Before I jump into the HA commands, let me briefly preface with a few words about NSX Edge Services Gateway High Availability (simply HA going forward). You will need to understand the heartbeat path and what type of infrastructure-impacting health events are common to your infrastructure. You may find yourself troubleshooting High Availability many times because of a change or degradation in the underlying Hosts, Storage or Network. Be careful with those red herrings. When HA is implemented with a solid understanding of the underlying infrastructure and its variations, you can enjoy peace of mind in knowing the edge network services are highly available.
This article covers the following topics in regards to HA:
– Implementation considerations
– Troubleshooting commands
– Proactively monitoring HA via syslog
A few HA facts/points/considerations/recommendations…
HA Topology
– It uses an Active/Standby topology.
– When HA is enabled, a second VM is deployed. The new VM will only be networked to communicate with the primary.
– When HA is disabled, the 2nd VM is destroyed. – HA appliances will be deployed based on the user-defined mappings (at these these settings are not dynamic).
– Edge mappings are most easily managed using /api/4.0/edges/<edgeId>/appliances with the REST api
– Changes appliance settings will trigger an OVF re-deployment of the edge.
HA IP Configuration
– Optional. If not configured, NSX will assign a valid /30 IP pair using an RFC3927 network.
– If configured manually, valid subnets are system enforced. 10.0.0.0/30 and 10.0.0.1/30 is not valid. 10.0.0.1/30 and 10.0.0.2/30 is valid.
HA vNic Selection
– Optional, it can be left to ANY.
– A minimum of one edge interface is required before enabling HA.
– The recommendation for maximum availability is to configure a network dedicated to the vNIC heartbeating.
– Sharing a vNIC will work without problems as long as the network is not overloaded and available.
HA Timeouts and Heartbeating – The default deadtime is 6 seconds
– The current recommended deadtime is 15 seconds (uses a 3 second polling frequency). There is a tradeoff of service failover time for increased resiliency to lost heartbeats.
– Heartbeats are sent using UDP-694 (the IANA registered port for heartbeats)
HA Appliance Anti-affinity
– Host anti-affinity is handled by system. When HA is enabled there is a cluster DRS rule added automatically with the name anti-affinity-rule-edge-#, where edge=# is the edge-ID. – Storage anti-affinity is not handled by default. For maximum availability of the edge pair, configure the edge appliances to deploy to different physical storage resources. Especially important in infrastructure that uses centralized storage.
Troubleshooting ESG HA with CLI-based Edge Commands
show service highavailability example output
nsxe-0> show service highavailability
Highavailability Status: running
Highavailability Unit Name: nsxe-0
Highavailability Unit State: active
Highavailability Interface(s): vNic_5
Unit Poll Policy:
Frequency: 3 seconds
Deadtime: 15 seconds
Stateful Sync-up Time: 10 seconds
Highavailability Healthcheck Status:
Peer host [vse-1 ]: good
This host [vse-0 ]: good
Highavailability Stateful Logical Status:
File-Sync running
Connection-Sync running
xmit xerr rcv rerr
51219548828 0 42990848 0
show service highavailability connection-sync example output
nsxe-0> show service highavailability connection-sync
connections local:
current active connections: 12693
connections created: 368613263 failed: 0
connections updated: 21695297 failed: 0
connections destroyed: 368600570 failed: 0
connections peer:
current active connections: 0
connections created: 26571 failed: 0
connections updated: 1024 failed: 0
connections destroyed: 26571 failed: 0
traffic processed:
1248602045934 Bytes 6285222215 Pckts
UDP traffic (active device=vNic_5):
51255382200 Bytes sent 43018912 Bytes recv
590146284 Pckts sent 2518471 Pckts recv
0 Error send 0 Error recv
message tracking:
0 Malformed msgs 5863 Lost msgs
show service highavailability connection-sync example output
vse-0> show service highavailability link
Local IP Address: 192.18.0.1/30
Peer IP Address: 192.18.0.2/30
debug packet display / “sniffing” HA heartbeats
Filter using the High Availability vNIC from the root command “show service highavailability”
nsxe-0> debug packet display interface vNic_# port_694
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on vNic_5, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
17:22:50.357722 IP 192.18.0.2.24758 > 192.18.0.1.694: UDP, length 189
17:22:52.709253 IP 192.18.0.1.32165 > 192.18.0.2.694: UDP, length 189
17:22:53.360327 IP 192.18.0.2.24758 > 192.18.0.1.694: UDP, length 190
17:22:55.711667 IP 192.18.0.1.32165 > 192.18.0.2.694: UDP, length 203
17:22:55.711715 IP 192.18.0.1.32165 > 192.18.0.2.694: UDP, length 189
17:22:55.742631 IP 192.18.0.2.24758 > 192.18.0.1.694: UDP, length 203
17:22:56.353520 IP 192.18.0.2.24758 > 192.18.0.1.694: UDP, length 189
17:22:58.716886 IP 192.18.0.1.32165 > 192.18.0.2.694: UDP, length 189
17:22:59.357186 IP 192.18.0.2.24758 > 192.18.0.1.694: UDP, length 189
Viewing Historical HA System Events for an Edge in the Web Client
Open the vCentter Web Client
Open Networking & Security
In NSX Edges, double-click the Edge
Select the Montor tab
Select System Events
On the search widget, click the arrow, click Select Columns…
Deselect All > Check Module > Type HighAvailability > Click Ok
– Open your (vCenter Log Insight ), Splunk or log aggregation solution of choice.
