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Demo Lab Guide – Compellent SC8000

Product Domain: Storage

Author: Angelo Rivano

Version: 1.15 Date: September 2013

https://demos.dell.com/


Table of Contents 1 Product Overview ........................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Lab Preparation Considerations and Caveats .................................................................................. 5

2 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 6

2.1 Lab Topology and Essential Information ......................................................................................... 6

Element Access ..................................................................................................................................... 7

3 Compellent ease of use and volume management ................................................................................. 9

3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 9

Signing into the Compellent Storage Center GUI ....................................................................... 10

Creating a new volume...................................................................................................................... 11

Mapping the volume to a server ...................................................................................................... 13

Viewing the volume in Windows...................................................................................................... 16

Creating a new VMware Datastore .................................................................................................. 21

Expanding the Datastore .................................................................................................................. 28

5.1.7 - Deleting the Datastore.......................................................................................................... 30

Adding a Raw Device Mapping to a Virtual Machine ................................................................... 32

Deleting the RDM .............................................................................................................................. 38

Creating VM Storage Profiles ........................................................................................................... 40

Deleting VM Storage Profiles ........................................................................................................... 45

3.2 Data Protection .................................................................................................................................. 46

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 46

Creating a Manual Replay ................................................................................................................. 47

Using the Manual Replay to recover from data loss .................................................................... 48

Deleting the Manual Replay volume .............................................................................................. 52

Creating a Replication ....................................................................................................................... 53

5.2.5 - Viewing Replications ............................................................................................................ 56

3.3 Reporting, Alerting and Managing ...................................................................................................57

Introduction .........................................................................................................................................57

Using Compellent Enterprise Manager for monitoring and alerts ............................................ 58

Monitoring performance .................................................................................................................. 60

Performing real-time analysis ......................................................................................................... 63

Configuring Alerts and Thresholds ................................................................................................. 64



Querying past events ........................................................................................................................ 65

Using the Chargeback feature ......................................................................................................... 66

3.4 Hands-On Hyper-V stretched cluster and Live Volume ............................................................. 69

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 69

3.5 Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and VMs creation .........................................................................73

3.6 Preliminary testing ............................................................................................................................. 79

3.7 Disaster Recovery Test and Failover Procedures ......................................................................... 83

Disk failure ........................................................................................................................................... 83

3.8 Storage Center failure scenarios ..................................................................................................... 92

Complete failure of Primary SC (Resources on Host A) ............................................................. 93

Complete failure of Secondary SC (Resources on Host A) ........................................................ 95

Complete failure of Primary SC (Resources on Host B) ............................................................. 97

Complete failure of Secondary SC (Resources on Host B) ........................................................ 99



1 Product Overview

The SC8000 is a 2U rack chassis with dual six-core, 2.5GHz (with Turbo) Intel® Xeon® E5-2640

processors. It can support full high-availability and failover capabilities with a dual controller system and

provides enhanced diagnostics capability with the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC).

The SC8000 offers exceptional power efficiency with dual redundant 80 PLUS® Platinum rated hot-

swappable, low wattage power supplies and has six redundant hot-plug fans. Using Fresh Air™

technology, the SC8000 can operate at higher temperatures or even chiller-free environments to help

reduce datacenter costs.

Providing up to five nines of availability (99.999% availability), Storage Center keeps critical customer

data at the ready1. Combining resilient hardware and software with world-class Copilot Support helps

enterprises realize the continuous data availability critical to their success.

Built-in intelligence and automation optimize the storage environment, and every enterprise feature is

fully integrated for optimum efficiency, flexibility and performance. Empowered by real-time system

information about each block of data, Storage Center optimizes data placement, management and

protection throughout its lifecycle. Storage is provisioned without wasting capacity. Data is moved

where it’s needed, when it’s needed, based on actual use and performance needs. Data is automatically

tiered from SLC and MLC SSDs as well as traditional rotating disk options to optimize performance and

cost. And data is continuously protected using pointer-based snapshots.

Storage Center leverages a comprehensive software suite with advanced functionality. At the core of

the solution is true storage virtualization, which pools all resources across the array for maximum

efficiency and performance. Thin provisioning, automated tiered storage software and space-efficient

snapshot technology help you get more out of your storage investment. Thin replication and dynamic

business continuity software provide a cost-effective recovery and allow for the movement of volumes

between arrays without disruption.



1.1 Lab Preparation Considerations and Caveats

It is in your best interests to ensure the demo environment you will be demonstrating is clean & tidy

before you begin. For this reason we would recommend, where possible, you log in to your demo at

least 15 minutes prior to delivery and check the following;

1. Familiarize yourself with the environment during this time and check any specific features you are expecting to demo.

2. Most importantly, be crystal clear with yourself on what it is you plan to show. A full demo of every feature described below (with questions) can take several hours. If you only have a short time slot be sure to focus on the key points that address the customer’s pain points and will drive value home to them.

3. Ensure that you have scheduled the demo for sufficient time so as not to have the demo end before you are finished with the customer.

Any other guidance on how the user should prepare for the lab can be added here. If there are

limitation or something the user should be aware of call out also.



