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Configuring Storage in VMM Overview

Updated: March 25, 2013

Applies To: System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Virtualized workloads in System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) require storage resources to meet capacity and performance requirements. VMM recognizes local and remote storage. Local storage represents the storage capacity available on a server (or directly attached to a server), and is typically used for low-cost virtualization solutions. Remote storage offloads work from the server to an external storage device, with scaling and capacity provided by the storage hardware.

VMM supports the following storage solutions:

  • Block storage—VMM supports the use of block-level storage devices that expose logical unit numbers (LUNs) for storage, using fiber channel, iSCSI, and SAS connection mechanisms.

  • File storage—VMM supports the use of network shares for storage. Network shares that support the server message block (SMB) 3.0 protocol can reside on a Windows Server 2012 file server or on a network-attached storage (NAS) device from storage vendors such as EMC and NetApp.

VMM in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduces a number of new changes for storage provider and automation support, including:

  • Support for the Windows Storage Management API (SMAPI). SMAPI was introduced in Windows Server 2012 for the management of directly attached storage, and external storage arrays. SMAPI combines with a Storage Management Provider (SMP), or the Microsoft Standards-Based Storage Management Service and an SMI-S provider. SMAPI supersedes the Virtual Disk Service (VDS) application programming interface (API) in Windows Server 2012. For more information, see An Introduction to Storage Management in Windows Server.

  • VMM uses SMAPI to manage external storage using SMP, or uses SMAPI together with the Microsoft Standards-based Storage Management Service to communicate with SMI-S compliant storage. The Microsoft Standards-based Storage Management Service is an optional server feature that enables communication with SMI-S storage providers. It is enabled during installation of System Center 2012 SP1.

  • SAN migration using the legacy Virtual Disk Service (VDS) hardware provider interface is not supported from System Center 2012 SP1 onwards. When upgrading from System Center 2012 to System Center 2012 SP1, you must remove the VDS hardware provider software from the VMM server and enable the SMI-S or native WMI SMP provider using instructions from the storage vendors.

  • In addition to discovery and management of iSCSI arrays with static targets, System Center 2012 SP1 adds support for the discovery and management of iSCSI target arrays that support dynamic and manual targets (for example Starwind, HP P2000, HP Lefthand, Dell EqualLogic, and Microsoft iSCSI Software Target).

  • VMM 2012 supports creation of a thin provisioning logical unit. System Center 2012 SP1 adds support for creation of a thin provisioned logical unit on a storage pool. Thin provisioning makes it possible for you to allocate more capacity to specific applications or users than is physically available. The storage array must support thin provisioning, and thin provisioning must be enabled for a storage pool by the storage administrator.

  • System Center 2012 SP1 provides support for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target using an SMI-S provider. Microsoft iSCSI is now fully integrated into Windows Server 2012. The installation file (.msi) for the SMI-S provider for Microsoft iSCSI Target Server is included in the System Center 2012 SP1 installation, in the path CDLayout.EVAL\amd64\Setup\msi\iSCSITargetPRov\iSCSITargetSMISProvider.msi. For more information about the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target, see:

  • Windows Server 2012 provides support for using Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 file shares as shared storage for Hyper-V 2012. Using System Center 2012 SP1 you can assign SMB file shares to Hyper-V stand-alone hosts and clusters. For more information, see How to Assign SMB 3.0 File Shares to Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters in VMM

Deploying and managing storage resources

VMM allows you to model, deploy, and manage storage resources as follows:

  • Storage discovery—Administrators often have little visibility into underlying storage infrastructures. Using System Center 2012 – VMM, you can automatically discover local and remote storage, including storage arrays, pools, logical units (storage volumes or logical unit numbers (LUNs), disks, volumes, and virtual disks).

  • Storage classification—You can classify discovered storage using friendly descriptive names to create and expose a simplified storage model.

