Windows Server 2012 Virtualization Combat: Storage (II)

V. Building a Windows Server 2012 virtualized Storage Network

We discussed the various storage-related technologies supported by Window Server 2012, and we then tested some of them in practice. In fact, Window Server 2012 virtualization does not necessarily require third-party storage such as Nas or SANS, and local disks within the server can also deploy Windows Server 2012 virtualized Infrastructure SCVMM (System Center Virtual machine Manger). But virtualization essentially pursues scalability and high availability, which is not possible when the local disk is stored directly as a virtual machine. The storage that virtualization relies on requires a higher level of abstraction. But unlike with distributed storage, Window Server 2012 virtualization uses more third-party storage (personally known as centralized storage). This leads to increased performance and reduced complexity, but also limits the scale of its expansion. In any case, Window Server 2012 virtualization has considerable advantages for small to medium-sized applications.

So for scalability and high availability, we need shareable third-party storage, either a SAN or Windows File Server (leveraging over-SMB technology), and an enterprise-class application typically chooses an FC SAN.

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Here we build the infrastructure for Windows Server 2012 virtualization with 1 IBM DS3512 storage, 1 IBM fibre switches, and 8 IBM X3550 M4 servers. There are two main tasks to complete, the first to complete all hardware connections, the second to configure the fibre switch and storage.

1. Hardware connection

Because there are only 1 fibre switches, it is not possible to achieve high availability at the switch level, which means that the storage will not be able to provide services if the fibre switch is damaged. But it should be enough for non-core services to know that fibre switches are expensive. Depending on the way, the FC HBA card on each server is connected to the fibre switch via fiber, and two of the storage controllers are connected to the fibre switch.

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IBM DS3512 Storage (front)

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IBM DS3512 Storage (top) and IBM 2498-b24 Fibre switch (bottom)

is a more panoramic picture with more devices:

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IBM DS3512 Storage (top), IBM 2498-b24 Fibre Switch (upper), KVM (lower), and IBM X3550 M4 Server (bottom)

When you can see that each fiber is actually connected to a fiber module, the fiber module is plugged into a slot on a fibre switch or FC HBA card. The optical fiber module realizes the conversion of the optical signal, the optical fiber module should match with the slot, and the fiber cable must match with the fiber module. Here we choose multimode fiber optics and SFP fiber modules.

In addition, the connection is not standardized, the storage of two controllers are connected to two optical fiber, one of which is connected with the fiber switch, the other with a server FC HBA card directly connected. The reason is that the IBM fiber switch is authorized by the number of sockets port, that is, the current fiber switch only authorized 8 socket port, of which 2 are used to connect the storage of 2 controllers, the remaining only enough to connect 6 servers, the remaining 2 servers can only directly connected to the storage, This way, the two servers will not be able to implement Multipath IO (MPIO), which means that redundancy is achieved between the two controllers that are stored. However, we understand that there are such shortcomings, and sometimes consider the cost, compromise is inevitable.

The Black network cable that is stored on each of the two controllers is the control line that is used to configure the storage over Ethernet and is covered below.

2. Configuring the fibre switch and storage

(1) Configuring the fibre switch

Initial configuration You can use Putty to connect to the COM port of the IBM 2498-b24 Fibre switch and find the default static IP address of the fibre switch to facilitate future use of IP to connect and configure in the browser. Connect the COM port according to the parameters (note that if you connect through a COM-to-USB cable, you can see the simulated serial number in Device Manager, where COM4 is connected).

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Login with username admin and password password. After landing will be required to reset the initial password of various types of users, and finally use the command ipaddrshow display the default IP address, can also be modified by the command Ipaddrset. Enter the help command for more assistance.

 for switch default accounts now .... Ibm_2498_b24:admin>  10.77.77.77255.255.255.0Gateway IP Address:noneDHCP:OffIBM _2498_b24:admin>

The IP address of the switch found through the above method is 10.77.77.77, then use the network cable to connect to the switch's management network, in the browser to access the http://10.77.77.77, prompted to install the Java runtime, but because the machine year earlier, The address of the jump is still the address of sun.com (the Sun company has already been acquired by Oracle) and is now unable to know the version of the Java JRE that needs to be installed, but the Java JRE needs to be installed by studying the Java version of the JavaScript script that was validated in the pre-jump page. 1.6 32 bits. Download Jre-6u43-windows-i586.exe installation to Oracle website. Finally see the management login interface of the switch.

