VMware vSphere VAAI - who is he?
VMware vSphere VAAI - who is he?
This is a complex of VMware technologies, developed in collaboration with various storage vendors, designed to transfer some virtual machine operations for working with disks to the array side. In this case, the host server virtualization when performing standard procedures in the virtualization environment when the VM is working with the disk subsystem simply instructs the array to do certain actions, while the host itself does not drive through all those data and commands that it was previously forced to run. That is, it is - Hardware Offloading operations with storage.
At the end of this theory.
Recently, my park has a new disk animal HP P2000 G3 MSA DC.
The virtualization system is built on a solution from VMware. And as many know, and since version 4.1, the virtualization platform has begun to support VMware vSphere VAAI technology, or in other words, vStorage API for Array Integration.
I want to use a simple example to show how to activate this important function for increasing productivity. And what increase will this increase give.
So, we have a brand new array of HP P2000 G3 MSA DC on 74 SAS disk with 15 k turns. (according to the specification it supports VAAI)
')
The process of configuring the array, its partitioning and connection will not be considered.
We have mounted drives to the ESX host. In the properties of the disk system, we see that hardware acceleration has the status of Unknown. Unknown status means that the host has not yet applied to operations that are supported by the VAAI (that is, this is the default status). If you make any operation with VAAI (for example, Copy / Paste of a virtual disk is more than 4 MB), then VAAI will try to work it out. If it works successfully, the status will be set to Supported, but if not, then Not Supported.
To activate the VAAI from the manufacturer's website, download the required plag-in. (in my case HP P2000 Software Plug-in for VMware VAAI vSphere). I downloaded it from the HP site, laid out on the attached volume.
team
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/……/hp_vaaip_p2000_offline-bundle-210.zip
Reboot
check
esxcfg-scsidevs -l | egrep "Display Name: | VAAI Status:"
Similarly, we check through the client
VM migration without VAAI:
32.20-29.53 = 127 sec
VAAI included:
11: 15-10: 21 = 66 sec.
66 against 127 seconds This is one team, and the difference is impressive.
VMware vSphere VAAI implements:
Full Copy / Clone Blocks / XCOPY is a function that allows you to transfer to the array side the ability to copy virtual infrastructure objects without using even-write operations from the VMware ESX 4.1 server. This feature is also called Hardware Offloaded Copy and SAN Data Copy Offloading.
Write Same / Zero Blocks - the ability to reset large block arrays on disk devices to quickly create vmdk disks of the eager zero thick type.
Atomic Test and Set (ATS) —The ability to protect the VMFS volume metadata as a cluster file system in situations where a large number of ESX hosts have shared access to a single repository. This feature is also called Hardware Assisted Locking.
PS Include VAAI. because I think many have installed disk arrays, acquired for a lot of money. It is necessary to squeeze out of them all 100% of useful functionality, especially since it adds no small performance.
Original article here
A bit of theory about VAAI:
This is a complex of VMware technologies, developed in collaboration with various storage vendors, designed to transfer some virtual machine operations for working with disks to the array side. In this case, the host server virtualization when performing standard procedures in the virtualization environment when the VM is working with the disk subsystem simply instructs the array to do certain actions, while the host itself does not drive through all those data and commands that it was previously forced to run. That is, it is - Hardware Offloading operations with storage.
At the end of this theory.
Practice
Recently, my park has a new disk animal HP P2000 G3 MSA DC.
The virtualization system is built on a solution from VMware. And as many know, and since version 4.1, the virtualization platform has begun to support VMware vSphere VAAI technology, or in other words, vStorage API for Array Integration.
I want to use a simple example to show how to activate this important function for increasing productivity. And what increase will this increase give.
So, we have a brand new array of HP P2000 G3 MSA DC on 74 SAS disk with 15 k turns. (according to the specification it supports VAAI)
')
The process of configuring the array, its partitioning and connection will not be considered.
We have mounted drives to the ESX host. In the properties of the disk system, we see that hardware acceleration has the status of Unknown. Unknown status means that the host has not yet applied to operations that are supported by the VAAI (that is, this is the default status). If you make any operation with VAAI (for example, Copy / Paste of a virtual disk is more than 4 MB), then VAAI will try to work it out. If it works successfully, the status will be set to Supported, but if not, then Not Supported.
To activate the VAAI from the manufacturer's website, download the required plag-in. (in my case HP P2000 Software Plug-in for VMware VAAI vSphere). I downloaded it from the HP site, laid out on the attached volume.
Installation is very simple
team
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/……/hp_vaaip_p2000_offline-bundle-210.zip
Reboot
check
esxcfg-scsidevs -l | egrep "Display Name: | VAAI Status:"
Similarly, we check through the client
Let's run several tests:
VM migration without VAAI:
32.20-29.53 = 127 sec
VAAI included:
11: 15-10: 21 = 66 sec.
66 against 127 seconds This is one team, and the difference is impressive.
VMware vSphere VAAI implements:
Full Copy / Clone Blocks / XCOPY is a function that allows you to transfer to the array side the ability to copy virtual infrastructure objects without using even-write operations from the VMware ESX 4.1 server. This feature is also called Hardware Offloaded Copy and SAN Data Copy Offloading.
Write Same / Zero Blocks - the ability to reset large block arrays on disk devices to quickly create vmdk disks of the eager zero thick type.
Atomic Test and Set (ATS) —The ability to protect the VMFS volume metadata as a cluster file system in situations where a large number of ESX hosts have shared access to a single repository. This feature is also called Hardware Assisted Locking.
PS Include VAAI. because I think many have installed disk arrays, acquired for a lot of money. It is necessary to squeeze out of them all 100% of useful functionality, especially since it adds no small performance.
Original article here
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/171815/
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