Provision NFS/VMFS Datastores using NetApp Virtual Storage Console ! Get-Smart !!

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In my previous blog post “Do you use NetApp Virtual Storage Console for vSphere Infrastructure?” I have provided some details about how NetApp VSC can help vSphere administrators to perform Storage management tasks from vCenter. In this blog post I will describe how easy it is to provision new VMFS/NFS datastores on the vSphere hosts using NetApp Virtual Storage Console plugin for VMware vCenter.  Using NetApp VSC you can provision VMFS/NFS datastores end-to-end i.e. on the Storage Controller and also on the ESXi hosts using a single workflow.

How does this help vSphere & Storage Admins?

• With a single workflow you can complete the provisioning faster because now as vSphere Admins you don’t have to wait for Storage Admin to provision and present the LUNs to the ESXi hosts or create NFS volumes.
• Using a single provisioning workflow you can provision VMFS/NFS datastores to all the ESXi hosts in a cluster.
• While creating the NFS exports on the Storage the export policy and rule is created using the best practices of NetApp NFS and vSphere.
• While creating FC & iSCSI LUNs, Igroups are created automatically and the WWPN or IQN of the ESXi hosts is added automatically, resulting in reduced human error.
• It’s not limited only to provisioning new VMFS/NFS datastores, using VSC you can also mount existing datastores.

Demo – Provisioning new NFS volume

In this demo I will try to provision an NFS volume on all ESXi hosts in a cluster.

To provision NFS datastores on all the ESXi hosts in the cluster, right click on the Cluster > NetApp > Provisioning and Cloning > Provision Datastore

Select the vFiler (for 7 Mode) & Cluster (for Clustered Data ONTAP) from the Target Storage Controller list.

 

Select the type of datastore that you want to provision

 

While creating a NFS volume, you may choose any available Aggregate on the controller that meets your requirements.  You have to specify the size, datastore name and also check Thin Provision if you want to thin provision volumes. Alternatively you may also check the Auto-grow option for the Thin Provisioned volumes.

 

Review the details and click Apply to create the NFS datastore

 

While the datastore is being created, monitor the tasks and events tab and you will find that the volume was provisioned on the NetApp storage and mounted to the ESXi hosts in the cluster. In this example I have two ESXi hosts in the cluster and the volume gets mounted to the ESXi hosts automatically. VSC has automatically created the following tasks on the ESXi hosts in the cluster. Doesn’t this help? especially if you have more than 8 ESXi hosts in the cluster.

 

Demo – Provisioning new VMFS volume

In this demo I will try to provision an VMFS volume on all ESXi hosts in a cluster.

To provision VMFS datastores on all the ESXi hosts in the cluster, right click on the Cluster > NetApp > Provisioning and Cloning > Provision Datastore

Select the vFiler (for 7 Mode) & Cluster (for Clustered Data ONTAP) from the Target Storage Controller list. If you select Clustered Data ONTAP, you would also get an option to select the available Vserver from this storage.

 

Select the type of datastore that you want to provision

 

Consider the following while providing the datastore details:

• Select the available protocol either FCP or iSCSI
• Specify the size in GB and provide a descriptive Datastore Name to the volume
• Create new volume container : If you select this option a new Volume would be created in the Aggregate that you select. Note with NetApp each LUN is created inside a Volume which is stored on an Aggregate.
• Thin Provision: Select this option if you want to create a Thin provisioned LUN
• Datastore Cluster: Select a Datastore Cluster that is already configured in vCenter.

Review the details and click Apply to create the volume

 

VSC has automatically created the following tasks on the ESXi hosts in the cluster. Doesn’t this help? especially if you have more than 8 ESXi hosts in the cluster.

 

Demo - Mount existing Volumes

You can also use NetApp VSC to mount existing volumes.

Right Click on the specific ESXi host where you want to mount the NFS/VMFS datastore and navigate to NetApp > Provisioning and Cloning > Mount datastores.

