Huawei FusionStorage deployed for VMware vSphere

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information about Partner Verify and Support (PVSP) of Huawei FusionStorage (Storage Type is Block) deployed on VMware vSphere.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

FusionStorage

Huawei FusionStorage organizes storage media, such as HDDs and SSDs, into a large-scale storage pool using distributed technologies, to provide industrial standard interfaces for upper-layer applications and clients. This resolves the traditional data center issue where multiple storage systems are built in stovepipe mode, causing resource islands and uneven use of hardware resources. Huawei FusionStorage block storage also supports a wide range of virtualization platforms and database applications, provides high performance and scalability, and meets SAN storage requirements of cloud resource pools, desktop clouds, development and test clouds, as well as databases.

Note: Huawei FusionStorage supports VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.5U2, VMware vSphere 5.5U3, VMware vSphere 6.0, VMware vSphere 6.0U1, VMware vSphere 6.0U2, VMware 6.0U3, and VMware 6.5. The version must be Huawei FusionStorage V100R006C20 or later when VMware 6.0U3 and VMware 6.5 are supported. For information about other versions, see Huawei FusionStorage interoperability matrix.

Minimum Requirement

The minimum system requirements for Huawei FusionStorage to support VMware vSphere are as follows:

• Three storage servers
• One compute node in the case of separate deployment
• Four 7200 rpm SATA disks for each server
• 10GE Network

Huawei FusionStorage supports the following deployment modes: separated deployment and converged deployment.

Figure 1.1 shows the converged deployment mode. VBS and OSD are deployed on the CVM, and the Huawei FusionStorage Manager (FSM) is deployed on the ESXi virtual machine.

The functions of each component are described as follows:

• CVM: indicates the control VM. It is used to deploy VBS and OSD in converged deployment mode, and is used to deploy VBS in separated deployment mode.
• VBS: service input and output (I/O) process that manages volume metadata, provides access points for distributed clusters, and allows computing resources to use VBS to access distributed storage resources. A VBS process is deployed on each server, forming a VBS cluster. As the target end of iSCSI, VBS communicates with the iSCSI initiator module of ESXi, and performs operations related to volumes and snapshots.
• OSD: service I/O process that performs I/O operations. Multiple OSD processes are deployed on each server. An OSD process is deployed on one disk. OSD manages disks and provides cluster capabilities such as data replication and reconstruction. In converged deployment mode, the RAID controller card and SSD card must be directly connected to the CVM so that the OSD process can read and write the storage media.
• FSM: FusionStorage Manager is a management process deployed on an ESXi virtual machine and provides operation and maintenance functions such as alarm reporting, monitoring, log recording, and configuration. It is recommended that FusionStorage Manager be deployed in active/standby mode.

Figure 1.2 shows the separated deployment mode.

Only the VBS service is deployed on the CVM. The VBS service provides iSCSI interfaces and the ESXi initiator module, and performs operations related to volumes and snapshots. The OSD is deployed on an independent storage node and communicates with VBS through the storage network.

Recommendations and Limitations

• If the RAID controller card of the LSI 3108 chip is set to the RAID mode, RAID 0 needs to be created for each data disk. If it is set to the JBOD mode, no RAID needs to be created for data disks.
• In converged deployment mode, two RAID controller cards are configured. One RAID controller card connects to the system disks, and the other one connects to the data disks.
• In converged deployment mode, the RAID controller card and SSD card must be directly connected to the CVM.
• The write cache function of the RAID controller card and disk must be disabled.
• Data disks of the same server cannot be connected to multiple RAID controller cards.
• Data disks and cache disks cannot be placed in the Southbridge integrated RAID controller card slot. (The performance is poor and does not meet requirements)