DELL EMC SCALEIO FOR VMWARE ENVIRONMENTS Deployment and Best Practices Guide

ABSTRACT This white paper provides technical information and best practices that should be considered when planning or designing deployment of ScaleIO for VMware environment. This guide also includes different performance tunings that can be applied before or after the deployment of ScaleIO. September, 2016

WHITE PAPER

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, ScaleIO, SRM, and VIPR are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2016 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 09/16 white paper H14684.1 EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. EMC is now part of the Dell group of companies.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS REVISION HISTORY .................................................................................................................4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................5 AUDIENCE ........................................................................................................................................ 5

SCALEIO OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................................5 SCALEIO ARCHITECTURE FOR VMWARE ENVIRONMENTS ...................................................... 7 ADVANTAGES OF SCALEIO IN VMWARE ENVIRONMENTS ........................................................ 8 RESOURCE POOLS CAN BE SHARED ACROSS DIFFERENT ESX CLUSTERS ................................... 8 NO RIGID HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................... 9 SCALABILITY ............................................................................................................................................ 9 DEPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY..................................................................................................................... 9 NO PERFORMANCE BOTTLENECKS ...................................................................................................... 9

SCALEIO NETWORKING IN A VMWARE ENVIRONMENT ................................................. 10 TRAFFIC TYPES ............................................................................................................................ 10 VMWARE IMPLEMENTATIONS ..................................................................................................... 11 NETWORK REQUIREMENTS FOR SCALEIO DEPLOYMENT ............................................................... 11

SCALEIO INSTALLATION ON ESX SERVERS .................................................................... 12 DEPLOYMENT PREREQUISITES.................................................................................................. 12 DEPLOYMENT VIA PLUGIN .......................................................................................................... 13 REGISTERING SCALEIO PLUG-IN AND UPLOADING THE OVA TEMPLATE ...................................... 13 INSTALLING THE SDC ON ESX HOSTS ................................................................................................ 15 CONFIGURE SCALEIO SDS ................................................................................................................... 15

TROUBLESHOOTING SCALEIO INS