– Build aview of all edge logging (use regex or glob based matches to filter according to your naming convention).
Heartbeat Drops
– Examine matches on the text “lost packet”. Build an alerting rule based on your results.
– When the infrastructure is healthy, there should be not be any HA packets lost.
– Examine matches on the text “Late heartbeat”. Build an alerting rule based on your results.
– Late heartbeats may indicate infrastructure problems. Possible resource constraints or both edges in the HA pair.
– This can also result in a split brain state.
Example match
Jul 3 09:46:48 nsxe-0 heartbeat: [1454]: WARN: Late heartbeat: Node
nsxe-1: interval 24921 ms
Lost and late heartbeats are the early indicators. Early indicators are your best friends. Keep a close eye out for these.
Monitor NSX Manager for Switchover Events
– Filter logging based on NSX Manager SystemEvent, you can use the text [SystemEvent] to filter.
– Examine matches for Event 30202 and 30203 (Edge switching to ACTIVE & STANDBY, respectively)
– Any single event source with more than one or two events should raise a red flag. Any unplanned switchover events should be researched. Build an alerting rule based on your findings.
Example match
Sep 20 20:50:05 nsxm-0 [SystemEvent] Time:'Sat Sep 20 20:49:13.000 GMT 2014', Severity:'High', Event Source:'vm-13950', Code:'30203', Event Message:'vShield Edge HighAvailability switch over happened. VM has moved to STANDBY state.', Module:'vShield Edge HighAvailability'
Split-Brain Indicators
– Look for the text “returning after partition”; Look for the text “Deadtime value may be too small”
– Matches on these can indicate that the state of HA has most likely entered the split brain state. Network Services will be mostly unavailable until the condition is resolved.
– Hopefully these do not exist in your environment. Build a preventive alerting rule. Matches are immediately actionable.
Anyone using NSX SSL VPN-Plus feature for more than one site will quickly find there is no mechanism for importing client configurations. The native method for accessing additional sites is to browse to the Gateway for each site (then download and run the installer).
That’s pretty tedious as your site count increases. There is a better, albeit unsupported, way to manage this need.
Open up a text editor, and prepare a file with all of your sites using the following format. Replace the GatewayList value with your site’s gateway IP address
Networking - Refresh _____________________ Refreshes the Networking View
Networking - Add Networking… ____________ Opens the Add Network Wizard, options below
- Virtual Machine Portgroup ___________ Choose/create vSwitch, label, vlan-id,
- VMkernel - choose/create vSwitch ____ Label, vlan-id, mark for vmotion/ft/mgmt,
ip/ipv6/both, IP assignment
Networking - Properties…_____________________ Checkbox, Enables IPv6 Support on the host system
vSwitch Port/Portgroup bubbles ___________ Displays the properties: General, Security,
Traffic-Shaping, Failover-LB/NIC
vSwitch - Remove… _______________ Deletes the vswitch
vSwitch - Properties…* Network Adapters tab
- Add… _________________ Add an unused physical network adapter (vmnic) to the vswitch.
- Edit… ________________ Set the NIC speed/duplex settings.
