EMC VMAX

Guide
Introduction
The Symmetrix VMAX system with the Enginuity operating environment is a new enterpriseclass storage array that is built on the strategy of simple, intelligent, modular storage. The array
incorporates a new scalable fabric interconnect design that allows the storage array to provide
improved performance and scalability for demanding enterprise storage environments while
maintaining support for EMCs broad portfolio of platform software offerings. The storage array
seamlessly grows from an entry-level configuration with a single, highly available VMAX Engine
and one storage bay into the worlds largest storage system with eight engines and 10 storage
bays.

In this lab, we will utilize Symmetrix Management Console (SMC), the EMC Virtual Storage
Integrator (VSI), and SymmWin; an internal-only EMC tool used to manage the VMAX.

The Symmetric platform uses a Service Processor to provide local and remote, engineering level
access to a Symmetrix system. EMC support and field engineering personnel use the Service
Processor to perform maintenance and system tasks on the Symmetrix platform. In this
section, we will use a virtual Service Processor to prepare the Symmetrix system. In routine
management, end users are not required to use this interface, but due to the limitations
inherent in an automatically provisioned virtual lab that emulates physical hardware, we
expose a small amount of internal processes.
1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Enter https://10.10.10.4:9519 in address bar. You may receive an SSL warning if you
do, its safe to bypass the warning and continue.
3. Enter username xV50AThnEWkg and password 1nternal, then click Login

Once you have logged on, navigate to the following menu located on the left hand side of the
webpage.

Click on the Remote Control item as show in the illustration above.

After a few moments, you will see the screen illustrated below. Click on the Login
button to initiate the Windows logon process.

Once you are logged in, SymmWin will launch automatically. SymmWin is the EMC internal tool
that runs on the Service Processor (SP) of the VMAX. The Service Processor leverages a 1U
server located in the system bay. The SP is only needed to make changes to a VMAX. If it fails
the VMAX will continue to service IO, but you cannot make any changes to the system while the
SP is down.
From here we are going to turn on the Front and Back-end Directors using internal, low level
commands called Inlines so we can use the VMAX. To launch Inlines go to Tools -> Inlines as
illustrated below.

Once Inlines is loaded you will see the following screen at the top center of the Inlines window.

Verify that the yellow lines that you see below match your screen, if they do not, please STOP
here and ask for assistance. The yellow lines mean that the directors are in a ready state but
not yet servicing IO.
Once you have verified your screen matches the above proceed to the bottom of the Inlines
dialog where we will enter a Inline command to turn the directors on.

Enter command $F0,CE,0 then press Enter.

This command tells the directors to come online. Please note, customers do not use this
system, interface, or Inline commands during normal use. Because of the limits of a virtualized
lab, we are required to have you enter these commands.

After a few moments you will see the yellow lines turn to green lines. If you do not, please
STOP and ask for assistance.

We are now finished with using the SP. The Symmetrix system has fully booted and is online;
ready to service IO. You can exit Internet Explorer and launch the VMware vSphere Client icon
located on the desktop.

Select the Use Windows session credentials checkbox, and click the Login button on
the vSphere
Once logged in, click the Home button in the top Navigation bar, then select Hosts &
Clusters. Select the host 10.10.10.7 by clicking on it.
Click the Configuration tab
Click the Storage Adapters menu
Right click on the iSCSI adapter, select Properties.

Select the Dynamic Discovery tab of the resulting dialog.

Click Add
Add the following IP address: 192.168.53.203

Click OK
Click Close

After making the changes listed above you will be prompted to do a Rescan, click the Yes
button to do a SCSI bus rescan.

Youve now successfully added the Symmetrix VMAX as an iSCSI target for the VMware ESX
host.

Now we will use SMC, the Symmetrix Management Console to provision a LUN to our ESX host.

Open Internet Explorer and enter the following address in the address bar (if you
receive an SSL warning, it is safe to accept and bypass the warning):
https://10.10.10.4:8443

At the login dialog box use the following credentials to login

o Username : smc
o Password: smc
(all lowercase)

Click the Login button to then login to SMC

On the top menu bar click Properties .

Expand the tree to look like the above screen.
Right Click on Symmetrix Masking and find the following the menu Device Masking
and Mapping -> Masking View Maintenance -> Create Masking View.

What we are doing here is creating a Masking View which is comprised of Storage Groups, Port
Groups, and Initiator Groups. We use this construct to present LUNs to a host in an efficient,
easy way.

After you select Create Masking View you will see the above dialog box, in the Masking View
Name enter vLabs_MV
Then we will proceed to create the 3 groups that will make up our view. Click the New button
next to the Storage Group Name text entry box. This will present the following dialog.

