h8162 Vmware Vnxe Vsphere WP

White Paper
EMC GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

Abstract
The EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware solution enabled by
EMC
VNXe3100 and VMware vSphere 4.1 is a rapid deployment

model for a virtualized data center. This solution greatly reduces
configuration time by up to 66 percent and reduces deployment time
of the virtualized data center by up to 50 percent.

February 2011

EMC INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR VMWARE ENABLED BY EMC VNXe3100
AND VMWARE vSPHERE 4.1
An Architectural Overview

2
EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware
Enabled by EMC VNXe3100 and VMware vSphere 4.1

Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate of its
publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC
Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with
respect to the information in this publication, and specifically
disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this
publication requires an applicable software license.

For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC
Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com.

VMware, ESX, VMware vCenter, and VMware vSphere are registered
trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or
other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property
of their respective owners.

Part Number h8162

3
Contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................ 5
Introduction to the VNX family of unified storage platforms ................................................ 5
Software suites available ............................................................................................... 6
Software packs available ................................................................................................ 6
Business case .................................................................................................................... 6
Solution overview ............................................................................................................... 7
Key results.......................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 8
Purpose .............................................................................................................................. 8
Scope ................................................................................................................................. 8
Audience ............................................................................................................................ 8
Terminology ....................................................................................................................... 9
Technology overview ........................................................................................................ 10
Physical architecture ........................................................................................................ 10
Logical architecture .......................................................................................................... 11
Solution details ............................................................................................................... 12
Virtual infrastructure details ............................................................................................. 12
Physical environment ....................................................................................................... 12
Hardware resources .......................................................................................................... 12
Software resources ........................................................................................................... 13
Key components .............................................................................................................. 14
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 14
EMC VNXe3100 ................................................................................................................ 14
High-performance pool ................................................................................................. 14
Balanced-performance pool ......................................................................................... 14
VMware vSphere 4.1 ........................................................................................................ 14
EMC Avamar deduplication ............................................................................................... 15
EMC Unisphere for VNXe ................................................................................................... 15
Iometer test tool ............................................................................................................... 15
Test methodology ............................................................................................................ 16
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 16
Workloads ........................................................................................................................ 16
I/O-based workloads .................................................................................................... 16
Application-based workloads ....................................................................................... 17
Mixed all-in-one workload ............................................................................................ 17
Performance metrics......................................................................................................... 17
Test tools ......................................................................................................................... 17

4
Storage pool details ......................................................................................................... 18
High-performance storage pool .................................................................................... 18
Balanced-performance storage pool ............................................................................. 19
Test results ..................................................................................................................... 20
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 20
I/O-based workload ......................................................................................................... 20
Application-based workload ............................................................................................. 21
Mixed all-in-one workload ................................................................................................ 22
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 24
Summary .......................................................................................................................... 24
Findings ........................................................................................................................... 24
Next steps ........................................................................................................................ 24

5
Executive summary
Introduction to the VNX family of unified storage platforms
The EMC

VNX
family delivers industry-leading innovation and enterprise capabilities for

file, block, and object storage in a scalable, easy-to-use solution. This next-generation
storage platform combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency,
management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of todays enterprises.
All of this is available in a choice of systems ranging from affordable entry-level solutions to
high-performance, petabyte-capacity configurations servicing the most demanding
application requirements. The VNX family includes the VNXe
series, purpose-built for the IT

manager in entry-level environments, and the VNX series designed to meet the high-
performance, high-scalability requirements of midsize and large enterprises.
The VNX family includes two platform series:
The VNX series, delivering leadership performance, efficiency, and simplicity for
demanding virtual application environments that includes VNX7500
, VNX5700
,
VNX5500
, VNX5300
, and VNX5100

The VNXe (entry) series with breakthrough simplicity for small and medium businesses
that includes VNXe3300
and VNXe3100

Customers can benefit from new VNX features as follows:
Feature VNX series VNXe series
Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized
applications

Capacity optimization features including compression,
deduplication, thin provisioning, and application-centric
copies

High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability
Automated tiering with FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage
Tiering for Virtual Pools) and FAST Cache that can be
optimized for the highest system performance and lowest
storage cost simultaneously

Multiprotocol support for file and block protocols
Object access through Atmos
Virtual Edition (Atmos VE)

Simplified management with EMC Unisphere
for a single
management framework for all NAS, SAN, and replication
needs

Up to three times improvement in performance with the
latest Intel multicore CPUs, optimized for Flash

Note: VNXe does not support block compression.

