HPE Reference Architecture ConvergedSystem 700 …VMware vSphere HA and vSphere DRS on the HPE...

HPE Reference Architecture ConvergedSystem 700 2.0 with VMware vSphere HA

Reference Architecture

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Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Solution overview ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Technology overview ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution overview .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Design objectives............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Components ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Single-rack solution with one c7000 enclosure and 3PAR StoreServ storage .................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Multi-rack solution compute rack with two c7000 enclosures............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 HPE Converged Architecture 700 overview ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 HPE 3PAR StoreServ – key features and benefits ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 HPE ProLiant BL460c/DL360 Gen9 servers ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Networking .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 HPE OneView .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 VMware vSphere ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 18 VMware vSphere vMotion ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 20 VMware High Availability (HA) ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 VMware vSphere App HA ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Configuring VMware vSphere HA and DRS on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700.................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Configuring VMware vSphere 5.5 and vCenter Server ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Networking recommendations .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Storage recommendations .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Installing and configuring VMware vFabric Hyperic and vSphere App HA ............................................................................................................................................................................. 23 Configuring VMware vSphere HA through vCenter cluster ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25 Configuring VMware vSphere DRS through vCenter cluster ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 26 Discover application servers on vFabric Hyperic server ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 27

Use cases ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 VMware vSphere host fails in vCenter cluster .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Application service and OS crash recovery ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Performing enclosure failover and recovery on the HPE CS700 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) with VMware vSphere HA on CS700 ....................................................................................................................... 39

Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Appendix A—Solution hardware configuration ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Appendix B—Bill of materials ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Resources and additional links ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 45


Executive summary Enterprises run multiple mission critical applications that keep their businesses productive and enable them to create value for their customers. Applications that are core to the success of the business are often classified as mission critical or business critical applications. Their requirement for zero-downtime operations results in stringent service-level agreements (SLAs) to achieve and maintain high levels of performance, availability, reliability, and serviceability. In order to achieve such high levels of availability requires the application to be deployed upon bare-metal operating environments; however, advancements in hypervisor technologies now allow these applications to be deployed as virtualized workloads, for added scalability and rapid deployment.

Any downtime, whether planned or unplanned, brings with it considerable impact to the business and also unexpected and unplanned costs. Hewlett Packard Enterprise converged infrastructure in combination with VMware® High Availability makes it simpler and less expensive to provide higher levels of availability for mission critical applications. With our integrated solutions, organizations can easily increase the baseline level of availability provided for all applications, as well as provide higher levels of availability more easily and cost-effectively. Our solutions reduce both planned and unplanned downtime.

HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 with VMware HA protect application availability in the following ways:

• Protect against hardware failure within the cluster

• Protect against OS failure in a VM

• Automatic protection of additional software components in the event of virtual machine switchover within the cluster

• Protect against failures and at the same time provide load balancing using VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

• Easy to set up and operate, no complex setup

To demonstrate application high availability in a virtualized environment this paper discusses a system deployed on HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware with Oracle 11gR2 (Single-Instance Oracle databases) and Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 on VMware® vSphere® 5.5 with vSphere App HA 1.1.0 and vFabric Hyperic Server 5.8.1.0. Please note that this solution doesn’t address multi-site configurations. The solution works in a similar manner with HPE Converged Architecture 700 as well. HPE Converged Architecture 700 can be deployed at your site with your trusted Channel Partner who can provide value add services tailored to fit your needs.

Target audience: This paper is intended for IT decision makers and administrators looking for efficient application high availability using VMware technology for use with the HPE ConvergedSystem 700. The information provided here is meant to show the advantages of using the VMware HA solution for the ConvergedSystem 700. Also, specific instructions on how best to configure VMware HA, vFabric Hyperic Server, vSphere App HA and other components for the ConvergedSystem 700 are discussed. The intent in presenting these recommendations is to streamline the VMware HA solution for the HPE ConvergedSystem 700.

This white paper describes a project developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in March 2016.

Introduction Many organizations rely on virtualization to improve security and compliance requirements, increase data center flexibility, simplify deployment and management, improve operational efficiencies, and achieve lower total cost of ownership goals. To fully embrace and reap these benefits, adopting an integrated end-to-end solution can deliver the agility needed to accommodate the current needs and future growth requirements that mission-critical applications demand. Equally important, an integrated technology stack can enable you to expand, contract, scale up/down/out/in to address infrastructure allocation requirements as workloads change. To meet these needs, HPE has created ConvergedSystem 700 (CS700) and Converged Architecture 700 (CA700). The solution is proven, tested, and optimized to help you meet long-term data center needs for a variety of mixed application workloads.

Advances in technology are lowering barriers to entry, while consumerization is driving change from the outside in. In the new idea economy, success will be determined by your ability to transform IT to meet the new expectations of consumers and business customers and to grow your business in new ways. HPE ConvergedSystem and HPE Converged Architectures can help you achieve this. Hewlett Packard Enterprise can help you build your next-generation data center on a converged system architecture that will improve IT agility and drive speed, efficiency, and simplicity, all while reducing risk. Your business transformation starts with simplifying and automating as much of your server, storage, and networking infrastructure as possible, creating a software-defined environment that frees up resources for new and innovative projects.


Achieve real business benefits with integrated solutions using HPE CS700 and HPE CA700. These allow you to have the efficient building blocks for providing hybrid IT, enabling you to adapt quickly to market and customer needs. And, it maximizes the hybrid infrastructure speed, efficiency, and simplicity of your core infrastructure and operations.

HPE Converged Architectures are modular, repeatable and scalable building blocks designed for your workloads. It is infrastructure your way, delivered as one integrated stack by your choice of HPE Authorized Channel Partner. These validated reference architecture designs are thoroughly tested by HPE engineering to reduce risk, and save you time and resources. Designed for speed and efficiency they provide an ideal infrastructure to run your common workloads and applications. New workloads and business demands are forcing customers to reevaluate the way they purchase and manage infrastructure. Do-it-yourself and integrated systems assembled from components provided by multiple vendors often cause increases in cost, time, and effort as well as create complexity with interoperability challenges. HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 address these challenges with tightly integrated components that are optimized to support on-demand IT infrastructure, private cloud, and mixed workloads.

Preconfigured to meet a range of business needs, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 can be deployed easily and rapidly to support a variety of virtualized application environments. HPE engineering has done the testing and validation so that IT professionals can focus their time on critical activities. Specific technology has been included in the systems that address critical business objectives such as lower costs, increased performance, and high availability. Each system ships with factory-integrated or channel partner integrated compute, storage, networking, and management components, all preconfigured to address the most demanding workloads. Converged management and automation capabilities are built into the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 that allow customers to simplify everyday tasks through single pane of glass management. Compute and storage can be scaled independently so customers can easily adapt to new requirements and enable the solution to grow as business needs change. One-stop support from the HPE Center of Excellence (COE) provides a single point of accountability with faster problem resolution.

HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 help customers drive business agility with solutions that enable you to adapt to your market and customer needs quickly. They deliver a broad range of benefits, including:

• Fast: HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 enable you to reduce the time to insight and action through automated deployment, provisioning, and predictive analytics. They allow you to provision infrastructure in a matter of minutes while being able to identify and respond to hot spots more quickly.

• Efficient: HPE ConvergedSystem 700 and HPE Converged Architecture 700 feature automated converged management that radically simplifies everyday tasks to reduce OPEX and improve operational agility. They feature templates that eliminate many manual operations and device-focused processes enable you to refocus your investment on innovation, not operations, by lowering the TCO of your general purpose infrastructure. They provide true business transformation, via a solution lifecycle management, to increase IT operational efficiency and a reduction in administration time.

• Simple: Easily stand up and manage new services for your business partners. Fewer management tools are required through converged management. Software-defined templates make on-demand IT infrastructure services deployment faster and easier.

Solution overview Customers looking for enterprise class reliability and functionality can obtain it by using VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) and VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700.

