vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V: Reference Architecture Release 1.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Revision History Revision A00 Dell Inc.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 2 Audience............................................................................................................... 1 3 Solution Overview ................................................................................................... 2 4 3.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.6.6 RAID Array Design ........................................................................................ 20 6.6.7 Cluster Shared Volumes ................................................................................. 20 6.6.8 High Availability .......................................................................................... 21 6.6.9 Multi-pathing .......................................................
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figures Figure 1: Overview of Dell Blade Servers, Dell Force10 network switches, Brocade Fibre Channel switches, Dell Compellent Storage, and Microsoft Hyper-V ................................................. 2 Figure 2: Dell Blade Servers, Dell Force10 network switches, Brocade Fibre Channel switches, Dell Compellent Storage .................................................................................................
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 1 Introduction The vStart 1000 solution is an enterprise infrastructure solution that has been designed and validated by Dell™ Engineering. It is available partially racked, cabled, and delivered to your site, to speed deployment. Dell Services will deploy and configure the solution tailored for business needs and ready to be integrated into your datacenter.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 3 Solution Overview This section provides a high-level product overview of Microsoft Hyper-V, Dell PowerEdge blade servers, Dell Force10 Network Switches, Brocade 5100 Fibre Channel Switches, and Dell Compellent Storage, as illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2 below. Readers can skip the sections of products with which they are familiar.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 2: Dell Blade Servers, Dell Force10 network switches, Brocade Fibre Channel switches, Dell Compellent Storage 1 9 2 10 3 11 4 12 5 13 Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN 6 14 7 15 8 16 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 PowerEdge M1000e PowerEdge R620 Hyper-V Management Cluster Compellent Series 40 Storage Center Dell M1000e & PowerEdge M620 Hyper-V Clu
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Table 1 below describes the key solution components and the roles served.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012: VMM 2012 is Microsoft’s centralized virtualization manager. It provides the fundamental services for creating and managing virtual machines, optimizing resources, and rapid deployment of virtualized infrastructure. 3.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture I/O Modules: The enclosure provides three redundant fabrics using six I/O modules. The modules can be populated with Ethernet switches, Fibre Channel (FC), and pass-through modules. Chassis Management: The Dell PowerEdge M1000e has integrated management through a redundant Chassis Management Controller (CMC) module for enclosure management and integrated keyboard, video, and mouse (iKVM) modules.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 3.6 Dell Force10 S55 The Dell Force10 S-Series S55 1/10 GbE ToR switch is designed for high-performance data center applications. The S55 leverages a non-blocking architecture that delivers line-rate, low-latency L2 and L3 switching to eliminate network bottlenecks. The high-density S55 design provides 48 GbE access ports with up to four modular 10GbE uplinks in 1-RU to conserve valuable rack space.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture · · · · · · Thin Provisioning – Allocation is completely separated from utilization so any size volume can be created at any time, yet capacity is only consumed when data is written. Automated Tiered Storage – Data dynamically cascades from tier to tier according to actual usage, freeing up high-performance drives for mission-critical applications.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture with redundant network interface controllers (NICs) and redundant switches. NIC teaming for LAN and MPIO for SAN are used to provide failover across the redundant network interfaces. For FC storage, redundancy is achieved with multiple HBA ports, FC switches, and storage controllers. For network traffic, NIC ports are teamed in such a way that they avoid any single point of failure.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture · Sufficient power and cooling to support the solution must be present. Detailed power, weight, and cooling requirements for the datacenter are defined in the vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V Solution Specification. 6 Architecture This solution consists of a Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis populated with PowerEdge M620 blade servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1Data Center Edition.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.1 Dell Blade Network Architecture The Dell blade chassis has three separate fabrics referred to as A, B, and C. Each fabric has two I/O modules, making a total of six I/O modules slots in the chassis. The I/O modules are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. Each I/O module can be an Ethernet physical switch, an Ethernet pass-through module, FC switch, or FC pass-through module.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 4: Dell vStart Blade LAN Connectivity Overview PowerEdge M1000e Chassis bNDC PowerEdge M620 Dell Force10 S4810 2 X 40 GbE connections bNDC PowerEdge M620 8 X 10 GbE connections or 2 X 40G connections 16 (1X1) 10GbE connections IOM 10Gb Ethernet Pass-Through Module Blade - 16 IOM 10Gb Ethernet Pass-Through Module Blade - 1 Core Network 16 (1X1) 10GbE connections Dell Force10 S4810 PowerEdge M1000e Chassis b
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 5: NPAR and VLAN Configuration on a PowerEdge M620 Blade Server Windows 2008 R2 SP1 VLAN and Team Config bNDC NPAR config Team for Management VLAN 20 Team for Live Migration VLAN 21 Port 0 Partition 0 – 10% Bandwidth Weight 0 Partition 1 – 50% Bandwidth Weight Partition 2 – 20% Bandwidth Weight Partition 3 – 20% Bandwidth Weight 1 Team for Cluster Private Port 1 Partition 0 – 10% Bandwidth Weight VLAN 22 P