  • Storage provisioning—System Center 2012 – VMM can create new logical units from available capacity, for provisioning to a Hyper-V host or cluster. New logical units can be provisioned using any of the following methods. The method you use depends on the type of storage array and the virtualization workload you need to deploy.

    1. From available capacity—Creating a new logical unit from available capacity is useful when you have a pool of storage available, allowing control over how many logical units you create, and the size of each logical unit.

    2. By creating a writeable snapshot of an existing logical unit—Creating a writeable snapshot of an existing logical unit allows you to rapidly create many copies of an existing virtual disk. You can provision multiple virtual machines in a small amount of time, with minimal load on the hosts. Depending on the array, snapshots can be created almost instantaneously, and are very space efficient.

    3. By creating a clone of a logical unit—Creating a clone of an existing logical unit offloads the work of creating a full copy of a virtual disk to the array. Depending on the array, clones are typically not space efficient, and can take some time to create.

  • Storage allocation—You can allocate available storage pools and LUNs to defined host groups that can represent business groups, locations and so on. Resources typically need to be allocated on the host group level before they can be assigned to hosts. If you allocate a storage pool, you can create and assign logical units directly from managed hosts in the host group that can access the storage array. In addition, VMM can automatically create logical units from the storage pool, if you use rapid provisioning to provision virtual machines with storage area network (SAN) snapshots or cloning.

  • Storage decommission—VMM can decommission the storage it manages. This is important to avoid running out of storage capacity over time.

Usage scenarios

Typical usage scenarios for storage features include the following:

  • Assigning and adding storage to hosts or clusters—A host group that requires new storage looks up the storage allocated it, and assigns it to Hyper-V hosts or clusters as required.  VMMautomates this process by exposing the storage to the hosts, initializing the disks, and formatting new volumes. For cluster deployments, VMM creates the required cluster CSV and physical disk resources, and maps the volume to all cluster hosts, so that it is shared across a cluster.  VMM can also assign additional storage to a host or cluster that already has storage assigned. VMM automates the unmasking and preparation of the volume. For a cluster, VMM also creates the cluster resources. For instructions see How to Configure Storage on a Hyper-V Host.

  • Cluster creation—VMM 2012 SP1 can create a cluster with up to 64 Hyper-V nodes, and automate the assignment of cluster shared storage as part of the same workflow. Simplifying the creation of new clusters with shared storage is important in a private cloud deployment. For more information, see Creating a Hyper-V Host Cluster in VMM Overview.

  • Rapid Provisioning—Storage arrays can create copies of virtual disks very efficiently with minimal load on the host. VMM can leverage this capability to rapidly create virtual machines. VMM understands the capabilities of the storage array, when a logical unit contains a file system and a virtual disk, and you can create a template with a virtual disk on a logical unit. VMM can instruct the array to create a copy of a virtual disk by provisioning new storage on the array, using a snapshot or cloning. VMM then exposes the storage to the host, mounting the file system, and associating the virtual disk with the virtual machine. In the administrator console, you use rapid provisioning to create stand-alone virtual machines or service-based machines. You can also integrate rapid provisioning into your own provisioning tools using PowerShell. For more information, see Rapid Provisioning a Virtual Machine by Using SAN Copy Overview.

Configuring storage automation

Before you begin

Before you begin configuring storage settings, note the following:

  • Storage automation with VMM is only supported for Hyper-V hosts.

  • Do not install the SMI-S provider on the VMM management server. This configuration is not supported.

  • WMI SMP providers from Dell EqualLogic and NexSan must be installed on the VMM server.

  • Check the list in Supported storage arrays to verify that a storage array is supported. Note that VMM recognizes storage on storage arrays that do not appear in this list. However, there is no guarantee that you can perform active management operations such a logical unit provisioning, masking and unmasking, cloning and taking snapshots on those storage arrays through VMM. If a storage array is not on this list, we recommend that you contact your storage vendor to determine VMM support.

  • If the SMI-S provider type for the storage array is a “proxy” provider that needs to be installed on a separate server, obtain and install the latest version of the SMI-S provider from your storage vendor on a server that the VMM management server can access over the network by IP address or by FQDN.