The proposed solution architecture is designed to enhance your mission critical business continuity plan by leveraging VMware vSphere HA and DRS for your mission critical applications deployed on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700. VMware vSphere HA and vSphere DRS on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 platforms offer scalable high availability across multiple physical blades, automatic detection of blade failures, smart failover of virtual machines to blades with the best available resources, automatic detection of operating system and application failures, resource checks, proactive monitoring and health checks and enhance isolation address response. Oracle 11g and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 will be used to illustrate the mission critical application aspect. Today, VMware has several application plug-ins. VMware and HPE technologies will be used to monitor, manage and re-allocate applications to the other available resources in case of failure.

We assume the power, networks and cooling systems in the data center are fully redundant and suitable to 24x7 mission critical applications. Please note in the case of a single enclosure configuration (one HPE BladeSystem c7000 chassis), HPE reports an average availability of 99.9996% and a mean time between failure (MTBF) of 1,899,431 hours. The c7000 chassis used in this paper has redundant HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules, redundant HPE Onboard Administrators, and redundant fans and power supplies.


Figure 1. VMware HA Deployment logical overview

Technology overview HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution overview HPE ConvergedSystem 700 has been designed to address one of today’s top priorities for IT organizations – reducing data center complexity. Preconfigured to meet a range of business needs, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 offerings can be easily and rapidly deployed to support a variety of virtualized application environments. HPE does all the work, using balanced building blocks of servers, storage, and networking, along with integrated management software and bundled support.

While many data centers are using virtualization, decision-makers may still need to address a broad range of challenges, including:

• Time, resources, and effort required to deploy a complete solution

• Proliferation of management tools

• Security issues

• Difficulties scaling

• Difficulties extending to the cloud


HPE ConvergedSystem 700 is designed to address these challenges through a precision-tuned system that helps deliver the fastest path to agile, efficient virtualized application solutions.

Key benefits of HPE ConvergedSystem 700 hpe.com/us/en/product-catalog/detail/pip.7742821.html:

• Provides a pre-engineered and validated system that is optimized for today’s most challenging workloads

• One infrastructure management platform to simplify everyday tasks and free up IT resources

• Pre-integrated and tested system to reduce onsite deployment activities and free up IT admin resources

• Reduces risk by preventing issues proactively and maintaining peak performance

• Cloud compatibility allows customers to upgrade easily to cloud with confidence

Design objectives This section outlines key design objectives for HPE ConvergedSystem 700.

Leadership performance Powered by a range of Intel® Xeon® processors, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 is designed to provide the performance required by the largest, most demanding data centers. Storage scalability and performance have been optimized through tight integration with HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage.

Realistic sizing

Important HPE ConvergedSystem 700 provides multiple core density options. This section assumes workload servers are utilizing eight-core processors with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology enabled.

While the scalability of an HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution depends on the particular workloads being virtualized, HPE considers the storage I/O load on each VM to be particularly significant. An estimation of the number of typical VMs that can be supported by a particular configuration should take into account these key considerations:

• Number of logical processor cores: The solution design assumes one VM per logical processor core equivalent on each workload server. With Intel Hyper-Threading Technology enabled, each default workload server has 32 logical processor core equivalents.

• I/O workload: Each VM is typically expected to sustain an average storage load of 30–50 host IOPS based on random, small-block I/Os with 70 percent reads/30 percent writes and a 20 ms response time.

Based on the default core density and sustained storage I/O performance delivered by HPE ConvergedSystem 700, each workload server can support 32 typical VMs; however, in practice, it is unlikely that a particular workload server would be consuming 100 percent of its storage resources at any one time. As a result, if 50 percent of storage resources were being consumed on average, each workload server would be able to support 64 VMs, assuming default processors are selected. In the case of utilizing an All Flash Array, the number of IOPS drastically exceeds 50 host IOPS per VM with a response time of less than 1 ms.

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Table 1. Example configurations for HPE ConvergedSystem 7001 based on 7xxxc arrays.

Storage Workload servers Physical cores2 SAN ports3

3PAR StoreServ Array Raw capacity

7200c 26 TB 12 192 24

7200c/7400c/7440c 2N 51 TB 16 256 24

7440c/7450c 2N 41 TB 16 256 24

7400c/7440 2N/4N 118 TB 32 512 32/44

7440c/7450c 2N 83 TB 32 512 32

7400c/7440c 4N 211 TB 48 768 76

7440c/7450c 4N 110 TB 48 768 76

7400c/7440c 4N 235 TB 64 1,024 84

7440c/7450c 4N 138 TB 64 1,024 84

To help size an appropriate HPE ConvergedSystem, the HPE Sizer for ConvergedSystems Virtualization can be used. The sizer should be used to propose an optimized HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution based on workload characteristics you specified.

High availability Designed for high availability, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 minimizes single point of failure (SPOF) by including:

• Multiple workload servers

• Clustered management servers with shared SAN storage to support the solution-specific management software stack

• Dedicated networks to allow the migration of VMs without impacting users

• Redundant network switches, HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules and HPE Onboard Administrator modules

• Redundant power design with redundant HPE Power Distribution Units

• Redundant SAN switches, with Dynamic Path Selection (DPS) capability dynamically routes Fibre Channel traffic across multiple links between HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage and hosts

• Automatic storage failover and failback; multiple RAID protection levels

• Multiple copies of data optimized within the storage array, eliminating any single point of failure in the SAN while providing very fast access; applications have continuous data availability in the event of a disk controller or storage node failure

Converged Management At the heart of HPE ConvergedSystem 700 is HPE OneView, which provides converged management to eliminate the complexity of managing infrastructure through automation. The HPE OneView architecture delivers a unified and consistent management experience across the infrastructure in the system including the workload servers contained in HPE BladeSystem, HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage and HPE Networking. It uses a software-defined approach to system management enabling you to capture and standardize the best practices from your IT team. For example, it utilizes profiles to capture the entire configuration for a resource and stores them in a single place for easy management. HPE OneView’s capabilities can be extended through integration into VMware vCenter Operations Manager. This provides administrators with increased visibility and control over performance and capabilities, while ensuring service levels and operational efficiency in dynamic virtualized environments, all through a single pane of glass.

1 These configurations assume that no deduplication is being used. Deduplication is only available for SSDs. 2 Assuming eight-core processors are used. 3 Available ports on HPE StoreFabric SAN switches; not all ports consumed in each configuration.

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Pre-integration HPE ConvergedSystem 700 is pre-integrated in the factory based on extensively tested configuration guidelines. All of the components prescribed are prebuilt, racked and cabled prior to being delivered at the customer site. This process ensures an integrated hardware solution, a consistent and repeatable initialization and a known end state when it arrives at the customer site. If the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware is being deployed, the system will be ready to deploy production virtual machines. Each virtualization host has VMware vSphere® 5.5 preinstalled through automation capabilities, customized to a predefined network and storage infrastructure, and preregistered to the vCenter server that is installed on the management VM.

Simplified lifecycle HPE ConvergedSystem 700 provides customers with a solution support experience with a single point of accountability. HPE offers Proactive Care with Personalized Support Option as well as Proactive Select to support the entire solution including HPE hardware, software, VMware and Microsoft OS software. This support experience is part of the HPE ConvergedSystem Center of Excellence (COE). When a support call is placed with HPE for this system, it is initially recognized as being related to a ConvergedSystem and routed to a specialist who understands and will support the entire solution. This specialist will also own the issue until it is closed resulting in faster problem resolution. The HPE COE provides the customer with:

• Global Support Team

• 24/7 coverage

• Support of the end-to-end solution stack

• End-to-end case/customer ownership

• Integrated escalation function

• Orchestration of service delivery

• Active collaboration with other support parties (e.g., VMware)

Accelerated path from virtualization to cloud If you wish to accelerate the path from virtualization to cloud, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 has been architected to support the use of HPE CloudSystem functionality in a virtual environment. Alternatively, if you have standardized on the VMware platform for cloud automation, you can add VMware vCloud Suite to extend the capabilities of HPE ConvergedSystem 700.

Note Because management and virtualization layers are pre-integrated and optimized, the turnkey HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution is ready to work with the specific virtualization technologies you use. For example, HPE OneView is tightly integrated with VMware vSphere 5.5.

