HP Solutions Software for vSphere User Manual
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 User’s Guide
3PAR Inc.
4209 Technology Drive
Fremont, CA 94538 USA
320-200248 Rev A
September 2010
Revision Notice
This is the first release of this manual. A complete revision history is provided at the end of this document.
Changes
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made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, 3PAR Inc. assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in
this document or from the use of the information contained herein.
3PARdata reserves the right to make changes in the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.
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3PAR, InServ, InForm, InSpire and Serving Information are registered trademarks of 3PAR Inc.
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Interference Statement
WARNING: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s
authority to operate the equipment.
This device complies with Part 15 of FFC Rules. Operation is subjected to the following two conditions (1) this device may not cause
harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired
operation.
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a
commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in
accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a
residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own
expense.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Overview 1.2
1.2 Audience 1.2
1.3 Related Documentation 1.3
1.4 Organization 1.4
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.5 Typographical Conventions 1.5
1.6 Advisories 1.5
2 Overview and Features
2.1 About VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) 2.1
2.2 About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 2.2
2.2.1 Hardware Assisted Locking (ATS) 2.3
2.2.2 Full Copy (XCOPY) 2.3
2.2.3 Block Zeroing (WRITE-SAME) 2.3
2.3 Package Contents 2.4
2.4 System Requirements 2.4
2.4.1 Supported 3PAR Inform OS Versions and Features 2.5
2.5 Special Considerations 2.6
Table of Contents
i
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
3 Installation and Deinstallation
3.1 Installing 3PAR VAAI Plug-in for VMware vSphere 4.1 3.1
3.1.1 Before You Begin 3.2
3.1.2 Installing the Plug-in Using VMware Update Manager (VUM) 3.2
3.1.3 Installing the Plug-in Using the VMware vSphere CLI for ESX/ESXi Hosts 3.6
3.1.4 Installing the Plug-in Using esxupdate on the ESX Service Console 3.7
3.1.5 Verifying the Installation 3.7
3.2 Deinstalling 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 3.8
3.2.1 Deinstalling the Plug-in Using the vSphere CLI on ESX/ESXi Hosts 3.8
3.2.2 Deinstalling the Plug-in Using esxupdate on an ESX Host Service Console 3.9
4 Troubleshooting
4.1 Installation Error Messages 4.2
4.2 Run Time Error Messages 4.6
RH Revision History
Table of Contents
ii
1
Introduction
In this chapter
1.1 Overview 1.2
1.2 Audience 1.2
1.3 Related Documentation 1.3
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.4 Organization 1.4
1.5 Typographical Conventions 1.5
1.6 Advisories 1.5
This chapter provides an introduction to using this guide, including information on the target
audience, related documentation, and typographical conventions.
Introduction
1.1
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.1 Overview
This guide provides information for installing and using 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware
vSphere 4.1.
The 3PAR VAAI Plug-in for VMware vSphere 4.1 enables SCSI primitives that allow 3PAR InServ
Storage Servers to take advantage of several VMware virtual machine operations at the meta
data level to improve performance.
1.2 Audience
This guide is intended for VMware vSphere administrators who are responsible for installing
VMware vSphere and overseeing the operation of InServ Storage Servers.
1.2
Overview
1.3 Related Documentation
The following documents also provide information related to InServ Storage Servers and the
InForm Operating System:
For information about… Read the…
CLI commands and their usage 3PAR InForm Command Line Interface
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
Reference
Configuring and managing InServ Storage
Servers and using the InForm
Management Console (IMC)
Configuring and managing InServ Storage
Servers and using the InForm Command
Line Interface (CLI)
Identifying storage server components and
alerts
Using 3PAR Remote Copy 3PAR Remote Copy User’s Guide
VMware ESX and its implementation on
InServ Storage Servers
3PAR InForm Management Console Online
Help
3PAR CLI Administrator’s Guide
3PAR Messages and Operator’s Guide
3PAR VMware ESX 3.X - 4.X
Implementation Guide
Related Documentation
1.3
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.4 Organization
This guide is organized as follows:
■ Chapter 1, Introduction (this chapter), provides an introduction to using this guide,
including information on the target audience, related documentation, and typographical
conventions.
