Telecommunications Blog

Setup and Configure Storage IO Control in VMware vSphere

2020-07-24T11:29:00.000+02:00

When you enable Storage I/O Control on a datastore, ESXi host starts to monitor the device latency that hosts observe when communicating with that datastore. When device latency exceeds a threshold, the datastore is considered to be congested and each VM that accesses that datastore is allocated I/O resources in proportion to their shares. (by default all VMs are set to Normal (1000) You set shares per VMDK. You can adjust the number for each based on need. The default is 1000

01. Enable/Disable Storage I/O Control

02. Configure/Manage Storage I/O Control

03. Monitor Storage I/O Control

Enable/Disable Storage I/O Control:

Before we jump in I'd like to explain how storage I/O control helps to prioritize certain VMs over the others. I think it's best to check out this image from VMware which shows basically that after activating the SIOC on shared datastore and setting up the shares (at the VMDK level) on the VMs properties, the SIOC is able to prioritize those VMs over the others.

Quote from VMware:

Storage I/O Control operates as a "datastore-wide disk scheduler." Once Storage I/O Control has been enabled for a specific datastore, it will monitor that datastore, summing up the disk shares for each of the VMDK files on it. Storage I/O Control will then calculate the I/O slot entitlement per ESXi host based on the percentage of shares virtual machines running on that host have relative to the total shares for all hosts accessing that datastore.

Few limitations and requirements:

• NFS v4.1 isn't supported (it is for NFS v3).

• Storage I/O Control does not support datastores with multiple extents.

• SAN with auto-tiering has to be certified for SIOC.

• Datastores that are Storage I/O Control-enabled must be managed by a single vCenter Server system.

• Must be disabled before removing a datastore.

• Raw Device Mapping (RDM) is not supported. (it is on iSCSI NFS and FC).

• Activate at the datastore level via vSphere client or vSphere Web client.

Configure/Manage Storage I/O Control:

1. Enable Storage I/O Control for the datastore

In the vSphere Client > select a datastore > Configuration tab > Properties > Storage I/O Control, select the Enabled check box.

The advanced settings – Threshold – default value there. Check if the value is 30 ms.

2. Set the number of storage I/O shares and upper limit of I/O operations per second (IOPS) allowed for each virtual machine. Those settings at the VMDK level so you could possibly prioritize disk where your important production DB sits.

Set the threshold. More the VM is important, greater the number…… You can use the drop down or the custom and enter your value.

In case you're getting error on activating SIOC this can be due 2 reasons:

* Not having proper licensing - “ Enterprise Plus is required. Storage I/O Control (SIOC) requires Enterprise Plus licensing. Without this license, the option to enable SIOC is grayed out.

* Check that the host is installed with ESXi 4.1 or higher.

Monitor Storage I/O Control:

There is a Performance TAB to monitor Storage I/O. How Storage I/O Control handles the I/O workloads of the virtual machines accessing a datastore based on their shares.

Datastore performance charts allow monitoring:

* Average latency and aggregated IOPS on the datastore.

* Latency among hosts n Queue depth among hosts.

* Read/write IOPS among hosts.

* Read/write latency among virtual machine disks n Read/write IOPS among virtual machine disks.

From vSphere Web client > Datastore > Monitor tab > Performance tab > View drop-down menu > select Performance.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1leVT9rkSZSWk7LCH8aV3saE_kWwAh4MJ/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Microsoft Active Directory Integration with vCenter 6.x

2020-07-15T11:28:00.000+02:00

Joining vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.5 to Microsoft Active Directory:

1. Launch and log in to VCSA using vSphere Web Client.

2. Open home>go to Administration > Deployment > System Configuration.

3. Click on Nodes and select the required node.

4. Navigate to Manage > Settings > Advanced > Active Directory and click Join.

5. Put the required details.

Domain

Put Active Directory Domain Name.

Organizational Unit

Put the OU name for the VCSA (optional).

User Name

Put the user with Domain joining rights/administrator. Password

Put the password of above user.

