawei OceanStor V3

Figure 3-1 OceanStor V3 series hyper-converged storage systems

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 7

3.2 Product Highlights

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 8

3.2.2 Industry-Leading Storage Hardware

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 9

4 Deploying VMware VVol on Huawei

4.1 Deployment Solution Architecture

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 10

4.2 Deployment Workflow

4.3 Prerequisites Check

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 11

Vendor Software Component Remarks

VMware vSphere Center 6.0 or later

vSphere ESXi 6.0 or later

vSphere Web Client 6.0 or later

Huawei VASA storage provider eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx_.zip

Storage Software  V300R003C20SPC200

Multipath VMware NMP or Huawei OceanStor

4.4 Deployment Guide

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 12

3. The steps for creating PE-LUN are listed as follows:

Step 2 Click in the Function pane.

4.4.2 Obtaining, Deploying, and Configuring Huawei VASA

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 13

Operating system  The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 x86_64

Memory At least 8 GB virtual memory capacity is required for

 Supported Storage Device Types

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 14

Table 4-3 Huawei OceanStor VASA storage provider-supported storage types

Device Model Version

OceanStor 18500/18800 V3 V300R003C20SPC200

 Host Name Requirements

Item Description Example

(Optional) NTP It is in the same network 192.168.100.251,

Huawei Proprietary and Confidential Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 15

Item Description Example

OceanStorDJ # unzip eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx.zip

Step 4 Change directory to eSDK_Storage_VASA_2.0_Vx.x.xx, and execute the following