Select the datastore that you want to mount from the list of available datastores.

 

Click OK to mount the datastore.

From the Tasks & Events tab, you will find that the following commands are executed on the ESXi host to mount the NFS datastores.

 

NetApp Workflow Automation for VMware - Setup & Configuration

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In my previous blog post Monitoring NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP using Unified Manager 6.0 I have discussed the steps required to setup OnCommand Unified Manager and integrate it with LDAP. In this blog post I will discuss the setups required to install & configure NetApp OnCommand Workflow Automation (WFA). WFA is used to automate various storage provisioning & management tasks using role based user access. It can be further integrated with vCenter Orchestrator to provide end to end automation for NetApp & vSphere related tasks.

Install OnCommand Workflow Automation

Download WFA 2.1 from NetApp Support Site. Note that you need to have valid credentials to download this software. This installer is available as a 200 MB WFA-x64-V2.1.0.70.32-B2178337.exe file that can be installed on 64 –bit Windows OS. I have installed WFA on a Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine.

Launch the installer and click Next to continue.

 

Accept the license agreement and click Next to continue or change them if you are using custom HTTP and HTTPS ports.

 

Enter the username and password. NOTE: This username/password would be used to login to WFA using the Web browser.

Change the destination location if required else click Next to continue.

Review the information in this screen and click Next to continue.

This completes the installation of WFA.

Launch WFA using https://IPorFQDN of the server where you installed WFA. Ensure that the latest Adobe Flash Player is installed.

 

Login using the credentials provided during the installation

 

Setup OnCommand Workflow Automation

Launch the Setup Wizard

 

Select the version of OnCommand Unified Manager that has been installed. If you have not installed OnCommand Unified Manager (UM), you would have to pause the setup and install UM first. In my setup I chose UM 6.0 since I already have it installed.

 

For WFA to communicate with UM, you have to create a user account in UM.

 

If you have not created the user account in UM, login to UM and create the following 

database user account.

 

Enter the database user credentials for UM.

You will receive the following message when WFA is successfully connected to UM.

 

Enter the admin credentials of the cluster if you are using NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP.

 

Once the NetApp Storage is added successfully, you will receive the message. I strongly recommend that you visit the Workflow Automation community to understand more about this product.

 

Add additional Data Source

During the above setup, UM is added as a Data Source for WFA. If you want to automate vSphere Infrastructure tasks then you should also add the vCenter Server as a Data Source in WFA.

To add vCenter Server, navigate of Execution > Data Sources > Click to add a Data Source.

Enter the following information

• Name: Descriptive name for the vCenter Server instance.
• Data Source Type: Select VMware vCenter
• Home Name: Enter the IP or FQDN
• Port: Use the default port
• User name & Password: Create a user name and assign it Read Only permissions for your vCenter Server. Enter the user name and password here.

IMPORTANT: You must install VMware PowerCLI on the server where WFA is installed; else the following error would be reported while adding vCenter Server as data source.

Unable to load VMware Poweshell Snapin

The data sources have now been added successfully.

 

Configure LDAP integration with OnCommand Workflow Automation

WFA supports LDAP integration to provide role based access. In this demo I am using Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory and will integrate my AD users with WFA.

To configure LDAP, navigate to Administration > WFA Configuration > LDAP

IMPORTANT: Do not change the attribute values for the following:

• User name attribute
• Group membership attribute
• Mail attribute
• Distinguished name attribute

You will find the above attributes in the Attribute Editor tab in user properties for all the users created in the AD.

Enter the LDAP Server in the following format if you are using default port 389

ldap://ip of fqdn of ad

If you are using a custom port change append :port# to the above address.

Provide the Group names in AD for WFA admins Groups. Now login using the AD user using DOMAIN\USER format.

Once you have successfully logged into WFA, navigate to Execution > Users and you will find that the AD user is now detected with LDAP value set to true.

With this you have completed the install and setup of WFA. You can now select the available workflows in Portal and start exploring them.

