Colleague Preston de Guise has written a great post over at The NetWorker Blog about the release of the Apple IPAD.
You wont find pictures, specifications or a price in this post, but instead covers why he believes this little bad boy will deliver (in his words) an “über-portable experience“
You can check it out here
For those of you who follow my blog you’ll know I am very Pro EMC, the majority of my posts are VMware/EMC related.
Something thats been bugging me for sometime now is NetWorkers lack of support for vSphere vStorage API’s. Searching around Ive read other competitors boasting support for the vStorage API’s from ” Day One” of vSphere being released.
Note that I did not say “EMC’s” lack of support, because Avamar of course supports the vStorage API’s for backing up virtual machines.
When it comes to storage and VMware integration, there is no doubt im my mind EMC are leading the field, take a look at some of the awesome VMware/EMC webcasts that are coming up, listed here on Chads site.
So what about NetWorker ?…..Who decided NetWorker didnt need vStorage support yet ?…..Was this an oversight by Product Development ?… Is this a deliberate decision to better position Avamar ?
NetWorker is an enterprise backup product which scales far beyond its competitors, yet some of these competitors have support for vStorage API’s.
I find this very frustrating !!
Below I’ve embedded a tv commercial on YouTube which is made here in NZ with the catch line “Sharpen Up” which I think is quite fitting.
Given the amount of people talking in the forums about how Site Recovery Manager 1.x did not support automated failback, I was a little surprised to find this functionality also missing from 4.0.
Well the good news is if you have an EMC Celerra, the new failback plug-in now supports SRM 4.0 and allows a user to automatically failback data to the primary site, the plugin completes both storage and VMware failback tasks.
Whats new ?
Well other than supporting vCenter 4.0, the new plugin also supports the failback of NFS datastores (previous version supported iSCSI only)
What does the plug-in do ?
The Plug-in is a supplemental software package for the VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). This plug-in allows users to automatically failback virtual machines and their associated datastores to the primary site after implementing and executing disaster recovery through SRM for Celerra storage systems running Celerra Replicator™ V2 and Celerra SnapSure™.
The plug-in does the following:
For anyone interested, here are the release notes and also the plug-in download.
One of the more popular posts I’ve done over the last few months has been how to configure a standard vSwitch to allow multiple paths to the storage using the software iSCSI initiator in vSphere 4.0
The only problem here was this could only be done with a standard vSwitch and trying to configure on a virtual distributed switch resulted in the error “Add nic failed in IMA” (VMware also confirmed this was a bug)
When vSphere 4 update 1 was released I went straight to the release notes to see if this problem had been resolved, but found no mention of it. After a quick install I found the error no longer occurred, but unfortunately did not have my Celerra simulator setup to test conclusively.
Good news, last night I set this up using the exact configuration used previously and found this problem has been resolved in update 1.
Here are some screenshots showing everything working as expected using the dVswitch.
Virtual Distributed Switch
In this screenshot you can see I have multiple port groups configured, each with its own VMKernel port.
Device View
Here the device view shows the 2GB lun presented from the Celerra. You can also see 2 paths are now being reported.
Path View
This screenshot was taken after I changed the path selection policy to “Round Robin” which is no longer considered experimental (as it was with ESX 3.x) I now have 2 avtive paths.
I got a few emails over the last month asking if I had tested this yet so I hope this helps and if your looking for the new vSphere iSCSI configuration guide, you can find this here.
Also here is a great white paper on migration and configuration of virtual distributed switches.
I recently posted about some of the changes to EMC’s Celerra unified storage system, if you missed part 1 you can view this here and for everyone else as promised here is part 2.
As previously noted in post 1, all information was found on PowerLink, if your an EMC customer and you havent already done so, I highly recommend getting an account.
Celerra Manager IE8 Support
Celerra Manager has been a bit behind the times in regards to support for Internet Explorer, its great to finally see IE8 supported.
Fast Mount
I actually plan to do a post shortly on Celerra DataMover (now called X blade) failover and cover some of the considerations when your setting up your Celerra in production, so keep an eye out for this in the near future.
What is Fast Mount ?
The improvements in DART V5.6.47 will reduce the file system mount time significantly for a typical configuration. The file system mount function is a major part of the reboot and failover processing time. Configurations with larger numbers of file systems will benefit even more.
