VersaStack Solution by Cisco and IBM with SQL, Spectrum Control, and Spectrum Protect

VersaStack Solution by Cisco and IBM with SQL, Spectrum Control, and Spectrum Protect

by Jon Tate, Vadi Bhatt, Sanjeev Naldurgkar, Filip Van Den Neucker, Asher Pemberton
Released October 2015
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738441078

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Book description

Dynamic organizations want to accelerate growth while reducing costs. To do so, they must speed the deployment of business applications and adapt quickly to any changes in priorities. Organizations today require an IT infrastructure to be easy, efficient, and versatile.

The VersaStack solution by Cisco and IBM® can help you accelerate the deployment of your data centers. It reduces costs by more efficiently managing information and resources while maintaining your ability to adapt to business change.

The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of the IBM Storwize® storage system. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure includes the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS), Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS switches, and Cisco UCS Director. The IBM Storwize V7000 enhances virtual environments with its Data Virtualization, IBM Real-time Compression™, and IBM Easy Tier® features. These features deliver extraordinary levels of performance and efficiency.

The VersaStack solution is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) ready. Your IT team can build, deploy, secure, and maintain applications through a more agile framework. Cisco Intercloud Fabric capabilities help enable the creation of open and highly secure solutions for the hybrid cloud. These solutions accelerate your IT transformation while delivering dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and simplicity.
Cisco and IBM are global leaders in the IT industry. The VersaStack solution gives you the opportunity to take advantage of integrated infrastructure solutions that are targeted at enterprise applications, analytics, and cloud solutions.

The VersaStack solution is backed by Cisco Validated Designs (CVD) to provide faster delivery of applications, greater IT efficiency, and less risk.

