User guide

Technical white paper | HP Enterprise Virtual Array Storage and VMware vSphere 4.x and 5.x configuration best practices
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Overview of vSphere 4.x/5.x storage...................................................................................................................................... 34
Using VMFS ............................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Using RDM ................................................................................................................................................................................. 35
Comparing supported features............................................................................................................................................ 36
Implementing a naming convention ................................................................................................................................... 36
Sizing the vSphere cluster..................................................................................................................................................... 38
Aligning partitions ................................................................................................................................................................... 38
Enhancing storage performance ............................................................................................................................................. 39
Optimizing queue depth ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Using adaptive queuing ......................................................................................................................................................... 39
Using the paravirtualized virtual SCSI driver ..................................................................................................................... 40
Monitoring EVA performance in order to balance throughput...................................................................................... 41
Optimizing I/O size .................................................................................................................................................................. 42
VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) ............................................................................................................... 43
VAAI alignment considerations ............................................................................................................................................ 44
VAAI transfer size consideration .......................................................................................................................................... 44
VAAI and EVA proxy operations considerations ............................................................................................................... 44
VAAI and Business Copy and Continuous Access ............................................................................................................. 46
VAAI operation concurrency ................................................................................................................................................. 46
VMware Space Reclamation and EVA ..................................................................................................................................... 47
ESX UNMAP support history ................................................................................................................................................. 47
UNMAP in ESXi 5.0Ux and ESXi 5.x ...................................................................................................................................... 48
UNMAP in ESXi 5.5 .................................................................................................................................................................. 49
UNMAP alignment, size and EVA host mode considerations ........................................................................................ 50
Summary of best practices ....................................................................................................................................................... 51
How can I best configure my storage? ............................................................................................................................... 51
Which is the best I/O path policy to use for my storage? ............................................................................................... 51
How do I simplify storage management, even in a complex environment with multiple storage
systems? ................................................................................................................................................................................... 52
How can I best monitor and tune the EVA array in order to optimize performance? .............................................. 52
How do I maintain the availability of Command View EVA deployed in a VM? .......................................................... 53
Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Glossary ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Appendix A: Using SSSU to configure the EVA ...................................................................................................................... 55
Appendix B: Miscellaneous scripts/commands .................................................................................................................... 56
Changing the default PSP ..................................................................................................................................................... 56
Setting the I/O path policy and attributes.......................................................................................................................... 56
Configuring the disk SCSI timeout for Windows and Linux guests .............................................................................. 56