- Remove…_______________ Unassigns the vmnic from the vswitch
* Ports Tab
- Add…____________ Opens the Add Network Wizard [minus the vSwitch selection, same options]
- Remove…_________ Delete the selected port/portgroup
- Edit vSwitch… Opens the properties for the selected port/portgroup [4 tabs listed below]
- General
Number of Ports ___ Drop-down options: 24, 56, 120, 248, 504, 1016, 2040, 4088
MTU _______________ 1500 - 9000
- Security
Promiscuous Mode ____ Accept - VM adapter receives all traffic on the wire.
Reject - default operation
MAC Addr Changes ____ Reject disables rx-vm traffic on init/effective MAC mismatch. Sw iSCSI initiator requires accept.
Forged Transmits ____ Reject - Host drops tx traffic on init/effective MAC mismatch.
Accept - host says I accept whatevs
- Traffic Shaping
Status ______________ Enabled = Applied to each virtual network adapter
Avg Bandwidth _______ Bps allowed across a port, averaged over time.
Peak Bandwidth ______ In Kbits/sec; Allowed range is 1 to 9223372036854775 Kbits
That is ~ 1Million Terabytes
Burst Bandwidth _____ Burst bonus gained when not all allocated bandwidth is used
- NIC Teaming
Load Balancing ___________ Dropdown: Originating Virtual Port ID / IP Hash / Source MAC hash / explicit failover order
Network Failover Detect __ Dropdown: Link status only / Beacon probing
Notify Switches __________ Yes / No
Failback _________________ Yes / No
Failover Order __________ NIC Failover Function: Active/Standby/Unused Adapters
- Edit Portgroup/VMKnet… Configurations here override the vSwitch-level configurations.
- General
Network Label _______________ Network Name
Vlan ID _____________________ Specify the VLAN
VMkernel Int-only settings __ Checkboxes for vMotion, Fault Tolerance Logging, Mana- gement/iSCSI Port Binding/MTU
- Security
Promiscuous Mode ____ Accept - VM adapter receives all traffic on the wire.
Reject - default operation
MAC Addr Changes ____ Reject disables rx-vm traffic on init/effective MAC mismatch.
Sw iSCSI initiator requires accept.
Forged Transmits ____ Reject - Host drops tx traffic on init/effective MAC mismatch.
Accept - host says I accept whatevs
- Traffic Shaping
Status __________ Enabled - Applied to each virtual network adapter / Disabled
Avg Bandwidth ___ Bps allowed across a port, averaged over time.
Peak Bandwidth __ In Kbits/sec; Allowed range is 1 to 9223372036854775 Kbits
that is, ~ 1Million Terabytes
Burst Bandwidth _ Burst bonus gained when not all allocated bandwidth is used
- NIC Teaming
Load Balancing ___________ Dropdown: Originating Virtual Port ID / IP Hash /
Source MAC hash / explicit failover order
Network Failover Detect __ Dropdown: Link status only / Beacon probing
Notify Switches __________ Yes / No
Failback _________________ Yes / No
Failover Order ___________ Active/Standby/Unused Adapters ; Select vmnic, Move Up / Move Down
Create and Manage Vmkernel Ports on Standard Switches
# Configuration/Management in the GUI (details in first section) VC > Host > Configuration > Networking
# Managing Vmkernel ports in the CLI (commands with sample output) # Query the tags on a vmknic
~# esxcli network ip interface tag get -i vmk4
Tags: Management, VMotion, faultToleranceLogging
# Query the ipv4 summarized information for all vmkernel interfaces
~ # esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get
Name IPv4 Address IPv4 Netmask IPv4 Broadcast Address Type DHCP DNS
---- ------------ ------------- -------------- ------------ --------
vmk0 192.168.0.3 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.255 STATIC false
vmk1 192.168.0.61 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.255 STATIC false
vmk2 10.10.10.10 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.255 STATIC false
# Add a vmkernel interface to a vswitch’s port group
~ esxcli network ip interface add --portgroup-name
# Set the ipv4 information on an existing vmkernel interface
~ # esxcli network ip interface ipv4 set -i vmk4 -I 172.16.0.10 -N 255.255.0.0 -P false
~ # esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get
Name IPv4 Address IPv4 Netmask IPv4 Broadcast Address Type DHCP DNS
---- ------------ ------------- -------------- ------------ --------
vmk4 172.16.0.10 255.255.0.0 172.16.255.255 STATIC false
# Edit the enabled status & MTU of an existing vmkernel interface; e=enabled , i=interface-name , m=MTU
~ # excli network ip interface set -e [true|false] -i vmk# -m 1500
Configure advanced vSS Settings – OCG Page 66
# Configuration/Management in the GUI (details in first section) VC > Host > Configuration > Networking
# Managing vSwitches in the CLI (commands with sample output) # Query all standard vswitch commands
~ # esxcli esxcli command list | grep vswitch.standard
network.vswitch.standard add
network.vswitch.standard list
network.vswitch.standard remove
network.vswitch.standard set
network.vswitch.standard.policy.failover get
network.vswitch.standard.policy.failover set
network.vswitch.standard.policy.security get
network.vswitch.standard.policy.security set
network.vswitch.standard.policy.shaping get
network.vswitch.standard.policy.shaping set
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup add
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup list
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup remove
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup set
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.failover get
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.failover set
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.security get
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.security set