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Table 2: Traffic Description Traffic Type Compute Node Hypervisor (Mgmt) Compute Live Migration Use Supports virtualization management traffic and communication between the host servers in the cluster. Supports migration of VMs between the host servers in the cluster. Tenant VM Supports communication between the VMs hosted on the cluster and external systems.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.3 Server / Blade Storage Connectivity In the vStart configuration, each PowerEdge M620 and PowerEdge R620 server uses an internal RAID controller PERC H710 and is connected to two SAS HDDs configured in a RAID-1. This RAID volume hosts Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for the hypervisor OS.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Dell | System Center 2012 Integration: Dell provides management packs for the optional System Center components to monitor servers, storage, and networking components. These packs allow System Center 2012 Operations Manager (SCOM) to monitor, report on, and take actions based upon alerts generated by the individual components.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.5.2 Management Connectivity The Force10 S55 switch is used as a 1GbE out-of-band management switch. Each of the solution components is connected to the S55, as shown in Figure 8. The S55 switch is uplinked to each of the S4810 switches for core network connectivity. Figure 8: Connectivity of management components.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture connectivity. The host-to-array Fibre Channel is in the 8Gbps form. For Hyper-V, iSCSI-capable storage provides an advantage in that it is the protocol that can also be utilized by Hyper-V guest virtual machines for guest clustering. This requires that VM storage traffic and other network traffic flow over the same interface, however this contention is mitigated through the use of VLANs and NPAR on the network adapter. 6.6.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 9: vStart SAN Connectivity Overview 1 9 0 1 2 10 3 11 0 1 0 1 4 12 5 13 0 1 0 1 6 14 7 15 0 1 0 8 16 1 0 1 Hyper-V Management Clusters 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 PowerEdge R620 Dell M1000e & PowerEdge M620 Hyper-V Compute Clusters 1 PowerEdge M1000e 8Gbps FC 0 23 22 21 20 19 18 Brocade M5424 16 15 14 13 8 9 12 7 11 6 10 5 4 3 2 1 10Gb Ethernet Pa
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.6.5 Drive Types Dell Compellent storage enclosures feature 6 Gb SAS interconnects, so organizations can scale up and out with ease. Administrators can mix SSD and SAS drives in the same system, as well as SAS drives with the same form factor (but different speeds and capacities) in the same storage enclosure. The Dell vStart for Enterprise Virtualization base solutions are based upon the number of compute nodes.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.6.7.2 CSV Requirements · All cluster nodes must use Windows Server 2008 R2. · All cluster nodes must use the same drive letter for the system disk. · All cluster nodes must be on the same logical network subnet. Virtual LANs (VLANs) are required for multi-site clusters running CSV. · NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication in the local security policy must be enabled on cluster nodes.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture to each of the two Compellent controllers. Domain 2 includes connections through the bottom 5100, then to each of the two Compellent controllers. In this implementation, if one physical port fails, the virtual port will move to another physical port within the same fault domain and on the same controller. 6.6.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 6.6.12.1 Jumbo Frames In the vStart configuration, Jumbo Frames are enabled for all devices of the iSCSI SAN fabric. This includes the server network interface ports, the network switch interfaces, and the Compellent interfaces. 6.6.12.2 Thin Provisioning Particularly in Virtualization environments, thin provisioning is a common practice. This allows for efficient use of the available storage capacity.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 11: Compellent Snapshot Consistency 6.6.12.5 Storage Tiering Tiering storage is the practice of physically partitioning data into multiple distinct classes based on price, performance or other attributes. Data may be dynamically moved among classes in a tiered storage implementation based on access activity or other considerations.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture based on the architecture developed and validated by Dell Engineering. For more details or questions about the delivery model, please consult with your Dell Sales representative. Figure 12 below shows the vStart 1000m solution with a single chassis. Figure 13 shows vStart 1000m with two chassis and maximum storage enclosures. Note that switches shown in figures are shown mounted forward for representation.
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 12: vStart 1000 Rack and Component Overview Single Rack Configuration S55 1 3 5 7 9 11 2 4 6 8 10 13 15 17 19 21 18 20 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 ter 43 Mas 42 RS-232 USB-B STACK ID LNK LNK/ SPD 0 12 14 16 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 42 ACT 40 1 1 PSU FAN 0 0 ALM SYS PSU 42 FAN ACT 44 45 46 47 Ethernet USB-A Brocade 5100 0 vStart 4 1 5 2 6 3
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture Figure 13: vStart 1000m Maximum 2 Rack Component Overview S55 1 3 5 7 9 11 2 4 6 8 10 13 15 17 19 21 18 20 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 ter 43 Mas RS-232 42 USB-B STACK ID LNK LNK/ SPD 0 12 14 16 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 42 ACT 40 1 1 PSU FAN 0 0 ALM SYS PSU FAN 42 ACT 44 45 46 47 Ethernet 42 42 USB-A Brocade 5100 0 vStart 4 1 5 2 6 3 8 7 9 12
vStart 1000m for Enterprise Virtualization using Hyper-V – Reference Architecture 8 Additional Reading and Resources 8.1 Dell PowerEdge Server Documentation and Hardware/Software Updates For Drivers and other downloads: Visit http://support.dell.com, click ―Start Here‖ for Enterprise IT, ―Select a product‖, then enter a server service tag or select the server model and operating system version. 8.2 Dell Force10 Switch Documentation and Firmware Updates Visit http://support.dell.