2 Introduction

The purpose of this document is to provide the Dell Technical Sales force with the tools they need to

deliver an effective live demonstration of the Dell Compellent Storage Center v6.3 capabilities. These

include – but are not limited to – the following elements:

- Storage Center System Manager 6.3 web interface (SCSM)

- Enterprise Manager 6.3 (EM)

- Compellent vCenter Plug-in 1.5.3/2.0

When you start the demo, you will find yourself logged into a Windows 2008 Server operating system.

On the desktop you will find shortcuts to everything needed to perform the steps in this lab guide.

.

2.1 Lab Topology and Essential Information



Element Access

Logging into Enterprise Manager:

On the desk top double click on the Enterprise Manager Client icon and enter the following details

when prompted:

- Username: Admin

- Password: password

Note: Host/IP and Web Server port will be pre-populated and should not be changed.

Logging into vCenter Server:

Double-click the vSphere client icon. The Client will log you in automatically.



Logging into Storage Center:

Double-click on the Compellent Storage Center icon and enter the following details when prompted:

- Username: Admin

- Password: password



3 Compellent ease of use and volume management

3.1 Introduction

In this demo you will be performing the following tasks:

- Create a New Volume

- Map a Volume to Server

- View the Volume in Windows

- Create a New Datastore

- Add a Raw Device Mapping to a VM

- Delete a Raw Mapping Device

- VM Storage Profiles

- Delete VM Storage Profiles

Gotcha’s

- Make it clear to the customer that there is zero pre-allocation of Volume space when a new

volume is created.

- Show how all operations are simple and wizard-driven but explain that nearly all tasks can

equally be scripted (PowerShell or CompCU) for complete orchestration



Signing into the Compellent Storage Center GUI

1. Double-click on the Compellent Storage Center shortcut on the desktop.

2. Click Accept on the warning window. Note the Username and Password.

3. Type Admin for User, and password for Password. Click LOGIN.



Creating a new volume

1. Click on the + sign next to Storage to expand the Storage view. Right-click Volumes and select Create Volume.

2. Click on Redundant in the Create Volume wizard.

3. Click Continue to accept the default volume size of 500 GB.



Note: Dynamic Capacity allows a virtual volume that can be larger than the available physical disk

space

4. Click Continue to accept the Recommended Storage Profile (All Tiers).

5. Type Demo Volume 1 for the volume name and click Continue. Leave all other settings as default.



Note: Volume Folders are option ways for an organization to organize volumes. For example:

Exchange volumes, SQL volumes.

6. Click Create Now to complete the wizard.

Do not close the next screen, as it is needed in the next steps.

Mapping the volume to a server

1. Click Map this Volume to a Server.

2. Select your Windows demo server and click Continue.

Note: You can verify your windows server name by clicking the Start Menu button, right-clicking

Computer, and selecting Properties.



3. Click Advanced on the verification window.

4. Click Continue when you have taken note of some of the options available in the Advanced settings window.

5. Click Create Now to complete the volume mapping wizard.

6. Click the Close button.

7. Click Demo Volume 1 in the Storage Center GUI.



8. Click the Mapping tab on the right-hand side to see the connections made between the volume and the server.

9. Click the Statistics tab. Notice that Demo Volume 1 consumes zero space on the SAN, regardless of the size of the volume you created.

Note: When demoing be sure to view the volume properties before the disk is formatted. Disk

formatting will cause some data to be written to disk.



Viewing the volume in Windows

1. Double-click on the Rescan shortcut on the desktop.

2. Click the Computer Management icon from the desktop taskbar.

3. Select Disk Management from the left hand tree.

4. Scroll down thought the disks at the bottom, and look for the 500 GB disk we created.

Note: the disk is Unknown, Offline, and the volume is Unallocated.

5. Right-click on the 500 GB Offline disk and select Online.



Note: the disk status changes from Offline to Uninitialized.

6. Right-click on the disk again and select Initialize Disk.

Note: the disk status changes from Not Initialized to Online.

7. Right-click on the 500.00 GB Unallocated volume space to the right of the disk and select New Simple Volume.

8. Walk through the New Simple Volume wizard and accept all of the defaults. On the Format Partition screen ensure that Perform a quick format is selected. Type My Demo Volume for the Volume label.



Note: It will take some time for the format to complete if a Quick Format is not checked but it will

make no difference to the space taken on the SAN. For this reason we always recommend using

Quick Format.

9. Click Next and Finish to complete the New Volume Wizard.

10. Right-click the My Demo Volume and select Explore.

Note: this will open Windows Explorer.



11. Right-click the new Volume in Windows Explorer, and select Properties.

Note: 105 MB has been used to create and journal the NTFS filesystem.

12. In Compellent Storage Center, click the Statistics tab we looked at earlier. Click the refresh button at the top of the GUI.

Note: Now that we have written a NTFS file system to the volume, the volume is now consuming a

small amount of space.



13. In Windows Explorer, browse the other volume that belongs to the lab environment. In the other volume is a folder called 1GB_Data. You can right-click the folder and select Properties to verify the size of the data folder. a. Right-click the 1GB_Data folder, select Copy.

b. Click on the new My Demo Volume we created, and Paste the data inside the volume.

c. Refresh the volume Statistics again in Storage Center.

