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Trifecta – vExpert, NetAppUnited, CiscoChampions

by Posted in Champion, Community, NetAppUnited, vExpert Tagged , , , , , Leave a comment

Earlier this week I got a great email from the NetApp United team to say I had been accepted for a second time into the team. This followed on from a similar email from the VMware vExperts the week before. Being included as a member of these advocacy/influencer groups has meant I’ve completed the trifecta along with last months Cisco Champions inclusion. I’ve spent the past number of years working with technologies from all three companies and it’s nice to be recognised as a contributor to the community.

Being part of these groups means a huge amount to me. They have all, in particular the vExpert group, been something I’ve aspired to being a part of over the past couple of years and I’m overjoyed about being accepted into each program. Each of the influencer programs is different in their approach but there’s some commonalities too. The common things among the programs are:
* Being able to network with peers across the globe.
* Having access to NDA information before it gets released to the general public.
* Ability to interact with engineers and in some instances leadership within those companies.
* Dedicated comms channels for easier interaction (Slack for vExpert and NetAppUnited and Spark for CiscoChampions)

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Serendipity in the Community

by Posted in Blog, Champion, Cisco Live, Community, NetAppUnited Tagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

Last week was the annual pilgrimage to Cisco Live in Melbourne. Well, normally it is. This year however I was unable to secure a free pass because let’s be honest here, the price of a full pass is extortionate. While the value of the event cannot be disputed the cost to get there can. Cisco Live is the best networking conference in Melbourne for those working in enterprise IT. I also mean networking in both senses of the word, networking technology and people networking. This year there were 7200 attendees and it promised to be an absolute cracker. But I was not going to be there.

I find conferences such as Cisco Live a great way to recharge the batteries and get re-inspired at work. You hear about all the latest and greatest and being out of your normal habitat changes how you approach solutions. Having the opportunity to meet experts and those that have literally wrote the book on a subject is invaluable. I’ve been to the past three Cisco Live events in Melbourne and I had hoped to keep that run going but unfortunately this year I was unable to secure a pass and it was too much of an expense to fund myself.

It wasn’t so bad though. We run our Cisco Data Center User Group (DCUG) on a monthly basis and it falls on the first Tuesday of Cisco Live so we had organised to have two international speakers for that. This would at least give me my fix. We were extremely fortunate to have Lukas Krattiger and David Jansen both extend their schedule to fit in the DCUG and provide a thoroughly enthralling session.
DCUG group

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Fix: NetApp DataFabric Manager Certificate has expired

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Following the upgrade of DFM from version 5.2.0 to 5.2.1 I started to see a warning in the onCommand Management console that the NetApp DataFabric Manager had expired and to create a new one.

dfm-cert-failure

Surprisingly the cert had expired ages ago but neither I nor anyone else noticed. The first step in fixing the issue was to check the SSL service details to find the expiry date of the current certificate. To find this open a command prompt and run the command:

dfm ssl service detail

If the cert is not valid after the current date, or in my case after Dec 9 2015 then a new one needs to be created.

dfm-check-cert

The steps to create a new certificate are:

dfm ssl server setup
KeySize: 2048
Country Name: AU (or whatever two letter country code suites your needs)
State or Province: <insert your state name>
Locality Name: <insert your city>
Organization Name: <insert company name>
Common Name: <insert FQDN of your DFM server>
Email Address: <insert your address>

Once the cert has been created you’ll be prompted to restart the http services.

dfm-check-cert1

Once you restart the services you can acknowledge the alert in onCommand Manager and the alert will be gone

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How To: End-to-End SnapProtect Storage Policy Creation

by Posted in Netapp, SnapProtect Tagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The example I’m going to give here is for an environment that is already configured but has storage controllers that are not configured as NAS iData Agents for backup or any volumes on those controllers. In this environment the controller I’m enabling backups on is the secondary storage tier which is already a snapvault destination so it is in the Array Manager for SnapProtect. This environment requires new NetApp aggregates to be added as resource pools as new volumes and data have been assigned to the aggregates. The process involves working with SnapProtect, NetApp Management Console (DFM) and the NetApp storage controllers.