■ Chapter 2, Overview and Features, gives an overview of the VMware VAAI Plug-in and its
benefits, features and system requirements.
■ Chapter 3, Installation and Deinstallation, describes how to install, verify, and deinstall the
3PAR VAAI Plug-in when working with hosts running VMware vSphere 4.1.
■ Chapter 4, Troubleshooting, lists error messages and provides tips for solving common
problems.
This guide also contains a revision history describing the major changes for each version.
1.4
Organization
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.5 Typographical Conventions
This guide employs the following typographical conventions:
Typeface Meaning Example
ABCDabcd Used for dialog elements
such as titles, button labels,
and other screen elements.
ABCDabcd Used for paths, filenames,
and screen output.
1.6 Advisories
To avoid injury to people or damage to data and equipment, be sure to observe the cautions
and warnings in this guide.
NOTE: Notes are reminders, tips, or suggestions that supplement the procedures
included in this guide.
CAUTION: Cautions alert you to actions that can cause damage to equipment,
software, or data.
When prompted, click Finish to
complete the installation.
Open the file
\gui\windows\setup.exe
REQUIRED: Requirements signify procedures that must be followed as directed in
order to achieve a functional and supported implementation based on testing at
3PAR.
WARNING: Warnings alert you to actions that can cause injury to people or
irreversible damage to data or the operating system.
Typographical Conventions
1.5
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
1.6
Advisories
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
2
Overview and Features
In this chapter
2.1 About VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) 2.1
2.2 About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 2.2
2.3 Package Contents 2.4
2.4 System Requirements 2.4
2.5 Special Considerations 2.6
This chapter provides an overview of the VMware VAAI extensions and describes the benefits
provided by 3PAR VMware VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for vSphere 4.1.
2.1 About VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
VMware has identified several primitives that will enable an ESX/ESXi host to convey virtual
machine operations to storage hardware at a meta level instead of at the traditional data
level. This reduces operational latency and traffic on the FC fabric / iSCSI network. Some of
these primitives enable the storage hardware to participate in block allocation and de-
allocation functions for virtual machines. These primitives - also known as hardware offloads -
Overview and Features
2.1
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
are typically implemented in-band from ESX to a disk array. ESX extensions to make use of
these primitives are collectively referred to as vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI).
2.2 About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1
To keep up with new advances in cloud computing, enhanced capabilities are required by the
SCSI layer stack so that SCSI can meet the demands of emerging virtualized infrastructures.
There are currently a number of shortcomings that need to be solved:
■ VMs competing for the same resources. In cloud computing environments, competition
for system resources can limit scalability and performance. While this resource contention is
rarely an issue in smaller environments, large ESX or vSphere servers that can host tens if
not hundreds of VMs may run up against these system scalability limits.
In these situations, the SCSI reservation bit locks a LUN when, for example, VMDK clones
are made. This precludes large environments from putting large numbers of VMDKs on a
single large LUN since other VMDKS on that LUN are negatively impacted waiting for a SCSI
reservation to complete while a clone is made of that VMDK file.
■ Expediting the creation of VMware initiated VMDK clones. VMware also has the
ability to create its own clones. However, this adds extra overhead to the ESX or vSphere
underlying physical server's CPU, memory and network resources since the clone has to
traverse the storage array, the host and then go back out to the storage array again.
2.2
■ Host overhead associated with zeroing out previously allocated space. vSphere
includes the ability to zero out blocks of data when storage is allocated to a VM. By first
zeroing out these blocks of data, it prevents the new VM from accidently accessing any of
the data that may have been stored on that disk by a deleted VM that previously had access
to it. However the new problem that results is that the newly created VM has to generate
excessive amounts of write I/O and overhead on the physical host and network in order to
zero out newly allocated blocks.