Note: Notice that the actual used space on the SAN is twice the size of the Volume Space used.

Since Compellent performs all new writes to RAID10 this is normal and later modules will detail how

to demonstrate the tiering effect of the system.



Creating a new VMware Datastore

1. Double-click the VMware vSphere Client short-cut on the desktop.

2. Right-click on your ESX host. a. At the bottom of the menu click Manage Compellent Storage.

b. Select Add Datastore.

3. Click Next to Create New Compellent Volum



4. Type My Demo Datastore in the Volume Name field. a. Leave all other settings as default.

b. Click Next.

Note: Although it is possible to select a Volume Folder at this point, it is not possible to create new

Volume Folders from this view. The creation of new Volume Folders must be performed from the

Storage Center or Enterprise Manager GUI.

5. Click Next to accept the Recommended Storage Profile.



Note: Although it is possible to select any Storage Profile at this point – including any previously

created Custom profiles - it is not possible to create new Storage Profiles from this view. The

creation of new Storage Profiles must be performed from the Storage Center or Enterprise Manager

GUI.

6. Click Next to accept the Daily Replay profile.

Note: Although it is possible to select any Replay Profile at this point – including any previously

created custom profiles - it is not possible to create new Replay Profiles from this view. The creation

of new Replay Profiles must be performed from the Storage Center or Enterprise Manager GUI.

7. Click Next to leave the LUN number as default.



Note: The system will only display LUN numbers that are currently available. LUN numbers already in

use will not be displayed.

8. Click Next, leaving the default protocol set to Fibre Channel.

9. Click Next to accept the default File System Version as VMFS-5.

10. Click Next, leaving default Datastore name.



11. Click Finish to accept all the Datastore Settings listed in the summary.

12. At the bottom of the vSphere Client GUI, you will see a Recent Tasks section. a. You can resize this section by selecting the area above Recent Tasks.

b. Observe the progress of the datastore creation and the rescan of the ESX HBAs.

13. At the top of the vSphere Client GUI, click on Hosts and Clusters and change this to Datastores.



14. Expand the hierarchy in the left-hand pane. a. Click on the My Demo Datastore we just created.

15. There are 11 tabs in the right-pane. a. Click the right arrow to display the Compellent Storage tab.

b. Click the Compellent Storage tab.

16. Under View, click on General.



17. Under View, click on Usage Statistics.

18. Open Compellent Storage Center. Click Refresh. a. Notice how our new Demo Datastore appears.

b. Click on My Demo Datastore, and select the Statistics tab.

c.

Note: Compare the information seen in vSphere with the information in the Storage Center GUI.

Notice how the information is identical.



Expanding the Datastore

1. Open VMware vCenter. Right-click on My Demo Datastore and select Manage Compellent Storage then click Expand Datastore.

2. Click Next to accept the default New Volume Size.

3. Click Finish on the summary.



5.1.7 - Deleting the Datastore

1. Right-click on My Demo Datastore, select Manage Compellent Storage, and click Remove Datastore.

2. Click Next to Permanently the datastore.

Note: In normal operation the recommendation is not to permanently delete volumes but rather to

use the Place in Recycle Bin option. This allows for accidental deletion of volumes to be rolled back

with limited impact.



3. Click Finish to complete the wizard.



Adding a Raw Device Mapping to a Virtual Machine

1. In vSphere Client, at the top, navigate to Home, Inventory, VMs and Templates.

2. Expand the hierarchy in the left-hand pane. Right-click the lab Virtual Machine (DoNotDelete), select Manage Compellent Storage and click Add Raw Device.

3. Click Next to accept the defaults in the Device Configuration section of the wizard.

4. Click Next leaving the default host selected.



5. Click Next to Create a New Compellent Volume.

6. Type My RDM in the Volume Name field. Click Next. Leave all other settings as default.



7. Click Next, accepting the Recommended (All Tiers) Storage Profile.

8. Click Next, leaving the default Daily Replay Profile.

9. Click Next to accept the default LUN number.



10. Click Next, leaving the Mapping Protocol set to Fibre Channel.

11. Click Next, to select Physical compatibility mode.




13. Click to select the DoNotDelete Virtual Machine. a. Click on the Compellent View tab on the far right as before.

b. Click on Usage Statistics in the central View area.

14. In Compellent Storage Center, click Refresh. a. Select the new My RDM listed under Volumes.

b. Click the Statistics tab.



Note: Compare the difference between the space consumed statistics of Demo Volume with My

RDM. Because the RDM does not have any file system data written to it at this time it will occupy

zero space on the SAN until data is written to the drive.



Deleting the RDM

1. Open vSphere Client. a. On the top bar, navigate to Home, Inventory, VMs and Templates.

b. Right-click the DoNoDelete virtual machine, select Manage Compellent Storage and click on

Remove Raw Device.

Note: See step 2 below if the option is greyed-out.

