StarWind Virtual SAN®Hyper-Converged Cluster: Scale … · Hyper-Converged Cluster: Scale-Out Existing Deployments for ... Tools -> Task Scheduler -> Create ... Out Existing Deployments

#1 HyperConverged Appliance for SMB and ROBO

StarWind Virtual SAN®

Hyper-Converged Cluster:

Scale-Out Existing Deployments

for VMware vSphere APRIL 2015

TECHNICAL PAPER

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Hyper-Converged Cluster: Scale-Out Existing

Deployments for VMware vSphere

Trademarks

“StarWind”, “StarWind Software” and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered

trademarks of StarWind Software. “StarWind LSFS” is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be

registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Changes

The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While

reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy,

StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from

the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in

the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.

Technical Support and Services

If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first -

you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind

Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us.

Copyright ©2009-2016 StarWind Software Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

written consent of StarWind Software.

In 2016, Gartner named StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms”.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and

does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other

designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization

and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or

implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a

particular purpose.

About StarWind

StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this

technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and

hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company’s core product is the years-proven StarWind

Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT

infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and

is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named

StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms” following the success and popularity of StarWind

HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware,

Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc.

https://www.starwind.com/resource-library/

https://www.starwind.com/resource-library/

https://www.starwind.com/forums/

https://www.starwind.com/forums/

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/contact-us

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/contact-us

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Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Solution Diagram .............................................................................................................................. 5

Preparing Cluster .............................................................................................................................. 7

Add Host to Cluster ................................................................................................................... 7

Configuring Networks ............................................................................................................ 11

Preparing StarWind VM ................................................................................................................. 14

Replacing Partner for (DS2) .......................................................................................................... 23

Preparing Storage with StarWind (DS3) Creating Virtual Disk (DS3) ................................... 29

Preparing Datastores ..................................................................................................................... 36

Adding Discover portals ........................................................................................................ 36

Creating datastore (DS3) ...................................................................................................... 45

Configuring StarWind VM Startup/Shutdown .......................................................................... 49

Contacts ............................................................................................................................................ 52

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Introduction

Traditionally VMware requires having some sort of the shared storage to guarantee

the data safety, allow the virtual machines migration, enables continuous application

availability and eliminates any single point of failure within IT environment. VMware

users have to choose between two options when choosing the shared storage:

• Hyper-Converged solutions, that allows sharing the same hardware resources

for the application (i.e. hypervisor, database) and the shares storage, thus

decreasing the TCO and achieving the outstanding performance results.

• Compute and Storage separated solutions that keeps the compute and

storage layers separately from each other, thus making the maintenance

easier, increasing the hardware usage efficiency and allows building the system

accurately for solving the task.

This guide is intended for experienced VMware and Windows system administrators

and IT professionals who would like to add the Scale-Out node to the StarWind® Virtual

SAN cluster. It provides a step-by step guidance on scaling out the hyper-converged 2-

node StarWind Virtual SAN that converts the local storage of the ESXi hosts into a fault

tolerant shared storage resource for ESXi.

A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by

pressing the Help button in the StarWind Management Console.

For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked

Questions page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-faq

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-faq

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/support-form

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/support-form

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Solution Diagram

The diagram bellow illustrates the network and storage configuration of the resulting solution

described in the guide.

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Physical Storage Sizing in Scale-Out Model

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Preparing Cluster

Add Host to Cluster

1. Open your cluster inset and click Add a host.

2. Enter name or IP address of the ESXi host.

Click Next.

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3. Enter the administrative account information.

Click Next.

4. Verify settings.

Click Next.

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5. Assign the License.

Click Next.

6. Lockdown mode is not enabled by-default.

Click Next.

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7. Verify the settings.

Click Finish.

8. Result is on screen below.

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Configuring Networks

1. Create vSwitch to use for HeartBeat and LAN.

2. Create 2 vSwitches to use as ISCSI Data channels.

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3. Create 2 vSwitches to use as SYNC channels.

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Preparing StarWind VM

1. Create VM (SW3) on this host with Windows 2012 R2 where StarWind will be deployed

with the following settings.

2. Start the VMs, install OS and StarWind on it.

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Configuring Automatic storage rescan

For third ESXi host configure automatic storage rescan.

1. Download vSphere PowerCLI and install it on each StarWind virtual machine:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=PCLI550&productId=352

2. In the VM running StarWind open Powershell and change the Execution policy to

Unrestricted.

3. Type in Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted and press Enter.

4. In the StarWind Management Console select the server, switch to the Configuration Tab

on the right and press the Event Notifications link. Press the Add link in the upper right

corner of the tab.

5. Select All events radio button and enable the HA plugin checkbox.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=PCLI550&productId=352

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6. On the Action tab pick Add record to system event log from the menu.

7. Create a script which will do an HBA rescan on the hypervisor host

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Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core | Out-Null

$ESXiHost1 = “IP address”

$ESXiUser = “Login”

$ESXiPassword = “Password”

Connect-VIServer $ESXiHost1 –User $ESXiUser –Password $ESXiPassword | Out-Null

Get-VMHostStorage $ESXiHost1 –RescanAllHba

Disconnect-VIServer $ESXiHost1 –Confirm:$false

In the appropriate lines specify the ESXi host IP address and login credentials on which this

StarWind VM is stored and running:

$ESXiHost1 = “IP address”

$ESXiUser = “Login”

$ESXiPassword = “Password”

Save the script as rescan_script.ps1 on C:\ of the VM.

8. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler -> Create Basic Task , and

follow the wizard steps:

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9. Click the Next button.

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13. In the Add arguments field type: “- ExecutionPolicy Bypass - NoLogo - NonInteractive -

NoProfile - WindowStyle Hidden - File C:\rescan_script.ps1”. Click the Next button.

14. Click Finish to exit the Wizard.

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15. Configure the task to run with highest privileges by enabling the checkbox at the bottom

of the window. Also make sure that “Run whether user is logged on or not” option is

selected.

16. Switch to the Triggers Tab.

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17. On the Triggers Tab verify that the trigger is setup correctly.

18. Switch to the Actions Tab.

19. On the Actions Tab verify the parameters for the task.

20. Press OK and type in the credentials for the user whose rights will be used to execute the

command.

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Replacing Partner for (DS2)

1. Add third StarWind node (SW3).

2. Open replication manager on device DS2 from second StarWind node .

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3. Click Remove Replica.

4. Click Add replica.

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5. Select Synchronous “Two-Way” Replication and click Next.

6. Enter name or IP address of the third StarWind node.

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7. Select Create new Partner device.

8. Click Change Network Settings.

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9. Select HeartBeat and synchronization channels.

10. Click OK. You will return to Network Option for Synchronization Replication. Click Next.

11. Click Create Replica.

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12. After creation click Finish to close Replication Wizard.

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Preparing Storage with StarWind (DS3) Creating

Virtual Disk (DS3)

1. Open Add Device (advanced) Wizard.

2. Select Hard disk device as the type of a device to be created. Click Next to continue.

3. Select Virtual disk. Click Next to continue.

4. Specify a virtual disk location and size.

Click Next.

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5. Specify virtual disk options.

Click Next to continue.

6. Define the caching policy and specify the cache size (in MB). You can also set maximum

available cache size by selecting the appropriate checkbox.


7. Optionally, define the L2 caching policy and the cache size. Click Next to continue.

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8. Specify target parameters. Select the Target Name checkbox to enter a custom name of a

target.

Otherwise, the name is generated automatically in accordance with the specified target alias.


9. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target.

10. Click Finish to close the wizard.

11. Right-click the recently created device and select Replication manager from the shortcut

menu.

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12. Then, click Add replica.

13. Select Synchronous two-way replication as a replication mode.

Click Next to proceed.

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14. Specify a partner hostname, IP address and port number.

Click Next.

15. Choose Create new Partner Device and click Next.

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16. Click Change network settings....

17. Specify interfaces for synchronization and Heartbeat channels.

Click OK. Then click Next.

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18. Click Create Replica.

19. Click Finish to close the wizard.

20. The successfully added devices appear in the StarWind Console.

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Preparing Datastores

Adding Discover portals

1. To connect previously created devices to ESX host click over manage tab, then click

Storage and choose (or add) the ISCSI storage adapter. Under Adapter details section

click Targets tab.

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2. Under Dynamic Discovery click the Add… button to add iSCSI servers.

3. Enter the IP address of the first SrtarWind node (sw1) from the virtual local network

172.16.127.*

Click OK.

4. Add another IP addresses of the first StarWind node (sw1) form networks: iSCSI Data1

and iSCSI Data2.

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5. iSCSI Data1 - 172.16.210.*

Click OK.

6. iSCSI Data2 - 172.16.211.*

Click OK.

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7. Add another IP addresses of the second StarWind node (sw2) form networks: iSCSI Data1

and iSCSI Data2. iSCSI Data1 - 172.16.210.*

Click OK.

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8. iSCSI Data2 - 172.16.211.*

Click OK.

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9. The result should look like the image below.

10. After that, rescan storage.

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11. Now you should see the previously created StarWind devices.

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12. Add the third node addresses to the list on the first ESXi host. Check that all the

addresses are added and all devices are discovered.

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13. Add the third node addresses to the list on the second ESXi host. Check that all the

addresses are added and all devices are discovered.

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Creating datastore (DS3)

1. Open Datacenter Getting Started tab and click Add a datastore.

2. New Datastore wizard appears.

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3. Select vmFS.

Click Next.

4. Enter name of datastore (DS3), select the third host and device for datastore.

Click Next.

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5. Select vmFS 5.

Click Next.

6. Enter datastore size.

Click Next.

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7. Verify the settings.

Click Finish.

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Configuring StarWind VM Startup/Shutdown

1. Open cluster setting, inset vSphere HA, click Edit…

2. Temporarily Turn OFF vSphere HA. (uncheck Turn ON checkbox) Click OK.

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3. Open VM Startup/Shutdown inset for third ESXi server and click Edit…

4. Check System Influence and select Guest shutdown as Shutdown Action. Set the VM

startup policy.

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5. Inset should look like the screenshot below.

6. After that open cluster setting, inset vSphere HA, click Edit… and Turn ON vSphere HA

back again.

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Contacts

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+7 495 975 94 39

(Russian Federation and CIS)

1-866-790-2646

Customer Support Portal:

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Documents

StarWind Virtual SAN®Hyper-Converged Cluster: Scale … · Hyper-Converged Cluster: Scale-Out Existing Deployments for ... Tools -> Task Scheduler -> Create ... Out Existing Deployments