6
EMC provides a single, unified storage plug-in to view, provision, and manage storage
resources from VMware vSphere
across EMC Symmetrix
, VNX family, CLARiiON
, and
Celerra
storage systems, helping users to simplify and speed up VMware storage

management tasks.
The VNX family includes five new software suites and three new software packs, making it
easier and simpler to attain the maximum overall benefits.
Software suites available
FAST SuiteAutomatically optimizes for the highest system performance and the
lowest storage cost simultaneously (not available for the VNXe series or the VNX5100).
Local Protection SuitePractices safe data protection and repurposing (not applicable
to the VNXe3100 as this functionality is provided at no additional cost as part of the
base software).
Remote Protection SuiteProtects data against localized failures, outages, and
disasters.
Application Protection SuiteAutomates application copies and proves compliance.
Security and Compliance SuiteKeeps data safe from changes, deletions, and
malicious activity.
Software packs available
Total Efficiency PackIncludes all five software suites (not available for the VNX5100
and VNXe series).
Total Protection PackIncludes local, remote, and application protection suites (not
applicable to the VNXe3100).
Total Value PackIncludes all three protection software suites and the Security and
Compliance Suite (the VNX5100 and VNXe3100 exclusively support this package).
Business case
Organizations of all sizes are being asked to deliver better data center performance and
scalability while reducing costs. Virtualization is an essential technology to consider because
it maximizes the use of physical assets, increasing the return on investment in hardware and
software.
Many customers have more than one data center to manage, including smaller, remote
branch locations. Maximizing IT investments while delivering a consistent level of service
across all locations can be very difficult. Disparate locations increase maintenance and
service costs, since infrastructures can vary across locations.
To meet these challenges, organizations need a validated hardware and software solution to
simplify the procurement, assembly, deployment, and management of their data centers. The
EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware is designed to address these requirements by
providing a blueprint for a standardized configuration that can be deployed in the data center
and in remote branches. A standardized, proven infrastructure enables the consistent
delivery of data center services and ensures application and data availability, even across
multiple locations.

7
Solution overview
EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware enabled by EMC VNXe series and VMware vSphere
4.1 uses an integrated VMware
ESX
Server cluster design that includes:

Dual quad-core Xeon servers
EMC VNXe3100 platform
Gigabit enterprise-class switches
EMC Avamar
Data Store deduplication appliance

VMware vSphere 4.1 for simplicity and efficiency
In addition, the solution incorporates operational best practices for:
Using the integrated infrastructure
Managing system performance
Performing backup and recovery
Key results
The EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware solution enabled by EMC VNXe3100 and
VMware vSphere 4.1 is a rapid deployment model for a virtualized data center. This solution
greatly reduces the time spent configuring and deploying the infrastructure:
Reduce configuration time by up to 66 percent
Reduce deployment time by up to 50 percent
With such a dramatic reduction in test and development for the infrastructure, you can
quickly deploy business-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL
Server, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. This capability accelerates the return on your
hardware and software investments.

8
Introduction
Purpose
The purpose of this solution is to present a solution environment that provides a general
purpose, virtualized data center built on a consolidated platform. The architecture is a
standalone virtualized data center in a rack that provides:
A rapid deployment model for virtual infrastructure
Accelerated business application availability
Consistent infrastructure for remote offices, reducing management and maintenance
costs
The EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware is ideally suited to support applications and
business needs, including remote offices. It enables the deployment of a consistent,
virtualized infrastructure across all remote locations. This significantly reduces support and
management costs with a consistent infrastructure while simplifying the support of service-
level agreements.
The EMC Integrated Infrastructure for VMware allows organizations to quickly deploy
business-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, and
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. This greatly reduces the test and development time required,
and helps to quickly realize the return on hardware and software investments.
Scope
Throughout this white paper we assume that you have some familiarity with the concepts and
operations related to virtualization technologies and their use in information infrastructure.
This white paper discusses multiple EMC products as well as those from other vendors. Some
general configuration and operational procedures are outlined. However, for detailed product
installation information, please refer to the user documentation for those products.
Audience
This white paper is intended for EMC employees, partners, and customers including IT
planners, virtualization architects and administrators, and any other IT professionals involved
in evaluating, acquiring, managing, operating, or designing a virtual desktop infrastructure
leveraging EMC technologies.