2. If Remove Raw Device is greyed out and not clickable, then restart the vSphere Client to resolve the issue.

Note: Explain to the customer that this is an operation that would rarely be used on a day-to-day

basis. Highlight that it is a “known issue” and will likely be resolved in the near future.



3. Select the RDM created previously and click Next.

4. Click Next to permanently delete the RDM.

Note: In normal operation the recommendation is not to permanently delete volumes but rather to

use the Place in Recycle Bin option. This allows for accidental deletion of volumes to be rolled back

with limited impact.



Creating VM Storage Profiles

1. In vSphere Client, navigate to Home, VM Storage Profiles.

2. Select Create VM Storage Profile.



3. Type Gold Service in the Name field. Click Next.

4. Select the following Storage Capabilities: a. High-Performance, Multi-RAID, and Replicated

b. Multi-tier, Performance, Replicated

c. Multi-tier, High-Performance, Replicated.

d. Click Next.

5. Review the VM Storage Profile and click Finish.



6. Repeat the same steps for a Storage Profile called Bronze Service.

7. Select the following Storage Capabilities: Multi-tier and Multi-tier, High-Performance. Click Next.

8. Navigate to Home, Inventory, Hosts and Clusters. a. Right-click the Compellent host and select New Virtual Machine.



9. Select Typical. Click Next.

10. Select the Gold Service VM Storage Profile in the dropdown.

Note: Because of the settings of the VM Storage Profile we created earlier, all the data stores are

listed under Incompatible.

11. Select the Bronze Service VM Storage Profile in the dropdown.



Note: Because of the settings of the VM Storage Profile we created earlier, the My Demo Datastore is

listed under Compatible.

12. Having demonstrated the VM Storage functionality you can now cancel out of the Create New Virtual Machine wizard.



Deleting VM Storage Profiles

1. Select each of the VM Storage Profiles you created earlier and select Delete VM Storage Profile.

2. Click Yes to confirm removal.



3.2 Data Protection

Introduction


- Create a Manual replay

- Delete Files to Simulate Recovery

- Local Recovery

- Delete View Volume

- Create Replication

- Viewing Replications

Gotchas:

- Some of the older documentation refers to “Unlimited Snapshots”. Although the snapshot limit

is so high as to be effectively limitless for most customers be aware that there is actually a soft

limit today and the terminology used should be “practically limitless”.

- Be aware of the worst-case scenario for snapshots: that a tiny change to data (4k) could take

2MB on the SAN due to the page allocation. However explain to the customer that for

applications that have this kind of write profile a 512K page could be used and that the

snapshot overhead will typically reside on T3 disks.

- Snapshots are crash-consistent unless an application-aware technology is being used to take

them. Explain the benefits of Replay Manager.

- Be sure to point out that SAN-based snapshots are not intended to replace traditional backups

and should not be considered an E2E DR solution on their own. For single-system/single-site

environments a traditional backup is still recommend for true DR coverage.



Creating a Manual Replay

1. Open Storage Center GUI, right-click Demo Volume 1, select Replay > Create Replay.

2. Click Create Now. Leave all settings as default.

3. Click the Replays tab to see the volume’s current Replays including the manual Replay we just created.



Using the Manual Replay to recover from data loss

1. Open Windows Explorer. Navigate to My Demo Volume and delete some of the files copied earlier

2. Open Storage Center. Right-click the manual Replay and select Create Volume from Replay.

Note: Check the Description field to ensure that it is the manual Replay you configured

3. Click Create Now. Leave all settings as default.



4. Click Continue to map the Replay to the server.

Note: The Windows server should be selected by default.

5. Click OK on the summary to complete the wizard.

6. Double-click the Rescan shortcut located on the Desktop .



7. Open Windows Disk Management. Right click the new 500 GB and select Online.

Note: The recovered disk is already initialized and formatted with a NTFS filesystem. The server will

recognize the volume and will assign the next sequential drive letter automatically.

8. Right-click the Replay volume we just put Online and select Explore. Notice that data we deleted previously is able to be accessed on the Replay volume.

9. Copy the data we deleted previously and paste it to the original Demo Volume.

10. Open Storage Center. Click on the Demo Volume 1 View 1 Replay volume.

11. Click on the Statistics tab.



Note: The Replay volume has 1 GB of data in it. However, it only consumes 20 MB on the SAN.



Deleting the Manual Replay volume

1. Right-click the Demo Volume View 1 and select Delete.

2. Click Yes to confirm deletion.

Note: It would be best practices in a production environment to unmap the volume prior to deleting

it but it not necessary for the purposes of this demo.

3. Double-click the Rescan shortcut on the desktop.



Creating a Replication

1. Open Compellent Storage Center and take note of the name of the array you are logged into. (For example: SC 60695)

2. Double-click the Enterprise Manager Client shortcut on the desktop.

3. Click Log In. User Name is Admin. Password is password.



4. Right click on your correct Storage Center name you recorded in step 1. a. Select Tasks > Replication > Replicate Volumes.

5. Select a replication destination Storage Center and click Next.

Note: If more than one array is listed, select either one.