This IBM Redbooks® publication is aimed at experienced storage administrators that are tasked with deploying a VersaStack solution with Microsoft Sequel (SQL), IBM Spectrum™ Protect, and IBM Spectrum Control™.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. IBM Redbooks promotions
  4. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1 Easy, efficient, and versatile
    2. 1.2 Evolving data center requirements
    3. 1.3 Holistic approach
    4. 1.4 Hardware options
    5. 1.5 Related information
  6. Chapter 2. Architecture
    1. 2.1 VersaStack design
  7. Chapter 3. Software revisions and configuration guidelines
    1. 3.1 Software revisions
    2. 3.2 Configuration guidelines
  8. Chapter 4. Planning an SQL Server failover cluster implementation
    1. 4.1 Design considerations
      1. 4.1.1 Database workload
      2. 4.1.2 Server virtualization
      3. 4.1.3 Database availability
      4. 4.1.4 Quality of service and network segregation
      5. 4.1.5 Network availability
  9. Chapter 5. Physical infrastructure
    1. 5.1 VersaStack cabling
    2. 5.2 Storage compatibility and interoperability
    3. 5.3 VersaStack System Build Process
  10. Chapter 6. VersaStack Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches configuration
    1. 6.1 Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches network initial configuration setup
      1. 6.1.1 Configuring Cisco Nexus A
      2. 6.1.2 Configuring Cisco Nexus B
      3. 6.1.3 Enabling the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch features and settings
      4. 6.1.4 Creating VLANs for VersaStack traffic
      5. 6.1.5 Configuring the Virtual Port Channel Domain
      6. 6.1.6 Configuring network interfaces for the vPC peer links
      7. 6.1.7 Configuring network interfaces to the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect
      8. 6.1.8 Linking in to an existing network infrastructure
  11. Chapter 7. IBM Storwize V7000 storage configuration
    1. 7.1 Secure web access to the IBM Storwize V7000 service and management GUI
    2. 7.2 IBM Storwize V7000 initial configuration setup
  12. Chapter 8. Cisco Unified Computing System configuration
    1. 8.1 Performing the initial setup of Unified Computing System 6248 Fabric Interconnect for VersaStack environments
      1. 8.1.1 Cisco UCS 6248 A
      2. 8.1.2 Cisco UCS 6248 B
    2. 8.2 Cisco UCS for IBM Storwize V7000
      1. 8.2.1 Logging in to Cisco UCS Manager
      2. 8.2.2 Upgrading Cisco UCS Manager software to Version 2.2(3d)
      3. 8.2.3 Adding a block of IP addresses for KVM access
      4. 8.2.4 Adding a block of IPv4 addresses for KVM access
      5. 8.2.5 Synchronizing the Cisco UCS environment to NTP
      6. 8.2.6 Enabling the server and uplink ports
      7. 8.2.7 Enabling Fibre Channel ports
      8. 8.2.8 Creating storage VSANs
      9. 8.2.9 Configuring the FC storage ports
      10. 8.2.10 Configuring the VSAN for the FC storage ports
      11. 8.2.11 Creating WWNN pools
      12. 8.2.12 Creating WWPN pools
      13. 8.2.13 Creating vHBA templates for Fabric A and Fabric B
      14. 8.2.14 Creating the storage connection policy for Fabric-A
      15. 8.2.15 Creating the Storage Connection Policy for Fabric-B
      16. 8.2.16 Acknowledging Cisco UCS chassis and FEX modules
      17. 8.2.17 Creating uplink port channels to Cisco Nexus switches
      18. 8.2.18 Creating MAC address pools
      19. 8.2.19 Creating an UUID suffix pool
      20. 8.2.20 Creating a server pool
      21. 8.2.21 Creating virtual local area networks
      22. 8.2.22 Creating a host firmware package
      23. 8.2.23 Setting jumbo frames in Cisco UCS Fabric
      24. 8.2.24 Creating a local disk configuration policy
      25. 8.2.25 Creating a Network control policy for Cisco Discovery Protocol
      26. 8.2.26 Creating a power control policy
      27. 8.2.27 Creating a server pool qualification policy (optional)
      28. 8.2.28 Creating a server BIOS policy
      29. 8.2.29 Creating a vNIC/vHBA placement policy for VM infrastructure hosts
      30. 8.2.30 Updating the default Maintenance Policy
      31. 8.2.31 Creating vNIC templates
      32. 8.2.32 Creating boot policies
      33. 8.2.33 Creating service profile templates
      34. 8.2.34 Creating service profiles
    3. 8.3 Backing up the Cisco UCS Manager configuration
  13. Chapter 9. SAN boot
    1. 9.1 Adding hosts and mapping the boot volumes on the Storwize V7000 system
  14. Chapter 10. VersaStack VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 SAN boot installation
    1. 10.1 The Cisco UCS 6200 Fabric Interconnect Cisco UCS Manager
    2. 10.2 Setting up a VMware ESXi installation
      1. 10.2.1 ESXi hosts vm-host-infra-01 and vm-host-infra-02
    3. 10.3 Installing ESXi
      1. 10.3.1 ESXi hosts vm-host-infra-01 and vm-host-infra-02
    4. 10.4 Setting up management networking for ESXi hosts
      1. 10.4.1 ESXi Host vm-host-infra-01
      2. 10.4.2 ESXi Host vm-host-infra-02
    5. 10.5 vSphere setup
      1. 10.5.1 Downloading the VMware vSphere Client and vSphere Remote CLI
    6. 10.6 Setting up VMkernel ports and the virtual switch
      1. 10.6.1 ESXi Host vm-host-infra-01
    7. 10.7 Mapping the required VMFS Datastores
      1. 10.7.1 Mapping the VMFS Datastores to the first host
    8. 10.8 Storage I/O Control
    9. 10.9 VersaStack VMware vCenter 5.5 Update 2
      1. 10.9.1 Installation steps for a simple installation of vCenter Server 5.5
    10. 10.10 Setting up a vCenter Server
      1. 10.10.1 vCenter Server VM
    11. 10.11 Mapping the data stores on the IBM Storwize V7000 second host after enabling the cluster
    12. 10.12 Optional: Adding domain account permissions
