This module covers Storage System Configuration and Management, including Configuring SP Networking and SP Memory and Cache

Configuration.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

This lesson covers the configuration of VNX Management ports, VNX FC ports, VNX iSCSI ports, and VNX FCoE ports.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

Unisphere provides graphical depictions of all VNX components as well as the other features. Selecting a section button (System in the example) displays a big button page that contains buttons to select subsections. These items are exactly the same as those in the top level of the drop-down menu when hovering over the section button. The big button pages also include a task list. This task list is the same as the task list shown on content pages. The type of screen that will be displayed depends on if the system is a Block only system, a File only system, or a Unified system. For example the slide shows a VNX Unified view. Hardware views relate logical objects to physical components. System configuration and state information is tracked in real time although the LEDs are not real time.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

Selecting the Storage Hardware button will bring users to the Hardware page. Components will be displayed and can be expanded from the tree structure to show subcomponents. Right-clicking on an SP launches the SP Properties window from this window select the Network tab. This tab allows users to view and modify the physical network port properties and provides access to the Virtual Port Properties window. Double -click on the Virtual Port to configure the IP address for the port. When you initially install a new storage system, you must run the Unisphere Initialization Utility which will prompt you to configure the IP addresses for the SPs and set up accounts to log in to the SPs. You use these IP addresses when you connect and log into Unisphere. Verify that this Storage Processor and its peer do not have identical HostNames. If they do, modify one of them. Failure to do so may have an adverse effect on some storage management software operations. If configuring the Management Port Settings from its default setting of Auto negotiating for port speeds and duplex. EMC strongly recommends that you contact your service provider before doing so. Note: VNX OE for Block does not support IPv6 communication with the data ports or communication between storage systems in a domain.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

Network settings can also be configured from the Settings menu option and selecting Edit Networks Settings SPx This will launch the same SP Properties window and allow users to access the Virtual Port Properties window. There are two network troubleshooting commands that can be executed from the window, Ping and Traceroute.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

Configuring iSCSi ports can be done by navigating through Settings > Network > Settings for Block. This will launch the Port Properties page. All Port information can be viewed from this page, locate and click on the iSCSI port under Types. The Properties tab will be highlighted and the Port Properties page will appear. Port information can also be viewed from the Hardware view by locating and right -clicking on the respective port under the I/O modules tree.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

To configure an iSCSI port, select the port you want to configure from the Settings > Network menu, ( Slot 2 A-0 ) and click Properties. This launches the iSCSI Port Properties page. From the iSCSI Port Properties window click Add and supply the Virtual Port parameters. Use caution when configuring the VLAN Configuration option. Only network administrators should assign VLAN IDs. If you enter an incorrect value, you may lose contact with the storage system. When VLAN Tagging is enabled, users can assign a VLAN ID to the selected virtual port.

VLAN ID Lets you assign the VLAN ID to the virtual port (must be between 1 and 4094). VLAN ID must be unique for that port.
The Require initiator authentication box enables iSCSI initiator authentication, users must enable initiator authentication in order for CHAP security to work.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

VNX for Block storage systems support FC, iSCSI and FCoE protocols. The same process as other protocols is used to locate and configure FCoE as other protocols. Click Settings > Network > Settings for Block menu option this page, locate and click on the FCoE port under Types. The Properties tab will be highlighted and the Port Properties page will appear. Port information can also be viewed from the Hardware view by locating and right -clicking on the respective port under the I/O modules tree.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

From the FCoE Port Properties window click Add and supply the Virtual Port parameters. Under the Physical Port Properties you have the following choices: ENode MAC Address is a unique MAC address assigned by the manufacturer to the FCoE physical port. Selected Speed (Mbps) shows you the system selected speed for the FCoE port. MTU (bytes) is the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) parameter, also referred to as jumbo frames, specifies the maximum number of bytes of data that can be transmitted within a single packet. The MTU values range from 1500 Bytes to 9000 Bytes. Under the Virtual Port Properties you have the following choices: Virtual_N_Port: Port world wide name(WWN). VLAN ID: The VLAN ID assigned to the virtual port. VLAN ID must be unique for that port. MAC Address: MAC address assigned to the VN_port by the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP). By selecting the Properties button you will open the Virtual Port Properties dialog for the selected virtual port as shown here in the graphic. This lets you view and modify the properties for a selected FCoE virtual data port. Under the Port Identifiers section you have the following information: The WWN Port world wide name(WWN) of the port. The VN_Port MAC Address MAC address assigned to the VN_port by the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP). Under the Initiators section you have the following information: The Registered Initiators are the number of host initiators that are registered with this SP port. The Logged In Initiators are the number of host initiators that are logged in to this SP port. The Logged Out Initiators are the number of host initiators that are not logged in to this SP port Under the VLAN Configuration you have the ability to manually enter the VLAN ID. The storage system still validates the VLAN ID against the active VLANs. The storage system will generate an alert if the ID entered does not match an active ID. An incorrect VLAN ID will prevent the host from logging into the storage system. The Enable User Specified VLAN ID, when unchecked, the VLAN ID is automatically assigned during the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) VLAN discovery. When this is enabled, it lets you assign a VLAN ID to the selected virtual port. An incorrect VLAN ID will prevent the host from logging into the storage system. The VLAN ID for the virtual port (must be between 1 and 4094). The VLAN ID must be unique for that port.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

The same best practices that apply to FC also apply to NICs. NICs are typically used to connect a host to the Ethernet network. When possible, use a NIC that is rated for or exceeds the bandwidth of the network. As with FC HBAs, ensure legacy devices are not connected to 1Gb/s or higher network as Ethernet networks will typically auto-negotiate down to the lowest common device speed. Use redundant NICs for availability. Use the most up to date firmware and drivers from the manufacturer. When supported, use jumbo frames to increase the bandwidth since jumbo frames can contain more iSCSI commands and larger iSCSI payload than normal frames. Ensure all switches and routers in the paths to the storage support jumbo frames. Both bandwidth and throughput rates are subject to network conditions and latency. Latency can contribute substantially to iSCSI system performance. As the distance from the host to storage increases a latency of about 1ms per 200 kilometers (125miles) is introduced.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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The same best practices that apply to FC also apply in a practical manner to FCoE. CNAs from the same CNA vendor and Ethernet link speed are required for each path to a storage system FCoE data port. MirrorView/A, MirrorView/S, and SAN Copy are not supported for FCoE configurations. In the case of FCoE, a single FCoE frame will not fit into a standard Ethernet frame. Typically, with other protocols, such as IP, this would result in the IP packet being fragmented into multiple smaller packets and then encapsulated in the Ethernet frame. However, the FCoE protocol does not allow frames to be fragmented, so jumbo frames are required. In addition, typically larger frames allow the consolidation of multiple layer-3 packets into a single Ethernet frame. FCoE does not conform to this behavior. Setting a larger Ethernet frame size will not result in multiple FC frames being aggregated together. Instead, the Ethernet frame will simply have padding inserted. A single server can connect to the same VNX through both its FC data ports and its FCoE data ports. As a general rule, a single server cannot connect to a VNX storage system through both its Fibre Channel data ports or FCoE data ports and its iSCSI data ports. The exception to this rule is a server with virtual machines or virtual systems that run instances of the Unisphere Host Agent that are different from the instance running on the kernel system. In this situation, the initiators registered with the storage system by the Host Agent for the kernel system and for the virtual machines or systems appear to be from different servers and can therefore can be connected to different storage groups. A single server can connect via Fibre Channel HBAs to one VNX system through its Fibre Channel data ports or via FCoE CNAs to one VNX system through its FCoE data ports and via NICs or iSCSI HBAs to another VNX system through its iSCSI data ports.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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This lesson covered setup of Storage Processor for management services, and configuration of block data ports for FC, iSCSI, and FCoE.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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This lesson covers VNX Multicore Cache benefits and settings.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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Multicore Cache, also known as SP Cache, is an MCx software component that optimizes host write and read performance by optimizing a VNX storage processors DRAM. Multicore Cache was designed to effectively scale across multiple CPU cores. Multicore Cache space is shared for writes and reads. A dirty (used) cache page is copied to disk, and the data remains in memory. As you can see in the figure, cache is shared between writes (1) and reads (2), then copied to disk (3). This way the page can be re-hit again by the host (4 and 5), improving performance. Data is ultimately expelled from cache (7), freeing the page for other workloads.

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Storage System Configuration and Management

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Multicore Cache Dynamic Watermarks constantly evaluates the effectiveness of cache for specific workloads. Buffering write I/Os in cache is effective for short bursts, but that write buffering is also counterproductive for workloads that tend to occupy the entire cache space. The rate of flushing, and the rate of acceptance of host I/O into cache, is managed dynamically to optimize system performance. Multicore Cache Write Throttling dynamically auto-adjusts incoming and outgoing I/O per RAID group. Multicore Cache provides the destination RAID group with time needed to process an increased flushing load by delaying host I/O acknowledgements, thus slowing the rate of incoming writes. Throttling continues until the rate of incoming data is equated with the abilities of the underlying RAID group and the pre-cleaning age value changed to match the workload. When the RAID groups rate of page flushing levels with the rate of incoming I/O, and the associated dirty pages stay in cache for equal or less time than the pre-cleaning age value regulates, write throttling stops.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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Write through mode simply disables cache, so that writes are written through cache directly to disk. Theres no write acknowledgement to the host until the write has been completed to the spindle. Since disabling Write Cache causes I/O to be written directly to disk, there will be a significantly negative impact on performance. It is recommended that the default setting of Enabled remain in place. If changing this setting is being considered, it is strongly recommended that this default setting only be changed at the direction of EMC Engineering personnel.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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This lesson covered the benefits of Multicore Cache, and the location of the Write Cache setting is found in Unisphere.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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This module covered configuration of SP management and block data ports, as well as the benefits of Multicore Cache.

Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Storage System Configuration and Management

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