Enable backups on a controller within SnapProtect:

Enable Accounts

Before you begin log onto the controller and ensure the login account you require has access to the controller. To do this open a SSH session to the controller and use the following command:

#useradmin user list

If the account used by SnapProtect doesn’t exist then you’ll need to add it as an administrator. Below is a snapshot from a controller where it is added and also a controller where it’s not.

SnapProtect End to End Step 1

SnapProtect End to End Step 2

You can add the account via the command line or via the web console. In this instance I added the account via the console. In System Manager go to Configuration -> Local Users and Groups -> Users and click Create. Enter the required details and click Create.

SnapProtect End to End Step 3

Once completed you can re-run the command from the CLI to ensure that the account appears Read More

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How To: Remove a volume from NAS backup in Simpana 10

by Posted in SnapProtect Tagged , , , Leave a comment

I have an issue recently where I had to remove a volume from within a NAS client subclient so that I could move it to another location within our environment. Due to the limitations within Simpana10/SnapProtect v10 it’s not possible to select the volume and delete the related snapshots to clean up the subclient. The backup jobs need to be deleted to remove the snapshots. As there are multiple volumes within the same subclient deleting the jobs would delete the snapshots for all volumes, not just the one I need to clean up. Given this, there is only one option and that’s to break the relationships in DFM and clean up the volume manually.

Step 1: Go the the OnCommand server and run dfpm dataset list

C:Usersderek>dfpm dataset list

Id         Name                        Protection Policy           Provisioning Policy Application Policy          Storage Service

2927 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-45 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-66

3072 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-46 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-66

2935 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-39 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-70

7011 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-42 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-70

41601 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-72 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-70

2811 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-7  SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-74

20149 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-68 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-102

25497 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-83 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-110

26575 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-102 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-124

26094 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-98 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-124

31037 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-122 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-128

31650 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-41 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-130

31654 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-72 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-130

42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 SnapProtect Mirror, then back up                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-136

45647 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-128 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-145

46010 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-127 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-147

46084 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-43 SnapProtect Back up, then mirror                                                 CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-151

59566 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-4  SnapProtect Back up                                                         CC-SnapProtect-XX_Copy-159

 

Step 2: Pick the dataset you want to manage and display the relationships in DFM suing the dataset list -m command

C:Usersderek>dfpm dataset list -m  42833

Id         Node Name            Dataset Id Dataset Name         Member Type                                        Name

43325 Primary data              42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 qtree                                              primary_controller:/users/-

2244 Primary data              42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 qtree                                             primary_controller:/backup/-

3165 Primary data              42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 qtree                                             primary_controller:/ctx/-

42965 Mirror                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             local_aux_controller:/SP_ctx

51886 Mirror                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             local_aux_controller:/SP_users

42968 Mirror                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             local_aux_controller:/SP_backup

52126 Backup                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             remote_aux_controller:/SP_users

43084 Backup                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             remote_aux_controller:/SP_ctx

43087 Backup                    42833 CC-SnapProtect-XX_SC-59 volume                                             remote_aux_controller:/SP_backup

 

Step 3: DFM Backup and CommServe DB Backup

dfm backup create backup_file_name

Run a DR backup in SnapProtect/Commvault

You can also capture a snapshot in vCenter also just to be sure

 

Step 4: Run dfpm dataset relinquish <id of secondary resource you want to remove> to break the relationships in DFM.

dfpm dataset relinquish 43087

dfpm dataset relinquish 42968

 

Step 5: Then, edit the dataset and remove the secondary resource if it is still part of the dataset via the Management Console

 

Step 6: In SnapProtect remove the volume from the subclient so that it’s no longer backed up.