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.shaping get
network.vswitch.standard.portgroup.policy.shaping set
network.vswitch.standard.uplink add
network.vswitch.standard.uplink remove
# Query global settings
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard list
vSwitch0
Name: vSwitch0
Class: etherswitch
Num Ports: 1536
Used Ports: 11
Configured Ports: 128
MTU: 1500
CDP Status: listen
Beacon Enabled: false
Beacon Interval: 1
Beacon Threshold: 3
Beacon Required By:
Uplinks: vmnic0
Portgroups: vmk1-iscsi, VM Network, Management Network
# Query vswitch policy details
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover get -v vSwitch0
Load Balancing: srcport
Network Failure Detection: link
Notify Switches: true
Failback: true
Active Adapters: vmnic0
Standby Adapters:
Unused Adapters:
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard policy security get -v vSwitch0
Allow Promiscuous: false
Allow MAC Address Change: true
Allow Forged Transmits: true
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard policy shaping get -v vSwitch0
Enabled: false
Average Bandwidth: -1 Kbps
Peak Bandwidth: -1 Kbps
Burst Size: -1 Kib
# Query vswitch portgroups
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup list
Name Virtual Switch Active Clients VLAN ID
------------------ -------------- -------------- -------
Management Network vSwitch0 1 0
My VMK Interface vSwitch3 1 1234
Prod-201 vSwitch3 1 201
VM Network vSwitch0 4 0
# Query switch port group policy details [works with failover/security/shaping policies]
~ # esxcli network switch standard set -m 9000 -v uber-vswitch
# Add a portgroup named uber-PG to uber-vswitch, configure the pg to tag with Vlan 100
~ # esxcli network switch standard portgroup add -p uber-PG -v uber-vswitch
~ # esxcli network switch standard portgroup set -p uber-PG -v 100
# Configure iphash policy with disabled switch notifications, and traffic shaping ~100mb on the uber-PG port group
~ # esxcli network switch standard portgroup policy failover set -p uber-PG -l iphash -n false
~ # esxcli network switch standard portgroup policy shaping set -p uber-PG -e true -b 100000 -k 150000 -t 200000
# About vSwitch NIC Teaming LB Options
explicit ______ Always use the highest order uplink from the list of active adapters which pass failover criteria. iphash _______ Route based on hashing the src and destination IP addresses mac Route ___ based on the MAC address of the packet source. portid Route __ based on the originating virtual port ID.
Objective 2.2 Implement and Manage Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) Networks
Determine use cases for and applying VMware DirectPath I/O – OCG Page 61
Use case: Supporting extremely heavy network activity within a VM, when no other methods are sufficient.
Migrate a vSS Network to a Hybrid or Full vDS Solution – OCG Page 62
#1 Create vDS, don’t migrate hosts or adapters
VC > Networking > Right Click DC > New vSphere Distributed Switch
#2 Prepare destination PortGroups for any existing networks
VC > Networking > vDS > Configuration > New Port Group...
#3 Connect Hosts
VC > Networking > vDS > Add Host…
#4 Select adapters
- Select the physical adapters
- For each VMkernel interfaces, choose the Destination port groups prepared.
#5 Migrate VM networking
- Check “Migrate virtual machine networking
- Select the Destination port group for each vm-network
#6 Click Finish
Configure vSS and vDS Settings Using Command Line Tools – OCG Page 80
Not a lot regarding this.here are the available(mostly read) CLI commands for the DVS
~ # esxcli esxcli command list | grep network.vswitch.dvs
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.config get
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.stats get
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.status get
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.timeout set
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.config.stats get
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.config.stats set
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan get
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.arp list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.arp reset
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mac list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mac reset
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mtep list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.port list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.port.stats list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.port.stats reset
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.stats list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.stats reset
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.stats list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.stats reset
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.vmknic list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.vmknic.multicastgroup list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.vmknic.stats list
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.vmknic.stats reset
Analyze Command Line Output to Identify vSS and vDS Configuration Details
The sampling rate represents the number of packets that NetFlow drops after every collected packet. A sampling rate of xinstructs NetFlow to drop packets in a collected packets:dropped packets ratio 1:x. If the rate is 0, NetFlow samples every packet, that is, collect one packet and drop none. If the rate is 1, NetFlow samples a packet and drops the next one, and so on.