A service automation platform such as HPE CloudSystem or VMware vCloud Suite, is designed to orchestrate infrastructure provisioning, including the loading of appropriate hypervisors.

Components Depending on the configuration chosen, HPE ConvergedSystem 700 can deliver the following key components:

• Hardware

– HPE Intelligent Infrastructure for intelligent rack and power infrastructure management

– HPE BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosures

– HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric 20/40 F8 Modules

– HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 servers blades with Intel Xeon E5-v3 series processors (workload servers)

– HPE ProLiant WS460c Gen9 workstation blades with NVIDIA® K1 or K2 Graphic accelerator options

– HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers with Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 (management servers)

– HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200c, 7400c, 7440c, 7450c, or 8000 (multi-rack only) Storage


– HPE FlexFabric 5900AF or Cisco Nexus series switches

– HPE SN6000B SAN switches for multi-rack solutions

– HPE Virtual Connect for 3PAR with Flat SAN technology for single rack solutions

• Software

– HPE OneView

– HPE Insight Remote Support

– HPE 3PAR StoreServ Software (Note: While any HPE 3PAR software option can be added to an HPE ConvergedSystem 700 [CS700] configuration, only the Operating System Software suite is added by default.):

HPE 3PAR Operating System Software Suite

o HPE 3PAR Operating System

o HPE 3PAR Thin Provisioning

o HPE 3PAR Thin Conversion

o HPE 3PAR Thin Persistence

o HPE 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation

o HPE 3PAR Thin Deduplication

o HPE 3PAR Thin Clones

o HPE 3PAR Autonomic Rebalance

o HPE 3PAR System Tuner

o HPE 3PAR Management Console

o HPE 3PAR SmartStart

o HPE 3PAR Host Explorer

Note Below are additional HPE 3PAR software options that can be added to a CS700 configuration:

• HPE 3PAR Virtual Copy Software

• HPE 3PAR System Reporter (Note: comes with 3PAR 8000)

• HPE 3PARInfo

• HPE 3PAR Adaptive Optimization

• HPE 3PAR Dynamic Optimization

• HPE 3PAR Priority Optimization

• HPE 3PAR Remote Copy Software

• HPE 3PAR Peer Persistence

• HPE 3PAR Virtual Domains

• HPE 3PAR Virtual Lock

• HPE 3PAR Peer Motion

• HPE 3PAR Online Import Software


• For HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware, the following additional software components are included:

– HPE OneView for VMware vCenter Server

HPE OneView for vCenter Server Module

HPE OneView for vCenter Storage Module

HPE 3PAR Management Plug-in and Recovery Manager for VMware vSphere Web Services

– HPE OneView for vRealize Operations Manager

– HPE Insight Control Server Provisioning

– Microsoft Windows Server® 2012 R2 Standard Edition

– HPE VSR1000 Virtual Services Router

– VMware vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM)

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus

VMware vRealize Operations Standard

– VMware vCenter Server

– HPE 3PAR Application Software Suite for VMware vSphere

HPE 3PAR Recovery Manager for VMware vSphere

HPE 3PAR Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter

HPE 3PAR vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) support

HPE 3PAR VAAI Plug-in

HPE 3PAR Host Explorer for VMware vSphere

• Services

– HPE Factory Express services

– Onsite installation and start-up service

– Solution-level support services, including selectable HPE Care Pack services

• Options

– You can tailor certain solution components to meet your particular needs Appendix A—Solution hardware configuration


Single-rack solution with one c7000 enclosure and 3PAR StoreServ storage

Figure 2. Front view of an HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution featuring two workload servers and 3PAR StoreServ Storage

Note The HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage configuration may vary depending on the customer order.


Multi-rack solution compute rack with two c7000 enclosures

Figure 3. Front and rear views of the compute and storage resources for HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution featuring two c7000 enclosures and HPE StoreServ 7400c 4-node Storage.

To help size an appropriate HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution, Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends a range of configurations, outlined in Table 1.

For more information on HPE CS700, refer to HPE ConvergedSystem 700 2.0 QuickSpecs.

HPE Converged Architecture 700 overview The HPE Converged Architecture 700 is delivered as a flexible and validated reference architecture. HPE has done all the engineering, design and testing so you don’t have to. It provides configuration, sizing, bill of materials and deployment details that reduce your risk and TCO. Based on a full HPE stack of HPE BladeSystem, HPE 3PAR Storage, HPE Networking and HPE OneView infrastructure management software, the HPE Converged Architecture 700 can be easily modified to fit within your existing networking requirements to accommodate the tools you use and support multi-generational HPE ProLiant server blades, including ProLiant Gen9. This architecture delivers interoperability with a choice of third-party top-of-rack network switches and hypervisors from leading industry vendors. The HPE Converged Architecture 700 provides an easy upgrade path to HPE Helion CloudSystem. You can deploy at your site with your trusted Channel Partner who can provide value add services tailored to fit your needs. Rounding out the solution is a variety of lifecycle support options that are also available.

Table 2. Variety of lifecycle support options

Fast

From faster time to value to faster problem resolution

Simple

Easy to buy, manage and support

Efficient

Increased IT operational efficiency, performance and SLA while reducing infrastructure costs

• Converged Architecture is based on purpose-built, repeatable building blocks designed for speed and efficiency

• Deploy with trusted HPE partners who can provide value added services to address your needs.

• Accelerate enterprise workload deployment such as virtualization and cloud computing up to 66X faster

• Design delivers openness, choice in third-party networking to fit your workloads, protection for your investments

• A variety of lifecycle support options tailored to fit your needs

• Validated reference architecture designs for your most common workloads

• Simplify IT operations with leading management and support

• Channel delivery provides increased choice and flexible integration, either on-site at customer or through channel partner

• Validated and designed for enterprise scalability

• Tuned for your trusted channel partner via integration

• Delivers business agility and provides an easy upgrade path to HPE Helion CloudSystem

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HPE 3PAR StoreServ – key features and benefits HPE ConvergedSystem 700 employs industry-leading HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage, which offers the performance and flexibility necessary to accelerate new application deployments as well as support mixed workload environments, on-demand IT infrastructure and cloud deployments.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage has been designed to meet today’s most challenging workloads and includes features that satisfy critical business requirements. This includes:

• High Availability

– High availability is a critical requirement that is built into the HPE 3PAR StoreServ Architecture providing full hardware redundancy. Controller node pairs are connected to dual-ported drive enclosures owned by that pair. Unlike other approaches, the system offers both hardware and software fault tolerance by running separate instances of the HPE 3PAR Operating System on each controller node, thus facilitating the availability of customer data. With this design, software and firmware failures—a significant cause of unplanned downtime—are greatly reduced.

• Multi-tenancy

– With HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage, you can securely partition resources within a shared infrastructure in order to pool physical storage resources for lower storage costs without compromising security or performance. HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage was built from the ground up to deliver multi-tenant resiliency that supports massive consolidation with ultra-high performance. The multi-controller scalability and extreme flexibility makes deploying and maintaining separate storage siloes to deliver different QoS levels a thing of the past. One-click autonomic rebalancing enables you to enhance QoS levels without service disruption, preplanning, or the need to purchase separate arrays to support different service levels.

• High and predictable performance

– The ability of HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage to maintain high and predictable performance in multi-tenant environments is made possible through architectural innovations that eliminate resource contention, support mixed workloads, and enhance caching algorithms to accelerate performance and reduce latency. Specific features included to enhance performance include:

Load balancing—symmetrical load balancing and utilization of all controllers with seamless performance scalability

Mixed workload support—allows different workloads to run on the same storage resource without contention

Storage quality of service—delivers predictable tiered service levels

Adaptive flash cache—reduces application response times for read intensive workloads

Express Writes—introduces optimizations aimed at improving host write latency

• Data Compaction

– Reducing capacity requirements by mitigating overprovisioning and using enterprise class data compaction technologies enable fast, simple, automated space reclamation essential to the efficiency of HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage. Compaction technologies included with HPE ConvergedSystem 700 such as thin provisioning, thin deduplication, and thin reclamation offer efficiency benefits for storage that can significantly reduce both capital and operational costs with spinning media and SSDs.

