Backup VMware Server Workloads to Azure Backup Server

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In my previous article, I explained how to install and configure Azure Backup Server. This article explains how to configure Azure Backup Server to help protect VMware  Server workloads. I am assuming that you already have Azure Backup Server installed. … Continue reading →

Azure Backup Server v2

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Azure Backup is used for backups and DR, and it works with managed disks as well as unmanaged disks. You can create a backup job with time-based backups, easy VM restoration, and backup retention policies. The following table is a … Continue reading →

Azure Site Recovery for VMware VMs

Azure Site Recovery orchestrates and manages disaster recovery for Azure VMs in Azure Cloud, and on-premises VMs in VMware, System Center VMM and physical servers. Prerequisites: VMware Virtual Server Azure Subscription Azure Virtual Network ExpressRoute between On-premises to Azure Network … Continue reading →

Microsoft Software Defined Storage AKA Scale-out File Server (SOFS)

Business Challenges:

• $/IOPS and $/TB
• Continuous Availability
• Fault Tolerance
• Storage Performance
• Segregation of production, development and disaster recovery storage
• De-duplication of unstructured data
• Segregation of data between production site and disaster recovery site
• Continuous break fix of Distributed File Systems (DFS) & File Server
• Continuously extending storage on the DFS servers
• Single point of failure
• File systems is not available always
• Security of file systems is constant concern
• Propitiatory non-scalable storage
• Management of physical storage
• Vendor lock-in contract for physical storage
• Migration path from single vendor to multi vendor storage provider
• Management overhead of unstructured data
• Comprehensive management of storage platform

Solutions:

Microsoft Software Defined Storage AKA Scale-Out File Server is a feature that is designed to provide scale-out file shares that are continuously available for file-based server application storage. Scale-out file shares provides the ability to share the same folder from multiple nodes of the same cluster.Microsoft Software Defined Storage offerings compared with third party offering:

Storage feature	Third-party NAS/SAN	Microsoft Software-Defined Storage
Fabric	Block protocol	File protocol Network
Network	Low latency network with FC	Low latency with SMB3Direct Management
Management	Management of LUNs	Management of file shares Data de-duplication
Data De-duplication	Data de-duplication	Data de-duplication Resiliency
Resiliency	RAID resiliency groups	Flexible resiliency options Pooling
Pooling	Pooling of disks	Pooling of disks Availability
Availability	High	Continuous (via redundancy) Copy offload, Snapshots
Copy Offloads, Snapshots	Copy offload, Snapshots	SMB copy offload, Snapshots Tiering
Tiering	Storage tiering	Performance with tiering Persistent write-back cache
Persistent Write-back cache	Persistent write-back cache	Persistent write-back cache Scale up
Scale up	Scale up	Automatic scale-out rebalancing Storage Quality of Service (QoS)
Storage Quality of Service (QoS)	Storage QoS	Storage QoS (Windows Server 2016) Replication
Replication	Replication	Storage Replica (Windows Server 2016) Updates
Updates	Firmware updates	Rolling cluster upgrades (Windows Server 2016)
		Storage Spaces Direct (Windows Server 2016)
		Azure-consistent storage (Windows Server 2016)

 Functional use of Microsoft Scale-Out File Servers:

1. Application Workloads

• Microsoft Hyper-v Cluster
• Microsoft SQL Server Cluster
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Microsoft System Center DPM Storage Target
• Veeam Backup Repository

2. Disaster Recovery Solution

• Backup Target
• Object storage
• Encrypted storage target
• Hyper-v Replica
• System Center DPM

3. Unstructured Data

• Continuously Available File Shares
• DFS Namespace folder target server
• Microsoft Data de-duplication
• Roaming user Profiles
• Home Directories
• Citrix User Profiles
• Outlook Cached location for Citrix XenApp Session Server

4. Management

• Single Management Point for all Scale-out File Servers
• Provide wizard driven tools for storage related tasks
• Integrated with Microsoft System Center

Business Values:

• Scalability
• Load balancing
• Fault tolerance
• Ease of installation
• Ease of management/operations
• Flexibility
• Security
• High performance
• Compliance & Certification

SOFS Architecture:

Microsoft Scale-out File Server (SOFS) is  considered as a Storage Defined Storage (SDS).  Microsoft SOFS is independent of hardware vendor as long as the compute and storage is certified by Microsoft Corporation. The following figure shows Microsoft Hyper-v cluster, SQL Cluster and Object Storage on the SOFS.