– Define the Primary VLAN ID (VLAN Type Promiscuous) – Define the Secondary VLANs (VLAN Type Community or Isolated)
Use Case: Private VLANs are used to solve VLAN ID limitations and waste of IP addresses for certain network setups. A private VLAN is identified by its primary VLAN ID. A primary VLAN ID can have multiple secondary VLAN IDs associated with it. Primary VLANs are Promiscuous, so that ports on a private VLAN can communicate with ports configured as the primary VLAN. Ports on a secondary VLAN can be either Isolated, communicating only with promiscuous ports, or Community, communicating with both promiscuous ports and other ports on the same secondary VLAN.
Use Command Line Tools to Troubleshoot and Identify VLAN Configurations – OCG Page 73
# Check Vlan IDs for portgroups
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup list
Name Virtual Switch Active Clients VLAN ID
------------------ -------------- -------------- -------
Management Network vSwitch0 1 0
My VMK Interface vSwitch3 1 1234
Prod-201 vSwitch3 1 300
# Change a Vlan ID on portgroup Prod-201
~ # esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p Prod-201 -v 201
Route based on Originating Virtual Port ID – This is the default policy. – The vSwitch assigns the VM’s virtual network adapter to a port number and uses the port number to determine which path will be used to route all network I/O sent from that adapter. – This implementation does not require any changes on the connected physical switches. – The vSwitch performs a modulo function, where the Port number is divided by the number of NICs in the team, and the remainder indicates the path to place the outbound I/O. – If the path fails, the outbound I/O is automatically re-routed to a surviving path. – This policy does not permit outbound data from a single virtual adapter to be distributed across all active paths on the vSwitch.
The Route based on Originating Virtual Port ID algorithm does not consider load into its calculation for traffic placement
Route based on Source MAC Hash – This policy uses the MAC address of the virtual adapter to select the path, rather than the port number. – The vSwitch performs a modulo function, where the MAC address is divided by the number of NICs in the team, and the remainder indicates the path to place the outbound I/O.
The Route based on Source MAC Hash algorithm does not consider load into its calculation for traffic placement.
Route based on IP Hash – This is the only option that permits outbound data from a single virtual adapter to be distributed across all active paths. – This option requires that the physical switch be configured for IEEE802.3ad “Link Aggregation” – The vSwitch must be configured for IP Hash for inbound load balancing. – The outbound data from each virtual adapter is distributed across the active paths using the calculated IP hash. – If a virtual adapter is concurrently sending data to two or more clients, the I/O to one client can be placed on one path and the I/O to another client can be placed on a separate path. – The outbound traffic from a virtual adapter to a specific external client is based on the most significant bits of the IP address of both the virtual adapter and the client. The combined value is used by the vSwitch to place the associated outbound traffic on a specific path.
The Route based on IP Hash algorithm does not consider load into its calculation for traffic placement. But the inbound traffic is truly load balanced by the physical switch.
Route based on Physical NIC Load (DVS Only) – Factors the load of the physical NIC when determining traffic placement. – Does not require special settings on the physical switch – Initially, outbound traffic is placed on a specific path. Activity is monitored. – When I/O through a specific vmnic adapter reaches a consistent 75% capacity, then one or more virtual adapters are automatically remapped to other paths. – This is a good choice when Etherchannel on the physical switch is not feasible.
Determine and Apply Failover Settings – OCG Page 77
# Link status Only Relies only on the link status that the network adapter provides. – Detects removed cables & physical switch port failures. – Does not detect a physical switch port that is blocked by spanning tree or is misconfigured. – Does not detect a pulled cable that connects a physical switch to another device.
# Beacon Probing Sends out and listens for beacon probes on all NICs in the team and uses this information, in addition to link status, to determine link failure. ESX/ESXi sends beacon packets every second. – Useful with teams of more than 3 nice, allows n-2 failures – NICs must be in active/active or active/standby, NICs in unused state do not participate in beacon probing.