Following the steps noted in the illustration

1. Enter the Storage Group Name vLabs_SG

2. From the pull-down menu select Symmetrix
3. Scroll thru the list of devices in the Available Devices section, and locate the device
0114.
4. Add device 0114 to the Group Members by highlighting the device and clicking the Add
button.
5. Verify that you selected the correct device.
6. Click Ok to finish creating the Storage Group
You will be returned to the previous dialog. Click the New button next to the Port
Group Name text entry box. You will be presented with the following dialog box.

1..In the Port Group Name text entry box type in vLabs_PG
2. Select the port SE-7E:0 from the Available Ports section
3. Click the Add button to add them to the Group Members side.
4. Click the OK button to finish the Port Group
You will be returned to the previous dialog. Click the New button next to the Initiator
Group Name text entry box. You will be presented with the following dialog box.

Follow the following steps to create the Initiator Group

1. In the Initiator Group Name dialog box enter vLabs_IG
2. From the Available Initiators pane, click on the initiator iqn.199801.com.vmware:esx5-01-71a1f90f
3. Click the Add button to move the selected initiator to the Selected Initiators pane.
4. Click the OK button to finish the Initiator Group
Now you will see the following dialog.

Click the OK button to finish creating the Masking View

Now that we have presented a LUN to the ESX host, we need to go back to the vSphere Client
and perform a rescan on the SCSI Bus so we can use our newly presented LUN.

In the vSphere Client go back to the Configuration tab, and then Storage Adapter select the
iSCSI Software Adapter. Right click on iSCSI Software Adapter and select Rescan.
Once the Rescan completes you should see the EMC iSCSI Disk in the details pane.

Now we are ready to create a VMFS Datastore on our newly presented VMAX LUN.
In the vSphere client go to Storage then click on Add Storage. See the below screenshot

When the Add Storage dialog appears, follow the screens as shown below.

Select Disk/LUN since we have a iSCSI LUN that we are going to use. Click Next
On the next screen select EMC iSCSI Disk as shown below and click Next

On the next screen we will select the version of VMFS that we want to use for this Datastore. In
this case we will be using the latest VMFS introduced with vSphere 5. Choose the VMFS-5 radio
button and click Next.

Now we will name our VMFS Datastore, in this case lets use VMAX vLabs

We are now presented with a summary screen, review the summary and then click Finish
Since we are using a virtual version of VMAX this process will take a few minutes to write the
VMFS volume information to the device. In the meantime, we are going to setup the new
VMware integration that was introduced with SMC 7.3
Switch back to Internet Explorer and your SMC window, and select the Tasks option from the
top menu bar, then select Manage Virtual Server.

After selected the Manager Virtual Server option you will be presented with this dialog.

Fill out the dialog with the following information

Server /IP Address: 10.10.10.7

User Name: root
Password: P@ssword1!
Confirm Password: P@ssword1!
Server Type: VMware
Click OK

Now lets see the information from our ESX host. Click the Manage Virtual Server Storage
option from the Tasks panel.

Click the Load All Servers button to load the ESX host we just added.

Select the server by clicking its line to see further details in the tab below. You may click Close
to dismiss the window
From here lets setup the the EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) so we can view details of our
new VMAX Datastore from within the vCenter Client.

In the vSphere client Navigation Bar click on Home.

Now click on the EMC VSI icon.

Now we are in the configuration pane of the VSI. Click on Solutions Enabler as shown below.

On the following screen we have to tell the VSI where its going to get its information. In the
case of VMAX, we leverage Solutions Enabler. For the purposes of this lab we have already
installed the Solutions Enabler server on a virtual machine. Solutions Enabler leverages a
Symmetrix gatekeeper d, an in-band communication device, to communicate management
commands to the Symmetrix.
Complete the dialog box with the following details

Remote Server Name : 10.10.10.4

Port : 2707
Click on Test Connection to verify the client and server can communicate.

Once the test has completed successfully, we can go back to our ESX host:
Click Home in the Navigation Bar
Click Hosts & Clusters
Click our single ESX host (10.10.10.7)
Click the VSI tab near the far right of the window.
Now that we have setup the VSI lets go back to our ESX host, and the EMC VSI tab.
Select the Datastore we created earlier: VMAX vLabs
With the VSI we now get very detailed information about the LUN and its properties. If we look
at the details pane, we can identify the Symmetrix device ID under the Device ID column. The
device ID is 0114, which is the same device you selected when you created the storage group
and masking view.

This concludes the EMC VMAX vLab. What we discovered is that using the Automated
Provisioning Groups introduced in the VMAX we can easily provision storage to a host, or
cluster of hosts very easily. We then used the EMC VSI to identify the LUN we presented and
show very granular details of the details that typically a storage admin would have to provide.
If you are interested in further information about provisioning storage with VMAX and
Automated Provisioning Groups, or the EMC VSI plugin along with Symmetrix Management
Console, please speak with any EMC representative.