This video talks about UnityVSA overview, deployment models, specifications/requirements, licensing, and demo.
Hello and welcome to E MC Unity video on Unity VS A which is a software based storage solution for general purpose servers, running vmware E six I hypervisor. For this video, we will be going through a few topics including a general overview of what unity vs A entails and what's included in the product. Then we'll see the different deployment options for the storage appliance. After that, we'll check out the unity VS A deployment specifications including underlying server hardware requirements. Before seeing the available licensing options.
We'll end with the demonstration on deploying a unity vs A on top of an E I host and using units sphere to manage the storage appliance. Let's get started with the overview unity vs A stands for unity virtual storage appliance which is a packaged virtual machine that emulates the storage system. Once a unity vs A instance is running, it has the similar capabilities of a physical unity system like being able to provision and share out both block and file resources including Vival storage to manage a unity vs A the same HTML five based unisphere architecture is used keeping the same consistent look and feel across all unity products along with a similar provisioning feature set.
UDVS A also boasts similar data services like snapshot and native replication technologies. For unity vs A deployments, there are several ways to deploy the VS A allowing it to be very flexible in its use cases, unity vs A data discs can be provisioned directly from the attached drives on the server. It is installed on or can use other attached storage from E MC arrays or any other storage arrays connected to the given ESX I server. And as you can see on the right unit vs A can also utilize storage from servers, sand clustered environments for deployment options. There are different capacity points available with associated support models. First, there's the free edition of Unity vs A that can be downloaded from E MC dot com and is limited to four terabytes of capacity.
This free edition is only community supported, meaning all issues can be posted to E MC community forum for help and troubleshooting but not associated with E MC service requests. E MC recommends this version for test def use cases only for fully E MC supported editions of Unity vs A. There are capacity point options of 10 terabytes, 25 terabytes and 50 terabytes which require a purchased subscription license with these subscription editions. E MC support personnel will handle support cases to ensure issues are resolved in a timely manner.
Users can use these professional auditions for production use cases as needed. Here are the unity VSA specifications as well as the required server hardware specifications to run a unity vs A A unity vs A instance is a single virtualized storage processor which utilizes two virtual CP US 12 gigabytes of memory and four times one gigabit Ethernet or 10 gigabit Ethernet virtual network interfaces for network connectivity, unity, VS A supports I NFS and SMB for available storage protocols for the physical server. The following requirements must be met. First, the CPU must be a dual core 64 bit processor with Intel Xon E five series chip set or better. Also, the SSE version of the CPU must be SSE 4.2 or better.
In terms of memory, the host must physically have at least 16 gigabytes of memory if running VM ware ESX I 5.5 or at least 18 gigabytes of memory. If running VMWARE ESX I 6.0 other requirements can be seen below including the rate controller and minimum operating system version requirements. As mentioned previously, the free community edition works up to four terabytes. If at some time later, an administrator wants to convert an already running free edition into a professional standard edition. They can do so by purchasing and installing a standard edition license in either 10 terabyte, 25 terabyte 50 terabyte one year subscription options. There are also capacity upgrade options to go from a lower capacity limit to a higher capacity limit. Note that this only extends the capacity limit itself and not the subscription time.
In terms of licenses themselves, there will be warnings generated by unity vs A to tell users when they are nearing the end of the license subscription period at varying times. Once the subscription expires, a license must be renewed in the same capacity point or larger. If a license is not renewed, users will not be able to provision new resources on their system but will still be able to access existing resources as needed. Let's now get into a demonstration of deploying a unity vs A instance through VMRV center. Then to again, look at unisphere for management. We'll be deploying our unity vs A through vsphere web client once logged in. Let's navigate to hosts and clusters.
Here we are managing a couple ESX I six title hosts with this V center. At this point. The OVF file has already been downloaded to our local drive and ready to be deployed. Also, our ESX I host has been checked to meet all the requirements. Let's right. Click the second ESX I host and click deploy OVF template in the deploy OVF template wizard. We'll first browse and navigate to the unity VSAO VA file that was downloaded previously and click open on the next step, accept any extra configuration options and click next here. You will choose the folder or data center. You want to deploy the unity VS A. On the following step asks you to choose the store's location for the unity. Vsae MC recommends choosing the disk format of thick eager zero to ensure best possible performance data store.
One is made from the local server discs in this case, but note that other attached data stores could be selected here as well. The next step of the wizard allows you to pick which virtual networks to use for management and data paths. The last setting to configure is the IP address to connect to and manage a UN EVs A. In this case, I'll set a static I PV four address including associated subnet and gateway information. Now that's complete. Let's verify the settings we have chosen, choose to power it on after deployment and click. Finish at that point. The unity vs A deployment has begun time to completion will depend on several factors including network speed and several workload to tell when unity VS A is fully booted.
Go to the details of the VM and check the status of the DNS name field. At that point, you'll be able to log into unisphere. Now let's log into unisphere using the default credentials once logged in for the first time, you'll be automatically shown the initial configuration wizard clicking next on the wizard, you'll be first prompted to accept the user license agreement. After that, you'll be required to change the default password for both admin and service user accounts. The following page allows users to upload a license to use the available features of unity vs A. In this case, I have a license downloaded previously and can now browse the corresponding location to upload the file. Once that is done, you can use the rest of the wizard to configure other system settings and resources for this demo.
In the interest of time, we will now strip the rest of the wizard in the main page of the un fee interface. You can see that it is laid out exactly the same as the interface for a physical unity system. Starting off here in the dashboard page, we can see that the system is running healthy with no warnings or issues. Let's go to the system view page. First thing you will notice is that the model name is called unity VS A which is different than physical unity models, clicking on the enclosures tab and note the difference could be seen for the graphical illustration of the system.
Since unity VS A is a virtual appliance, the graphic is not of a physical dis processor enclosure but is instead of a single virtual controller with available network interfaces, four of which are for data paths and one for management clicking on one of the posts displays more information about the interface including link status and mac address, which can be used to identify the corresponding number adapter and vsphere as needed. That concludes this demonstration for additional information on unity vs A and its available configurations, please see the unity vs A white paper on E MC online support or on the E MC info hub. As seen here.