• Autonomic storage management

– The OS within HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage helps simplify, automate, and expedite storage management by handling provisioning, tiering, and change management automatically and intelligently. This happens at a subsystem level, without administrator intervention.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage is also backed by the Get 6-Nines Guarantee, which stands behind the ability of all quad-node and larger HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems to deliver 99.9999 percent data availability.


HPE ProLiant BL460c/DL360 Gen9 servers The HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 workload servers used in HPE ConvergedSystem 700 have been engineered to deliver industry-leading performance—up to a 40 percent increase over previous generations. Embedded management enhancements include Integrated Lifecycle Automation capabilities enabled by innovations such as Intelligent Provisioning for easy system setup, Active health for agentless hardware monitoring and alerting, and Smart Update for automated firmware and system software maintenance. The BL460c Gen9 server blades also utilize HPE OneView to automate key management processes, including the system’s physical development, configuration and problem management.

We’ve engineered the BL460c Gen9 server blade to get the most out of the latest advances in processors, memory, networking technology and new management solutions through these features:

• Intel-based blades: sockets for up to two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors with up to 18 cores each

• 16 DDR4 DIMM sockets for up to 512 GB of HPE SmartMemory and a maximum memory speed up to 2133 MHz

• Connectors for up to two PCIe mezzanine cards (two x 16)

• Onboard storage with flexible HPE Smart Array controller options

• HPE FlexibleLOM technology with 20 Gb adapters

• Internal USB 3.0 port

• HPE Power Regulator for ProLiant

• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) for full configuration and management flexibility (with legacy BIOS mode still supported)

The Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors and the DDR4 memory offer a performance increase of up to 70 percent over previous server blades.4

The HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blade comes with iLO 4, the latest iLO firmware for the iLO management engine.

HPE ConvergedSystem 700 provides the flexibility to configure each c7000 enclosure with 2–16 BL460c Gen9 server blades that are equipped with Intel Xeon processors. For a full list of available processors, refer to Appendix A—Solution hardware configuration. Additional flexibility is provided in the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 to configure the BL460c Gen95 servers to boot from either the local hard drives or the Storage Area Network (SAN).6

Redundant HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers are used as management servers in HPE ConvergedSystem 700, delivering exemplary performance and efficiency in a compact 1U size. Ideal for any cloud environment, this server is designed for high-performance workloads, with the adaptability you need to satisfy future requirements.

HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers include significant innovations that accelerate performance dramatically and address IT complexity, efficiency, and management concerns with:

• Modular, flexible designs that adapt to application needs easily

• Increased I/O density on 1U form factor for more expansion capabilities

• 2-socket architecture accommodating up to two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors

• HPE DDR4 SmartMemory running at 2133 MHz

• Improved component layout and airflow; systems are compliant with ASHRAE expanded operating ranges allowing more energy efficient cooling strategies

• HPE On System, On Premise, and On Cloud management technologies for accelerating IT service delivery

For more information on the server configurations used in HPE ConvergedSystem 700, refer to Appendix A—Solution hardware configuration.

4 Intel performance testing on platform with two E5-2697 v2 (12C, 2.7 GHz), 8x8 GB DDR3-1866, RHEL 6.3. Platform with two E5-2697 v3 (14C, 2.6 GHz, 145 W), 8x8 GB DDR4-

2133, RHEL 6.3, April 2014. 5 Boot from SAN not supported on DL360 Gen9 Servers. 6 OS must support boot from SAN.

http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04380273



Enhancing performance, efficiency, and security with Intel Xeon processors Powering HPE ConvergedSystem 700 is the Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 series processor in the BL460c Gen9 server blade. This processor has from 4 to 18 cores (in increments of two), and features an integrated Northbridge and a quad-channel DDR4 memory controller that works with registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) and load-reduced DIMMs (LR-DIMMs). The Intel E5-2600 v3 processor offers a maximum QPI speed of 9.6 GT/s and includes a last-level cache (LLC) of up to 45 MB (for the E5-2699 v3).

HPE ProLiant Gen9 server blades feature these Intel Xeon processor capabilities:

• Processor Internal Sensors and Thermal Control—Protection against over-temperature conditions.

• Cache parity/ECC—Protects cache data from accidental data corruption due to particle hits, etc.

• Legacy Error Mode—Corrupt data is contained before it is consumed to ensure data corruption does not occur.

• QPI Protocol Protection via Cycle Redundancy Check (CRC)—Automatically detects data errors using a checksum of either 8 bits or 16 bits.

• QPI Link Level Retry—Retransmits when a transient error is detected on the QPI link.

• PCIe Advanced Error Reporting—Enhanced PCIe reporting features such as finer granularity in defining the error type, ability to specify the severity of each uncorrectable error, error logging, ability to identify the source of an error, and more.

• Direct Media Interface link (DMI)—A x4 bidirectional chip-to-chip interconnect between the processor and chipset. The DMI link provides 2.0 GB/s of bandwidth in each direction (upstream and downstream).

• Internal processor sensors and thermal control—Protection against over-temperature conditions.

Networking HPE ConvergedSystem 700 utilizes HPE OneView to manage the solution. HPE ConvergedSystem 700 solution network traffic is contained within the solution’s HPE FlexFabric 5900AF or Cisco Nexus switch infrastructure, providing high speed, low latency connections.

Note HPE OneView, which is bundled with HPE ConvergedSystem 700, provides support for up to 256 domains, 1,000 enclosures, and 16,000 servers.

Networks in HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware The following networks have been implemented in HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware:

• Workload servers

– Solution Management Network—Isolates network traffic for management and provides access to management VMs

– Production Network—Isolates network traffic for production VMs and provides a link to your data center

– Data Center Management Network—Enables management access, if desired, to the infrastructure components in the solution

– Compute Migration Network—Allows production VMs to be migrated between vSphere hosts using the vMotion feature

– Solution Compute High Availability Network—Helps ensure the failover of production VMs following a failure in one of the workload servers

• Management servers

– Solution Management Network—Isolates the network traffic required to manage the solution

– Data Center Management Network—Enables desired management access to the infrastructure components in the solution

– Management Migration Network—Allows management VMs to migrate between management servers using the vMotion feature

– Management High Availability Network—Helps ensure the failover of management VMs following a failure in one of the management servers


Note As part of the traffic isolation scheme, HPE uses VLANs based on VMware’s best practices.

Network connectivity is achieved using the following components:

• Workload servers

– HPE FlexFabric 20Gb 2-port 650FLB FIO Adapter

• Management servers

– HPE Embedded 1Gb Ethernet 4-port 331i Adapter

– HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 556FLR-SFP+ Adapter

• HPE BladeSystem c7000 enclosures

– Redundant HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric 20/40 F8 Modules

• Network switches

– Redundant HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48XG-4QSFP+ and HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48G-4XG-2QSFP+ switches or

– Redundant Cisco Nexus 56128P and 3048TP switches. Nexus 2248PQ switches are leveraged for solutions with five to eight enclosures.

• Networking software

– HPE VSR1000 Virtual Services Router

Note The Data Center Management network is provided to enable desired management access via the HPE VSR1000 Virtual Services Router (VSR1000). The VSR1000 uses network address translation (NAT) technology to convert the IP addresses on the Solution Management Network to the IP addresses of the Customer Datacenter Management network. It also allows for access to the VMware vSphere hosts and VMware vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) software, HPE OneView and Insight Control Server Provisioning and Solution Management VMs from outside of the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 for VMware. This network provides additional connectivity for external management needs or to troubleshoot and resolve issues.

HPE OneView HPE OneView is converged management that eliminates infrastructure complexity with automation simplicity. This modern management architecture is designed to accelerate your IT operations for managing servers, storage, and network resources.

The HPE OneView design is:

• Converged, with an innovative architecture that delivers a unified and consistent management experience across servers, storage, and networking.

• Software-defined, providing software-based control, infrastructure mapping, and a user-centric approach to ensure rapid, repeatable, and reliable operations at lower costs.

• Automated, working as an intelligent hub to streamline the delivery of IT services and to speed the transition to IT-as-a-Service and to the hybrid cloud.

