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Host PowerTools For VMware 2.1 - User Manual
Host PowerTools For VMware 2.1 - User Manual
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Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1
What is INFINIDAT Host PowerTools™ for VMware ............................................................................................... 1
Terminology ......................................................................................................................................................... 1
Installation prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................... 2
VASA Provider ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Download site for the installation file ................................................................................................................... 3
Related documentation ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Provisioning ............................................................................................................ 15
Creating a new volume ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Viewing the volume properties ........................................................................................................................... 17
Mapping an existing volume to a vSphere cluster ............................................................................................... 18
Creating a datastore for an existing volume ....................................................................................................... 19
Renaming the device name to the volume name................................................................................................. 19
Resizing a volume ............................................................................................................................................... 20
Deleting the volume mapping ............................................................................................................................. 20
Reclaiming freed space ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................... 29
Troubleshoot the issue by yourself ...................................................................................................................... 29
Fetch a log .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Index ....................................................................................................................... 31
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Introduction
What is INFINIDAT Host PowerTools™ for VMware
INFINIDAT Host PowerToolsTM for VMware is an application that provides the VMware
administrator with provisioning capabilities and with an easing of the process of volumes backup
and recovery.
INFINIDAT encourages a close cooperation between the storage administrator and the VMware
administrator, as well as other applications administrators. According to this vision, the storage
administrator maintains an overall control over the storage environment, and sets policies to be
followed by all of the applications. Application administrators are granted with an autonomy to
provision storage and to operate within the policies set by the storage administrator. This
approach enables InfiniBox to intelligently automate most of the processes, and to monitor the
administrator actions so as to prevent mistakes that can lead to downtime.
Combining these advanced management capabilities provided by InfiniBox in tight integration
with VMware's newest and most advanced tools enables the storage and VMware
administrators to provide a faster, better and more agile service to the business.
INFINIDAT strongly encourages organizations to adopt this policy-driven approach which
accelerates business processes, but of course customers may also opt out of it. Working in this
approach, Host PowerTools for VMware offers a read-only mode for the VMware administrator,
where all changes are carried out by the storage team only.
Host PowerToolsTM is a trademark of INFINIDAT.
Terminology
InfiniBox The INFINIDAT storage system that Host PowerTools connects to.
Host A computer system to which the InfiniBox is attached and accessible for
data storage and I/O.
The OVA contains an OVF file along with other files needed for the
deployment of the virtual machine.
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VASA Provider VASA (VMware vSphere® API for Storage Awareness) is a set of APIs that
allows storage vendors to provide vSphere with information about
specific disk arrays for a tighter integration between storage and the
virtual infrastructure.
Installation prerequisites
Installation requirements
vSphere Version 5.x and up
IP address for the appliance DHCP and manual configuration are supported
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VASA Provider
The installation of Host PowerTools for VMware also includes a VASA Provider. VASA (vStorage
APIs for Storage Awareness) is a set of APIs that improve the way the vSphere vCenter operates
on storage arrays. Storage awareness capabilities include RAID and native thin provisioning, all
visible to the customer from within the vCenter.
The VASA Provider also provides information about the InfiniBox topology, capabilities and
state, including events and alerts.
Once the VASA Provider is installed, you can see it registered in vCenter (under Home > Storage
Providers).
Related documentation
• Application Repository documentation on the Support site.
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Note: Inserting an invalid vCenter Server system IP address results in an incomplete installation.
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Step 7 Select between thick and thin provisioning formats, all supported by INFINIDAT.
Step 8 Set the networking properties:
Default gateway. Leave blank if DHCP is used.
This is the IP address for the Host
PowerTools for VMWare appliance.
DNS. Leave blank if DHCP is used.
The IP address of the DNS server.
Network1 IP Address. Leave blank if DHCP is used.
The appliance IP address.
Network1 Mask. Leave blank if DHCP is used.
Network subnet mask.
Step 9 Click Next on the Service Binding screen.
Step 10 Review a summary of the deployment settings and click Finish.
The template is deployed.
Note that there is a script that runs after the deployment. You can verify that the
script has finished by clicking Launch Virtual Machine Console. The screen
should look like this:
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Step 11 Close the vCenter client and open it again to allow the INFINIDAT plug-in to be
loaded.
Step 12 On the either of the following levels: VC, Cluster, ESX, Folder, vm, Datastore:
Click the INFINIDAT tab.
Initially, the message on screen is: “Cluster / datacenter not ready to work with
InfiniBox”.
Run the Prepare command.
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3. Select the file that ends with ISO and download it.
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2. Click Settings.
3. Select Use CDROM Updates
4. Click Save Settings
5. Click the Status tab.
6. Click Check Updates.
The update version that was uploaded via the CDROM is listed under
Available Updates.
7. Click Install Updates.
Step 5 Read Carefully before rebooting the VM.
Return the original (the version prior to the upgrade) ISO file to the CD
drive prior to rebooting the VM.
Reboot the VM only if required.
Uninstallation
You may uninstall Host PowerTools by selecting either Remove from inventory or Delete.
Step 1 Power off the appliance.
Step 2 On the Inventory panel, right-click a host and select either Remove from
inventory or Delete from disk from the Host pop-up menu.
Remove from inventory This option does not delete the virtual appliance
from the disk.
Delete from disk This option deletes the virtual appliance from the
disk.
Step 3 Manually clean the VASA Provider's IP from the Storage Providers screen.