And that’s that. You can now use the volume in other storage policies without it impacting another configuration

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How to: Present iSCSI storage from a NetApp vfiler (7-Mode)

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As part of a recent data migration I had to enable a vfiler to allow iSCSI traffic as a number of virtual machines in the environment require block storage for clustering reasons. The vfiler already presents via NFS and iSCSI. As this is a test environment I’ve decided to put iSCSI on the same link as the NFS and CIFS. I know this is not normal best practice but given that the vLANs are already in place and that this is a test environment I decided to use the same IP address range. The servers accessing the iSCSI LUNs don’t have access to CIFS or to any NFS mounts already so there should be no traffic cross-over. So onto the steps to set it up:

Step 1: Allow iscsi protocol and RSH on vfiler (at vfiler0)

Check the status of the vfiler using the command

vfiler status -a tenant_vfiler
tenant_vfiler running
 ipspace: tenant_vfiler_NFS_CIFS
 IP address: 192.168.2.1 [a1a-107]
 IP address: 192.168.2.2 [a1a-107]
 Path: /vol/tenant_vfiler_vol0 [/etc]
 Path: /vol/nfs03
 Path: /vol/nfs04
 Path: /vol/nfs02
 Path: /vol/nfs01
 Path: /vol/cifs01
 Path: /vol/iso01
 Path: /vol/iscsi_test
 UUID: 93c62e36-4e76-11e4-8721-123478563412
 Protocols allowed: 7
Disallowed: proto=rsh
 Allowed: proto=ssh
 Allowed: proto=nfs
 Allowed: proto=cifs
Disallowed: proto=iscsi
 Allowed: proto=ftp
 Allowed: proto=http
 Protocols disallowed: 2

Next run the command:

vfiler allow tenant_vfiler proto=iscsi
vfiler allow tenant_vfiler proto=rsh

Step 2: Start iSCSI protocol on vfiler (at apaubmwvfi01)

vfiler context tenant_vfiler
iscsi start

Step 3: Create a new volume at vfiler0

vfiler context vfiler0
vol create iscsi_test_vol -s 20g

Step 4: Migrate the volume to apaubmwvfi01 and log into the vfielr to check the volume status

vfiler add tenant_vfiler /vol/iscsi_test
vfiler context tenant_vfiler
vol status

Step 5: Set priv advanced and modify the exports to the correct settings as below

To modify the exports read the current /exports and write it back. Once done run the exportsfs -av command to push the changes out

rdfile /vol/tenant_vfiler_vol0/etc/exports
/vol/nfs01 -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
/vol/nfs02 -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
/vol/nfs03 -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
/vol/nfs04 -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
/vol/iso01 -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
/vol/iscsi_test -sec=sys,rw=192.168.1.0/24,anon=0
vfiler run tenant_vfiler exportfs -av

Step 6: Create a lun from the volume (iscsi_test)

vfiler run tenant_vfiler lun create -s 10g -t windows2008 /vol/iscsi_test/iscsi_lun

Step 7: Change filer and run lun show

lun_show

Step 8: Verify iSCSI network within VMware has been assigned to the VM
 iSCSI network
Step 9: Enable iSCSI Initiator – grab the iqn

iSCSI initiator iqn

Step 10: Create an igroup with the iqn of the server

igroup create -t Windows2008 ds_iscsi 
igroup add ds_iscsi iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:microsoft:server.domain.com

Step 11: map the lun to the group name

map_lun_to_group

Step 12: run lun show -m to check the mapping

lun_show_mapping

Step 13: Run a quick connect to the IP address of the controller

iscsi_quick_connect

And now your disk should appear in the disk manager on the server. It’s not too different to setting up a normal iSCSI connection but RSH must be enabled otherwise it can’t tunnel the iSCSI  request to the vfiler iqn target.

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VMware Metro Storage Cluster Overview

by Posted in MetroCluster, Netapp, vCenter, VMware Tagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment

VMware Metro Storage Cluster

VMware Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) allows vCenter to stretch across two data centers in geographically dispersed locations. In normal circumstances, in vSphere 5.5 and below at least, vCenter would be deployed in Link-Mode so two vCenters can be managed as one. However, with vMSC it’s possible to have one vCenter manage all resources across two sites and leverage the underlying stretch storage and networking infrastructures. I’ve done previous blogs on NetApp MetroCluster to describe how a stretched storage cluster is spread across two disparate data centers. I’d also recommend reading a previous post done on vMSC by Paul Meehan over on www.virtualizationsoftware.com. The idea behind this post is to provide the VMware view for the MetroCluster posts and to give a better idea on how MetroCluster storage links into virtualization environments.