Convergence cuts in half the number of tools required to learn, manage, deploy and integrate infrastructure. The innovative architecture delivers simplified and consistent management across servers, storage, and networking. A single, open management platform supports multiple generations of HPE DL servers, HPE BladeSystem, HPE 3PAR storage, and HPE ConvergedSystem. Integration solutions also allow you to provision and manage lifecycles within familiar consoles like VMware vCenter Server and Operations Manager, Microsoft System Center, and Red Hat® Enterprise Virtualization.


Software-defined approaches to systems management create “get it right” repeatability every time to help you prevent unplanned outages caused by human error or device failure. Profiles and groups capture your best practices and policies to help you increase productivity and enable compliance and consistency. You can also manage this infrastructure programmatically using powerful APIs build on industry standards such as REST. These APIs are easily accessible from any programming language and SDKs are provided for interfaces, Windows® PowerShell, and Python scripts.

Automation can streamline your delivery of IT services and speed your transition to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and hybrid cloud delivery. Using HPE OneView as an intelligent hub provides you a closed-loop automation with consistent APIs, data model, and state-change message bus. Your virtualization administrators can automate control of HPE compute, storage, and networking resources using VMware vCenter or Microsoft System Center without having detailed knowledge of each device. The result: tasks, processes, and projects are accomplished faster and with more consistency than the older patchwork approaches to management.

These innovations in HPE OneView can reduce your OPEX and improve your business agility. HPE OneView is your converged management foundation to free your resources for new business initiatives, whether that is “lights-out automation” or “enabling infrastructure” for a hybrid, heterogeneous cloud. Efficiently transition from your current HPE and third-party infrastructure, tools, and processes to your vision of IT-as-a-Service using HPE OneView.

HPE OneView simplification through convergence • Leveraging the power of HPE management through one interface

• Intelligent Provisioning

• Array Configuration Utility

• Integrated Lights-Out 4 (iLO 4)

• HPE Smart Update Manager

• HPE Systems Insight Manager

• HPE Virtual Connect Manager / VCEM

• Onboard Administrator

• HPE 3PAR array management

Figure 4. HPE OneView


VMware vSphere VMware vSphere is an optimal virtualization platform and enabler for cloud computing architectures. vSphere enables IT to meet service level agreements (SLAs) for the most demanding business-critical applications at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). VMware vSphere delivers control over all IT resources with the highest efficiency and choice in the industry, as shown below.

VMware vSphere virtualization solutions provide for:

• Consolidation. VMware virtualization allows multiple application servers to be consolidated onto one physical server, with little or no decrease in the overall performance. This helps to minimize or eliminate underutilized server hardware, software, and infrastructure.

• Manageability. The live migration of virtual machines from server to server and the associated storage is performed with no downtime using VMware vSphere vMotion, which simplifies common operations such as hardware maintenance, and VMware vSphere Storage vMotion.

• Availability. High availability can be enabled to reduce unplanned downtime and enable higher service levels for applications. VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) ensures that, in the event of an unplanned hardware failure, the affected virtual machines are automatically restarted on another host in a VMware cluster.

• Automation. VMware automated load balancing takes advantage of vMotion and Storage vMotion to migrate virtual machines among a set of VMware ESXi hosts. VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and VMware vSphere Storage DRS enable automatic resource relocation and optimization decisions for virtual machines and storage.

• Provisioning. VMware virtualization encapsulates an application into an image that can be duplicated or moved, greatly reducing the cost of application provisioning and deployment.

Existing Applications Future Applications

Private Cloud Resource Pools Public Cloud

VMware vSphere

ApplicationServices

InfrastructureServices

Availability Scalability

Storage Network

Security

Compute

vMotionStorage vMotionHAFault ToleranceData Recovery

vShield ZonesVMSafe

DRSHot Add

ESX and ESXiDRS and DPMMemory Overcommit

VMFSThin ProvisioningStorage I/O Control

Distributed SwitchNetwork I/O Control

VMware vCenter Suite

App App App AppApp App App App

Figure 5. VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure


VMware vSphere vMotion VMware vSphere vMotion enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another with zero downtime, continuous service availability, and complete transaction integrity. vMotion is a key enabling technology for creating the dynamic, automated, and self-optimizing data center. This capability makes hardware maintenance possible at any time, and vMotion does not require clustering or redundant servers, as shown below.

Figure 6. VMware vSphere vMotion

VMware vSphere vMotion features include the following:

• Moves entire running virtual machines instantly. Performs live migrations with zero downtime, undetectable to the user.

• Manages and schedules live migrations with ease at pre-defined times without an administrator’s presence, with the reliability and manageability that is derived from a production-proven product.

• Performs multiple concurrent migrations of a virtual machine running any operating system, across any type of hardware and storage that is supported by vSphere, complete with an audit trail.

• Moves online workloads from one ESXi server host machine to another in order to maintain service levels and performance goals.

• Continuously and automatically optimizes virtual machine placement within resource pools. Proactively moves virtual machines away from failing or underperforming servers.

• Performs hardware maintenance without the need to schedule downtime and disrupt business operations.

VMware vSphere vMotion is enabled by these underlying technologies:

• The state of a virtual machine is encapsulated by a set of files stored on shared storage, such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS). VMware Storage Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) allows multiple installations of VMware ESXi to access the same virtual machine files concurrently.

• The active memory and precise execution state of the virtual machine is rapidly transferred over a high-speed network, allowing the virtual machine to instantaneously switch from running on the source ESXi host to the destination ESXi host.

• vMotion keeps the transfer period imperceptible to users by keeping track of on-going memory transactions in a bitmap. Once the entire memory and system state has been copied over to the target ESXi host, vMotion suspends the source virtual machine, copies the bitmap to the target ESXi host, and resumes the virtual machine on the target ESXi host. This entire process takes less than two seconds on a Gigabit Ethernet network.

• The networks being used by the virtual machine are also virtualized by the underlying ESXi host, ensuring that even after the migration, the virtual machine network identity and network connections are preserved. vMotion manages the virtual MAC address as part of the process. Once the destination machine is activated, vMotion pings the network router to ensure that it is aware of the new physical location of the virtual MAC address. Since the migration of a virtual machine with vMotion preserves the precise execution state, the network identity, and the active network connections, the result is zero downtime and no disruption to users.


For more information on VMware vSphere vMotion, visit: vmware.com/products/vsphere/vmotion.html

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is an automated load balancing technology that aligns resource usage with business priority by enabling automated load balancing across hosts, balances computing capacity, and it optimizes power consumption in the data center by turning off hosts during lower load periods. DRS continuously monitors utilization across vSphere servers and intelligently allocates available resources among virtual machines according to business needs. DRS takes advantage of vMotion to migrate virtual machines among a set of ESXi hosts.

DRS enables automatic initial virtual machine placement on any of the hosts in the cluster. It also makes automatic resource relocation and optimization decisions as hosts and virtual machines are added or removed from the cluster, or the load on individual virtual machines goes up or down. VMware DRS makes cluster wide resource pools possible. When DRS is configured for manual control, it makes recommendations for review and later implementation only; there is no automated activity.

DRS also provides the capability to control the placement of virtual machines based on different affinity rules. This enables virtual machines to be placed based on high availability or other business criticality requirement.

Figure 7. VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

For more information on VMware vSphere DRS, visit: vmware.com/products/vsphere/drs-dpm.html

VMware High Availability (HA) VMware HA delivers the high availability many applications running in virtual machines require, independent of the operating system or underlying hardware configuration. HA provides failover protection from hardware and operating system failures in the virtualized IT environment by:

• Monitoring virtual machines to detect operating system and hardware failures.

• Restarting virtual machines on other physical servers in the resource pool, without manual intervention when a server failure is detected.

• Protecting applications from operating system failures by automatically restarting virtual machines when an operating system failure is detected.

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/vmotion.html

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/drs-dpm.html


Resource Pool

VMware ESXi VMware ESXi VMware ESXi

Figure 8. VMware High Availability

The VMware cluster provides the power of multiple hosts with the simplicity of managing a single entity. It enables the aggregation of the hardware resources of individual ESXi server hosts, and manages the resources as if they are residing on a single host. VMware HA allows virtual machines running on a specific ESXi host to be restarted automatically using other host resources in the cluster, in the case of host machine failures.