VMware View & NetApp Performance Assessment using LoginVSI - Part 2 – Test Setup.

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In my previous blog post VMware View & NetApp Performance Assessment using LoginVSI - Part 1 – Setup I shared some suggestions and links to Login VSI documentation which helped me in setting up Login VSI. If you were able to complete all the steps successfully, you would have completed the following:

Pre-Checks for Test Setup

• VSISHARE

A Windows 2008 R2 VM with a shared folder configured where Dataserver Setup was installed. The UNC path of the share should be \\VSISHARE\VSISHARE which would contain the following:

• Active Directory User Accounts & Groups

If you have used the PowerShell script from AD Setup wizard then the following user OU and User accounts would have been created

      

• Launcher

A Windows 2008 R2 VM is being used as a Launcher. Ensure that you can perform the following:

• RDP to this Launcher VM using the Launcher-v4 username created by the PowerShell script.
• Access the VSISHARE using \\VSISHARE\VSISHARE

• Target

A Windows 7 VM is setup and joined to the domain. Make sure that you installed Target Setup from the LoginVSI installer. Ensure that you can perform the following:

• RDP to this Launcher VM using the LoginVSI-X username created by the PowerShell script.
• Access the VSISHARE using \\VSISHARE\VSISHARE

• VMware View

I have not discussed this in my previous blog but it’s mandatory to have a View environment setup. In my case I have created an Automated Linked Clone pool with dedicated user assignment. It’s very important that you entitle this pool with the LoginVSI Group. With the entitlement LoginVSI users can login to the desktops in the pool.

      

Creating a Test Setup - Scenario

The above pre-checks will help you in avoiding any issues while executing the test.

 Here is screenshot of the test setup options that I have used.

     

I will highlight the important options

• Workload – Depending on your requirement chose the available options for workload. In my setup I chose medium.
• Name – Any descriptive name
• Sessions – The number of user sessions that you want to test. In my case I chose the 250.
• Launch Window & Overall Logon Rate – In the Overall Logon Rate you define the logon rate for each session. In this case I chose 10 seconds for each session (assuming that it takes 10 seconds for each VM to boot) hence to logon all 250 session it would take 250 x 10 = 2500 i.e. the Launch Window.
• Total Session Per Launcher – The number of sessions are equally divided among the launcher. Note that you cannot have more than 50 user sessions per launcher hence you have to add the Launchers accordingly.

Additional documentation about creating a scenario and BasePhase configuration is available at the following link http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Installation#Creating_a_scenario

Creating a Test Setup - Configure Connection for VMware View

In this section we will provide the VMware View Infrastructure details that would be used by Login VSI.

1. From the Management Console home tab, click on Create Connection and then click on Start Connection Wizard.
2. Select VMware View as connection type
   
   
    

3. Use the default location for the View Agent path

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\wswc.exe

4. Provide the credentials which is used to login to View Manager Administrator portal. Yes, you have to type the password in plain text.

      

5. In the next screen provide the IP/FQDN of the connection server. In Desktop name type the Linked Clone pool name.

       

6. As per the inputs that have been provided, LoginVSI summarizes this in the following command. This is also the command that would be executed from each Launcher VM. To test the command you can execute the following command from a Launcher VM (you have to enter the details in plain text for e.g. server, username, password, domain).

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\wswc.exe" -serverURL {server} -username {username} -password {password} -domainName {domain} -desktopName pool_1 -standAlone -logInAsCurrentUser False –nonInteractive

IMPORTANT: Using the default LoginVSI options, Active Sessions won’t start. For Active Sessions to be initiated you have to add –unattended option to the above command line. Hence the revised command line would be

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Client\bin\wswc.exe" -serverURL {server} -username {username} -password {password} -domainName {domain} -desktopName pool_1 -standAlone -logInAsCurrentUser False –nonInteractive

After creating a Test Scenario and Configuring Connection, you are now ready to start the test. I will discuss this in the next blog post and will post the link on @arunpande when the blog post is ready.