Notify Switches Yes/No – If Yes, a notification is sent over the network to update the lookup tables on the physical switches. Set to No for features like Microsoft NLB in unicast mode.
Configure Explicit Failover to Conform with VMware Best Practices – OCG Page 77
Override switch failover order to manually specify which NICs are Active / Standby / Unused.
Configure Port Groups to Properly Isolate Network Traffic – OCG Page 79
– VMware recommends that each type of network traffic is separated by VLANs. – Separate VLANs for Management, vMotion, VMs, iSCSI, NAS, VMware HA Heartbeat, Fault Tolerance logging. – Trunk the VLANs on the physical switch.
Given a Set of Network Requirements, Identify the Appropriate Distributed Switch Technology to Use – OCG Page 81
# Pre-reqs
– Only on VMs with RDM disks (VMs with reg disks use WWN of the Host’s HBAs.
– HBA on host must support NPIV
– Fabric switches must be NPIV-aware
# Capabilities & Limitations
– vMotion supported; vmkernel reverts to physical hba if destination host ors not support NPIV.
– Concurrent I/O supported.
– Requires FC switch
– Clones do not retain WWN
– Does not support Storage vMotion
– Disabling and Re-enabling NPIC capability on FC Switch while VM running can cause FC link to fail and I/O to stop.
# Configuring in the GUI
VC > VM > Edit Settings > Options Tab > Advanced – Fibre Channel NPIV
WC > VM > Edit Settings > VM Options > Expand FC NPIV triangle> Deselect “Temporarily Disable NPIV for this VM > Generate new WWN
“vCenter Server provides storage filters to help you avoid storage device corruption or performance degradation that can be caused by an unsupported use of storage devices.”
# Configuring in the GUI
VC > Administration > vCenter Server Settings > Advanced Settings
WC > VC Server > Manage > Settings > Advanced Settings > Edit
(filters by default are not listed and are TRUE)
config.vpxd.filter.rdmFilter
config.vpxd.filters.vmfsFilter
config.vpxd.filter.hostRescanFilter
config.vpxd.filter.SameHostAndTransportsFilter
Add the key – In the Value box, type False > Add > OK
# Changing the Path Selection Plugin for a Storage Array Type Plugin
/vmfs/volumes # esxcli storage nmp satp set -s VMW_SATP_CX -P VMW_PSP_RR
Default PSP for VMW_SATP_CX is now VMW_PSP_RR
# List devices
esxcli storage vmfs extent list
# List paths
esxcli storage nmp path list
# List all claim rules
esxcli storage core claimrule list
# Claimrule based on Fiber Channel
esxcli storage core claimrule add -u -P MASK_PATH -t transport -R fc
# LUN Masking in the GUI
No GUI method exactly matches the commands above.
– Native Multipathing (NMP) paths can be enabled/disabled
– Path Selection Policy (PSP) can be configured (Fixed, Most Recently Used, Round Robin)
“Performance enhancement of read-intensive applications by providing a write-through cache for virtual disks. It uses the Virtual Flash Resource, which can be built on Flash-based, solid-state drives (SSDs) that are installed locally in the ESXi hosts.”
# Configuring vFRC On the host
Web Client > Hosts & Clusters > Host > Manage > Settings > Virtual Flash > Virtual Flash Resource Management > Add Capacity
# Configure a VM with vFRC
Web Client > VM > Edit Settings > Select/Expand Hard Disk > Enter qty or FRC > OK
# Configure Host Cache in GUI
WC > Host > Manage > Storage > Host Cache Configuration > Select DS > Allocate space for host cache.
Configure Datastore Cluster – OCG Page 120
# Configure DS Cluster in the GUI
VC > Storage > New DS Cluster > Storage DRS Automation level > Select Runtime settings/IO inclusion > Select Clusters/Hosts > Select Datastores
WC > Right click DC Object > New DS Cluster
# Upgrade datastores in the GUI
VC > Datastore > Configuration > Upgrade (Option does not appear if running latest)
WC > Datastore > Manage > Settings > General > Properties (Option does not appear if running latest)
# View host level statistics, examine disk adapter stats
esxtop > d
# View LUN level statistics
esxtop > u
# View VM level disk stats
esxtop > v
* CMDS/s – This is the total amount of commands per second, which includes IOPS and other SCSI commands (e.g. reservations and locks). Generally speaking CMDS/s = IOPS unless there are a lot of other SCSI operations/metadata operations such as reservations.