VMware HA continuously monitors all ESXi server hosts in a cluster and detects failures. The VMware HA agent placed on each host maintains a heartbeat with the other hosts in the cluster using the service console network. Each server sends heartbeats to the other servers in the cluster at five-second intervals. If any servers lose heartbeat over three consecutive heartbeat intervals, VMware HA initiates the failover action of restarting all affected virtual machines on other hosts.

VMware HA also monitors whether sufficient resources are available in the cluster at all times, in order to be able to restart virtual machines on different physical host machines, in the event of host failure. Safe restart of virtual machines is made possible by the locking technology in the ESXi server storage stack, which allows multiple ESXi server hosts to have simultaneous access to the same virtual machine files.

Figure 9. Host failover using VMware HA

For more information on VMware HA, visit: vmware.com/products/vsphere/high-availability.html

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/high-availability.html


VMware vSphere App HA VMware vSphere App HA is a virtual appliance introduced with vSphere 5.5 vSphere App HA works with vSphere HA host and virtual machine (VM) monitoring to improve application uptime and provide high availability (HA). The feature can restart an application service if it detects a failure and can reset a VM if the application fails to restart.

vSphere App HA uses VMware vFabric Hyperic to monitor applications, Hyperic stores and manages App HA policies, which are configured in the administration section of the vSphere Web Client. Policies define items such as the number of times vSphere App HA will attempt to restart a service, the number of minutes it will wait for the service to start and when to reset a VM if a service is unstable.

Figure 10. VMware App HA

For more information on VMware App HA, visit: vmware.com/products/vsphere/features/application-HA

Configuring VMware vSphere HA and DRS on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700 This section will provide specific details and recommendations on how to configure VMware HA and DRS for use on HPE ConvergedSystem 700. It is expected that the reader already has some familiarity with the major underlying technologies such as VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter Server, storage, networking, etc. Several links are provided below to enhance the reader’s comprehension on these technologies.

Configuring VMware vSphere 5.5 and vCenter Server Configuring VMware vSphere 5.5 Refer to http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-installation-setup-guide.pdf for installing and configuring VMware vSphere 5.5.

Configuring VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Refer to vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vcenter/vmware-vcenter-server-55-technical-whitepaper.pdf for installing and configuring VMware vCenter Server 5.5.

Networking recommendations • Redundant HA Network

• Fewest hops possible

• Consistent portgroup names, network labels

• Rote based on originating port ID

• Failback policy = No

• Enable PortFast, Edge, etc.

• MTU size the same

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/features/application-HA

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-installation-setup-guide.pdf

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vcenter/vmware-vcenter-server-55-technical-whitepaper.pdf


Storage recommendations • Storage Heartbeats

– All hosts in cluster should see the same datastores

• Heartbeat datastore

– Fault isolated from the HA network

– Resilient to failures

• Override auto-selected

– Datastores if necessary

Installing and configuring VMware vFabric Hyperic and vSphere App HA Configuring vFabric Hyperic server Refer to https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_hyperic/5_8 for downloading vFabric Hyperic server.

Download the vFabric Hyperic server OVF file and import it as a template, then configure it accordingly.

As shown in Figure 11, once the vFabric Hyperic server OVF template is imported successfully, there are two VMs that have been created under vFabric Hyperic Thin App with the names of vCenter_Hyperic_Server and vFabric_vPostgres_DB.

Figure 11. VMware vFabric Hyperic Server

Refer to http://pubs.vmware.com/hyperic-58/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vcenter-hyperic-58-installation-and-configuration-guide.pdf for vFabric Hyperic installation and configuration.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_hyperic/5_8

http://pubs.vmware.com/hyperic-58/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vcenter-hyperic-58-installation-and-configuration-guide.pdf


Figure 12 shows the Hyperic Server UI, if the Hyperic Server and vFabric Postgres DB VMs have been installed and configured properly.

Figure 12. VMware vFabric Hyperic Server UI

Deploying vSphere App HA Refer to https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=353&downloadGroup=APPHA-110 for downloading vSphere App HA.

Download the vSphere App HA OVF file and import it on vCenter Server, then follow the configuration steps.

For more information on vSphere App HA installation and configuration, visit: http://pubs.vmware.com/appha-1/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-app-ha-install-guide-1.pdf

As shown in Figure 13, once the vSphere App HA has been installed and configure properly, the new vSphere App HA tab has been created under the Administration navigation tab, and the new plug-in has been enabled with the name of vSphere App HA with version and status of the plugin.

Figure 13. VMware vSphere App HA

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=353&downloadGroup=APPHA-110

http://pubs.vmware.com/appha-1/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-app-ha-install-guide-1.pdf


Configuring vSphere App HA To set up the vSphere App HA, one should know the vFabric Hyperic server hostname, Port number (the recommendation is to use the default value 7443), and login credentials.

Figure 14 shows the settings of vFabric Hyperic server connectivity under the vSphere App HA tab on the Administration navigation menu.

Figure 14. VMware vSphere App HA settings

Configuring VMware vSphere HA through vCenter cluster Now, VMware App HA, VMware vFabric Hyperic Server, storage, and networking have been configured and the infrastructure is ready to provide data availability to all mission critical applications running in the virtual machines on the CS700.

When creating a vSphere HA cluster, you must configure the additional settings listed below:

Host Monitoring: Enable host monitoring to allow hosts in the cluster to exchange network heartbeats and to allow vSphere HA to take action when it detects failures.

Admission Control: Enable or disable admission control for the vSphere HA cluster and choose a policy for how it is enforced.

VM Monitoring: Enable VM Monitoring or VM and Application Monitoring.

Monitoring Sensitivity: High

Datastore Heartbeating: Specify preferences for the datastores that vSphere HA uses for datastore heartbeating.

Advanced Options: None


As shown in Figure 15, one must edit the Cluster Settings. Select the “Turn ON vSphere HA” cluster option, check the “Enable Host Monitoring” option, check “Enable Admission Control”, and under VM Monitoring Status select “VM and Application Monitoring”.

Figure 15. VMware vSphere HA cluster settings

Configuring VMware vSphere DRS through vCenter cluster In Figure 16, the “Turn ON vSphere DRS” option is selected. DRS Automation is set to Fully Automated, Power Management to Manual, and Advanced Options to None.

Figure 16. VMware vSphere DRS cluster settings

If the Power Management option is set to Auto, then un-utilized ESXi hosts will go to standby mode until selected during a failover or switchover scenario.


Discover application servers on vFabric Hyperic server Installing Hyperic agents on application servers In order to discover application servers and monitor application services on vFabric Hyperic server, agents should be installed and configured on application servers.

Download the vFabric Hyperic agents at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_hyperic/5_8

As shown in Figure 17, vFabric Hyperic agent is configured with the Hyperic server address, Hyperic server port (default value), and Hyperic server secure port (default value) and, HQ login as hqadmin.

Figure 17. vFabric Hyperic agent configuration

Refer to http://pubs.vmware.com/vfabric52/topic/com.vmware.vfabric.platform.5.2/vfabric/quick.html for more configuration details about Hyperic server.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_hyperic/5_8

http://pubs.vmware.com/vfabric52/topic/com.vmware.vfabric.platform.5.2/vfabric/quick.html


Configuring application service in Hyperic server Once Hyperic agents are installed and configured properly, application servers will appear with the available services in the Auto-Discovery menu on the Hyperic server home page.

Figure 18 lists the discovered application services. Choose only critical services, then select Add to Inventory. The newly added resources are displayed in the Recently Added tab on the Hyperic server home page.

Figure 18. Discover application services on Hyperic server

Next, create a service policy for the appropriate application servers Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle 11g. As shown in Figure 19, set the “Restart service” time when it fails (3 minutes in this example), check the “Reset the VM in the event of a failed restart attempt” box, check “Reset the VM in the event that the service is unstable”, and select the default values for “Number of service restarts” and “Time window”, but adjust as necessary over time.