6. Select Demo Volume 1 as the volume to replicate. Click Next.

7. Click Next to accept the default settings on the Replication Attributes window.



Note: If Replicate Active Replay select, replication will copy all writes from the active Replay area of

the volume. If Deduplication is selected, replication will copy only the changed portions of the

Replay history on the source volume. However, this extra optimization is resource intensive.




5.2.5 - Viewing Replications

1. Click Replications & Live Volume in the bottom left-hand navigation pane.

2. All current Replications are shown. Select the Replication job you have just created and the current properties and status will be shown in the bottom pane. Details on the Replays, Progress and IO Reports can be view by selecting the appropriate tab in this view.

Note: For recently created replications this data will be minimal.



3.3 Reporting, Alerting and Managing

Introduction

With Enterprise Manager, all local and remote Storage Center systems are discovered using a single

console. This centralized interface provides a complete view of all aspects of the Storage Center

environment, significantly reducing storage administration time.


- How do I see what’s going on in the system?

- Alerts and Thresholds Configuration

- Chargeback

Gotchas

- IO views are updated fairly regularly but the Storage views are not. So be sure to show

information here that is longer term.



Using Compellent Enterprise Manager for monitoring and alerts

1. Click Monitoring in the bottom left-hand navigation pane.

2. The right hand pane will display the various Alerts.

3. Toggle through each of the tabs at the top .



4. Click Storage (SAN/NAS) on the bottom left.

5. Click the Summary tab to show the current Storage status. a. Scroll down to look at the various reports.



6. At the very bottom is a Top 10 Fastest Growing Volumes report. a. Highlight this report as an example of how easy it is to access to vital data.

Monitoring performance

1. Click the IO Usage tab to show an overview of the system’s performance.



2. Use the check boxes at the bottom of the graph to show how the data can be filtered.

3. Use the explorer view on the left to show the performance details for a different objects such as: Volumes, Controllers, Ports, Profiles, Disk pools and Disks.

4. Click on the View icon at the top of the object hierarchy.

5. Click Comparison View.



6. Select all disks of a type. Click Update. a. Demonstrate both the Comparison view and that the load is equally spread across all disks.



Performing real-time analysis

1. Click on the Charting tab to start recording performance analysis data. a. Click the drop down menu at the top to display different time windows.

2. Open Windows Explorer and copy some data on the My Demo Volume so that the SAN performs some I/O operations.



3. Explore the graphs to show that data is immediately displayed in the Charting viewer. a. This is a great, free, resource that can be used to perform real-time analysis.

Configuring Alerts and Thresholds

1. Click Threshold Alerts in the bottom left-hand navigation pane.

2. Click the Definitions tab. Click Create Threshold Definition on the top right.



3. Click the Type drop-down menu to demonstrate the different types of Alerts that can be created: IO Usage, Storage, and Replication.

4. Click the Alert Object Type to demonstrate the granularity of the alerts possible.

5. Create an example alert to show that alerts can be applied across all the Storage Centers that Enterprise Manager is managing or just a subset.

Querying past events

1. Click the Queries tab and demonstrate that queries can be run instantly or saved for future use.

2. Define a query as per the below picture. a. Definition: Storage, Storage Type Tier, Actual Space and use a 1GB Threshold Value.

b. Click Run.



Using the Chargeback feature

1. Click Chargeback in the bottom left-hand navigation pane.

2. Click Edit Chargeback Settings.



3. Demonstrate the ease of configuration and flexibility of the function.

4. Click the Add Department to show how simple it is to create new Departments and define pricing structures.



5. Click the Chargeback Runs tab and select the last Manual Run point.

6. Click the Departments tab to show an overview of the systems Chargeback is currently configured for.



3.4 Hands-On Hyper-V stretched cluster and Live Volume

Introduction

The Dell Compellent storage infrastructure is based on a typical DR / LV organization with two Storage

Centers 6.5, each connected a node configured in a Microsoft Hyper-V cluster based on two Windows

Server 2012 R2 DC 64-bit Operating Systems.

As the physical characteristics of the different components may change, we will not focus on details

but just highlight the overall architectural layout:

As mentioned, we have an already configured Hyper-V stretch cluster, with a few configured volumes

and virtual machines that we will use for our disaster recovery and failback testing procedures:



You can verify the status of the overall cluster or of any single node of the cluster using the “Failover

Cluster Manager”.

Verify that the quorum and cluster disks are on line. Depending on cluster status and events, it may be

necessary to manually bring these disks online. If the disks does not come online, it may be necessary

to access Disk Management and rescan the disks on each node to make sure they are visible on each

node.

Once all the cluster disks are online, then verify the health of the cluster resources.



In this example, there are four guest VMs to verify. If necessary, manually start the guest VMs and then

verify that they are properly functioning.

Clearly the number and size of configured CSV and VMs, and consequently the number of the already

configured Live Volumes, can vary and can be adjusted depending on your needs; in the following

sections of this paper we will also address some basic configuration topics in order to help you in

modifying the configuration to better meet your needs, but please consider that this document is not

intended to be a summary of Hyper-V configuration procedures and best practices, just a survival

guide.

In this example, the environment has been set up as follows:

The primary and secondary locations are “well connected” with adequate data bandwidth and low

latency between them to allow for data replication.