* DAVG/cmd – This is the average response time in milliseconds per command being sent to the storage device.
* KAVG/cmd – This is the amount of time the command spends in the VMKernel.
* GAVG/cmd – This is the response time as experienced by the Guest OS. This is calculated by adding together the DAVG and the KAVG values.
As a general rule DAVG/cmd, KAVG/cmd and GAVG/cmd should not exceed 10 milliseconds (ms) for sustained lengths of time.
There are also the following throughput metrics to be aware of:
* CMDS/s – As discussed above
* READS/s – Number of read commands issued per second
* WRITES/s – Number of write commands issued per second
* MBREAD/s – Megabytes read per second
* MBWRTN/s – Megabytes written per second
The sum of reads and writes equals IOPS, which is the the most common benchmark when monitoring and troubleshooting storage performance. These metrics can be monitored at the HBA or Virtual Machine level.
# Check if device is tagged SSD
esxcli storage core device list -d device_name
Administer hardware acceleration for VAAI – OCG Page 106
VAAI = vSphere Storage APIs Array Integration
“Hardware-acceleration / hardware offload APIs. Storage primitives that allow the host to offload storage operations”
# Full copy – Array performs copies without having to communicate with the host. Speeds up cloning/svmotion. DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove
# Block zeroing . Array performs zeroing. Speeds up block zeroing process when new virtual disk is created DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit
# Hardware-assisted locking. Enhanced locking. ATS replaces SCSI-2. More VMs per Datastore. More Hosts per LUN VMFS3.HardwareAcceleratedLocking
# Configuring in GUI
VC > Host > Configuration > Software – Advanced Settings ; use the settings mentioned above; 0 will disable
# Checking for VAAI Support
VC > Host > Configuration > Storage > Hardware > Datastores View
Configure and administer profile-based-storage – OCG Page 109
“VM storage policies can be used during VM provisioning to ensure that the virtual disks are placed on proper storage. VM storage policies can be used to facilitate the management of the VM, such as during migrations, to ensure that the VM remains on compliant storage.”
# Configuration in GUI Video Demo
# 1) Enable the feature on the host/cluster VC > Home > Management – VM Storage Profiles > Enable VM Storage Profiles > Select the Host/Cluster > Click Enable Storage Profiles > Close
# 2) Define User-defined Capabilities
VC > Home > Management – VM Storage Profiles > Manage Storage Capabilities > Add > Name the capability > OK
# 3) Create VM Storage Profile
VC > Home > Management – VM Storage Profiles > Create > Create new VM storage profile > Name the storage profile > Select a defined capability defined in #2 > Click Next > Click Finish
# 4) Assign User-defined Capabilities
VC > Right-click datastore > Assign User-Defined Storage Capabilitiy > Select a Storage Capability from the drop-down > click OK
# Test by creating new vm
VC > VMs & Templates > New VM > In storage section, use the drop-down, the view will filter datastore options into compatible/non-compatible options.
■ Lazy-zeroed Thick (default) – Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from the virtual machine. The virtual machine does not read stale data from disk.
– Fast
– File block zeroed on write
– Fully pre-allocated on datastore
■ Eager-zeroed Thick – Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to zeroedthick format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take much longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
– Slow – but faster with VAAI
– File block zeroed when disk is created.
– Fully preallocated on datastore.
■ Thin – Thin-provisioned virtual disk. Unlike with the thick format, space required for the virtual disk is not allocated during creation, but is supplied, zeroed out, on demand at a later time.
– Very Fast
– File block is zeroed on write.
– File block is allocated on write.
■ rdm:device – Virtual compatibility mode raw disk mapping.
■ rdmp:device – Physical compatibility mode (pass-through) raw disk mapping.
■ 2gbsparse – A sparse disk with 2GB maximum extent size. You can use disks in this format with hosted VMware products, such as VMware Fusion, Player, Server, or Workstation. However, you cannot power on sparse disk on an ESXi host unless you first re-import the disk with vmkfstools in a compatible format, such as thick or thin.