Figure 19. Create a service policy


Once the service policies are created, they have to be assigned to the appropriate application servers – in this case, Oracle 11g_Service to Oracle, and MsSQL_Service policy to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 – under the Application Availability tab under the vCenter Cluster Monitor navigation menu.

Figure 20. Assign and verify Application Service policy

Use cases VMware vSphere host fails in vCenter cluster This scenario simulates a physical VMware vSphere host failure. In this use case, the cluster has 4 ESXi hosts: ESXi-Node1, ESXi-Node2, ESXi-Node3 and ESXi-Node4. Except for ESXi-Node4 (standby ESXi host), the ESXi hosts have two application servers running on VMs. ESXi-Node1 has two VMs running Microsoft SQL Server 2012. If the physical node ESXi-Node1 fails, the VMware vSphere HA detects the failure and moves both VMs to the standby host, ESXi-Node4, using vMotion technology.

vMotion

Figure 21. vSphere host failure scenario overview


As shown in Figure 22, the host ESXi-Node1 has failed and both application servers are disconnected in powered on state. On the left side of the pane, the critical state of ESXi-Node1 is displayed using a red exclamation symbol as shown in the figure below.

Figure 22. vSphere host failure detected

Figure 23 shows that ESXi-Node1 has failed and both application servers are now disconnected, the application service Availability Status is changed to “Agent is unsynchronized”.

Figure 23. Application Service Availability status

Once the virtual servers running the applications are moved to ESXi-Node4, they are powered on and it can be verified that the MsSQL 2012 service is restarted and running as shown in Figure 24 below. This indicates both application servers are protected by VMware vSphere HA.

Figure 24. Application server’s migration using vMotion


Once the VMs are moved to the ESXi-Node4, the Hyperic server detects the application is running again and changes the application services Availability Status to “Available” as shown below in Figure 25.

Figure 25. Verify Application Service policy

Once the VMs are moved to ESXi-Node4 and the VMs are up, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 has started to recover the database as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 service recovery log


Application service and OS crash recovery This scenario simulates an application service recovery running on the vSphere hosts which is configured in vFabric Hyperic server. The vFabric Hyperic server monitors all the services via the Hyperic agents installed on the application servers. When any failures (application crash, application is not responding within the specified time interval in the Application service defined policy in the Configuring application service in Hyperic server section, or OS crash) occur, vFabric Hyperic server will try to restart the appropriate service. If the service restart is not successful, then vFabric Hyperic will try to reset the application server and ensure the application service is running again.

Application crash recovery OS crash recovery

Figure 27. Application crash or OS crash recovery

Microsoft SQL and Oracle database service recovery This scenario simulates Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Oracle 11g Release 2 service recovery. In this use case the VMs are up and running, but the MsSQL 2012 and Oracle 11gR2 service is down due to a failure or is not reachable. The Microsoft SQL Server 2012 service is configured on a VM named MSSQL2012-Node1 and Oracle 11g Release 2 service is configured on a VM named Oracle11gR2_Node3. Due to the service not reachable condition, the vFabric Hyperic server marks the current status of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Oracle 11g Release 2 services’ Availability Status as “Unavailable” as shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Oracle 11g Release 2 service unavailable


In Figure 29, the vFabric Hyperic server detects the MSSQLSERVER and Oracle service failure on the MSSQL2012-Node1 and Oracle11gR2_Node3 VMs using VMware App HA plugin on MSSQL2012-Node1 VM and Oracle11gR2_Node3. The vFabric Hyperic server tries to restart the services as per the policy defined and ensures the services are up and running. The services were successfully restarted on the same vSphere host.

Figure 29. MsSQL Server 2012 and Oracle service recovery

Figure 30 shows the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 service has been recovered and the Application Service Availability is now “Available”.

Figure 30. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Oracle 11g Release 2 service


Figure 31 shows the Oracle 11g Release 2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 current database status after service recovery.

Figure 31. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Oracle 11g Release 2 service status


Performing enclosure failover and recovery on the HPE CS700 The CS700 can be configured with multiple enclosures. Customers running this type of configuration could take advantage of the situation and implement a failover strategy across enclosures. Please note, this is not necessarily based on the c7000 chassis average availability and MTBF described in the Solution overview section.

This scenario describes an enclosure failure on the CS700. In this use case, we have two enclosures and in each enclosure we have four vSphere hosts on which multiple VMs are running. All vSphere hosts are part of the same VMware vSphere cluster. In case of the rare event of an enclosure failure, VMware vSphere HA will detect the vSphere host’s failure and migrate all the VMs that were running on the failed vSphere host to another enclosure using VMware vMotion technology. VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler could be combined with VMware vSphere HA for a better placement of the VMs to guarantee a well-balanced resource utilization.

VMware ESX

VMware ESXi VMware ESXi

Resource Pool

ESXi-Node1

ESXi-Node2

ESXi-Node3

ESXi-Node4

ESXi-Node5

ESXi-Node6

ESXi-Node7

ESXi-Node8

Encl

osur

e-1

Encl

osur

e-2

Figure 32. Enclosure failover on CS700 environment


In Figure 33, Enclosure-1 and Enclosure-2 are running multiple vSphere hosts, all belonging to the same cluster, CS700 cluster. Multiple VMs are running in the cluster. ESXi-Node1 to ESXi-Node3 belong to Enclosure-1 and ESXi-Node5 to ESXI-Node8 belong to Enclosure-2. In Figure 32, all VMs running on Enclosure-1 are marked inside a red rectangle and the ones running on Enclosure-2 in a blue rectangle.

Figure 33. vSphere Hosts configuration in the two enclosures

Figure 34 shows the failure of Enclosure-1. VMware HA has detected the failure and marked all nodes down

Figure 34. Enclosure-1 failure detected


Figure 35 shows all the failed VMs previously running on the vSphere hosts located in Enclosure-1 have now been moved to the vSphere hosts in Enclosure-2.

Figure 35. Failed VMs moved to Enclosure-2 using VMware vMotion

Once all the VMs are moved to Enclosure-2, all the vFabric Hyperic agents are synchronized with the vFabric Hyperic server. The Application Service Availability status will be changed to “Available” as indicated in Figure 36.

Figure 36. Application service status


Figures 37 and Figure 38 show that both Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases have successfully restarted.

Figure 37. Checking Oracle database availability

Figure 38. Checking Microsoft SQL Server database availability


As shown in Figure 39, the Microsoft SQL Server database has been reset recently according to the uptime parameter on Task Manager.

Figure 39. Windows Microsoft SQL Server database uptime

VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) with VMware vSphere HA on CS700 DRS ensures that resource policies are satisfied and balances load across a cluster when appropriate. We varied the workload intensity to saturate either the CPU or the memory resource allocated to the virtual machines. DRS algorithms should respond dynamically to the resource allocation changes for the virtual machines and resource pools.

In this scenario, the VM MSSQL-Node1 memory utilization was more than 98% which resulted in application bottleneck. Therefore, the application availability status was Agent unsynchronized. VMware vSphere DRS algorithms were triggered and balanced the resources across the vCenter cluster by moving the virtual machine to another ESXi host using VMware vMotion. In addition, VMware App HA was monitoring the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 service availability.

VMware ESX

Resource Pool

VMware ESXi VMware ESXi VMware ESXi

MsSQL2012 Oracle 11g

VMware ESXi

MsSQL2012 MsSQL2012 Oracle 11g Oracle 11g

ESXi-Node2 ESXi-Node1 ESXi-Node4 ESXi-Node3

vMotion

Figure 40. VMware vSphere DRS in action


As shown in Figure 41, the ESXi guest MSSQL-Node1 memory utilization usage was more than 98% due to application usage.

Figure 41. ESXi Guest memory utilization reaching a critical point

As shown in Figure 42, due to high memory usage on MSSQL-Node1, the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 application Availability Status was “Agent is unsynchronized” under the Application Availability tab since vFabric Hyperic agent is not able to reach the vFabric Hyperic server.