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Log in using admin and password previously modified in putty.

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The main configuration is centralized in zone Admin, the main configuration logic is:

A. Alias in the Alias tab for each port that needs to be connected (including the FC HBA card for each server and 2 controllers for storage) to facilitate subsequent configuration.

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B. In the Zone tab, place the port you want to connect to within a zone. The left side is an optional object, the right side is the joined object, here we add the alias.

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C. In the Zone Config tab, add the zone you want to enable to the right zone members. This completes the basic switch port mapping.

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(2) Configure storage

Complete the configuration of the fiber switch, in fact, has opened the channel between the server and storage. The next step is to plan and configure the storage so that the server can access it properly. We can simply think of external storage as a few large hard drives outside the server, except that these large hard drives are connected by means of optical fiber. We can use IBM's storage management software, IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager, to manage storage, and connect computers with IBM Storage management software to the management network on the two controllers that are stored on the network cable, which requires a switch Management software can automatically discover storage.

When planning storage, we need to consider the future application of the store. When all the dust settles, storage will not be able to be re-adjusted, even if it can be adjusted will also face greater risk. Our storage will be the cornerstone of the entire virtualization, which requires the building of a Windows Server failover cluster and the need to provide a cluster shared volume capability to place a highly available virtual machine. Then there are several aspects to consider:

A. Create a hot spare disk by grouping the physical disks, create a disk array raid, and select the type of RAID. As in the Hardware tab, create a hot spare and disk array from the disks in the right-click Diagram.

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B. Divide the disk array into logical disks (represented as a disk in the server operating system), where the witness disks are created for the Windows Server failover cluster. As you can see in the Storage & Copy Services tab, there are 2 disk arrays created, one RAID10 type and the other RAID5 type, and you can create logical disks under each disk array. Under the disk array named RAID5, I created two logical disks of the 1-2GB size that will serve as the witness disk for the failover cluster.

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C. Assign a logical disk to the server. In the Host Mappings tab, you can group and assign logical disks to all of the servers that allow connection storage through the host port identifier, which is the only identity for each fibre gateway. If 8 servers are defined, grouped into groups, the group is named host Group 02, and most of the logical disks are assigned to the group.

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(3) Configuring the server

Once configured as above, the logical disks assigned to the server can be seen in the server's Disk Management tool. Here we also need to configure Multipath IO (MPIO) to enable the server to implement path redundancy between the stored two controllers, i.e. if one storage controller is broken, the server will automatically use the other. Of course, multi-path IO not only ends here, if each server has two FC HBA cards, and two fiber switches are connected to each other, each fiber switch connected to two storage controllers, then this will achieve true redundancy, of course, the cost is not expensive. To configure Multipath io in Windows Server R2, you need to do two things:

A. Installing the IBM multipath IO driver can download the corresponding storage driver on the website, where the driver is installed as MPIO Device specific Module (DSM) with file name similar to Smia-winx64-01.03.1305.0050.exe.

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B. Add the server attribute Multipath I/O in Server Manager.

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When we are done, we can see that the original redundant disks are merged together in Disk Management, and right-click the disk property to see the more Mpio tabs.

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So far, we've done the most important part of building virtualization--the storage configuration. There is a lot of detail to be aware of in the process, but many issues can be solved almost by Google. This describes only the general process and direction, basically similar to different models of storage configuration should also be poor. Below we will continue to build a virtualized infrastructure, install related virtualization software, implement storage virtualization, network virtualization, and compute virtualization.

Windows Server 2012 Virtualization Combat: Storage (II)