IBM System Storage N series Reference Architecture for Virtualized Environments

Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides deployment guidelines, workload estimates, and preferred practices for clients who want a proven IBM technology stack for virtualized VMware and Microsoft environments. The result is a Reference Architecture for Virtualized Environments (RAVE) that uses VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hypervisor, IBM System x® or IBM BladeCenter® server, IBM System Networking, and IBM System Storage® N series with Clustered Data ONTAP as a storage foundation. The reference architecture can be used as a foundation to create dynamic cloud solutions and make full use of underlying storage features and functions.

This book provides a blueprint that illustrates how clients can create a virtualized infrastructure and storage cloud to help address current and future data storage business requirements. It explores the solutions that IBM offers to create a storage cloud solution addressing client needs. This book also shows how the Reference Architecture for Virtualized Environments and the extensive experience of IBM in cloud computing, services, proven technologies, and products support a Smart Storage Cloud solution that is designed for your storage optimization efforts.

This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to successfully deploy a virtualized environment. It is also written for anyone who wants to understand how IBM addresses data storage and compute challenges with IBM System Storage N series solutions with IBM servers and networking solutions. This book is suitable for IT architects, business partners, IBM clients, storage solution integrators, and IBM sales representatives.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Figures
  3. Tables
  4. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  5. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  6. Part 1 Solution design
  7. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1 About this book
    2. 1.2 Purpose and benefits
    3. 1.3 Storage platform for cloud
  8. Chapter 2. Architecture and design
    1. 2.1 Introduction to virtualized environments
    2. 2.2 Introduction to cloud-based solutions
    3. 2.3 Architecture overview
    4. 2.4 Architectural approach
    5. 2.5 Configurations and components
      1. 2.5.1 An early introduction to Cluster Data ONTAP
      2. 2.5.2 About cluster limits
      3. 2.5.3 Architectural diagram and components
    6. 2.6 Solution classification
    7. 2.7 Sample workloads
      1. 2.7.1 Virtual Servers type workload
      2. 2.7.2 Mixed workload
  9. Chapter 3. Introduction to Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2
    1. 3.1 N series with Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2
      1. 3.1.1 Non-disruptive operations
      2. 3.1.2 Flexible architecture
      3. 3.1.3 Scalability
      4. 3.1.4 Storage and operational efficiencies
    2. 3.2 Clustered Data ONTAP concept in the context of cloud-based solutions
      1. 3.2.1 Storage virtual machine (SVM)
      2. 3.2.2 Secure multi-tenancy
      3. 3.2.3 Software-defined storage (SDS)
    3. 3.3 Additional features
      1. 3.3.1 Quality of Service (QoS)
      2. 3.3.2 Virtual Storage Tier (VST)
      3. 3.3.3 Single namespace
  10. Chapter 4. VMware vSphere integration
    1. 4.1 Introduction to server virtualization
    2. 4.2 Virtual Storage Console (VSC)
    3. 4.3 Enabling cloud computing and automation with VSC
    4. 4.4 Multi protocol capability for datastores
    5. 4.5 Provisioning and Cloning features for virtual machines
    6. 4.6 Snapshot technology
      1. 4.6.1 VMware snapshots
      2. 4.6.2 N series Snapshot technology
    7. 4.7 Storage configuration
      1. 4.7.1 Preparing N series LUNs for VMware vSphere
      2. 4.7.2 Presenting LUNs to an ESXi server over Fibre Channel
      3. 4.7.3 Using N series LUNs for Raw Device Mapping
      4. 4.7.4 Presenting an iSCSI LUN directly to a virtual machine
      5. 4.7.5 NFS volumes on VMware vSphere 5.1
    8. 4.8 Storage virtual machine (SVM)
    9. 4.9 Using deduplication or compression with VMware
    10. 4.10 Further information
  11. Chapter 5. Microsoft Hyper-V integration
    1. 5.1 Introduction to storage integration
    2. 5.2 Introduction to Windows Server 2012 R2
      1. 5.2.1 Components of Windows Server 2012 R2
    3. 5.3 N series integration with Microsoft environments
    4. 5.4 Multi-protocol support for attaching external storage
    5. 5.5 SnapManager for Hyper-V (SMHV)
      1. 5.5.1 Capabilities of SMHV
      2. 5.5.2 Deployment considerations of SMHV
      3. 5.5.3 Backup operation
      4. 5.5.4 Distributed Application-Consistent Backup in Windows Server 2012
      5. 5.5.5 Application-consistent backup: Server Message Block (SMB)
      6. 5.5.6 Crash-consistent backup
      7. 5.5.7 SMHV and SnapMirror
      8. 5.5.8 SMHV integration with SnapVault
      9. 5.5.9 SMHV integration with OnCommand Workflow Automation 2.1
    6. 5.6 SnapDrive
      1. 5.6.1 Benefits of SnapDrive 7.0 for Windows (SDW 7.0)
      2. 5.6.2 Architecture and functions