                 Figure: Microsoft Software Defined Storage (SDS) Architecture

                     Figure: Microsoft Scale-out File Server (SOFS) Architecture

                                      Figure: Microsoft SDS Components

                        Figure: Unified Storage Management (See Reference)

Microsoft Software Defined Storage AKA Scale-out File Server Benefits:

SOFS:

• Continuous availability file stores for Hyper-V and SQL Server
• Load-balanced IO across all nodes
• Distributed access across all nodes
• VSS support
• Transparent failover and client redirection
• Continuous availability at a share level versus a server level

De-duplication:

• Identifies duplicate chunks of data and only stores one copy
• Provides up to 90% reduction in storage required for OS VHD files
• Reduces CPU and Memory pressure
• Offers excellent reliability and integrity
• Outperforms Single Instance Storage (SIS) or NTFS compression.

SMB Multichannel

• Automatic detection of SMB Multi-Path networks
• Resilience against path failures
• Transparent failover with recovery
• Improved throughput
• Automatic configuration with little administrative overhead

SMB Direct:

• The Microsoft implementation of RDMA.
• The ability to direct data transfers from a storage location to an application.
• Higher performance and lower latency through CPU offloading
• High-speed network utilization (including InfiniBand and iWARP)
• Remote storage at the speed of local storage
• A transfer rate of approximately 50Gbps on a single NIC port
• Compatibility with SMB Multichannel for load balancing and failover

VHDX Virtual Disk:

• Online VHDX Resize
• Storage QoS (Quality of Service)

Live Migration

• Easy migration of virtual machine into a cluster while the virtual machine is running
• Improved virtual machine mobility
• Flexible placement of virtual machine storage based on demand
• Migration of virtual machine storage to shared storage without downtime

Storage Protocol:

• SAN discovery (FCP, SAS, iSCSI i.e. EMC VNX, EMC VMAX)
• NAS discovery (Self-contained NAS, NAS Head i.e. NetApp OnTap)
• File Server Discovery (Microsoft Scale-Out File Server, Unified Storage)

Unified Management:

• A new architecture provides ~10x faster disk/partition enumeration operations
• Remote and cluster-awareness capabilities
• SM-API exposes new Windows Server 2012 R2 features (Tiering, Write-back cache, and so on)
• SM-API features added to System Center VMM
• End-to-end storage high availability space provisioning in minutes in VMM console
• More Windows PowerShell

ReFS:

• More resilience to power failures
• Highest levels of system availability
• Larger volumes with better durability
• Scalable to petabyte size volumes

Storage Replica:

• Hardware agnostic storage configuration
• Provide a DR solution for planned and unplanned outages of mission critical workloads.
• Use SMB3 transport with proven reliability, scalability, and performance.
• Stretched failover clusters within metropolitan distances.
• Manage end to end storage and clustering for Hyper-V, Storage Replica, Storage Spaces, Scale-Out File Server, SMB3, Deduplication, and ReFS/NTFS using Microsoft software
• Reduce downtime, and increase reliability and productivity intrinsic to Windows.

Cloud Integration:

• Cloud-based storage service for online backups
• Windows PowerShell instrumented
• Simple, reliable Disaster Recovery solution for applications and data
• Supports System Center 2012 R2 DPM

Implementing Scale-out File Server

Scale-out File Server Recommended Configuration:

1. Gather all virtual servers IOPS requirements*
2. Gather Applications IOPS requirements
3. Total IOPS of all applications & Virtual machines must be less than available IOPS of physical storage 
4. Keep latency below 3 ms at all time for high performance
5. Gather required capacity + potential growth + best practice
6. N+1 Compute, Network and Storage Hardware
7. Use low latency, high throughput networks
8. Segregate storage network from data network using logical network (VLAN) or fibre channel
9. Tools to be used

• Veeam One for Capacity Planning  & Bottleneck findings
• Disk RAID and IOPS Calculator
• RAID Performance Calculator
• RAID Size Calculator

*Not all virtual servers are same, DHCP server generate few IOPS, SQL server and Exchange can generate thousands of IOPS.