6. Click OK, and restart the appliance.

Enable Active Directory authentication in vCenter 6.5:

Why You Need To integrate Active Directory VCSA? Why You Need To integrate Active Directory VCSA. Every organization uses an Active Directory for managing and auditing user access and activities. By joining VCSA to Windows Active Directory, it simplifies the user management with proper auditing. No need to create and manage multiple users in VCSA locally.

AD authentication in vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA):

1. Launch and login on VCSA by using vSphere Web Client.

2. Expand home then click Administration.

3. Navigate to Single Sign-On > Configuration.

4. Open the Identity Sources tab.

5. Click the green plus (+) and add identity source.

6. Select Identity Source Type:

• Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication).

• Active Directory as an LDAP server.

Select Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication).

Note: This option works with both, the Windows-based vCenter Server and the vCenter Server Appliance. However, the underlying system has to be a member of the Active Directory domain. (refer below blog to join the VCSA to an AD).

If VCSA is not joined to the AD domain, it will show the below mentioned error as this option will not work if you donâ€™t join the active directory domain.

7. On the next screen, put the Domain name and select the Use machine account.

8. Click next and finish configuration.9. Go back to Identity Sources to verify the domain name in the list.

Set permission for AD users:

To add AD user as the global Administrator, select Administration > Access Control > Global Permissions.

11. Click on + button to add permission.

12. Click ADD button at the bottom.

13. Select the Domain name and user and click Add.

14. Click on OK, Finish the process.

Add members to a vCenter Single Sign-On group:

You can add new members to a vCenter Single Sign-On group from the vSphere Web Client.

About this task:

You can add members of Microsoft Active Directory or Open LDAP groups to a vCenter Single Sign-On group.

You cannot add groups from external identity sources to a vCenter Single Sign-On group.

Groups that are listed on the Groups tab in the vSphere Web Client are internal to vCenter Single Sign-On and are part of the vsphere.local domain.

Procedure:

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as administrator@vsphere.local or as another user with vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges.

Users with vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges are in the CA Admins group.

2. Click Home, and browse to Administration > Single Sign-On > Users and Groups.

3. Click the Groups tab and click the group (for example, Administrators).

4. In the Group Members area, click the Add Members icon.

5. Select the identity source that contains the member to add to the group.

6. (Optional) Enter a search term and click Search.

7. Select the member and click Add.

You can simultaneously add multiple members.

8. Click OK.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1crHwFuBf0PGFSf4aGvqdR_CjkhGxoRj3/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LEOxkfBnUIJPML-8NoVaN_z2abIHpODv/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i4VaME7MwUOgi7PTFVK9HcJ53B9pWcLH/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Horizon View Operational Environment Design

2020-07-05T16:44:00.000+02:00

Now it's time you've proven. Your suggested solutions are reliable and functional and you can extract the information from the assessment and testing steps. It is time to make a suitable plan for the operating environment.

Choosing the right technology:

An important point to consider is the difference between the type of user use of the product and the differences in the technologies that are available in VMware Horizon products. The first time you are collecting information (the information gathering methods described earlier), you are at a very important stage because your conclusion is that the technology will meet the needs of users. There are several technologies available to provide users with different services. Technologies like Horizon View, Horizon Mirage, ThinApp, App Volumes.

Preparation for presentation in the operational environment:

You now have all the information you need about the environment. Business requirements and goals are specified. Different modes are designed to provide the best response to users. You can now specify how the implementation environment works. From here, you have to follow very carefully and carefully. The solution has been tested, proven concepts, and Pilot stage. Now is the time to start exciting. There are several ways to do things, but keep in mind that you can start calmly and with patience and implement processes over time. You can guarantee your success by moving in principle over time.

Horizon View Pod and Block Architecture:

Let's start with the main concepts of the Horizon View design: Pod and Block reference architecture. This section covers the overall underlying development and implementation of Horizon View. Horizon View Pod and Block Architecture is a provider of infrastructure and reference architectures that supports 10,000 users. This feature is available through a modular approach to expand the infrastructure with the Horizon View Block, and can support 2,000 users. This means you will have 2,000 virtual desktops.

Management modules such as Management Block are expanded. It will also include extensions such as Connection Servers and Security Servers. The blocks are expanded to 2 thousand in size to reach 10 thousand (5 blocks). This 5-block configuration is called a pod. It will be a huge and spacious space for you. If you're familiar with the cloud pod architecture and put it in combination with pod and block, you can generally provide more than 50,000 users. During the projects, you've heard a lot of these sentences that, for example, I have only 500 users and I need the same number of desktops, so pod and block architecture does not work for me. But we want you to have a correct understanding of the subject and design principles of how to expand Horizon View. In design with small scales, you only need a pod that only contains a block.

As mentioned earlier, the management block contains all of the components of the Horizon view infrastructure. These components include Connection Server and Security Server. The following diagram illustrates the following:

There are a number of ESXi hosts within each desktop, these hosts have enough capacity to provide virtual desktops for you. VCenter is also responsible for managing these desktops. In this process, there are other components that manage this process:

To view and deploy virtual desktops with Linked Clone, we need View Composer. Also, a SQL statement will take the role of the View Composer database and we need a database for View Events. The created machines should be set to HA and the duplication process should be specific and regular. But the most important part of the story is shared storage, which can also be shared as a block.

If you have only one vCenter, you will have a lot of restrictions on simultaneously sending operations on cars. This is important, for example, when a large number of virtual desktops are turned on in Pools or Recompose. If there are too many vCenters, costly operations will increase and speed will go up.

Cloud Pod architecture has expanded to the previous version of Horizon View. You can easily combine up to 25 pics of cloud pod into 5 sites. This condition will allow you to provide 50,000 desktop users. In this way, when connecting different Pods, users will be able to get their desktop from different pools and at different pods and sites. As an administrator, you can globally access all cloud pods.

Microsoft Active Directory Lightweight Service and View Interpod API are two services that are used to communicate between pods. When you enable the Cloud Pod from the command line inside the Connection Viewer server, VIPA (the connection between the pods) starts. And they send information between themselves to find the desktops they need. By default, when a user connects to the Horizon View and has a global Entitlement, it is preferable to using virtual desktops than other users.

When the scope settings are made, you can specify which View Connection Server to search for where virtual machines are located and which Entitlement searches. You can do the following:

• View : All Sites Searches for any virtual podcast or hosted apps to search for any Pod within the federations.

• Within Site: To find virtual desktops or hosted apps, only Pods that are found on similar sites are searched. The same sites mean that the user is connected to them.

• Within Pod: To find virtual desktops or Hosted Applications, only the Pod that the user is connected to is searched.

vSphere Design for Horizon View:

Now you have an overview of the basic design and basic conditions. It's time to look at components that are part of the architecture. For example, vSphere is the virtualization platform.

Here's how to install and configure vSphere and ESXi on the hosts. Although there is a general discussion about the requirements and how to configure vCenter and host and cluster. Technically, you can have Horizon View and other virtual servers run in a set of infrastructures with a vCenter.

As we discussed earlier, there are two infrastructure areas for Horizon View: the Management Block management block running vCenter, View Composer, View Connection Server, and the other where their virtual desktops run. It is recommended that the two components be physically distributed on separate ESXs and clusters to minimize your risk. It is also possible to run Horizon View components on a separate vCenter. The vCenter separation from the Horizon components means that there is less competition with prerequisites and priorities when we decide to upgrade the systems.

Maximum settings:

When you are building the right infrastructure for VDI, you can quickly and easily capture the settings. Do not forget that the maximum is not the ultimate goal, but our limitations. When designing, keep in mind that the risk of losing individual components, such as the vCenter server or View Connection, is always there. We will talk more about this in future articles.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-1BaUxEP7BZc9bE8MzKUXOyGr4tEc8Q-/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Difference between VMware VMFS and NFS Datastores

2020-07-03T11:26:00.000+02:00

To discuss this subject, we need to understand NFS (Network File System) and VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) are different File Systems. NFS is a file level file system, and VMFS is a block level file system. NFS, VMFS (here is included LUNs/Disks), vSAN and recently VVols (Virtual Volumes) are the type of Datastores that we can use in VMware.

A brief history of NFS and VMFS file systems:

NFS (Network File System):

NFS is a network file system that exists since 1984 and was developed by SUN Microsystems, and initial was only build and use for UNIX base.

Since 1984 there were many changes in the NFS. Version 1 used only internally in SUN development and then new version 2 had some changes and was starting spread out for other UNIX and Linux servers. Middle 90â€™s NFS v3 arrives, and support for 64-bit file sizes and offsets and can now handle files larger than 2GB. NFS v3 extends to more UNIX/Linux servers and now also to NAS with storage vendors implementing NFS technology on their systems.

Mainly adopted by NetApp, a significant contributor that develop with SUN the next NFS version.

That is also when Windows systems are starting using NFS with Server Message Block [SMB], also known as CIFS.

Main version changes:

• NFS v4

1. TCP over IPv4 is now used as a standard

2. Was ratified as an Internet standard, described in RFC -3530

3. Client/server interactions are done using the GSS-API framework. Adding three security mechanisms to NFSv4: Kerberos, LIPKEY, and SPKM-3

4. Exported pseudo-file system on the server is mountable as a single common root on the client

• NFS v4.1

1. One of the most significant changes in v4.1 was adding multipath, by introducing better performance and availability through load balancing and multipathing

2. Kerberos and thus non-root user authentication are now supported.

3. Parallel NFS (pNFS) support

4. Directory Delegation and other file types

5. Improved compatibility with Microsoft Windows for Access Control Lists (ACLs)

6. LIPKEY and SPKM-3 are no longer required security mechanisms

7. Firewall-friendly single port operations

8. Replication and migration facilities

9. Support for parallelism and data striping

Important Note: With NFSv4.1 VMware doesn’t support these features:

1. Storage I/O control

2. Site Recovery Manager

3. Storage DRS

• NFS v4.2

(version still in discussion and still in development, even some of the features are already implemented)

• Server-Side Clone and Copy

• Application Input/Output (I/O) Advise

• Sparse Files

• Space Reservation

• Application Data Block (ADB) Support

• Labeled NFS

• Layout Enhancements

In vCenter when selecting an NFS Datastore, we can also check some of the above changes between versions.

NFS in VMware:

An NFS client built into ESXi uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS volume that is located on a NAS server. The ESXi host can mount the volume and use it for its storage needs. vSphere supports versions 3 and 4.1 of the NFS protocol.

VMFS (Virtual Machine File System):

On opposed to NFS, VMFS is a block level file system. VMware created VMFS with the primary purpose to store Virtual Machines or snapshots. VMFS is a high-performance clustered file system for virtualization and can be shared between multiple ESXi hosts or VMs and can simultaneously write and read data to and from a single storage location.

In the earlier versions VMFS1 (was a flat file system with no directory structure) and v2, VMFS was created for an idea of Virtual Infrastructure (VI).

However only after VMFS3 (around 2006) is when VMFS was starting to go further with a directory structure in the file system, more improvements, and a more mature file system that will be used until vSphere 4.x.

After vSphere 5.x a new VMFS5 version (arrives around 2011) improves most of the v3 attributes and introducing many performance enhancements.

Main version changes:

VMFS3 (vSphere 3.x/4.x):

1. Maximum single Extend size: 2TB

2. Raw Device Mapping size (virtual and physical): 2TB minus 512 bytes

3. Partition Style: MBR

4. File per volume: Approximately 30,720

5. Block size: 8M

VMFS5 (vSphere 5.x/6.x):

• Maximum single Extend size: 64 TB

• Raw Device Mapping size (virtual compatibility): 62TB

• Raw Device Mapping size (physical compatibility): 62TB

• Partition Style: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

• Spanned Volume size: 64 TB (32 extends with any size combination)

• File per volume: Approximately 130,690

• Standard 1MB file system block size with the support of 2TB virtual disks.

• File located on a VMFS5 can be opened in a shared mode by a maximum of 32 hosts

• ATS-only locking mechanisms for ATS

• VMFS online version upgrades

• Manually reclaim physical storage space on thin provisioned storage devices

VMFS6 (vSphere 6.5/6.7):

• Support 4Kn and 512n storage devices and local devices.

• Automatic space reclamation

• Full Space reclamation from guest OS

• New default snapshot system Sesparse (VMFS 5 uses Sesparse only when VMDK size goes beyond 2TB)

• Content Based Read Cache (CBRC), or View Storage Accelerator is now set to 32GB cache

VMFS 5 and VMFS 6 can coexist. However, due to the changes done in VMFS 6 metadata structures to make it 4K aligned, you cannot inline/offline upgrade from VMFS5 to VMFS6.

Note: Most of the new features, maximums, and improvements between VMFS versions is bound to the vSphere version. Even in one version of vSphere is not support, the next version of VMFS have a new feature or improvement that is transported by vSphere itself.

In vCenter when selecting a VMFS Datastore, we can also check some of the above changes between versions.

VMFS in VMware:

Datastores that you deploy on block storage devices use the vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) format. VMFS is a special high-performance file system format that is optimized for storing virtual machines.

Main Differences between VMFS and NFS Datastores in VMware:

Like we stated above, VMFS is a block level file system, while NFS is a file level file system. When creating a VMFS Datastore, the VMFS file system is created by the vSphere, while the NFS file system is on Storage side and is only mounted has a shared folder on the vSphere. In the next image, we can see how each Datastore type access to Virtual Machines using a different type of network connectivity.

VMFS / NFS Pros vs. Cons:

Next, we can check features and options that VMS and NFS can provide when used in VMware.

VMFS main benefits:

• Enables Automated CFS Capability

• Optimizes Virtual Machine Access

• Encapsulates the Entire Virtual Machine State in a Single Directory

• Simplifies Provisioning and Administration of Virtual Machines

• Provides Distributed Infrastructure Services for Multiple vSphere Hosts

• Facilitates Dynamic Growth

• Provides Intelligent Cluster Volume Management

• Optimizes Storage Utilization

• Enables High Availability with Lower Management Overhead

• Simplifies Disaster Recovery

NFS main benefits:

• VMDK Thin Provisioning by default

• De-duplication (file, block, variable-block, and application-aware)

• Backup and Restore Granularity

• Virtual Machines stored and manage in groups

• Use of ILM and HSM, or QoS (can also be used with VMFS)

• Maximum Volume Size(depending on Storage Array vendor)

Conclusion:

The final question is, is VMFS or NFS Storage better for your VMware Environment? In my opinion, both file systems are mature enough to use in VMware. But, It always depends on the needs of your VMware environment. Analyzing Storage management features enabled and the final pros and cons, then you can decide what it fits best in your environment.

However, moving to NFS4.1 now is something that is on hold for many companies when using VMware environment, since there are some restrictions that we enumerated above.

When there is a need of use of shared folders CIFS (to Windows or store users home directories), then the choice is NFS. If not, you need to create a File Server to provide shared folders and the access/permissions to those files/folders.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-dIlrsjcN40Xvqqkn_yjOgPdGEuiryNR/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Configure SSL Certificates on App Volumes 3.0

2020-06-30T16:30:00.000+02:00

* First of all you need to download and install (OpenSSL) tool to your microsoft active directory then follow the steps below:

1- Generating root SSL certificate authority (CA):

01- Open C:\OpenSSL\bin\openssl.exe

02- Type : genrsa -out ca.key 2048

03- Type : req -new -key ca.key -out ca.csr

04- Complete any private information.

05- Copy content of (Root CA properties file) to : C:\OpenSSL\bin\

06- Type : x509 -req -in ca.csr -days 1095 -extfile rootssl.txt -sha256 -out ca.crt -signkey ca.key

07- Don't close (openssl.exe)

2- Generating hotspot SSL certificate:

01- Type : genrsa -out app-v.key 2048

02- Type : req -new -key app-v.key -out app-v.csr

03- Complete any private information.

04- Copy content of (SAN SSL properties file) to : C:\OpenSSL\bin\

05- Open : C:\OpenSSL\bin\SAN SSL.txt

06- Modify line : #IP.1= to IP.1= IP address of app-v server

07- Modify line : #DNS.1= to DNS.1= FQDN of app-v server

08- Type : x509 -req -in app-v.csr -days 365 -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -CAcreateserial -extfile sanssl.txt -sha256 -out app-v.crt

09- Copy : (ca.crt, app-v.crt and app-v.key) files located in : C:\OpenSSL\bin\ to your desktop.

10- Double click on (ca.crt) - Install certificate - Next - Place all certificates in the following store - Trusted Root Certification Authorities - Next - Finish – Yes – OK

* Now navigate to (App-V 3.0) server:

01- Log in to (App-V 3.0) vm directly from console.

02- You will be promoted to change your default password which by default is : 123 with default user name : root.

03- After changing your password now type the following commands:

* $ cd ..

* $ sudo ufw allow ssh

* $ sudo ufw enable

* $ sudo ufw status

* Enable root login over SSH:

1. As root, edit the sshd_config file in /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

2. Add a line in the Authentication section of the file that says PermitRootLogin yes. This line may already exist and be commented out with a "#". In this case, remove the "#".

3. # Authentication:

4. #LoginGraceTime 2m

5. PermitRootLogin yes

6. #StrictModes yes

7. #MaxAuthTries 6

8. Save the updated /etc/ssh/sshd_config file.

9. Restart the SSH server:

service ssh restart

4- Now, rename (app-v.crt) to (appvol_self_vmware.com.crt) and (app-v.key) to (appvol_self_vmware.com.key)

5- Open (WinSCP) software from any computer in the same LAN of (App-V 3.0) server.

6- From (File Protocol) select : (SCP), (Port) leave it : 22

7- Type the user name and password then click : Login.

8- In the right panel, navigate to : etc/nginx then delete the existing : (appvol_self_vmware.com.crt) and

(appvol_self_vmware.com.key).

9- In the left panel, navigate to the path where you store the created certificate and key then drag

and drop the new (appvol_self_vmware.com.crt) and (appvol_self_vmware.com.key).

10- Disconnect the session.

11- From (Putty), login with (root) credentials then type this command : service nginx restart or restart the (App-V 3.0) vm.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18nnj_qoYdLb5J-lYzoXgASQUZaYJRAL5/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Introduction to VMware Backup Softwares

2020-06-26T16:28:00.000+02:00

As all virtual administrators are aware, there are now many ways to back up VMware virtual environments. In this tutorial, we introduce 5 of the strongest ones and list them in separate educational materials. We discuss the capabilities of each of them. All of these software utilize the capabilities required by any backup solution, such as Deduplication and Compression, and VMware virtualization administrators can use the most efficient

software. The arrangement of these five items has nothing to do with their ranking and can not be compared in terms of performance.

First Backup Solution:

Nakivo Backup and Replication:

Nakivo has a backup solution that can either be installed as a Virtual Appliance, or you can install it on a physical or virtual server on Linux or Windows. Nakivo Backup Utility has a very fast web interface that we have not seen before in any other backup solution, and the interesting thing is that there is no problem or lag in it. This interface requires HTML 5 and implementation. This is a great solution.

The general information of this software is as follows:

• Installation platform: Windows, Linux, and Virtual Appliance

• Backup capabilities: Full Backup, Incremental, Replication, Cloud Backup

• Recovery capabilities: Restore Full VMs, Files in VMs and Restore Application, which is a key feature of this software.

• Turn on virtual machine from Backup

• Virtualization Platform: VMware

• Cost Solution: This software is for free two virtual machines.

• Usability Trial: You can use this software for up to 15 days.

• Licensing: Based on the physical server CPU

Second Backup Solution:

Veeam Backup and Replication:

The software, version 9 of which recently released in the form of the Veeam Availability Suite, has become one of the favorite software of virtualization administrators. The company is currently developing version 9.5, which will feature snapshot capabilities for all of the world's most up-to-date storage. The solution has come to maturity with every update. This is the best solution for administrators who are looking for a solution that works easily. This software also has the ability to use the Administration Console, and also in the Enterprise version of the Web-managed management, which can manage multiple backup servers simultaneously. It should be noted, however, that you can run the management console on your laptop or computer without restricting the management system of this software and managing your environment confinedly.

The general information of this software is as follows:

• Installation platform: Windows, Linux, and Virtual Appliance

• Backup capabilities: Full Backup, Incremental, Replication, Cloud Backup and the key feature of Tap Backup.

• Recovery capabilities: Restore Full VMs, Files in VMs, and Restore Application.

• Turn on virtual machine from Backup

• Virtualization platform: VMware and Hyper-v

• Cost Solution: Free Full Backup is only for use.

• Usability Trial: You can use this software for up to 60 days.

• Licensing: Based on the physical server CPU

Third Backup Solution:

HPE / Trilead VM Explorer:

The Trilead brand, which was recently purchased by HP, also has a simple installation software. The latest version of this software is version 6.1, which is almost the most similar version to the current version of vSphere, 6. Trilead employees have announced that they will do their best to keep this solution up to date. You can use the very user-friendly web-based user interface or the traditional user interface to handle this solution. We will teach you how to install and implement this solution in a separate post.

The general information of this software is as follows:

• Installation platform: Windows as both a physical server and a virtual machine

• Backup capabilities: Full Backup, Incremental, Replication, Cloud Backup and the key feature of Tap Backup.

• Recovery capabilities: Restore Full VMs, Files in VMs

• Turn on virtual machine from Backup

• Virtualization platform: VMware and Hyper-v

• Cost Solution: Free Full Backup is only for use.

• Usability Trial: You can use this software for up to 60 days.

• Licensing: Based on the physical server CPU

• With the purchase of the HPE license, the Professional Edition Starter Pack VM Explorer offers up to 4 CPUs to the virtualization environment.

Fourth Backup Solution:

Altaro VM Backup:

Compared to what we mentioned in this post and the previous post, this solution is all the newer, but the latest version of them, version 6, looks very desirable, I have not tested this software yet, but in terms of Gets a good rating. In the past, this back-up application focused on Hyper-V only, but it's a good idea to provide a solution for the VMware platform.

The general information of this software is as follows:

• Installation platform: Windows as both a physical server and a virtual machine

• Backup capabilities: Full Backup, Incremental, Replication, Cloud Backup and Key Features of Offsite Backup.

• Recovery capabilities: Restore Full VMs, Files in VMs

• Turn on Virtual Machine from Backup: No

• Virtualization platform: VMware and Hyper-V

• Cost of the solution: It is free for use on two virtual machines.

• Usability Trial: You can use this software for up to 60 days.

• Licensing: Based on the physical server CPU.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bc5eaXLGnXD0kzlUcBvamNfW2MktY-tt/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Introduction to Local and Remote Protection

2020-06-24T16:26:00.000+02:00

The decision to choose the best technology for data security, whether local or remote, is a big challenge. The goal is to quickly recover data with the lowest amount of data lost using a simple and cost-effective method. How can we handle this challenge?

Disaster Recovery:

EMC RecoverPoint / SE is a point-in-time recovery and data protection (CDP) recovery solution for providing local and remote-replication (CRR) data protection and synchronization to provide remote data protection. RecoverPoint / SE CDP and CRR can be used individually or together so that it can protect local and remote concurrent (CLR) data for a large amount of data at any distance.

EMC RecoverPoint / SE is available in Total Efficiency Pack, Protection Pack, Local Protection Suite and Remote Protection Suite for EMC VNX series arrays. In VNX storage environments, RecoverPoint / SE provides a lot more than just creating an integrated replication solution for SAN LUNs and Provisioning (CRRs). RecoverPoint / SE for local and remote SAN replication can also be used in integrated EMC CLARiiON and Celerra arrays.

RecoverPoint allows replication of applications data to your backup site synchronously and asynchronously with recovery point objectives (RPOs) goals; you need to balance the RPO and the recovery time objective (RTO), which can This will ensure that the data that is duplicated locally or remotely is stored and that, in accordance with the customer's policy, to achieve the best performance and distance between the production and backup sites, it can interact between synchronous replication and asynchronous modes Features such as bandwidth reduction, data replication, and data compression.

End-to-End data protection:

RecoverPoint / SE protects companies from losing data due to problems such as server failure, data problems, software errors, viruses and other end-user errors, as well as natural disasters that may lead to interruptions in performance. prevents. Utilizing RecoverPoint / SE, organizations will save significant savings as complex and inefficient data protection schemes will be eliminated, making this a very easy way to manage.

Reduce bandwidth, replicate data and compress data:

RecoverPoint uses advanced and intelligent technologies to reduce bandwidth, replicate data, and data compression, resulting in savings of up to 90% of the WAN bandwidth used to replicate. These technologies enable you to provide the best level of security for existing bandwidths, in addition to reducing WAN costs significantly, especially at long distances.