9
Terminology
Table 1 defines terms used in this document.
Table 1. Terminology
Term Definition
Datastore A VNXe storage resource that provides storage for one or more VMware hosts. The
datastore represents a specific quantity of storage that is made available from a
particular VNXe Storage Server and storage pool. The datastore is accessible
through either the VMFS or NFS storage protocol.
Storage pool A storage pool is an aggregation of storage disks configured with a particular
storage profile. The storage profile defines the type of disks used to provide
storage, as well as the type of RAID configured on the component disks. The
storage pool configuration defines the number of disks and quantity of storage
associated with the pool. When multiple pools are configured, you can choose
which pool to use when you create new storage resources. If only one storage
pool is available, the available pool is automatically assigned to any new storage
resources.
Virtual disk A quantity of virtual storage allocated for a VMware virtual machine (defined by
the virtual machine's local VMDK file). When the host is associated with a
VMware datastore, VM hard drive size represents a quantity consumed from the
datastore capacity.
Virtual machine A virtualized instance of an operating system along with one or more applications
running in an isolated partition within a computer. This enables multiple
operating systems to run on a single physical device while preventing separate
applications from interfering with each other.
Virtual
provisioning
Virtual provisioning enables you to reduce the quantity of storage associated
with a storage resource after you create it. For example, if you decide that the
amount of storage required is less than you anticipated, and virtual provisioning
is enabled, you can reduce the allocated storage amount to a more appropriate
level. When virtual provisioning is disabled, you can add to the quantity of
storage resources for a particular storage resource, but you cannot reduce it.
VMFS A high-performance storage control and transmission protocol optimized for the
management and transmission of VMware virtualized storage resources

10
Technology overview
The validated solution is built in a VMware vSphere 4.1 environment on an EMC VNXe series
storage platform.
The key components of the physical architecture are as follows:
A three-node VMware vSphere 4.1 cluster to host virtual desktops
An EMC VNXe3100 storage platform
Physical architecture
Figure 1 illustrates the physical architecture of the solution.

Figure 1. Physical solution architecture

11
Logical architecture
Figure 2 illustrates the logical architecture of the solution.

Figure 2. Logical solution architecture

12
Solution details
Virtual infrastructure details
The details of the virtual infrastructure are as follows:
VMware vSphere 4.1 cluster built on three dual-quad-core Xeon servers with HA and DRS
enabled
Six Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise Server virtual machines configured to simulate various
workloads
Storage for database logging is provided by a VNXe performance pool with a RAID 10
(3+3) SAS disk configuration
Storage pools with the VNXe balanced performance pool feature and a RAID 5 (4+1) SAS
disk configuration are used for application data
An EMC VNXe storage system stores all virtual machine files (VMDK, VMX, and logs)
Physical environment
The physical environment used to validate the solution included the following elements:
A VNXe platform running software version 2.0 and configured with SAS drives as detailed
in the following Hardware Resources table
Three physical servers running vSphere 4.1 deployed in one VMware cluster
Two Gigabit enterprise network switches for iSCSI and the VM network
Hardware resources
Table 2 describes the hardware resources used in this solution.
Table 2. Hardware resources
Equipment Quantity Configuration
Rack servers 3 2 x quad-core Intel 5640 Xeon CPU
2.792 GHz, 96 GB RAM
2 x 10 GB Emulex CNA adapters
EMC VNXe3100 storage platform 1 30 SAS 6 Gb/s disks
Gigabit enterprise network switch 2 1 GB network switch

13
Software resources
Table 3 describes the software resources used to validate the solution.
Table 3. Software resources
Software Version
EMC Unisphere 2.0.0
VMware vSphere 4.1 GA B260247
VMware vCenter 4.1 GA B259021
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Enterprise Edition
Iometer RC2 (6/22/2008)

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Key components
Introduction
This section briefly describes the components used in this solution, including:
EMC VNXe3100
VMware vSphere 4.1
EMC Avamar deduplication
Iometer load-generation test tool
EMC VNXe3100
High-performance pool
RAID 10 (3+3) provides the enhanced performance for frequent storage read and write
operations (especially for databases and general purpose use) but allows fewer total bytes of
storage. For example, high-performance pool storage may be appropriate for database
resources that need to provide quick read/write access times.
Balanced-performance pool
RAID 5 (4+1) provides storage that maximizes the amount of available storage capacity but
does not provide the same read/write performance as a high-performance pool. For example,
balanced pool storage may be more appropriate for storing large amounts of data that is
primarily static (such as video files, audio files, images, and other types of data) for users and
applications that do not have strict performance requirements.
Note: For data that changes or is accessed frequently, the balanced performance pool can
significantly lower performance, support fewer simultaneous read/operations, and fewer
overall users than high-performance pool storage.
VMware vSphere 4.1
VMware vSphere is the industrys most complete, scalable, and powerful virtualization
platform, delivering the infrastructure and application services that organizations need to
transform their information technology and deliver IT as a service. VMware vSphere provides
agility, control, and efficiency while fully preserving customer choice.