*Do not place SQL Server on the same logical volume (LUN) with Exchange Server or Microsoft Dynamics or Backup Server.

*Isolate high IO workloads to separate logical volume or even separate storage pool if possible.

Prerequisites for Scale-Out File Server

1. Install File and Storage Services server role, and the Failover Clustering feature on the cluster nodes
2. Configure Microsoft failover Clusters using this article Windows Server 2012: Failover Clustering Deep Dive Part II
3. Add Cluster Share Volume

• Log on to the server as a member of the local Administrators group.
• Open Server Manager> Click Tools, and then click Failover Cluster Manager.
• Click Storage, right-click the disk that you want to add to the cluster shared volume, and then click Add to Cluster Shared Volumes> Add Storage Presented to this cluster.

Configure Scale-out File Server

1. Open Failover Cluster Manager> Right-click the name of the cluster, and then click Configure Role.
2. On the Before You Begin page, click Next.
3. On the Select Role page, click File Server, and then click Next.
4. On the File Server Type page, select the Scale-Out File Server for application data option, and then click Next.
5. On the Client Access Point page, in the Name box, type a NETBIOS of Scale-Out File Server, and then click Next.
6. On the Confirmation page, confirm your settings, and then click Next.
7. On the Summary page, click Finish.

Create Continuously Available File Share

1. Open Failover Cluster Manager>Expand the cluster, and then click Roles.
2. Right-click the file server role, and then click Add File Share.
3. On the Select the profile for this share page, click SMB Share – Applications, and then click Next.
4. On the Select the server and path for this share page, click the name of the cluster shared volume, and then click Next.
5. On the Specify share name page, in the Share name box, type a name for the file share, and then click Next.
6. On the Configure share settings page, ensure that the Continuously Available check box is selected, and then click Next.
7. On the Specify permissions to control access page, click Customize permissions, grant the following permissions, and then click Next:

• To use Scale-Out File Server file share for Hyper-V: All Hyper-V computer accounts, the SYSTEM account, cluster computer account for any Hyper-V clusters, and all Hyper-V administrators must be granted full control on the share and the file system.
• To use Scale-Out File Server on Microsoft SQL Server: The SQL Server service account must be granted full control on the share and the file system

      8. On the Confirm selections page, click Create. On the View results page, click Close.

Use SOFS for Hyper-v Server VHDX Store:

1. Open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, and then click Hyper-V Manager.
2. Open Hyper-v Settings> Virtual Hard Disks> Specify Location of Store as \\SOFS\VHDShare\ and Specify location of Virtual Machine Configuration \\SOFS\VHDCShare
3. Click Ok.

Use SOFS in System Center VMM: 

1. Add Windows File Server in VMM
2. Assign SOFS Share to Fabric & Hosts

Use SOFS for SQL Database Store:

1. Assign SQL Service Account Full permission to SOFS Share

• Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the scale-out file share.
• Right-click the folder, and then click Properties.
• Click the Sharing tab, click Advanced Sharing, and then click Permissions.
• Ensure that the SQL Server service account has full-control permissions.
• Click OK twice.
• Click the Security tab. Ensure that the SQL Server service account has full-control permissions.

2. In SQL Server 2012, you can choose to store all database files in a scale-out file share during installation.  

3. On the step 20 of SQL Setup Wizard , provide a location of Scale-out File Server which is \\SOFS\SQLData and \\SOFS\SQLLogs

4. Create a Database on SOFS Share but on the existing SQL Server using SQL Script

CREATE DATABASE [TestDB]
ON  PRIMARY
( NAME = N’TestDB’, FILENAME = N’\\SOFS\SQLDB\TestDB.mdf’ )
LOG ON
( NAME = N’TestDBLog’, FILENAME = N’\\SOFS\SQLDBLog\TestDBLogs.ldf’)
GO

Use Backup & Recovery:

System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2

Configure and add a dedupe storage target into DPM 2012 R2. DPM 2012 R2 will not backup SOFS itself but it will backup VHDX files stored on SOFS. Follow Deduplicate DPM storage and protection for virtual machines with SMB storage  guide to backup virtual machines.