Understand Interactions Between Virtual Storage Provisioning and Physical Storage Provisioning
Reference Virtual Disk Format Types – OCG Page 95
Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity – OCG Page 188
Create and Analyze Datastore Alarms and Errors to Determine Space Availability – OCG page 169, 188 – 201
# Configuring the alarm in the GUI
VC > Define the scope > Alarms Tab > Definitions > Right click Whitespace > New Alarm > Select type Datastore
# Define a trigger
## Datastore alarms support the following triggers:
– Datastore Disk Provisioned (%) >>> Is above / Is below >>> 50, 150, 200, etc (increments of 50)
– Datastore Disk Usage (%) >>> Is above / Is below >>> Defined percentage
– Datastore State to All Hosts >>> Is equal to / Not equal to >>> None / Connected / Disconnected
Round Robin (VMware) – VMW_PSP_RR
– automatic path selection algorithm, rotating through all active paths when connecting to active-passive arrays.
Fixed (VMware) – VMW_PSP_FIXED
– Host uses designated preferred path, if configured. Otherwise uses the first working path. An explicitly designated path will be used even if marked dead.
Let me qualify the title.. I say “best” with the full authority that my opinion carries. Just trying to give y’all a place to go to get your NSX learn on…
The NSX walkthrough is the perfected balance the brevity of a presentation slide-deck with involved hands-on demonstrations. Very well put together (Check out some of the other walkthroughs).
The design guide is a PDF~30 pages is a gentle introduction to NSX topologies. Fundamental read if you’re still trying to get a handle on NSX concepts.
Nothing fancy about this one… ’tis the manuals. NSX Install and Upgrade Guide & NSX Administration Guide. Although in the public domain, this resource is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to find via search. But they are in the public domain. Whatever is public is not private…right?
The vCNS(vShield) practical CLI use is limited from a configuration perspective, but you may need to interact with these from time to time. Troubleshooting /debugging sessions/log purging come to mind.
The options for getting the job done:
1. Interact with the vCNS Manager virtual machine console in vCenter (not great for debugging, or reading the long exception output)
2. SSH (ssh server is enabled from the console: vsm> enable, vsm# ssh start)
Expect works well with the vtysh pseudo-terminal used for the vCNS Manager console. I tried and failed (due to errors interacting with the terminal). If you manage multiple vCNS environments, it makes sense to wrap the interactions into these expect scripts. Here’s a small example expect script to change the CLI password from the default.
If your operational policy is to update your password every few months; you will find yourself revisiting a script like this. For passing commands to multiple vCNS Managers, you can extend the script to spawn connections based on a list (outside the scope of this post).
This is your 10,000 ft view of the updates to the vsphere 5.5 esxcli. I do plan to dive in and explore the new additions in more detail at a later date. This round I just want to provide a taste of what is new.
For those who aren’t satisfied with counts, here’s the full delta of 5.1 and 5.5 below. Enjoy!
-Gabe
## esxcli.new device.alias get device.alias list graphics.device list graphics.vm list network.ip.neighbor remove network.ip.netstack add network.ip.netstack get network.ip.netstack list network.ip.netstack remove network.ip.netstack set network.nic.coalesce get network.nic.coalesce set network.nic.cso get network.nic.cso set network.nic.eeprom change network.nic.eeprom dump network.nic.negotiate restart network.nic.register dump network.nic.selftest run network.nic.sg get network.nic.sg set network.nic.tso get network.nic.tso set network.sriovnic.vf stats network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.timeout set network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan get network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.arp list network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.arp reset network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mac list network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mac reset network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mtep list sched.reliablemem get storage.nfs.param get storage.nfs.param set storage.vflash.cache get storage.vflash.cache list storage.vflash.cache.stats get storage.vflash.cache.stats reset storage.vflash.device list storage.vflash.module get storage.vflash.module list storage.vflash.module.stats get storage.vmfs unmap system.coredump.file add system.coredump.file get system.coredump.file list system.coredump.file remove system.coredump.file set system.security.certificatestore add system.security.certificatestore list system.security.certificatestore remove vsan.cluster get vsan.cluster join vsan.cluster leave vsan.cluster restore vsan.datastore.name get vsan.datastore.name set vsan.maintenancemode cancel vsan.network clear vsan.network.ipv4 add vsan.network.ipv4 remove vsan.network.ipv4 set vsan.network list vsan.network remove vsan.network restore vsan.policy cleardefault vsan.policy getdefault vsan.policy setdefault vsan.storage add vsan.storage.automode get vsan.storage.automode set vsan.storage list vsan.storage remove vsan.trace set
## esxcli.removed network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mapping list network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.vxlan.network.mapping reset
##esxcli.modified network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.get config (5.1) network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.get stats (5.1) network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.get status (5.1)
network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.config get (5.5) network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.stats get (5.5) network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.status get (5.5)