      3. 5.6.3 Remote VSS
      4. 5.6.4 Backup and restore operations
    7. 5.7 Infrastructure automation
    8. 5.8 Further information
  12. Chapter 6. Server
    1. 6.1 Rack and power infrastructure
    2. 6.2 Host/compute solution classification
    3. 6.3 Entry x3650 M4 host/compute nodes
    4. 6.4 Mainstream HS23 host/compute nodes
    5. 6.5 Mainstream HX5 host/compute nodes
    6. 6.6 Mainstream or Advanced with Flex System
      1. 6.6.1 Flex System and N series: Common attributes
      2. 6.6.2 IBM Flex System Chassis
      3. 6.6.3 The x240 compute module
      4. 6.6.4 The x440 compute module
      5. 6.6.5 I/O modules of Flex System
      6. 6.6.6 Flex System Manager (FSM)
    7. 6.7 Management node vCenter server
    8. 6.8 Active Directory server
    9. 6.9 Further information
  13. Chapter 7. Networking
    1. 7.1 Ethernet switches
    2. 7.2 Architecture with multiswitch link aggregation
    3. 7.3 Storage load balancing
    4. 7.4 Clustered Data ONTAP cluster network
    5. 7.5 Further information
  14. Chapter 8. Storage
    1. 8.1 Introduction
    2. 8.2 Entry portfolio
      1. 8.2.1 N3150 models
      2. 8.2.2 N3220
      3. 8.2.3 N3240
      4. 8.2.4 N32x0 common information
    3. 8.3 Mainstream and advanced portfolio
      1. 8.3.1 Common functions and features of mid-range models
    4. 8.4 Midrange and enterprise portfolio
      1. 8.4.1 Midrange models N6220 and N6250
      2. 8.4.2 Enterprise models N7550T and N7950T
    5. 8.5 HA pair hardware configuration
      1. 8.5.1 Cluster network
      2. 8.5.2 Switchless cluster
    6. 8.6 Snapshots
    7. 8.7 Flexible volume (FlexVol)
    8. 8.8 Infinite Volumes
    9. 8.9 Thin provisioning using FlexVol volumes
    10. 8.10 FlexClone
    11. 8.11 Deduplication
    12. 8.12 Quality of Service (QoS)
    13. 8.13 Data protection and load sharing
      1. 8.13.1 SnapMirror
      2. 8.13.2 SnapVault
      3. 8.13.3 NDMP
      4. 8.13.4 Data protection mirror
      5. 8.13.5 Load sharing mirror
    14. 8.14 Flash Cache
      1. 8.14.1 Flash Cache module
      2. 8.14.2 How Flash Cache works
    15. 8.15 Virtual Storage Tier
    16. 8.16 Further information
  15. Chapter 9. Storage design
    1. 9.1 Aggregates
    2. 9.2 Storage virtual machine (SVM)
    3. 9.3 Logical Interface (LIF)
    4. 9.4 Multi-tenancy
  16. Chapter 10. Common cloud services and deployment models
    1. 10.1 Conceptual reference model
    2. 10.2 Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    3. 10.3 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
    4. 10.4 Cloud management and orchestration tools
      1. 10.4.1 VMware vCloud Automation Center (vCAC)
      2. 10.4.2 Microsoft System Center 2012
      3. 10.4.3 IBM Service Delivery Manager (ISDM)
      4. 10.4.4 IBM SmartCloud Orchestrator
      5. 10.4.5 OpenStack
  17. Part 2 Deployment
  18. Chapter 11. Data protection and disaster recovery
    1. 11.1 Introduction
    2. 11.2 Approach and considerations
      1. 11.2.1 List of data protection features
    3. 11.3 Common use cases
      1. 11.3.1 Site or storage failover
      2. 11.3.2 Single node failure
  19. Chapter 12. Easy-step setup guide
    1. 12.1 Preparation
      1. 12.1.1 Intended audience
      2. 12.1.2 Preferred practices
      3. 12.1.3 Prerequisites
    2. 12.2 N series management tools
      1. 12.2.1 System Manager
      2. 12.2.2 OnCommand Unified Manager (OCUM)
    3. 12.3 Integration with VMware
      1. 12.3.1 Creating Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) with NFS file sharing
      2. 12.3.2 Creating NFS type datastore
      3. 12.3.3 Virtual Storage Console for VMware (VSC)
    4. 12.4 Integration with Microsoft Hyper-V
  20. Part 3 Appendixes
  21. Appendix A. N series Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 sizing considerations
    1. Storage sizing approach and details
    2. Sizing assumptions for sample configurations
  22. Appendix B. Sample configurations
    1. Sample configurations: Entry
    2. Sample configurations: Mainstream
    3. Sample configuration: Advanced
    4. Further information
  23. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks publications and IBM Redpaper publications
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  24. Back cover
  25. IBM System x Reference Architecture for Hadoop: IBM InfoSphere BigInsights Reference Architecture
    1. Introduction
    2. Business problem and business value
    3. Reference architecture use
    4. Requirements
    5. InfoSphere BigInsights predefined configuration
    6. InfoSphere BigInsights HBase predefined configuration
    7. Deployment considerations
    8. Customizing the predefined configurations
    9. Predefined configuration bill of materials
    10. References
    11. The team who wrote this paper
    12. Now you can become a published author, too!
    13. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  26. Notices
    1. Trademarks

Product information

  • Title: IBM System Storage N series Reference Architecture for Virtualized Environments
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2014
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None