  • Notify your storage administrator that by default, when VMM manages the assignment of logical units, it creates one storage group (or masking set) per host that can include the initiators for that host. In a cluster configuration, VMM creates one storage group per cluster node, with all the initiators from that cluster node. A storage group can contain one or more of the host’s initiator IDs (iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) or a World Wide Name (WWN)).

    For some storage arrays, it is preferable to use one storage group for the entire cluster, where host initiators for all cluster nodes are contained in that group. To support this configuration, you must set the CreateStorageGroupsPerCluster property to $true by using the Set-SCStorageArray cmdlet in the VMM command shell.

    noteNote
    In VMM, a storage group is defined as an object that binds together host initiators, target ports and logical units. A storage group has one or more host initiators, one or more target ports, and one or more logical units. Logical units are exposed to the host initiators through the target ports.

Storage automation workflow

The following list describes the workflow used to discover, classify, and assign storage using VMM:

  1. Discover storage—From the VMM console, start the Add Storage Devices Wizard, and select the required provider type (Windows File Server, SMI-S, or WMI SMP). Windows File Server and SMI-S providers require an IP address or FQDN. For SMI-S you connect to the SMI-S storage provider to discover storage. For WMI SMP providers, you select the required provider from a drop-down list. For instructions, see How to Add and Classify SMI-S and SMP Storage Devices in VMM.

  2. Classify storage—Classifying storage assigns a meaningful classification to storage pools. For example, you may assign a classification of GOLD to a storage pool that resides on the fastest, most redundant storage array. For instructions, see How to Create Storage Classifications in VMM.

  3. Select a method for creating logical units—Specify how logical units will be created during virtual machine rapid provisioning. Note that by default new logical units are created from available capacity. You only need to modify this default setting if you want to use rapid provisioning with SAN copy technology such as cloning or snapshots. . For instructions, see How to Select a Method for Creating Logical Units in VMM.

  4. Provision storage—Create logical units of storage. For instructions, see How to Provision Storage Logical Units in VMM. Alternatively you can create logical units out-of-band using your array vendor’s management tools. If you use this method it will take some time for VMM to refresh and reflect the changes.

  5. Allocate storage to a host group—From the Storage node of the VMM console, or from the Properties dialog box of the target host group, allocate pre-created logical units or storage pools to specific host groups. For instructions, see How to Allocate Storage Logical Units to a Host Group in VMM, and How to Allocate Storage Pools to a Host Group in VMM.

    noteNote
    If you allocate a storage pool, you can create and assign logical units directly from managed hosts in the host group that can access the storage array. In addition, VMM can automatically create logical units from the storage pool if you use rapid provisioning to provision virtual machines using SAN snapshots or cloning. During the rapid provisioning process, logical units are automatically created and assigned.

  6. Assign the storage to hosts and clusters—After configuring storage and assigning to host groups, you can assign the storage to Hyper-V hosts and clusters as shared (Cluster Shared Volume) or available storage. Note that all nodes in the cluster should have access to the storage array using host bus adapters (HBA) or iSCSI. If you allocated a storage pool to a host group, you can create and optionally assign logical units directly from the Properties dialog box of a host or host cluster. If the storage array supports iSCSI host connectivity, you can create iSCSI sessions to the storage array from the Properties dialog box of a host. For instructions, see:

    1. How to Configure Storage on a Hyper-V Host in VMM

    2. How to Configure Storage on a Hyper-V Host Cluster in VMM

    noteNote
    The hosts must be able to access the storage array. For example, if you are using a Fibre Channel SAN, each host must have a host bus adapter (HBA), and the hosts must be zoned correctly.

  7. Configured storage can also be decommissioned if required. For instructions, see How to Remove Storage Logical Units in VMM.

Supported storage arrays

For the latest version of supported storage arrays, see Supported storage arrays for System Center 2012 VMM on the TechNet Wiki.

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