Manual Deduplication management API and CIFS compression
What manual options are now available for using Celerra deduplication?
With DART V5.6.47, an API has been introduced to enable external management applications to call the deduplication process for specific files. Currently CIFS file level compression functionality in Windows Explorer is the only interface used for this manual function.
How is the CIFS compression functionality enabled?
In Windows Explorer, if a user right clicks a file, specifies properties and selects “Advanced”, there is an option to “compress contents to save disk space”. If the client file is on a share that is hosted by Celerra running 5.6.47 and with to With DART V5.6.47, an API has been introduced to enable external management applications to call the deduplication.
Replication Enhancement “Out of Family” support
Reading over the information I found on PowerLink, it suggests earlier versions of DART supported replication (using Celerra Replicator) between the same major DART releases e.g. 5.5, 5.6, but in reality when you contact the Celerra support team I can say from experience they want to see identical versions of DART running on both Celerra’s.
Now with “Out of family support” EMC will support phased upgrades of systems on different major releases e.g. 5.5, 5.6. This is to allow for upgrades in environments with multiple systems involved in replication and it is not feasible to upgrade all platforms at the same time.
It’s important to note this functionality is supported from 5.6.47 and above only.
Windows 2008 R2 iSCSI support
As you would expect this did in fact work as expected but was previously unsupported, I’m glad to see Windows 2008 R2 is now fully supported.
SMB2 Support
The SMB2 protocol is now fully supported with 5.6.47 which is great news for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 users which utilises the new protocol, it’s also worth noting that you can run SMB2 exclusively or run both SMB1 and SMB2 together.
As noted above with the iSCSI support, SMB2 with windows 7 and Windows 2008 works as expected in earlier DART versions but its great to see EMC getting these things “supported” as nothings worse than sitting in front of a customer and having to say it works but its not supported.
It’s that time again, you can vote here for your favorite VMware bloggers. It will be very interesting to see who takes the top spots this time and how much the list changes, but regardless of who rates #1 everyone on that list does a fantastic job and if you have a spare moment take the time to make your vote count.
When I sat down to write this post it was a chance for me to look back over the last year and to be honest when I started blogging it was actually more of a place for me to store useful bits and pieces of information for self-reference more than anything, but somewhere along the way people started tuning in.
I’ve been very surprised by the number of hits, the majority of which come via people using search engines. Every now and then I keep an eye on hits per day/month but for a long time I’ve not looked to see which posts are the top rating.
And after a quick check, here are my top 5 posts.
vSphere 4 with Software iSCSI and 2 Paths
Enabling Active Directory Authentication with ESX 3.5
Securing your ESX Service Console
Networker 7.5.1 new VCB recovery feature
If you’ve found any of my posts useful and you would like to throw a vote my way you can scroll right to the bottom where you can enter a blog name into the blank field (Im not currently listed)
For those of you who are not familiar with Celerra, this is EMC’s multi protocol unified storage platform which does it all, iSCSI, NFS, CIFS, as well as FC SAN all bundled with Celerra Replicator for built-in replication of iSCSI LUNS, File Systems and Virtual Data Movers. (Brilliant for VMware, Site Recovery Manager and VMware View)
Just recently Chad from virtualgeek left a message on one of my posts saying a new Celerra Simulator had been released, so off I went to take a look and sure enough its based on the newly released 5.6.47 version of DART. After doing a bit of searching around on PowerLink I found an excellent document which I’ve used for the information below to cover not all but the most beneficial in my opinion of the changes in this release…. oh and Ill br breaking it up into two posts so its doesn’t blow out into a monster.
HARDWARE
With DART version 5.6.47 comes new support for hardware, here are some of the highlights.
CELERRA DEDUPLICATION
Celerra Deduplication was introduced in DART 5.6.45, it was a welcome addition to an already impressive feature set, but it did however have a few limitations and annoyances which needed to be overcome. Ive covered some of these below.
1. NDMP backup of a Deduplicated file system resulted in the files being uncompressed (and rehydrated) in memory before being saved to tape meaning the dedup benefits did not extend to the backup system/media.