It is these storage specific issues that the vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) for vSphere
4.1 and the latest release of 3PAR's InForm OS resolve. By adding three new SCSI commands to
the standard SCSI command set, VMware and 3PAR provide virtualized data centers a more
granular control for scaling virtualized infrastructures. Following are descriptions for these
new commands.
About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1
2.2.1 Hardware Assisted Locking (ATS)
Rather than locking the entire LUN, Hardware Assisted Locking (ATS) only locks the blocks on
the LUN that are allocated to the VMDK. This enhanced capability is intended to help
virtualized data centers in at least two important ways.
■ If you are already using or want to use larger size LUNs and place multiple VMDKs on a
single LUN, you can now do so and still make clones of individual VMDK files without
negatively impacting other VMDKs also located on that LUN.
■ 3PAR's implementation of the ATS command was done within the ASIC of its InServ Storage
Servers to expedite processing of this command. While the performance benefits this
provides in small environments may be too negligible to notice, large virtualized
infrastructures can quickly create large numbers of clones.
3PAR’s unique implementation of Hardware Assisted Locking takes advantage of the 3PAR
Gen3 ASIC to handle data comparisons in silicon with significantly higher performance and
throughput. It facilitates the automatic modification of disk sectors without the use of SCSI
reservations so multiple hosts can access LUNs concurrently while reducing the number of
commands required to successfully acquire on-disk locks.
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
2.2.2 Full Copy (XCOPY)
Full Copy (XCOPY) resolves the host overhead that is associated with VMware initiating and
managing cloning operations. It facilitates the cloning of individual VMDKs while keeping the
overhead associated with the copy off the host and on the storage array which can
significantly improve the performance of host-initiated clones.
Full Copy increases agility by reducing the amount of time required to perform common copy
operations like virtual machine cloning and storage workload migrations using VMware
Storage vMotion™. This is made possible by allowing the storage hardware to transparently
manage large data movements, and by minimizing host, fabric and network I/O activity. With
the integration of the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC and 3PAR Thin Persistence software, built-in zero-
detection capabilities further speed cloning and storage workload migrations while also
delivering a capacity savings benefit.
2.2.3 Block Zeroing (WRITE-SAME)
Block Zeroing (WRITE-SAME) is intended to reduce the host overhead that results when
VMware zeros out disk space for Thin and Thick VMDKs and at create time for VMs.
About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1
2.3
3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide
Block Zeroing Increases performance and efficiency by eliminating the writing of zeros as data
by the host for the purpose of "cleaning" space for a VMDK. Using the WRITE-SAME
command, VMware now transfers the overhead associated with these writes to the storage
array by instructing the storage array to assume the burden of writing the zeros on these
newly allocated blocks.
3PAR arrays then takes this WRITE SAME command a step further when the blocks associated
with the VM are initialized. 3PAR's ASIC and its Thin Persistence software recognize the zeros
as they are written by the WRITE SAME command thus reducing system workload.
Since 3PAR tracks which blocks on its array are zeroed out and which ones have data in them,
3PAR only needs to zero out the blocks with data in them. Blocks of data that do contain zeros
are unmapped so no write penalty is incurred on the 3PAR system.
2.3 Package Contents
You can download the installation package from the following location:
http://www.3par.com/services/download.html
2.4 System Requirements
The following components are required:
■ VMware ESX 4.1 or ESXi 4.1.
■ VMware vSphere Infrastructure Management 4.1 (vCenter, vClient).
■ Additionally, for package installation / deinstallation:
◆ For ESX / ESXi
◆ VMware Update Manager plug-in (VUM) or vSphere CLI (vCLI)
◆ For ESX
◆ ESX Service Console
2.4
Package Contents
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