Both locations are remotely accessible to administrators. This is important to ensure a timely

response to a DR event.

A Dell Compellent Storage Center is configured at each location, each with sufficient IO and

volume (space) capacity to support the Hyper-V stretch cluster’s resources.

Here are the major details of the currently configured server and storage infrastructure.

Resource Name IP Address (Mgmt) IP Address (iDRAC) Remarks

Server DT-POC-PRI-W12

192.168.100.245 192.168.100.84

Server DT-POC-DR-W12

192.168.100.252 192.168.100.85

Storage SC 60601 192.168.100.100 192.168.100.96/97 Management IP

Storage SC 60689 192.168.100.200 192.168.100.196/197 Management IP

EM DC POC-Mgmt-Srvr2 192.168.100.240

VM 1 VM01-1 192.168.100.231 Gen1 – W2008R2

VM VM02-1 192.168.100.232 Gen1 – W2008R2

VM VM04-2 192.168.100.233 Gen1 – W2008R2

VM VM05-3 192.168.100.234 Gen2 – W2012R2

VM name suffix shows the CSV # where the VM has been created and configured (e.g. HyperV-

CSV1, HyperV-CSV2, …). CSVs sizes are: 1 TB for CSV1, 2 TB for CSV2, 2.5 TB for CSV3



An Enterprise Manager Data Collector Server is installed and configured as an external location.

Usually in a real world configuration a DC will be configured in Site A, and also at the recovery

location, Site B. For example they could be installed on virtual servers that are not part of the stretch

cluster.

The remote Data Collector server’s role is to maintain a copy of the volume recovery point information

from the primary Data Collector server at Site A. This information on the remote Data Collector server

must be accessible at the recovery site in order to activate disaster recovery.

At least two instances of the Enterprise Manager Client are installed:

- One instance is installed at the primary location on a virtual server that is not part of the

stretch cluster

- A second instance is installed at the remote location on a virtual server that is not part of the

stretch cluster.

Installing an instance of the Enterprise Manager client on the same VM as the Data Collector is

supported and recommended.

Note: The above list covers common design considerations for a stretch cluster environment but is

not meant to be all-inclusive.



3.5 Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and VMs creation

In order to create and add to the Hyper-V cluster a new CSV, the very first step is just to create a new

LV assigning, for example, the primary volume to the primary node (DT-POC-PRI-W12) and the

secondary copy to the other node in the cluster (DT-POC-DR-W12).

Note Please do not forget to use the “Advanced Mapping” panel to assign the same LUN ID to the

two LUNs that the Live Volume wizard will create on the two storage centers (primary and

secondary) and finally map to the two Hyper-V clustered servers.

Note: Also use “Edit Live Volume Settings” to adjust server and LUN configuration on the DR site.

This is fundamental for a proper failback procedure.



Once the LV has been configured, you can perform a quick Live Volume swap operation between

primary and secondary storage, and vice-versa, to test the new configuration.

You can also modify LV settings, e.g. replication type.

Now, from the first node of the cluster or, anyway, from the node hosting the primary copy of Live

Volume, run the following GUI / command that will run you directly in the Disk Management menu:

Server Manager > Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management



As in any traditional Windows system, we will need to put the new disk (volume) online, initialize it and

finally format it as MBR or GPT depending on its size or your needs.

Do not assign any drive letter now.

We can now run Failover Cluster Manager:



Select “Add Disk” in the Disk panel and add the newly created Live Volume to the cluster.

Once added the new disk, again from Failover Cluster Manager, select the new disk, right click on it

and select “Add to Cluster Shared Volumes”.

From now on the new CSV should be properly configured into the cluster and this is a great time to

test its failover functionalities Hyper-V cluster side, moving it from one node to the other and checking

its status independently from the LV configuration.



Note: Basically from now on you should be able to see the new CSV online after any swap between

the two nodes of the cluster and completely independently from the LV status. For example the new

CSV could be in UP status on the DR node while the primary LV is on the storage connected to the

PRI node, and vice-versa

Note: Originally Introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering, CSVs allow all nodes in a

cluster to simultaneously have read-write access to the same LUN that is formatted as an NTFS or

ReFS (2012 R2 only) volume. Using CSVs, clustered roles can fail over quickly from one node to

another node without requiring a change in drive ownership, or dismounting and remounting a

volume. In Windows Server 2008 R2, only Hyper-V workloads were supported on CSVs. Windows

Server 2012 expanded CSV functionality, allowing CSVs to be utilized as file shares with the Scale-

Out File Server role. Scale-out file shares can host application data, such as Microsoft SQL Server and

Hyper-V guests

We can now create a new VM on this CSV. Just select “Roles” in Failover Cluster Manager and then “New

Virtual Machines”:



The wizard will ask for the target node:

The wizard will also ask you to assign the target folder, and you will select the standard CSV directory

in C:\ClusterStorage\Volume(n), where “n” is the assigned volume number:

You’ll need to complete a few more steps, assigning for example the “generation” of the VM, its

configured memo size, and finally the desired operating system.