This behaviour has changed in DART 5.6.47 and the backup occurs against the compressed objects meaning dedup now does infact extend to the backup system/media
2. As noted below the maximum file size supported in previous DART versions was 200MB.
As of DART 5.6.47 this limitation has now been increased to 8TB which I suspect now covers almost any file your likely to place on the Celerra file system.
3. In previous versions of DART, the parameters shown below could only be changed at the data mover level meaning the parameters applied to all dedup enabled file systems. Any changes made also needed to be done using the command line from the control station.
As of DART 5.6.47 you can now apply different parameters to different file systems and can all be done using the Celerra Manager web interface. Im also really glad to see these default values are now much more aggressive.
Here is a list of the default parameters in previous DART versions and the new defaults which automatically apply when an upgrade to 5.6.47 occurs.
REPLICATION TARGET SUPPORT FROM IOMEGA IX4-200D
Actually not specific to 5.6.47 but with DART 5.5 and above comes support for a Celerra to be configured as a target for IOMEGA IX4-200D devices, if you’re wondering how this might be of benefit, consider a company with remote branches with IOMEGA IX4-200D devices located at each site all being able to replicate back to the primary Celerra storage array.
NATIVE iSCSI BLOCK SUPPORT
What is block support ?– Native block support is the ability to configure iSCSI connections in the back-end (CLARiiON array) of a Celerra Unified storage platform for connectivity to hosts using a native CLARiiON block experience.
Previously, iSCSI support on the Celerra Unified Storage platform was available only using Celerra file emulation of iSCSI LUNs. This file-based iSCSI implementation continues to be an option for customers today. Native iSCSI supports all of CLARiiON functionality, including local and remote replication, through Navisphere . It also supports PowerPath, and RecoverPoint.
What are the key differences between file based iSCSI and Native iSCSI for VMware implementations ? –
Native iSCSI
File-based iSCSI
What technical use cases does native iSCSI apply to ?
- High performance (no iSCSI emulation on a file)
- Fast failover (block style failover vs. NAS style failover)
- Consistency groups (required for managing protection scenarios for hosts with multiple LUNs that require to be kept in synchronization)
- Quality of service support (Navi Quality of Service Manager – NQM)
- Large LUN sizes (>2TB)
The addition of Native iSCSI support is an excellent move from EMC but one thing I want to emphasize is dont think for one minute that file based iSCSI off the data mover is not enterprise ready, Ive implemented small, medium and large VMware implementations using file based iSCSI and performance has never been an issue and yes this includes applications such as Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and SAP.
At the end of the day when you implement any iSCSI solution you need to go back to the basics and look at networking and storage configuration before you worry about the emulation overhead with file based iSCSI.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 coming up.
I’ve had a few draft posts under construction for the last couple of weeks but just not found time to finish them off as I’ve been in transit across the globe from New Zealand to Taiwan to be with my wife and kids who are back here in Taiwan for Chinese New Year.
For those interested, click on the thumbnail for a rough idea of the route from NZ to Taiwan.
For those of you who follow my blog “Happy New Year” and keep an eye out for some up and coming VMware View 4 and Celerra posts. Also for those of you who follow my site for NetWorker content you’ll know that things have been a little dry in that area for a while as I tend to be focusing in other areas, but id like to point out Preston’s new ”Micro Manual” content at www.nsrd.info … great job Preston, these really are brilliant !
As mentioned above I’m now in Taiwan and this year was lucky enough to spend new years eve here and witness the awesome fireworks display incorporating the Taiwan 101 building, here is a YouTube video I found showing the 2010 display.
For some time now there have been a number of changes I’ve wanted to see in NetWorker to better support customers with VMware.
Over at nsrd.wordpress.com, Preston de Guise has done a wish list for NetWorker features he hopes to see in 2010 and while we both blog about NetWorker Prestons blog is far superior in terms of NetWorker content, my NetWorker posts these days tend to be mainly focused around virtualization support, so having said that im going to take his idea and do my own version of a wish list.
Dear EMC.
Could you please add to your NetWorker New Years Resolution the following items?
