Celerra replication VMware, SRM

Question

HI everybody, it's the first time i write here. I'm french... so sorry if i make some mistakes I explain you my problem :  I've got 2 sites with : 1 NS480 + 5 VMware ESX Server + VMware vSphere 4 EnterprisePlus + SRM (per site) -  50 virtual machines Windows and Linux - 2 types of disk (FC 600 Go and SATA 2 To) : 20 To with the FC (for VM's) and 30 To with the SATA (for backup) I make iSCSI attachement between my 5 ESX servers and the Celerra NS480 trought 4 switchs 3COM in one site. The same architecture in the another site. Now i need to make a recovery site between the 2 sites with Site Recovery Manager (SRM) of VMware. I need to replicate all volumes. I must know what i need to do the replication ? I know that SRM could managed IP replicator, but volumes replicate are not consistent. So I put Replication Manager wich can make consistent Replication , but it works only with Road Device Mapping. I don't want to managed 50 RDMs . Plus, I don't know if SRM can control Replication Manager. Now my questions : Have you got a solution to make the replication and keep the consistency of my VMs (System and application) with SRM ? Have you got white paper ? What is the limitation of an NFS file system on a NS480? The limitation of the iSCSI is still 2 To on a NS480 ? Thank you, and good luck

Rainer_EMC · Accepted Answer

Hi,

any special applications there ?

In my opionion Replication Manager only makes sense there (in addition to Replicator with SRM) if you need application consistency for applications like Exchange or databases.

We have a number of reference applications that include SRM - like this one here:

Reference Architecture: EMC Business Continuity for Microsoft Exchange - Enabled by EMC Celerra; EMC Replication Manager; VMware HA, DRS, and SRMpdf(0.8 MB)

Microsoft Exchange 2007 messaging environments are growing in complexity and user requirements have become increasingly demanding. Therefore, it is important to design the Exchange environment for optimum performance and high availability. This Reference Architecture is enabled by Microsoft Exchange 2007; EMC Celerra, Celerra Replicator, and EMC Replication Manager; and VMware ESX 3.5, High Availability, Distributed Resource Scheduler, and Site Recovery Manager.

Reference Architecture: EMC Business Continuity for Microsoft Exchange - Enabled by EMC Celerra; EMC Replication Manager; VMware HA, DRS, and SRMpdf(0.8 MB)

Microsoft Exchange 2007 messaging environments are growing in complexity and user requirements have become increasingly demanding. Therefore, it is important to design the Exchange environment for optimum performance and high availability. This Reference Architecture is enabled by Microsoft Exchange 2007; EMC Celerra, Celerra Replicator, and EMC Replication

White Paper: Disaster Recovery of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on EMC Celerra iSCSI using EMC Replication Manager and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager — Best Practices Planning
This white paper discusses the best practices and guidelines to successfully implement disaster recovery solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server by using EMC Replication Manager with EMC Celerra in a VMware environment. It also discusses the technical reasons for these implementation techniques.

White Paper: Introduction to Using EMC Celerra with VMware vSphere 4 — Applied Best Practices
This white paper provides a detailed overview of using EMC Celerra with VMware vSphere 4, an infrastructure virtualization suite that provides virtualization, management, resource optimization, application availability, and operational automation capabilities in an integrated package.

Note that we also have more detailed internal build and validation info for these solutions - your local EMC technical contact should be able to help you there.

If you dont already know it - the Techbook covers a lot of the possibilities for Celerra with VMWare

TechBook: VMware ESX Using EMC Celerra Storage Systems
This EMC Engineering TechBook describes how VMware ESX Server works with EMC Celerra storage systems and software technologies. This guide is intended for storage administrators, system administrators, and ESX Server administrators. It can also be used by individuals who are involved in acquiring, managing, or operating Celerra storage

hope that helps

Rainer

Thoppay · Answer

You can use Replication Manager to create application consistent image to replicate with Celerra Replicator.

VMware SRM doesn't care how it's getting replicated as long as the SRA can provide the details of the storage that is getting replicated and take actions requested by SRM.

There is one solution white paper available to show this integration. But, that was created using RDM volumes. The steps should be similar for any Replication Manager supported configuration.

Can you clarify your question on the limitation of NFS and iSCSI?

Arkhana · Answer

a point for iSCSI and NFS. I had install an Celerra NS-120 and the volme limit of  an iSCSI LUN was 2 To. What is the limit for a NFS LUN and a iSCSI LUN on a NS-480 , plz ?

Arkhana · Answer

i'm sorry i don't say thank you 2

Applications are multiples (Exchange, Oracle, file server windows, Mysql, and a lot of another applications i don't know yet).

I will read your doc and if i have got another question, i know now where to put it

Rainer_EMC · Answer

I had install an Celerra NS-120 and the volme limit of an iSCSI LUN was 2 To.
What is the limit for a NFS LUN and a iSCSI LUN on a NS-480 , plz ?

do you mean limit from the Celerra side ?

the Celerra supports 256 ISCSI LUNs per target and lots of targets - your limit is probably the max 1024 replication session per DM

for NFS exports there isnt a hard limit that I know of - and we support 2048 file systems

the max ISCSI LUN size is 2TB and the max NFS export is 16TB

there is no difference there between NS-480 and NS-120 - expect the capacity per data mover of 32TB vs 64TB and the total number of disks 120 vs. 480

(see Technical Notes section in the DART release notes for more details)

There are limits on the VMware side - max 32 NFS mounts per server, but you have to adjust if from the default of 8 (see Techbook)

Rainer

leburelr · Answer

Hello all,

I've found an interesting document about Celerra limits and compatibilities: " nas support matrix" at

https://powerlink.emc.com/nsepn/webapps/btg548664833igtcuup4826/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Interoperability_Matrix/NASSupportMatrix.pdf?mtcs=ZXZlbnRUeXBlPUttQ2xpY2tDb250ZW50RXZlbnQsZG9jdW1lbnRJZD0wOTAxNDA2NjgwNGRlNGVhLGRvY3VtZW50VHlwZT1wZGYsbmF2ZU5vZGU9MGIwMTQwNjY4MDJhZmYzNl9Hcmlk

Kind regards,

nandas · Answer

Hi leburelr, Welcome to the EMC forums. I am unable to open this link but if you are referring to the 'NAS Support Matrix' document - please note that this is an EMC internal (Confidential) document available to EMC employees and partners (maybe) only - not for customers.  You may find the 'EMC confidential' note on the bottom of each page of the doc. I understand you may be having added access to Powerlink for accessing the internal doc - may be you are a partner or authorized service person. Thanks,Sandip

ecinv1 · Answer

Hi, is there a white paper or article to show what will happen if the data mover limit is reach? As in if i have a data mover mount with multiple FS and all add up to be more that 64TB? Thanks

dynamox · Answer

Celerra will not stop you from creating/using more capacity, technically you will be in unsupported configuration. If you need to support more capacity, you can request an RPQ, support will look at datamover memory/cpu utilization, file size, wether you use replication ..etc. Now if you reach the maximum limit of file systems per datamover ..new file systems will not mount.

Rainer_EMC · Answer

Correct NAS file system capacity it not a hard limit that is enforced so nothing will happen Rainner

Celerra

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