Figure 42. Application Service Availability

Once the memory utilization reaches a high peak (98%), DRS moves the MSSQL2012-Node1 VM from ESXi-Node1 host to ESXi-Node4 and balances the resources utilization on the VMware cluster as shown in Figure 43.

Figure 43. Resource utilization after DRS activation


Once the MSSQL_2012-Node1 VM moves to the ESXi-Node4, vFabric Hyperic agent synchronizes with vFabric Hyperic server, then the Application Service Availability status changes to “Available” on the Application Availability tab as shown in Figure 44.

Figure 44. VMware DRS

Summary VMware HA, along with new VMware Infrastructure capabilities of clusters and resource pools and tighter integration with other VMware tools such as Virtual Center, vMotion, and VMware DRS, greatly simplifies virtual machine provisioning, resource allocation, load balancing, and migration, while also providing an easy-to-use, cost-effective high-availability and failover solution for applications running in virtual machines on HPE ConvergedSystem 700 environments. Using VMware Infrastructure and VMware HA helps eliminate single points of failure in the deployment of business-critical applications in virtual machines on the CS700. At the same time, it maintains other inherent virtualization benefits such as higher system utilization, closer alignment of IT resources with business goals and priorities, and more streamlined, simplified, and automated administration of larger infrastructure installations and systems on the HPE ConvergedSystem 700.


Appendix A—Solution hardware configuration Table 3 outlines the hardware configurations deployed in HPE ConvergedSystem 700 based on the number of workload servers and the particular storage solution selected.

Table 3. Hardware and software configurations

Component Quantity Description

Workload server 2–16 per c7000 enclosure

HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blade each with:

• 2 x Intel Xeon processor

E5-2690 v3 (2.66 GHz/12-core), E5-2680 v3 (2.5 GHz/12-core), E5-2670 v3 (2.3 GHz/12-core), E5-2660 v3 (2.6 GHz/10 core), E5-2650 v3 (2.3 GHz/10-core), E5-2640 v3 (2.6 GHz/8 core), E5-2683 v3 (2 GHz/14 core), E5-2630 v3 (2.4 GHz/8 core), E5-2620 v3 (2.4 GHz/6 core), E5-2623 v3 (3 GHz/4 core), E5-2609 v3 (1.9 GHz/6 core), E5-2685 v3 (2.6 GHz/12 core), E5-2603 v3 (1.6 GHz/6 core), E5-2650L v3 (1.8 GHz/12 core), E5-2698 v3 (2.3 GHz/16 core), E5-2630L v3 (1.8 GHz/8 core), E5-2695 v3 (2.3 GHz/14 core), E5-2637 v3 (3.5 GHz/4 core), E5-2697 v3 (2.6 GHz/14 core), E5-2667 v3 (3.2 GHz/8 core), E5-2643 v3 (3.4 GHz/6 core), E5-2699 v3 (2.3 GHz/18 core)

• 64 GB–512 GB

• HPE Smart Array P244br controller and 1G FBWC

• Optional 2 x SAS hard drives (300 GB/15,000 rpm, 450 GB/10,000 rpm, or 600 GB/10,000 rpm)

• 1 x HPE FlexFabric 20Gb 2-port 650FLB FIO Adapter

2-8 per c7000 enclosure

HPE ProLiant WS460c Gen9 server blade

• NVIDIA GRID K1 or K2 Graphics accelerator options

• Mixed blade environment supported

Management server 2 or 4 (See Note) HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 server, each with:

• 2 x Intel Xeon Processor E5-2680 v3 (2.5 GHz/12-core)

• 256 GB RAM

• HPE Smart Array P440ar controller with 2 GB FBWC

• 8 x SAS hard drives (600 GB/10,000 rpm)

• HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 556FLR-SFP+ Adapter

Note: CloudSystem SW option will add an additional 10Gb NIC to each DL360 Gen9 management server on the order.

• HPE 82Q 8Gb Dual Port PCIe Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter

• Optional PCI Card:

HPE StoreFabric CN1200E 10Gb CNA

• SATA DVD-RW optical drive

• Note: CloudSystem SW install option will include DL360 Gen9 server and additional 10Gb NICs for each management server.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage

7200c 2N HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200c Storage in a 42U HPE i–Series rack

7400c 2N or 4N HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7400c Storage in a 42U HPE i–Series rack



Network switches (HPE option)

2 (4 when greater than 4 enclosures)

HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48XG-4QSFP+ Switches

2 HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48G-4XG-2QSFP+ Switches (multi-rack only)

Network switches (Cisco option)

2 (4 when greater than 4 enclosures)

Cisco Nexus 2248PQ and 3048TP

2 Cisco Nexus 56128P (multi-rack only)

SAN switches 2 (4 when greater than 4 enclosures)

HPE SN6000B 16Gb 48/24 Fibre Channel Switches (with an optional upgrade to activate 24 additional ports) or HPE SN6000B 16Gb 48/48 Fibre Channel Switches (multi-rack only)

Flat SAN Single-rack only


Component Quantity Description

Infrastructure 1–8 HPE BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure, each with:

• 2 x HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric 20/40 F8 Modules

• 2 x HPE Onboard Administrator for the HPE BladeSystem c7000 enclosure

1 (1 or 2 c7000 enclosures) or

2 (3, 4, or 5 c7000 enclosures) or

3 (6, 7, or 8 c7000 enclosures)

HPE i–Series rack—42U compute rack

1–2 (Array 1 rack + Optional Array 1 extension rack)

3–4 (Optional Array 2 Rack + Array 2 extension rack)

HPE i–Series rack—42U storage rack


Appendix B—Bill of materials The HPE ConvergedSystem 700 (CS700) is a pre-defined solution with the ability to vary key components to meet a customer’s needs. The product ordering information is defined in detail in the CS700 QuickSpecs in the “How to order” section of that document. This list notes the key customizations used for testing this solution.

(Per Site) HPE ConvergedSystem 700 (CS700) consisting of:

• 8 x HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades

– 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 12-core CPUs @ 2.60 GHz

– 256GB Memory

– HPE Virtual Connect 10GbE FlexFabric

• 2 x HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 (management servers)

– 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 12-core CPUs @ 2.50 GHz

– 256GB Memory

• HPE BladeSystem c7000 enclosure

– 2 x HPE Virtual Connect FlexFabric-20/40 F8 Module

– 2 x HPE Onboard Administrator

• HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7400 4-node

– 120 x 300GB SFF Fast Class (FC) in 10 SFF Drive enclosures

• Switches

– 2 x HPE SN6000B Fibre Channel Switches

– 2 x HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48XG-4QSFP+ Network Switches

– 2 x HPE FlexFabric 5900AF-48G-4XG-2QSFP+ Network Switches

– Optional Cisco Nexus series network switches

2 x Cisco Nexus 56128P Network Switches

2 x Cisco Nexus 3048TP-1GE Network Switches

2 x Cisco Nexus 2248PQ Network Switches

Links to CS700 QuickSpecs The CS700 QuickSpecs can be viewed as HTML at: http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetHtml.aspx?docname=c04505387

The PDF version of the QuickSpecs can be downloaded from: http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04505387

http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetHtml.aspx?docname=c04505387



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© Copyright 2015-2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft, Windows Server, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries. VMware and vSphere are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. NVIDIA is a trademark and/or registered trademark of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

4AA5-8849ENW, June 2018, Rev. 2

Resources and additional links HPE Reference Architectures, hpe.com/info/ra

HPE ConvergedSystem hpe.com/info/convergedsystem

HPE ConvergedSystem 700 hpe.com/us/en/product-catalog/detail/pip.7742821.html

HPE Converged Architectures hpe.com/us/en/products/integrated-systems/converged-architecture.html

Contact Hewlett Packard Enterprise hpe.com/contact

HPE Servers hpe.com/servers

HPE ProLiant BL460c hpe.com/servers/bl460c

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HPE Networking hpe.com/networking

HPE Converged Infrastructure Management (OneView) hpe.com/info/hpeov

HPE Technology Consulting Services hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html

VMware App HA vmware.com/in/products/vsphere/features/application-HA

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HPE Reference Architecture ConvergedSystem 700 …VMware vSphere HA and vSphere DRS on the HPE...

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