15
EMC Avamar deduplication
EMC Avamar backup and recovery solutions use patented global data deduplication
technology to identify redundant data at the source, minimizing backup data before it is sent
over the network. With Avamar, you can achieve new levels of data reduction and enable fast,
secure backup for your VMware environments, remote offices, and data center LANs. In the
process, you will:
reduce backup time
reduce the growth of secondary storage, and
reduce network utilization.
Avamar deduplicated backups function like full backups and can be recovered in just one
step, without restoring full backups and subsequent incrementals. In addition, Avamar
verifies backup data recoverability and encrypts data for secure electronic backups.
EMC Unisphere for VNXe
EMC Unisphere for VNXe is a web-based management environment for creating storage
resources, configuring and scheduling protection for stored data, and managing and
monitoring other storage operations.
Unisphere provides tools for:
Creating, configuring, and managing storage resources for data for Microsoft Exchange
servers, VMware servers, databases, and network hosts and users who use shared
folders and shares
Setting up access to storage resources for users, applications, and hosts, using Active
Directory, NFS, and iSCSI controls
Monitoring storage operations and system status through detailed graphical reporting
services
Protecting files and data by setting up automated schedules for recording point-in-time
snapshots of stored data
Recovering lost or unavailable data quickly and easily from recorded snapshot images
Iometer test tool
Iometer is an open-source input/output measurement and characterization tool for single and
clustered systems. Iometer provides benchmarking and troubleshooting, and can be
configured to replicate the behavior of many popular client-server applications. One key
measurement provided by the tool is Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) for
computer storage devices.

16
Test methodology
Introduction
This section describes the methodology use to test the solution. Testing consisted of the
following phases:
Install ESX 4.1 on three servers
Provision storage pools on VNXe and create datastores for an ESX 4.1 host cluster using
EMC Unisphere
Deploy six Windows 2008 R2 enterprise server virtual machines
Validate the environment performance using Iometer
We conducted multiple tests to achieve a steady state load, and performance and utilization
metrics were captured during all testing.
Workloads
We used three types of performance workloads:
I/O-based workloads
Application-based workloads
Mixed all-in-one workloads
The advantage of these workloads is that they are neutral to operating systems and
underlying storage platforms. This makes it easier to compare performance between the
VNXe3100 balanced-performance storage pool and the high-performance storage pool.
I/O-based workloads
The workloads here consist of a single type of I/O. We have been using these monolithic
types of I/O workloads since they are relatively simple and quick to configure and run, and
give a good baseline figure to easily identify the impact of changes during the test cycle.
Both sequential and random read/write I/O block size are tested using 64 KB, 256 KB, and
1,024 KB.

17
Application-based workloads
To simulate enterprise customer scenarios, we configured the Iometer profiles to match some
of the most commonly used server workloads. Table 4 lists the application workloads we
used in our testing. They are designed to match standard workloads as recognized by the
storage community and adopted by the industry.
Table 4. Application workloads
Workload category I/O block size Read/write ratio Randomness
Decision Support System DB 1 MB 100% Read / 0% Write Random
Media Streaming 64 KB 98% Read / 2% Write Sequential
SQL Server Log 64 KB 0% Read / 100% Write Sequential
Web Server Log 8 KB 0% Read / 100% Write Sequential
OLTP DB 8 KB 70% Read / 30% Write Random
Exchange Server 4 KB 67% Read / 33% Write Random
Mixed all-in-one workload
This workload has a mixed I/O with different block sizes, ratios of sequential/random, and
ratios of write/read. It is pre-configured by the I/O benchmarking test tool and is used to
push heavy workload on VNXe3100 storage to make sure it performs within design
specification.
Performance metrics
The performance metrics considered is throughput in terms of IOPS. Higher throughput
means better performance in this test.
Test tools
Iometer is a widely used I/O benchmarking tool in the storage community. Here are the major
Iometer settings being used in this report:
Version: 2008-06-22RC2(x64)
Test runtime:
2 minutes for I/O-based and application-based testing
15 minutes for a mixed all-in-one workload
Number of Iometer workers: 1
Number of outstanding I/Os: 16