Step 4 Unregister the Host PowerTools extension from the vCenter.
Step 5 Restart the vSphere web client.
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For each storage system Host PowerTools displays its name, serial number, version, available
operations and a list of mapped volumes. In the screenshot above, the only available operation
is Register Host.
The message on screen explains that no volumes can be created on the InfiniBox from within
the vCenter Server, as long as it is not registered to InfiniBox.
Register the host using your InfiniBox credentials. The credentials are store on the appliance and
are unique per vCenter user.
The registration grants the user with provisioning privileges (see the next chapter).
Step 1 Click Register Host.
Authentication Required screen opens.
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Provisioning
Allocating storage resources to the vSphere cluster is done by mapping a volume to the entire
cluster, allowing all of the servers to access it. You can either map an existing volume, or create
a new volume. The provisioning of storage on a cluster level avoids sub-optimal configurations
where a LUN is not accessible by all hosts.
On the image above we can see that the name of the storage system that is
displayed on screen is box-cl005.
The available operations are Map and New, as you can either map to an existing
volume, or create a new one.
Step 2 Click New.
The Create Volume screen opens.
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Resizing a volume
This task resizes a volume, initiates a storage HBA rescan and extends the datastore.
Note that VMWare has certain limitations to datastore size, according to the VMFS type and
product version. Refer to VMWare documentation for obtaining the maximum datastore size
that is applicable for your environment.
Step 1 Select a volume from the table on the vCenter Client.
Select Resize from the Actions list.
Resize Volume screen opens.
Step 2 Set the new size.
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Click Done.
The snapshot is created.
The snapshot is visible on screen along with its properties.
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Click Done.
Deleting a snapshot
Step 1 Click on a snapshot and select Delete from the Actions list.
Step 2 Approve the message on screen.
The snapshot is deleted.
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Step 1 Click on a snapshot and select Restore from the Actions list.
Restore Snapshot screen opens.
Step 2 Select either of the following:
• Leave the Restored VM Name field empty – The restored volume is
created with the following name:
<volume>-revert.
Click Done.
The volume is restored.
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Step 1 Click on a snapshot and select Expose from the Actions list.
The snapshot is exposed. The virtual machine, volume and datastore names are
displayed on screen.
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Troubleshooting
Whenever an error message is displayed on screen, and the way to workaround it can't be found
on this publication, please send the log to INFINIDAT Customer Support.
Fetch a log
If the above steps do not solve that problem, proceed to:
Step 1 Click the hyperlink on See the log for further information.
Click Download to download and save the log file.
Step 2 Send it to INFINIDAT Customer Support:
support@infinidat.com
For other means of communications, see:
http://www.infinidat.com/support/
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Among other volume's properties, we see the name of the host on the Current
Mapping field.
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Index
Installation requirements, 2 Restored VM Name, 21
A internet connection, 7 Role-based access control, 2
Inventory panel, 8
Actions list, 16, 20
IPv4 Address Type, 9
administrator, 1 S
applications administrator, 1
L snapshot, 18
snapshot mechanism, 18
B Launch Virtual Machine Snapshot name, 19
Console, 7 Source pane, 5
Back up a virtual machine, 4, 18
LUN, 2 specific point-in-time, 18
storage administrator, 1
C M Storage awareness, 3
storage environment, 1
Check Updates, 8 Summary tab, 7
Managed IP address, 5
consistency snapshot, 19
Map, 12
Create datastore, 12
mapping a volume to a T
Create Snapshot, 18
datastore, 12
Create Volume screen, 12
terminology, 18
thin provisioning, 3
D N
Name, 5 U
datastore, 18
Network1 IP Address, 6
Default gateway, 6
Network1 Mask, 6 Unique ID, 5
Delete from disk, 8
New, 12 Use these credentials for all
Deploy OVF Template, 5
no performance penalty, 18 systems, 10
disk blocks, 1
user, 2
DNS, 6
O
E V
OVA, 2
Deploying the OVA VASA Provider, 2, 3
Edit Snapshot screen, 19
template, 5 vCenter runtime settings, 5
OVF, 2 VMware administrator, 1
H VMware Update Manager, 8
Volume, 1
Has Mapping field, 17 P volume that was created
Host, 1 outside the Host Power
point-in-time, 18
host administrator, 1 Tools, 15
Pool, 2
host_tools, 2 volumes backup and recovery, 1
provisioning capabilities, 1
I R X
InfiniBox, 1 XML format, 2
Register Host, 10
InfiniBox GUI, 15
Remember these credentials, 10
InfiniBox topology, 3
Remove from inventory, 8
Infinidat Upgrade Tool, 8
Resize Volume screen, 16
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© Copyright INFINIDAT LTD 2014.
This document is current as of the date of and may be changed by INFINIDAT at any time. Not all
offerings are available in every country in which INFINIDAT operates.
The data discussed herein is presented as derived under specific operating conditions. Actual
results may vary. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION
OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. INFINIDAT products are warranted according to the terms and
conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.
INFINIDAT, The INFINIDAT logo, InfiniBox, InfiniRAID, InfiniSnap, Host PowerTools, and any other
applicable product trademarks are registered trademarks or trademarks of INFINIDAT LTD in the
United States and other countries. Other product and service names might be trademarks of
INFINIDAT or other companies. A current list of INFINIDAT trademarks is available online at
http://www.infinidat.com/legal/trademarks/
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