  15. Chapter 11. SQL Server setup and failover cluster implementation
    1. 11.1 Creating virtual machines
      1. 11.1.1 Installing Windows Server 2012 R2
      2. 11.1.2 Preparing the virtual machines for clustering
      3. 11.1.3 Renaming and assigning IP addresses to network adapters
      4. 11.1.4 Enabling jumbo frames for CSV traffic
      5. 11.1.5 Configuring the network adapters binding order
      6. 11.1.6 Installing Windows updates and adding roles and features
      7. 11.1.7 Adding hard disks (RDMs) to the first virtual machine node
      8. 11.1.8 Adding hard disks (RDMs) to the second virtual machine node
      9. 11.1.9 Preparing the disks for cluster use
      10. 11.1.10 Windows server failover cluster installation
      11. 11.1.11 SQL Server failover cluster installation
      12. 11.1.12 Installing the SQL Server FCI on the first node
      13. 11.1.13 Adding a second node to the SQL Server FCI
      14. 11.1.14 Modifying the vSphere HA and DRS settings for the WSFC VMs
      15. 11.1.15 Creating anti-affinity rules
      16. 11.1.16 Enabling strict enforcement of anti-affinity rules
      17. 11.1.17 Setting the DRS automation level for clustered virtual machines
      18. 11.1.18 Using vSphere DRS groups and VM-Host affinity rules with clustered virtual machines
      19. 11.1.19 Creating a virtual machine DRS group (WSFC)
      20. 11.1.20 Creating a host DRS group (WSFC)
      21. 11.1.21 Setting up the VM-Host affinity rules for DRS groups (WSFC)
  16. Chapter 12. IBM Spectrum Control integration
    1. 12.1 Spectrum Control overview
    2. 12.2 Storage hypervisor
    3. 12.3 IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center component model
      1. 12.3.1 Storage management
      2. 12.3.2 Storage virtualization
      3. 12.3.3 Application-aware data protection
    4. 12.4 IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center features
      1. 12.4.1 Efficient by design
      2. 12.4.2 Self-optimizing
      3. 12.4.3 Cloud agility
    5. 12.5 IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center interfaces
      1. 12.5.1 VMware
    6. 12.6 IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center offerings
      1. 12.6.1 License model overview
      2. 12.6.2 VSC for Storwize Family license
    7. 12.7 VersaStack Spectrum Control
      1. 12.7.1 Tivoli Productivity Center Virtual Storage Edition Installation
      2. 12.7.2 Integrating the Storwize V7000 storage system with Spectrum Control
      3. 12.7.3 Monitoring and alerting
    8. 12.8 Advanced Analytics
      1. 12.8.1 Cloud Configuration
      2. 12.8.2 Provisioning
      3. 12.8.3 Integrating servers and virtual machines
      4. 12.8.4 Reporting for departments and applications
    9. 12.9 Resources
  17. Chapter 13. IBM Spectrum Protect integration
    1. 13.1 Spectrum Protect Suite for Unified Recovery overview
      1. 13.1.1 IBM Spectrum Software Defined Storage Suite
      2. 13.1.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Suite for Unified Recovery
      3. 13.1.3 Licensing metrics
    2. 13.2 Spectrum Protect implementation
      1. 13.2.1 Architectural overview
      2. 13.2.2 Guest support for virtual machines and virtualization
      3. 13.2.3 Blueprints
      4. 13.2.4 Multi-site setup
      5. 13.2.5 Summary
    3. 13.3 Protecting the VMware infrastructure
      1. 13.3.1 Deploying Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments
      2. 13.3.2 Storwize V7000 FlashCopy mapping
      3. 13.3.3 Protecting VMware data
      4. 13.3.4 Summary
    4. 13.4 Protecting the SQL cluster
      1. 13.4.1 Application and Data Protection in vSphere Environments
      2. 13.4.2 Protecting Microsoft SQL Database in VMware
      3. 13.4.3 Spectrum Protect for Databases
      4. 13.4.4 Summary
    5. 13.5 Using Spectrum Protect advanced protection and recovery technologies
      1. 13.5.1 Progressive incremental backups
      2. 13.5.2 Data deduplication
      3. 13.5.3 Node replication with automated failover
    6. 13.6 Monitoring and managing the Spectrum Protect environment
      1. 13.6.1 Data Protection for SQL
      2. 13.6.2 Data Protection for VMware
      3. 13.6.3 Spectrum Protect Operations Center
      4. 13.6.4 Reporting and monitoring for Spectrum Protect
  18. Chapter 14. General performance
    1. 14.1 IBM Easy Tier
    2. 14.2 Autotier
    3. 14.3 General performance metrics
      1. 14.3.1 B200 M4
      2. 14.3.2 VIC 1340
      3. 14.3.3 Storwize V7000 storage system
  19. Chapter 15. General validation
    1. 15.1 Validation scenarios
    2. 15.2 Storwize V7000 failover validation
      1. 15.2.1 Unexpected Fibre Channel cable failure
      2. 15.2.2 Unexpected node failure
    3. 15.3 Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering and SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance overview
      1. 15.3.1 Active cluster node failure
    4. 15.4 Cisco Nexus devices
      1. 15.4.1 vPC peer switch failure validation
    5. 15.5 Cisco UCS service profile
      1. 15.5.1 Service profile migration validation
  20. Appendix A. Windows Active Directory and running configurations
    1. Building Windows Active Directory Server virtual machines
    2. Nexus 9000 running configuration
  21. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other resources
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  22. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: VersaStack Solution by Cisco and IBM with SQL, Spectrum Control, and Spectrum Protect
  • Author(s): Jon Tate, Vadi Bhatt, Sanjeev Naldurgkar, Filip Van Den Neucker, Asher Pemberton
  • Release date: October 2015
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738441078