18
Storage pool details
A storage pool is an aggregation of storage disks configured with a particular storage profile.
The storage profile defines the type of disks used to provide storage, as well as the type of
RAID configured on the component disks. The storage pool configuration defines the number
of disks and quantity of storage associated with the pool. When multiple pools are
configured, you can choose which pool to use when you create new storage resources. If only
one storage pool is available, the available pool is automatically assigned to any new storage
resources.
Before you create VNXe storage resources, you must configure at least one storage pool and
allocate at least one storage disk pack to the pool.
Storage pools generally provide optimized storage for a particular set of applications or
conditions. When you create a VNXe storage resource for hosts or applications to use, you
must choose a storage pool with which to associate the storage resource. The storage that
the storage resource uses is drawn from the specified pool.
In our testing we used two types of storage pools:
High-performance storage pools
Balanced-performance storage pools
High-performance storage pool
The high-performance storage pool provides the enhanced performance for frequent storage
read and write operations (especially for databases and general purpose use) but allows
fewer total bytes of storage. For example, performance pool storage may be appropriate for
database resources that need to provide quick read/write access times (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. High-performance storage pool

19
Balanced-performance storage pool
The balanced-performance storage pool provides storage that maximizes the amount of
available storage capacity, but does not provide the same read/write performance as the
performance pool. For example, capacity pool storage may be more appropriate for storing
large amounts of data that is primarily static (such as video files, audio files, images, and
other types of data) for users and applications that do not have strict performance
requirements (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Balanced-performance storage pool

20
Test results
Introduction
This section shows the results of our solution testing, including:
I/O-based workload test results
Application-based workload test results
All-in-one mixed workload test results
I/O-based workload
Windows 2008 R2 sequential test results are listed in Figure 5.
For the sequential I/O at different block sizes, there is not a significant performance
difference between RAID 5 (4+1) from the balanced storage pool and RAID 10 (3+3) from the
high-performance storage pool on VNXe3100.

Figure 5. Sequential I/O throughput

Window 2008 R2 random I/O test results are listed in Figure 6. As indicated, RAID 10 (3+3)
disk from the high-performance storage pool outperforms RAID 5 (4+1) disk from the
balanced storage pool in both random read and write scenarios.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
64K
Sequential
Read
256K
Sequentail
Read
1MB
Sequential
Read
64K
Sequential
Write
256K
Sequentail
Write
1MB
Sequential
Write
I
O
P
S
Windows 2008R2 Sequential I/Os Throughput
Raid5 (4+1)
Raid10(3+3)

21

Figure 6. Random I/O throughput

Application-based workload
Windows 2008 R2 real application workload throughputs are listed in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Real application workload throughput
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
64KB
Random
Read
256KB
Random
Read
1MB
Random
Read
64KB
Random
Write
256KB
Random
Write
1MB
Random
Write
I
O
P
S
Windows 2008R2 Random I/Os Throughput
Raid5(4+1)
Raid10(3+3)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
SQL Server
Log 64K
Exchange
Server 4K
Web Server
Log 8K
Media
Streaming 64K
OLTP-DB 8K DSS-DB 1M
I
O
P
S
Windows 2008R2 Real Application Workload
Throughput

22
As indicated, the VNXe3100 storage platform is able to handle an I/O workload from major
mission-critical applications to web/file applications. The performance is comparable with
other storage system platforms.
Mixed all-in-one workload
Figure 8 shows the ESX host CPU utilization during the Iometer all-in-one workload stress test.

Figure 8. Mixed all-in-one workload host utilization

The VNXe3100 disk activities during the test are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Mixed all-in-one disk activity

23
The host I/O activities are shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Host I/O activities

Figure 11 shows that on VNXe3100 storage, the CPU utilization for both storage processors
(SPs) is less than 80 percent, which is within the design specification.

Figure 11. Storage processor CPU utilization

24
Conclusion
Summary
Building an infrastructure environment that integrates the EMC VNXe storage platform with
VMware vSphere 4.1 enables you to:
Centralize management of the entire infrastructure environment
Deploy virtual desktops in a fast and efficient way
Use more of your available capacity for storage and servers
Integrate application best practices
Automate and simplify storage provisioning
Findings
Testing of a virtual desktop test environment that integrates EMC VNXe storage provisioning
and VMware vSphere 4.1 yielded the following conclusions:
Configuration time was reduced by up to 66 percent.
Deployment time was reduced by up to 50 percent.
System performance was in line with the expected performance of high-end storage
platforms.
Storage was easily provisioned from the VNXe to the ESX hosts.
VNXe storage processor CPU utilization remained constant and within specifications
during the boot storm and VSI tests.
Next steps
To learn more about this and other solutions, contact an EMC representative or visit
www.EMC.com.

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White Paper

EMC GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

VNXe3100 and VMware vSphere 4.1 is a rapid deployment

family delivers industry-leading innovation and enterprise capabilities for

series, purpose-built for the IT

Virtual Edition (Atmos VE)

across EMC Symmetrix

, VNX family, CLARiiON

storage systems, helping users to simplify and speed up VMware storage

Server cluster design that includes:

Data Store deduplication appliance

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