3.6 Preliminary testing

You can start or complete now some preliminary tests on this new cluster configuration and Live

Volume infrastructure. You can use now the standard LV documentation and procedures to double

check that, against any LV swap between primary and secondary node – and vice-versa – both the

CSV and all the configured VMs stay respectively in UP and RUNNING status:



Basically the following two snapshots show how, after LV migration, both the CSVs and the configured

VMs are still on-line and running.



A further test could be that, after swapping Live Volumes, both the VMs and the CSVs preserve their

capabilities to seamlessly move from one node to the other of the Hyper-V cluster:



3.7 Disaster Recovery Test and Failover Procedures

Disk failure

Probably the best way to simulate a disaster is simply to delete the primary volume in a Live Volume

relationship. Just delete the volume from its primary node and even skip the recycle bin: the primary

volume is completely destroyed.

From now on, all the applications insisting on this CSV, along with the CSV itself, are completely

unavailable, and this is basically T0 for our RTO period.

Once the volume has been deleted, it will disappear from the Live Volumes tab and the corresponding

Restore Points row will show a degraded status; right click on the relevant restore point and select

“Activate Disaster Recovery”:

A pop-up menu will allow you to select different restore options and, depending on your needs, you

can select the desired PITC or, as in this example, the active replay, along with other mapping options:



Do not forget to use the “Advanced Mapping” option to verify that the DR Volume that will be created

will keep the original LUN ID. 2 You can check the status and completion of the DR procedure through

the “Recovery Progress” tab.

If you will, you can RDP to the DR site;

Note For example, and for sake of simplicity, CSV #1 uses LUN ID = 10 on both nodes, CSV # 2 uses

LUN ID = 20, and so on and so forth



And again perform a volume rescan through the GUI: Server Manager > Tools > Computer

Management > Disk Management.

Once completed open Failover Cluster Manager and move the offline CSV to the DR node; it will

become immediately available and now you can restart the impacted VM or VMs:



This completes your downtime period and basically measures your real RTO.

Once the cluster has been recovered, or the primary node is back again and up and running, it’s high

time to reactivate the LV relationship.

In this example we have assumed a major disaster, with a Live Volume completely destroyed, and this

basically means that the rollback procedure will have to replicate back all data from the DR site to the

primary site.

In a second example we will consider the case of a whole Storage Center failure and see that when

the system is back into production, the alignment time simply depends on the amount of data written

in the remote site after all DR copies have been brought back into production.

In any case this procedure, where you basically select the desired recovery point and “Restore/Restart

DR Volumes”, is not service affecting and the re-alignment of the primary and secondary (formerly

primary) copies runs in the background. Basically we are coming back to a fully protected Live Volume

scenario.



As mentioned before you can monitor the progress of this recovery procedure from both the “Recovery

Progress” tab of from the main “Live Volume” panel.

Note If you simply delete the primary or secondary volume leaving these in the recycle bin, here is

the expected behavior of the whole system. Secondary volume deleted:

LV Status is: DOWN

Cluster status is: Active

LV status after volume recovery from recycle bin: UP

Primary volume deleted:

LV Status is: DOWN

Cluster status is: DOWN

LV status after volume recovery from recycle bin: UP



Another way to simulate a partial disaster is to remove the mapping to the host from the primary

volume in a Live Volume relationship. After removing mapping, the corresponding resources (CSV,

VMs, …) will go down:

The Live Volume Status tab will show no problem and the best and quickest way to recover from this

status will be to move the resource to the other node of the cluster, bringing it online, using Failover

Cluster Manager and benefitting of the proxy link between the two storage subsystems.

Another way to solve this failure status could be to swap the Live Volume relationship promoting its

secondary to primary role:



Once completed this swap you’ll have to simply move the cluster resource from its former primary

node to the secondary node (now primary in the Live Volume relationship):

When possible you’ll recreate the broken mapping to the host and, if desired, recreate the original Live

Volume relationship.

Removing or losing mapping from a Live Volume perspective from the secondary system does not

create any disruption at Hyper-V cluster level. For example, should you delete the secondary Live

Volume you’ll have:

Please consider that, as now the Live Volume relationship is missing, the broken Live Volume will be

shown in the replication tab:



Run “Restore/Restart DR Volumes” and the system will show this panel:

Note Do not forget, once completed the restore activity, to add the proper mapping to the

secondary Live Volume as it will be created without any mapping: just map it to the secondary host

in the Hyper-V cluster and assign the relevant LUN ID.

The following tables summarize the different cluster and Live Volume statuses, their relationship and

the related stretch cluster service level with different Live Volume mapping status and in the case of

volume failure.

Basically these tables assume Host A as connected to Storage Center A and Host B connected to

Storage Center B; the (Primary) and (Secondary) note just describe a hypothetical Live Volume

configuration.

