User guide

Technical white paper | HP Enterprise Virtual Array Storage and VMware vSphere 4.x and 5.x configuration best practices

Connecting to an active-active EVA array in vSphere 4.0, 4.1 and 5.x

When connecting a vSphere 4.x or 5.x host to an active-active EVA array, you should use the VMW_SATP_ALUA SATP as

suggested above. This SATP is, by default, associated with VMW_PSP_MRU, a PSP that uses MRU I/O path policy.

There are two steps for connecting a vSphere 4.x and 5.x server to the EVA array:

• Change the default PSP for the VMW_SATP_ALUA from VMW_PSP_MRU to VMW_PSP_RR

• Update an advanced configuration parameter for the VMW_PSP_RR PSP

Changing the PSP

First, you must change the VMW_SATP_ALUA default PSP/PSM from MRU to round robin.

PSPs in vSphere 4.x and 5.x are set at the Vdisk level and are based on an SATP. Since all active-active EVA arrays use the

VMW_SATP_ALUA plug-in, configuring the VMW_SATP_ALUA default PSP to VMW_PSP_RR causes every new Vdisk from the

EVA array to be configured automatically to use round robin path policy.

Make the change via the ESX CLI using the following command using ESX 4.x:

esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp -s VMW_SATP_ALUA -P VMW_PSP_RR

With ESXi 5.x, the esxcli command name space has changed. To perform the same operation on ESXi 5.x as shown above

for ESX 4.x, you must issue the following command:

esxcli storage nmp satp set –s VMW_SATP_ALUA –P VMW_PSP_RR

Note

When this setting is applied on the fly, it only affects new Vdisks added to the vSphere host. In order for the change to affect

all Vdisks (including pre-existing logical units), a reboot of the host is recommended.

Alternatively, you could unclaim and reclaim all devices managed by the NMP.

Best practice for changing the default PSP option in vSphere 4.x/5.x

• For an EVA array environment, change the default PSP option for the VMW_SATP_ALUA SATP to VMW_PSP_RR.

On running systems where a reboot or unclaiming/reclaiming the devices is not feasible, the PSP setting can be changed on

the fly for each Vdisk individually running the command below:

For ESX 4.x:

esxcli nmp device setpolicy –P VMW_PSP_RR -d naa.xxxxxxxxx

For ESXi 5.x:

esxcli storage nmp device set –P VMW_PSP_RR -d naa.xxxxxxxxx

Alternatively, the following scripts can be run to apply this setting to all your EVA Vdisks at once. Before running the scripts

below, ensure that you only have EVA Vdisks connected to ESX or that setting Round Robin path policy to all SAN devices is

your intended goal:

For ESX 4.x:

for i in 'esxcli nmp device list | grep ^naa.6001' ; do esxcli nmp device

setpolicy –P VMW_PSP_RR -d $i; done

For ESXi 5.x:

for i in 'esxcli storage nmp device list | grep ^naa.6001' ; do esxcli storage nmp

device set -P VMW_PSP_RR -d $i; done

Updating the new PSP

To optimize EVA array performance, HP recommends changing the default round robin load balancing IOPS value to 1. This

update must be performed for every Vdisk using the following command on ESX 4.x:

esxcli nmp roundrobin setconfig -t iops -I 1 -d naa.xxxxxxxxx