The main benefit of a stretched cluster is that it enables workload and resource balancing across datacenters. This helps companies to reach almost zero RTO and RPOs and ensure uptime of critical systems as workloads can be migrated easing using vMotion and Storage vMotion. One thing to keep in mind regarding vMSC, it’s not really sold as a disaster recover solution but rather a disaster avoidance solution when linked with the underlying storage. Some of the other benefits of a stretched cluster are:

  • Workload mobility
  • Cross-site automated load balancing
  • Enhanced downtime avoidance
  • Disaster avoidance
  • System uptime and high availability

There are a number of storage vendors that provide the back-end storage required for a vMSC to work. I won’t go into the entire list but you can find out more on the VMware Compatibility Matrix site. The one that I have experience with is NetApp MetroCluster but I know of others from EMC and Hitachi at least. So what components make up a vMSC? It comes down to an extended layer 2 network across data centers so that vMotions can take place with ease and also a resilient storage platform connected to ESXi via VMFS or NFS datastores. VMware vCenter itself does need some configuration changes but it’s nothing outside the scope of what a regular VMware admin can implement. A view of what a vMSC looks like is below. The networking and storage components have been simplified.

fabric metro cluster diagram

 

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NetApp MetroCluster Overview – Part 8 – Further Reading

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Here are some links to further reading that will help with getting a far deeper understanding of MetroCluster:

High Availability and MetroCluster Configuration Guide

MetroCluster Best Practices for Implementation

Configuring a stretch MetroCluster system with SAS disk shelves

Installing FC-to-SAS bridges and SAS disk shelves

A Continuous-Availability Solution for VMware vSphere and Netapp

MetroCluster Plug-in 1.0 for vSphere

MetroCluster Clustered On-Tap was not covered as part of this series but if you’re looking at CDOT MetroCluster the below documents may be useful:

OnTap 8.3

MetroCluster Management and Disaster Recovery Guide

MetroCluster Installation Express Guide

MetroCluster Installation and Configuration Guide

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NetApp MetroCluster Overview – Part 7 – MetroCluster Tools

by Posted in MetroCluster, Netapp Tagged , , , Leave a comment

 

There’s not many tools available specifically for MetroCluster but I’ve added the ones I found below. If anyone knows of any others please let me know and i’ll update this post.

FMC_DC
The FMC_DC can be downloads from here -> http://mysupport.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/FMC_DC/. It will require a NetApp NOW account.

Fabric MetroCluster Data Collector

The FMC_DC is the Fabric Metro Cluster Data Collector which can be configured to gather information on all components (controllers, switches, bridges etc.) of the MetroCluster infrastructure. Once the components have been added a health check can be run. This health check appears as a card on the application and will show whether the components are healthy or need further investigation.

I’d recommend having a look over this document to get started with FMC_DC

http://community.netapp.com/t5/Developer-Network-Articles-and-Resources/FMC-DC-Starter-Guide/ta-p/86351

While the FMC_DC doesn’t provide any management features it does provide peace of mind that all components are configured so that failover can be successful. If you’re doing a DR test I’d definitely recommend using it.

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NetApp MetroCluster Overview – Part 6 – Best Practices and Recommendations

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These are some of the things to look out for with MetroCluster and can be considered best practices and recommendations.

Disable change_fsid

One very important configuration change to be done on MetroCluster controllers is to immediately disable the change_fsid option. If it is not disabled the all volumes and LUNs will be renamed during failover and make it impossible to volumes and LUNs to be referenced. This is really critical for LUNs.

To avoid the FSID change in the case of a site takeover, you can set the change_fsid option to off (the default is on). Setting this option to off has the following results if a site takeover is initiated by the cf forcetakeover -d command:

  • Data ONTAP refrains from changing the FSIDs of volumes and aggregates.
  • Users can continue to access their volumes after site takeover without remounting.
  • LUNs remain online.

If you don’t disable the change_fsid option in MetroCluster configurations the following happens when the cf forcetakeover -d command is run:

  • Data ONTAP changes the file system IDs (FSIDs) of volumes and aggregates because ownership changes.
  • Because of the FSID change, clients must remount their volumes if a takeover occurs.
  • If using Logical Units (LUNs), the LUNs must also be brought back online after the takeover.
options cf.takeover.change_fsid off

MetroCluster RC file
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