Cluster status and availability depending on Live Volume path status

# Host A Host B SC A (Primary) SC B (Secondary)

01 CSVs can move between nodes VMs can move between nodes Both always UP in any status

Path(s) UP LV status is UP




02 CSVs can move between nodes VMs can move between nodes Both always UP in any status


Path(s) DOWN LV status is UP

03 CSVs can move between nodes (proxy) VMs can move between nodes Both always UP in any status

Path(s) UP Swap P > S LV status is UP

Path(s) DOWN Secondary “active” LV LV status is UP

04 CSVs can move between nodes (proxy) VMs can move between nodes Both always UP in any status

Path(s) UP Primary “active” LV LV status is UP

Path(s) UP or DOWN Swap S > P LV status is UP

05 CSVs on Host A goes offline Cluster brings it online on Host B VMs restart on Host B CSVs can stay only on Host B VMs can move between nodes Same behavior in case 01

Path(s) DOWN LV status is UP Once Path(s) UP


Cluster status and availability depending on primary and secondary Live Volume status

# Host A Host B SC A (Primary) SC B (Secondary)

01 CSVs cannot move between nodes (UP on Host A) VMs can move between nodes Restore procedure: Restore via “Restore/Restart DR” from “Restore Point” tab Map the secondary LV to Host B Check restore progress in “Recovery Progress” tab Wait for replica alignment

Primary LV UP LV status is DOWN

Secondary LV DOWN (deleted) LV status is DOWN

02 CSVs offline VMs offline Restore procedure: “Activate Disaster Recovery” from “Restore Point” tab Bring CSV online on Host B VMs can move between Host A and Host B Once primary is back … “Restore/Restart DR Volumes” da “Restore Points” Proper volume mapping Check restore progress in “Recovery Progress” tab Wait for replica alignment When completed, swap back secondary to primary Live Volume

Primary LV DOWN (deleted) LV status is OFF (no LV)

Secondary LV UP LV status is OFF (no LV)



3.8 Storage Center failure scenarios

In our testing scenarios we have checked the following possible events:

Cluster resources Primary SC Secondary SC

Active on Host A Complete SC failure Complete SC failure

Active on Host B Complete SC failure Complete SC failure



Complete failure of Primary SC (Resources on Host A)

After a complete failure of the primary SC, all Live Volumes are in DOWN status and the cluster

services are inoperative; from now on, all the applications insisting on this CSV, along with the CSV

itself, are completely unavailable, and this is basically T0 for our RTO period.

To restart services, go to “Restore Points” tab in Replication / Live Volume panel of Enterprise Manager,

select the desired Live Volume and, starting from quorum volume, progressively activate the disaster

recovery counterparts:

In the “Recovery Progress” tab, you’ll see the progress of these events, and when their status is

“Finished” for all Live Volumes, you have completed your disaster recovery activities (T1 for our RTO

period):



Once the primary storage center is back again and ready to rejoin the production environment, just

run for each Live Volume, again starting from the quorum volume, the “Restore / Restart DR Volumes”

procedure:

Again, when completed, in the “Recovery Progress” tab you’ll see:



Note: Please consider that in this case the fail back procedure will be quicker than in the case of

complete loss or destruction of the primary volume because the system has just to copy back only

the data modified since the disaster, and not the complete volume.

Note: Also, do not forget to check that after completing the failback procedure, all Live Volume

LUNs still keep the originally assigned LUN Id. On each storage center

Complete failure of Secondary SC (Resources on Host A)

After the crash of the secondary SC, all Live Volumes status is DOWN but applications are unaffected

and you can move VMs between the two nodes, even if you cannot move CSVs:

Right after secondary SC rejoins the Live Volume configuration, Enterprise Manager automatically

reconfigures all Live Volumes in a fully available status, and the Hyper-V cluster reacquires all swap

functionalities:



Complete failure of Primary SC (Resources on Host B)

This case is much similar to case #1. After a complete failure of the primary SC, all Live Volumes are in

DOWN status and disappear from the “Live Volume” tab. Cluster services are inoperative, and from

now on all the applications insisting on this CSV, along with the CSV itself, are completely unavailable,

and this is basically T0 for our RTO period.

To restart services, go to “Restore Points” tab in Replication / Live Volume panel of Enterprise Manager,

select the desired Live Volume and, starting from quorum volume, progressively activate the disaster

recovery counterparts:

In the “Recovery Progress” tab, you’ll see the progress of these events, and when their status is

“Finished” for all Live Volumes, you have completed your disaster recovery activities (T1 for our RTO

period):



Once the primary storage center is back again and ready to rejoin the production environment, just

run for each Live Volume, again starting from the quorum volume, the “Restore / Restart DR Volumes”

procedure:



Again, when completed, in the “Recovery Progress” tab you’ll see:

Note: Please consider that in this case the fail back procedure will be quicker than in the case of

complete loss or destruction of the primary volume because the system has just to copy back only

the data modified since the disaster, and not the complete volume.

Note Also, do not forget to check that after completing the failback procedure, all Live Volume LUNs

still keep the originally assigned LUN Id. On each storage center.

Complete failure of Secondary SC (Resources on Host B)

Same Live Volume behavior, as per case 2: Live Volume status is DOWN. Hyper-V clusters moves CSVs

to Host A and, again, VMs can swap between the two nodes of the cluster. Right after secondary SC

joins the Live Volume configuration, Enterprise Manager automatically restarts all Live Volumes in a

fully available status, and the Hyper-V cluster reacquires all swap functionalities.


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