1. To release as soon as possible a version of NetWorker: Which utilizes the new vSphere API’s which replace the VCB framework to allow incremental backups of the FULLVM export using CBT (Change Block Tracking)
2. To improve the way which NetWorker allows clients to be created: When the “Virtual Client” box is checked, by default NetWorker only allows a client to be configured if it can resolve the name of the system via a DNS (even an entry in the hosts file will do the trick). This makes life difficult when you want to perform VCB backups of virtual machines which are not configured in DNS and requires an entry in the hosts file to be able to create the client.
3. To improve the way NetWorker maps client name and virtual machine name: To be fair NetWorker has been around for a LONG time and until recent years has always operated using the Server/Client model which relies heavily on DNS in order to be able to connect and perform backups via the backup agent. Now NetWorker assumes that all clients configured are done so using either short name or the fully qualified domain name, which causes the following problems in a VMware environment.
A. If you configure the virtualization hypervisor support in NetWorker Management Console you’ll see you have a well constructed map showing which virtual machines are configured in NetWorker groups (This is a really great way of identifying which systems are not protected). The trouble here is NetWorker talks to Virtual Center to generate the list of virtual machines and then maps this with clients configured in groups, but assumes the virtual machine name as it exists in Virtual Center is the same as the ”clientname” as configured in NetWorker which means a number of systems show as not being part of a group.
B. The VCB framework currently allows us to configure two methods for looking up virtual machines, Name (as exists in Virtual Center) and IP, If you leave the setting to the default value of IPADDR: then VCB backups work perfectly, but if you configure the framework to use NAME: then NetWorker once again assumes the client name configured in NetWorker will also exist in Virtual Center as “clientname” which doesnt work when customers have created or renamed virtual machines using some kind of meaningful description eg. “clientname (sql server)”.
In my honest opinion both these issues could be overcome if when creating a client instance (and having ticked the “virtual client” check box) an additional field could be populated with the name of the client as configured in virtual center and this could only apply when the “VCB” proxy backup type was selected from the apps and modules tab.
4. Allow VCB Backups to be encrypted: NetWorker has a nice feature which allows a password phrase to be configured at backup server level, any client with the encryption directive applied has its data encrypted using AES 256bit encryption before its written to tape. Historically VCB clients with any kind of directive applied would fail and as of NetWorker 7.6 there is only a single supported directive which allows Microsoft Windows system folders to be excluded from backup. In my honest opinion an enterprise backup system should be able to encrypt all backup data.
Ive just recently sat and passed the VCP-410 exam and thought Id post my thoughts after the fact.
The exam overall is probably a touch harder then the VCP-310 exam, I felt there were more questions where multiple choices were required, and im sure the number of questions has increased from 70 to 85.
Having taken the exam now, I can say I dont think the 2 day “whats new” course is quite enough to prepare you for the exam so make sure youve spent a fair amount of time familiarizing your self with vSphere and touched up on the basics.
Ill briefly summarize the documentation I used to prepare below, but if you’re looking for a more comprehensive list, then you should check out Simon Longs recommendations on material here, hes even created some online practice exams which are really good.
iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide : Make sure you read up and understand how iSCSI differs from Fibre Channel and understand how CHAP fundamentals.
Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide : Make sure you understand the concepts of LUN masking and also the requirements for booting off a SAN volume.
vSphere Licencing Guide : Make sure you know what changes have been made in vSphere around licensing and how this affects datacenters with a mixture of ESX 3 and ESX 4 systems.
High availability : Like I said early in the post, brush up on basics as questions which involve HA are not vSphere specific and you should definitely have a good understanding of how HA works.
Resource Management : Now resource management covers both DRS and Resource Pools, once again these questions where not so much based on vSphere but more on good old basics. Make sure you have a good understanding of Resource Pools and fairly familiar with reservations and resource shares.
Configuration Maximums: Definitely check out this document as there were a tone of questions based on the information in this document.
Summary
Out of the 85 questions in this exam I only remember twice thinking to my self, “ah thats a bit of a tricky question“, overall I think VMware want you to pass this exam and what I mean by this is the questions are nothing like the you would find in a Microsoft exam.
Also something that has been well covered by a number of blogs is the VMware Certified Professional 2nd Shot/Upgrade promotion which gives you a free second shot at the exam if you fail the first time around. Follow the link to register.
If you are an existing VCP on VI3 then you only have untill December 31st to take the VCP-410 exam without needing to attend one of the courses listed below.