Veeam Availability Suite

1. Log on to Veeam Availability Console>Click Backup Repository> Right Click New backup Repository
2. Select Shared Folder on the Type Tab
3. Add SMB Backup Target \\SOFS\Repository
4. Follow the Wizard. Make Sure Service Account of Veeam has full access permission to \\SOFS\Repository  Share.
5. Click Scale-out Repositories>Right Click Add Scale-out backup repository> Type the Name
6. Select the backup repository you created in previous>Follow the Wizard to complete tasks.

References:

Microsoft Storage Architecture

Storage Spaces Physical Disk Validation Script

Validate Hardware

Deploy Clustered Storage Spaces

Storage Spaces Tiering in Windows Server 2012 R2

SMB Transparent Failover

Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) Inside Out

Storage Spaces – Designing for Performance

Related Articles:

Scale-Out File Server Cluster using Azure VMs

Microsoft Multi-Site Failover Cluster for DR & Business Continuity

Understanding Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Software defined storage is an evolution of storage technology in cloud era. It is a deployment of storage technology without any dependencies on storage hardware. Software defined storage (SDS) eliminates all traditional aspect of storage such as managing storage policy, security, provisioning, upgrading and scaling of storage without the headache of hardware layer. Software defined storage (SDS) is completely software based product instead of hardware based product. A software defined storage must have the following characteristics.

Characteristics of SDS

• Management of complete stack of storage using software
• Automation-policy driven storage provisioning with SLA
• Ability to run private, public or hybrid cloud platform
• Creation of uses metric and billing in control panel
• Logical storage services and capabilities eliminating dependence on the underlying physical storage systems
• Creation of logical storage pool
• Creation of logical tiering of storage volumes
• Aggregate various physical storage into one or multiple logical pool
• Storage virtualization
• Thin provisioning of volume from logical pool of storage
• Scale out storage architecture such as Microsoft Scale out File Servers
• Virtual volumes (vVols), a proposal from VMware for a more transparent mapping between large volumes and the VM disk images within them
• Parallel NFS (pNFS), a specific implementation which evolved within the NFS
• OpenStack APIs for storage interaction which have been applied to open-source projects as well as to vendor products.
• Independent of underlying storage hardware

A software defined storage must not have the following limitations.

• Glorified hardware which juggle between network and disk e.g. Dell Compellent
• Dependent systems between hardware and software e.g. Dell Compellent
• High latency and low IOPS for production VMs
• Active-passive management controller
• Repetitive hardware and software maintenance
• Administrative and management overhead
• Cost of retaining hardware and software e.g. life cycle management
• Factory defined limitation e.g. can’t do situation
• Production downtime for maintenance work e.g. Dell Compellent maintenance

The following vendors provides various software defined storage in current market.

Software Only vendor

• Atlantis Computing
• DataCore Software
• SANBOLIC
• Nexenta
• Maxta
• CloudByte
• VMware
• Microsoft

Mainstream Storage vendor

• EMC ViPR
• HP StoreVirtual
• Hitachi
• IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center
• NetApp Data ONTAP

Storage Appliance vendor

• Tintri
• Nimble
• Solidfire
• Nutanix
• Zadara Storage

Hyper Converged Appliance

• Cisco (Starting price from $59K for Hyperflex systems+1 year support inclusive)
• Nutanix
• VCE (Starting price from $60K for RXRAIL systems+support)
• Simplivity Corporation
• Maxta
• Pivot3 Inc.
• Scale Computing Inc
• EMC Corporation
• VMware Inc

Ultimately, SDS should and will provide businesses will worry free management of storage without limitation of hardware. There are compelling use cases of software defined storage for an enterprise to adopt software defined storage.

Relavent Articles

• Gartner’s verdict on mid-range and enterprise class storage arrays
• Buying a SAN? How to select a SAN for your business?
• Dell Compellent: A Poor Man’s SAN
• Dell Compellent Storage to be discontinued after Dell-EMC merger

Dell Compellent: A Poor Man’s SAN

I have been deploying Storage Area Network for almost ten years in my 18 years Information Technology career. I have deployed various traditional, software defined and converged SANs manufactured by a global vendor like IBM, EMC, NetApp, HP, Dell, etc. … Continue reading →