Deploying a Metro Storage Cluster across two sites using Huawei OceanStor 100D HyperMetro and VMware vSphere

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information about deploying Metro Storage Cluster across two sites using HyperMetro feature of Huawei OceanStor 100D (formerly known as FusionStorage) distributed storage system and VMware vSphere platform.

Environment

VMware vSphere 7.0.x
VMware vSphere 6.x

Resolution

Huawei OceanStor 100D and HyperMetro

Huawei OceanStor 100D features elastic scalability, superb performance, robust reliability, solid security, enhanced data protection, outstanding intelligence, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, high usability, and wide compatibility. It has multiple data protection features, including HyperMetro, HyperReplication, HyperSnap, and HyperClone, as well as a variety of features to improve space utilization and performance, such as SmartDedupe, SmartCompression, SmartThin (thin provisioning), SmartQoS (Quality of Service), and SmartCache (caching). It is compatible with various virtualization platforms and applications.

HyperMetro delivers active-active read/write capabilities using two OceanStor 100D clusters. If one data center fails, the system automatically switches to the other cluster to ensure service continuity.

Minimum Requirements

The minimum system requirements for Huawei OceanStor 100D to support vMSC solution with HyperMetro are as follows:

• Only iSCSI Protocol is supported to connect Huawei OceanStor 100D Storage System to ESXi hosts.
• Huawei OceanStor 100D storage system with version 8.0 or newer.
• VMware ESXi 6.0 and later version with VMware NMP.
• When ALUA feature is enabled on OceanStor 100D storage system, the VMW_SATP_ALUA SATP policy must be configured on all ESXi hosts.

Solution Overview

Figure 1 - HyperMetro Configurations for Huawei OceanStor 100D Storage System


Huawei HyperMetro storage cluster provides the following capabilities: 

• Two OceanStor 100D storage systems on two sites can both be Readable/Writable to all ESXi hosts. 
• HyperMetro pairs can work in active-active mode (VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA as SATP policy) and active-standby mode. In active-standby mode, VMW_SATP_ALUA as SATP policy must be configured for all ESXi hosts, in according with ALUA feature enabled on OceanStor 100D storage system.

Arbitration server

Two arbitration modes are provided by OceanStor 100D storage system:

• Static priority mode: This mode is mainly used in scenarios where no third-party arbitration servers are deployed. In this mode, you can set either end as the preferred site based on active-active pairs or consistency groups and the other end the non-preferred site. 
• If the link between the storage arrays or the non-preferred site encounters a fault, LUNs at the preferred site are accessible, and those at the non-preferred site are inaccessible. 
• If the preferred site encounters a fault, the non-preferred site does not accessible to hosts.
• Arbitration server mode: In this mode, an independent physical or virtual machine is used as the arbitration device, which determines the type of failure, and uses the information to choose one side of the device pair to remain R/W accessible to the host. The Arbitration server mode is the default option.

Notes:

• The operating system’s support matrix with Huawei storage, visit http://support-open.huawei.com/en/ for more details
• Arbitration server can be built on a physical or virtual machine.

For more details, refer to the Restrictions notes with part number “OceanStor 100D Block Storage HyperMetro Feature Guide 02” on Huawei Support.

Recommendations and Limitations

It is recommended that the LUN mapping of second storage system to ESXi hosts starts only when the HyperMetro Pair is configured successfully. Then the rescan command can used to detect the new paths manually, or waiting for the automatically path detection provided by VMware NMP. 

Notes: There might be some delays in automatic path detection, refer to the VMware KB article for instructions: Changing the polling time for datastore paths.

For more information on configuration guidelines, refer to the latest OceanStor 100D HyperMetro Configuration in VMware vSphere Scenarios .


A certified configuration of OceanStor 100D storage system is available and listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide.