In this post i will share you the procedure to configure or modify the NTP setting of a data domain from CLI .This procedure is very helpful for below scenarios

• While Initial Configuration updated wrong time zone
• Any NTP sync error on the Data Domain
• Modify the NTP server

First we have to verify the NTP  configuration on the data domain .

Login to the data domain with admin privileges and check the NTP configuration by running below commands

# ntp show config                          –   To check the NTP Configuration .

# ntp status                                      –   To check the NTP Daemon status .

There might be Chance to show out put like below so we have to reconfigure / modify  the NTP services

Error 1

Status                                                  Enabled
Current Clock Time                         MM DD HH:MM:SS YYYY
Clock Last Synchronized                Unknown
Clock Last Synchronized With Time Server   Unknown
 Error 2

**** NTP daemon is not running.

# system show date                                          – To Check the current time in DD

# config show timezone                                 –  To check the current Timezone name 

How to Reset Time Zone

# config set timezone “Time Zone “

example  # config set timezone Asia/Dubai

Yo Check the Details of The time Zone Download Data Domain Admin Guide and View Page 41 49

How to Add NTP Server to Data Domain

# ntp disable

# ntp add timeserver <time server list>

For example: # ntp add timeserver 192.168.1.10

# ntp enable

How to Set Time Manually if  there is a Mismatch between NTP server and Data Domain

# ntp disable

# system set date <MMDDhhmmYYYY>               – Change DD time as of the NTP server:

Example to set system date/time to 0930 on 25th March 2018  the following command would be used:

# system set date 032509302018

** System date will be adjusted by xxxxxx seconds. This change can
potentially cause issues for applications running on this system.
Are you sure? (yes|no|?) [no]: yes
ok, proceeding.
Sun Mar 25 09:30:00 GMT 2018

# ntp enable

Note :- Incase the nEw Time is not  showing you may have to reboot the Data Domain  to apply the new timer

# system reboot

In case after following all the above steps the issue is not resolved or reboot is not possible at the time please contact your support provider

Data Domain is an inline deduplication storage system, which has revolutionized disk-based backup, archiving, and disaster recovery that utilizes high-speed processing. Data Domain easily integrates with existing infrastructure and third-party backup solutions . Most Commonly Data Domain will be configured with Dell EMC Networker backup environment, also you can configure data domain with other solutions like Commvault, Veeam etc. .

Data Domain systems are commonly monitored by everyone is using auto support emails and web interface of Data Domain. There another option available is syslog configuration which is centralized logging option. In this post we will cover how to configure syslog in Data Domain System.

Data Domain logging to a syslog server is efficient and insightful. All commands executed on the Data Domain – regardless of whether they’re issued by a logged in user, a remote user, or the system itself – appear in the logging, giving you a very effective overview of what is going on for the system.Logging gives you another avenue of understanding your environment – and, depending on your environment, may be more suitable for centralised monitoring of systems. While the auto-support emails sent by the Data Domain are comprehensive, and the alert emails are useful, the logs are an information provision point particularly applicable to many enterprise automated monitoring systems.

Configure Syslog

To configure the Syslog you have to access the Data Domain console and use log host commands.

Login to Data Domain via ssh and perform below steps

log host will give you available commands you can use for log host configuration

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host

Show the current configuration

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host show

Reset  the current configuration

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host reset

Enable and Disable Remote Logging

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host enable 

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host disable

Add or Delete Remote Hosts

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host add " IP or FQDN of the host "

sysadmin@VMARENA-DD# log host remote  " IP or FQDN of the host  "

Conclusion

Dell EMC Data Domain is industry leading protection storage device which having higher compression rate compares to all other devices .We have discussed about the Dell EMC Data Domain Syslog configuration with steps all to follow .Also all the usable commands of log host  option with required information.

Overview of UnityVSA

UnityVSA (Virtual Storage Appliance) is a software defined storage platform that provides users greater agility and flexibility. UnityVSA can be deployed on a Individual VMware ESXi host or vCenter with ESXi host and enough resources . UnityVSA is available in two editions – Professional Edition (PE) and Community Edition (CE). Professional Edition is a licensed product available at capacity levels of 10 TB, 25 TB, and 50 TB. Community Edition is a free downloadable 4 TB solution recommended for non-production use .

In this post we wills hare you the key features, requirements and steps to follow for deployment and initial configuration of  Dell EMC Unity VSA.

Key features:

• Provides a software-defined version of Dell EMC Unity storage
• Available in 10, 20, or 50 TB – lower capacities upgrade seamlessly to 50 TB
• Sets up for NAS and SAN in minutes
• Unifies block, file, and VMware VVols support
• Enables VMware administrators to manage storage from VMware vCenter

Installation requirements

Resources –  A 64-bit ESXi host running 5.5 or later that meets the following requirements.

Note:- It is recommended to use ESXi version 6.0 or later. To support VVols, the ESXi host must be running at least 6.0.

License requirements: While there are no further licensing or registration requirements to run Dell EMC UnityVSA for non-production use, if you are ready to purchase Dell EMC UnityVSA, contact your Sales Associate, Dell EMC Authorized Reseller, or visit Dell EMC UnityVSA in the Dell EMC Store.

Activate Your Dell EMC UnityVSA: Get Your System License for Full Functionality

System Requirements:

Infrastructure Requirements – Common to all use cases:

• • vCenter version:  5.5 update 2 or later
  • ESXi: 5.5 – 6.5
  • Web-Browser: Chrome v57, IE v10, FireFox v52, Safari v6 or later
  • Number of ESX hosts: Equal to the number of Dell EMC UnityVSA nodes needed (1:1 mapping)

Dell EMC UnityVSA

• •  RAM for each Dell EMC UnityVSA VM: 12 GB
  • vCPU for each Dell EMC UnityVA VM: 2vCPU
  • Physical Server Requirements: Dual Core CPU 64-bit x86 Intel 2GHz+ (SSE4.2 or greater)
  • Hardware RAID Controller: 512MB NV Cache and Battery Backed (recommended)
  • Type of HDDs: SATA, SAS, SSD
  • I/O Ports (Front End or External): 1GbE / 10GbE
  • Physical Memory Requirements: 16GB (ESXi 5.5) or 18GB (ESXi 6.0) or 20GB (ESXi 6.5)
  • Maximum Number of Pool LUNs: 64
  • Maximum LUN Size: 16 TB
  • Maximum File System Size: 50 GB
  • Maximum File Systems: 32
  • Maximum Usable Capacity: 4TB Community Edition / 10TB, 25TB, and 50TB Professional Edition

Download

File Type – The download package contains the Dell EMC UnityVSA Operating Environment OVA installation file.

File Type: *.ova ,  File Size: 2.4 GB  , Version: 4.4.0

Deploy Unity VSA 

Navigate the cluster you wan to deploy Unity VSA  ->  Actions -> Select Deploy OVF Template  or Right click on the host  and select Deploy OVF Template

Select Source as the OVA you downloaded using Browse option

Review the details and “Accept extra configuration options”

Provide the Name for the VSA and select a folder and click next

Specify the Storage from available list and click next , you may select the VM storage policy from here

Choose the required networks  and click next

Note:- There will be a management port and Data Network Ports

Next Customize the template you can specify the System Name, IPv4 Management and IPv6.  Leave the IPs blank if you want to use DHCP and click next

Review the details and  click on finish to start the Deployment

You may select the power on after deployment option or once deployment completed  you can power on  . It may take 10-20 minutes for UnityVSA to be up and running.

After the deployment you add new hard disk in VSA by editing the settings which you want to use o use for VSA storage.

Initial Configuration Wizard

Once the VSA is up and running start the Initial Configuration by accessing VSA console from web-browser using the Management IP and using the default admin credentials

Introduction Page will popup initially Click Next to continue

Accept License Agreement and Click Next

Set the new admin and service account passwords , they can be set to the same by selecting the option “set service password the same as admin password ”

Add the DNS servers and click next

Add the NTP Server

Next is License the VSA by using the System UUID identified

Activate Your Dell EMC UnityVSA: Get Your System License for Full Functionality using the System UUID to create the license

Download the License File

Note if the license file is opening new page you can copy the content to notepad and save it as .lic extension

Browse and upload the license file and click Finish

After the successful message you may close the page to proceed other settings

Next option is create pool , you may create for now or create later , we are skipping this now and will publish another post for configuring this .

Specify the Email and SMTP and click Next

If you have proxy server in your environment , specify them else skip this step

Create any iSCSI Network interfaces now or skip this by click next , we will discussing this later in another post

Create any NAS Servers or configure it later , here skip this since will explain it later .

Now the Initial Configuration is complete ad you may close the page

Next you can access the console with capacity of the disk available  .

Conclusion

We have shared small overview of  EMC Dell UnityVSA  and deployment steps and initial configuration also here . We are deployed the current latest version Unity VSA 4.4.0 and it is top of vSphere 6.7 host for VMware SRM testing purpose. We will be sharing more blog posts of other configuration required for ISCSI , NAS , Replication etc .

In my previous post – Dell EMC UnityVSA Storage Configuration , I shared Storage Pool  Creation ,iSCSI Interface Creation , LUN Creation  and Configuring hosts and presenting Luns to hosts .In this post we will cover how can we configure LUN replication on UNITY VSA .

Procedure 

• Create a Replication Interfaces
• Create a Replication Connection
• Configure the LUN Replication

Requirements

• Dell EMC Unity VSA deployed as a source and a target
• Storage Pools created at Source and Target
• LUNs are available  on the Source VSA for replication
• Source and Target Unity Boxes should have communication

Creating a Replication Interface

The first step for configuring replication is to create replication interfaces at both the Source and Target Unity VSA systems.

Navigate to Protection & Mobility ->Interfaces and Click on  ” + ”  symbol to  create a new interface.

Select the replication interface from drop down and enter the  IP address, Subnet, Gateway and VLAN ID if required  and Click OK

The replication interface will then be created and  you can view on the interfaces Page

Proceed the same on the Second UNITY VSA

Replication Connections

After creating the Replication Interfaces on both UNITY VSA  nodes , you have to create the Replication Connection to your Target Unity VSA

Navigate to the Protection & Mobility -> Replication -> Connections

Click on ” + “ symbol to create a replication connection and provide the information of your target system Management IP, User Name, Password, Local System admin password and connection Mode , Click OK

 

Connection Process will start and once the connection has showed up you can click on Verify and Update

Now You can view the connection is active

 Configure Replication the LUNs 

After the creation of the Replication Connection you can configure the replication your LUN .

Navigate to Storage ->Block -> LUNs  and  Select the Properties of the LUN you have need to replicate.

Navigate to Replication Tab of the Selected LUN and Click on Configure Replication

Select the replication mode , RPO and Replicate to as target UNITY Node and Click on Next

Configure the Destination storage resource  ,  Specify Name, Storage Pool you may select the type as thin and Tiering policy and Clik Next

Review the details and Click on Finish

You can monitor the result over there and close once creation of replication session is completed

The Replication Tab will now show the active Replication status

And from session tab  on the Replication you can view the status of the LUN replication

Once the Replication is configured you have allow the access to  hosts for  the Second Location as shown below

Navigate to Storage->Block a-> select the Replicated LUN and Properties

From Host Access Tab you can assign the permission to hosts and configuration is completed

 

 

Conclusion

We have successfully configured the replication of the LUN from Primary UNITY VSA node  to secondary node. We using Unity Box for VMware SRM testing and this is very easy to configure .

The filesys clean operation reclaims physical storage occupied by deleted objects in the Data Domain file system. When application software expires backup or archive images and when the images are not present in a snapshot, the images are not accessible or available for recovery from the application or from a snapshot. However, the images still occupy physical storage.

Only a filesys clean operation reclaims the physical storage used by files that are deleted and that are not present in a snapshot. The file system may never report 100% cleaned. The total space cleaned may always be a few percentage points less than 100.

To increase file system availability, and if the Data Domain System is not short on disk space, consider changing the schedule to clean less often.IN this post we will share the steps to perform a manual cleaning from data domain CLI .

Why we need to perform Cleaning ?

Data is considered orphaned if it exists on the DataDomain, but is no longer controlled by the backup application which wrote it.  Data in this state will remain on the DataDomain and will not be freed by cleaning.  There are a number of ways in which this can occur:

• Backup application has been decommissioned
• DataDomain file system may have been unavailable at the moment the backup application attempted to expire data.  Some backup applications may not retry this operation.
• Network issues can prevent the request to expire data from reaching the DataDomain.
• Backup application is instructed to remove data from its catalog/media database, but not from the underlying DataDomain storage.

Perform Cleaning

Connect to the  data domain system using SSH

Check the space to be cleaned using below command

#filesys show space

You can start the cleaning and monitor the progress using below commands

#filesys clean start

#filesys clean watch

Additionally you can check the configuration on the cleaning schedule  , Status of the Cleaning

#filesys clean show config

#filesys clean status

Also you can set the schedule configuration and  other operation by running , you find available commands can find by running below command

#filesys clean

Conclusion

We have shared steps to perform cleaning in data domain through CLI also options available to monitor and check the status of the cleaning process.

As we are aware that VMware has released its eighth generation of vSAN, version 6.7 Update 1 (vSAN 6.7 U1), which makes it even easier to adopt HCI and build a Digital Foundation. Virtual SAN allows the flexibility to build your own configuration based on a given vendors hardware platform, allowing one to greatly differentiate the performance of Virtual SAN clusters based on your choices.

vSAN Runs on standard x86 servers from more than 15 OEMs and the deployment options include integrated systems such as Dell EMC VxRail or, Dell EMC VxRack SDDC systems. A great fit for large and small deployments with options ranging from a 2-node cluster for small implementations to multiple clusters each with as many as 64 nodes.

vSAN configuration is available in Hybrid and All-flash mode , vSAN hosts that contribute storage can be configured with between one (1) and five (5) Disk Groups for the storage of vSAN components. Disk Groups have the requirement of a single flash device used for Cache, and between one (1) and seven (7) devices for Capacity. And in All-Flash configurations, the capacity devices may be flash SATA, SAS, PCIe, or NVMe.

 

Virtual SAN utilizes Solid State Drives (SSDs) as both a write buffer and read-cache to accelerate the performance of the platform. Solid State Drives (SSD) are devices that store persistent data on solid-state NAND flash modules. Virtual SAN supported SSDs can utilize one of three common interfaces, either SATA, SAS, or PCIe.

As you look at different SSDs, you may notice SSD vendors will categorize their components as either single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC) or enterprise multi-level cell (eMLC) NAND. NAND flash modules are the non-volatile storage components that comprise SSDs.

Let’s check the Supported different types of SSD drives

Single-Level Cell (SLC)

Single level cell, also called SLC, has the advantage of being the most accurate when reading or writing data. Besides, it has the longest life span over any other type of flash memory. In SLC, each cell can store a single bit 0 or 1 of information and the general lifespan of NAND flash devices for SLC is 100,000 write cycles. This type of flash memory has done exceptionally well in the enterprise because of its life span, accuracy, and overall performance. It is not so common in home computers with this type of NAND due to its high cost and low storage capacities. It is mostly used in industrial use and workloads that require heavy reading/writing cycles such as servers.

Pros:

• The fastest NAND flash memory in reading/writing.
• Has the longest lifespan and charge cycles over any other type of flash.
• Being most accurate when reading/writing.

Cons:

• The most expensive type of NAND flash.
• Often provided in smaller capacities.

Multiple Level Cell (MLC)

In MLC, NAND flash uses multiple levels per cell to allow more bits to be stored AN MLC can usually have four values: 00 , 01, 10 and 11.MLC is cheaper than SLC by typically has a shortened life span. Because MLC uses the same number of transistors as SLC, a higher risk of errors exists. The general lifespan of NAND flash devices for MLC is 3,000 to 10,000 write cycles.

Multiple Level Cell, short for MLC, stores 2 bits of data on one cell. The advantage is to lower the cost of manufacturing. As we all know, the cost in flash memory production is generally passed onto the consumer in the end. It is used for everyday consumer use, gamers, etc.

Cons:

• Lower production cost and provides larger SSD capacities.
• More stable than TLC flash.

Cons:

• Not so durable and reliable as SLC or enterprise SSDS.

Enterprise MLC (eMLC)

To reduce the risk of errors associated with SLC or MLC, another type of NAND flash called eMLC has been designed. eMLC is a compromise between the cost and lifespan of SLC and MLC. The general lifespan of NAND flash device for eMLC is 20,000 to 30,000write cycles.

Enterprise Multi-Level Cell is a hardier version of MLC NAND flash that somewhat bridges the performance and endurance gap between SLC and MLC. eMLC drives cost more than MLC drives, but much less than SLC their counterparts. Although it still stores two bits per cell, an eMLC drive’s controller manages data placement, wear leveling and other storage operations in a way that extends an eMLC SSD’s useful life.

A primary focus of eMLC vendors is to further improve write endurance and make MLC flash as reliable and long-lived as SLC flash. There are a number of techniques that vendors are using to improve write endurance, including:

Pros:

• Cheaper alternative than SLC for an enterprise SSD.
• Has better performance and endurance over standard MLC.

Cons:

• Does not match SLC NAND flash SSDs in performance.

Triple Level Cell (TLC)

Triple Level Cell store three bits in each cell. By storing more bits per cell, a TLC memory card achieves slower transfer speed, higher error rates, and lower cell endurance than both SLC and MLC. The general lifespan of NAND flash device is 1000 write cycles.

The advantage of TLC memory is that the memory chip is physically smaller than SLC and MLC chips for given memory capacity.
TLC memory chip requires less power to operate than MLC memory and is cheaper to produce. TLC flash technology is used mostly in low-end memory device where speed and reliability are not important

Pros:
Lower production cost leads to a cheaper SSD choice in SSD market.

Cons:

The life span of TLC is much shorter than that of SLC and MLC.

The read/write speed is the slowest among all-flash types.

Quad Level Cell (QLC) 

QLC memory is 64-layer and each cell on QLC can store four bits of information, compared to Triple-Level Cell’s three (TLC), Multi-Level Cell’s two (MLC), and Single-Level Cell’s one (SLC). Besides, the write cycle of QLC could reach 1000 times, which is equal even better than TLC and the price of QLC is lower than that of TLC at the same time. This can be used If there is a heavy demand for data storage and do not save much data in the computer or low budget on SSD.

Pros:

Writing and accessing can be processed by fewer driver software than the other 3 types of NAND flash memory.

More storage capacity, higher storage density, and lower price.

Cons:

The performance and life span of QLC is so good as SLC or MLC but is nearly equal to TLC.

 Want to make SSD with QLC flash memory to be the data storage disk.

New Technologies

NVME and 3Dxpomt are new technologies which are giving better performance than SAS / SATA SSD’s, we will explain this in another article.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed commonly used different SSD drive types in VMware vSAN, and use case where we can use these drives.You have to choose the SSD’d as per the real requirement achieve the benefits of using these drives in HCI solutions .

My previous post was Dell EMC UnityVSA Overview & Deployment and i  shared the procedure with screen shot of deployment and initial configuration . In this post  we will share the next configuration required to present storage after deployment .We will cover Storage Pool  Creation ,iSCSI Interface Creation , LUN Creation  and Configuring hosts and presenting Luns to hosts .

Dell EMC UnityVSA Creating Pool

Login to UnityVSA from web browser  and Navigate to Storage -> Pools

Click on Add option ” + ” symbol  , Provide a Name for the Pool and Description , Click Next

You can see the newly added hard drives over there you add them to the tier based on the HDD type you have added and click Next

Here we have 40 GB x 3 Disk available .

You will get the space of added disks with tier  , in our scenario it  is 120 GB and Capacity Tier

Next it will show the Virtual disk details ( size , SCSI ID , WWN )reference to the disk we have added to VMs   , Click Next

If want to create profile for VVOLs based storage provisioning required  else you can skip option , Click Next

Add the Tag to use for profile and click Next , if you have not created profile then this step not required .

Review the configuration and Click Finish

And you view the progress of creation of the pool over there and once you completed you can view status as completed .

Navigate the Pools option and you can see the created Pool with details.

You can Select the Pool and use the pencil Button to Edit the properties of the Poll you have created .

We have successfully created the storage pool in EMC UnityVSA  and next we have to create iSCSI interfaces

Creating iSCSI Interfaces 

iSCSI interfaces are used for providing network connectivity to access the Unity VSA Luns .

Navigate to Storage -> Block -> iSCSI INterfaces

Click on the ” + ” button to add the interfaces  and Provide the details and Click Ok

IP address , Subnet Mask ,Gateway ,Vlan if required and Ethernet port you need to configure for access , you can choose the Ethernet port from dropdown menu

Once Completed you can see the created iSCSI Interfaces and there will be IQN for this interface which you have configure on the ESXi hots iSCSI adapter .

Adding Hosts to Dell EMC Unity VSA

You have option to add individual hosts from Hosts option  and there is option for VMware where you can add vCenter and esxi hosts

Navigate to Access -> ESXi Hosts-> Click on ” + ”  symbol  to add the host

Provide the required details , Name , Operating System from drop down menu , IP Address then Clik Next

YOu have add the iSCSI initiator IQN from Manually Added Initiators Option by Clicking “+”  button

Add the IQN and Click on Add

Note :- IQN has to be collelct from ESXi Hosts iSCSI Adapter

Select the Manually Added Initiator and Click Next

Review the details and Click Finish

You can view the progress on screen and once completed , you can map the LUNs .

Dell EMC UnityVSA Createing LUN 

Here we are creating a block level based LUN which can be used for configuring as ISCSI storage

Navigate to Storage – > Block and Click add button ” + “  symbol

Fill the required details , Number of LUNs , Name for LUN, Pool  , Tiering Policy  then Size of the LUN and Type of LUN ( thin or default – full allocation )

Also you have option to set the number iops for this luns and Click Next

Add the hosts to provide the access to this LUN using “+”  button , Click on the button

You will see the available hosts , select  the one and Click Ok

Once Added the hosts Click Next

If you required any snapshot of LUN , you can configure the schedule , else Skip and Click Next

If you need Replication to be enabled on this LUN you can enable else Skip and Continue by Click Next

 

Review the details and Click Finish

You can monitor the status in the window and once completed you can check the LUN status

Navigate to the Block -> LUNs  and you can see the created LUN .

You can select the LUN and use edit the properties using the pencil button  , where you can modify replication , access , snapshot schedule etc

Now Can go to the ESXi host , add the ISCSI interface IQN and IP address on the iSCSI server details . Once added rescan your storage adapter add the LUN .