Application Data Protection:

RecoverPoint / SE provides quick retrieval for application data. The data at the selected points is immediately available and can be quickly read or written by the host. Snapshot consolidation for retention periods is used with a set of dedicated storage devices that enables customers to be able to retrieve more data online for retrieval without having to spend on storage. Extra.

Read and write the available retrieval data without causing any interruptions in the replication process. In retrieval, it is possible to test the data at different times to determine the best point for retrieval. This functionality can also be used in back ups to be used for various data processing processes, including data migration, retrieval support, and the development and testing of applications.

In addition, RecoverPoint / SE can provide convenient recovery points for Microsoft applications such as Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server through the use of Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and Virtual Data Interface (VDI) APIs. This feature greatly reduces the recovery time for Exchange and SQL Server and increases the likelihood of recovery for sensitive business applications. Finally, RecoverPoint / SE will combine with other EMC products, including Replication Manager, Data Protection Advisor, and NetWorker.

End-to-End protection for virtual server environments:

RecoverPoint / SE is a comprehensive and flexible data protection solution that can provide proper recovery for the EMC VNX, CLARiiON series and EMC Celerra integrated arrays in VMware virtualization infrastructure and Microsoft server Hyper-V environments. For VMware, RecoverPoint / SE combines with VMware vCenter and enables the user to view the protection status for virtual machines; it also combines with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager to simplify and coordinate data protection, failover and failback. Which allows virtual machines to be retrieved quickly and without losing data.

VNX Remote Protection Collection:

This software protects data against local, definitive failures and events occurring in VNX storage systems. This software provides adequate protection for file and VNX blockers in the least time and at any point in time. Below are some of the benefits of this:

• It's easy to maintain business continuity: a solution that can support any host and application.

• Efficient Replication: Compression and deduplication reduce WAN bandwidth.

• Uninterrupted protection: Synchronous replication and bi-directional asynchronous continuity can be repeated, which can be immediately restored at a specific point in the application time.

EMC VNX Series:

Integrated storage with high performance, simplicity and outstanding performance for virtual applications has been optimized. With the VNX series , you will achieve a new level of performance, protection, adaptability and ease of management.

Integration:

The VNX series helps you to use a single platform for file and block data services. Centralized management facilitates monitoring work. Data Efforts Services can reduce your capacity needs by up to 50%.

Optimum:

Suitable for applications that combine with VMware and Hyper-V. The speed of SQL and Oracle workloads will be tripled and will run about 1,000 virtual handsets in less than 8 minutes.

Automatically:

Ensuring that active data is automatically stored in flash drives and less active data is categorized in higher- capacity drives. Full-automatic storage tiering (FAST) EMC VNX simultaneously maximizes performance. It brings costs down to the lowest.

High efficiency:

Due to multi-core EMC MCx and Flash optimization, transaction efficiency will increase by up to 4x with increasing bandwidth and reducing interruptions.

Protected:

Provides the highest levels of access for applications and data protection with continuous operations and retrieval at any time. Data-at-rest data encryption allows physical protection.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GGqTSq5gt8AarwNI7l6JA9y1d6TjBp6u/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Best vSCSI Controller to choose for performance

2020-06-23T16:25:00.000+02:00

First, it’s important to remind everyone that when you select the Guest OS for a new virtual machine:

his automatically makes a selection for which vSCSI controller to use based on what drivers are available in the OS distribution. So be sure to select the correct Guest OS to start in the right place.

Let’s look at the options available today:

• BusLogic – this was one of the first emulated vSCSI controllers available in the VMware platform. The earliest versions of Windows has this driver available by default which made it easy when installing that particular OS. It wasn’t however as performant as the LSI Logic driver since Windows’ driver was limited to a queue depth of 1, so often one would manually load the LSI Logic driver instead. While still available and used occasionally (Is anyone still running Win2K?), it should be considered legacy.

• LSI Logic Parallel (formerly knows as just LSI Logic) – this was the other emulated vSCSI controller available originally in the VMware platform. Most operating systems had a driver that supported a queue depth of 32 and it became a very common choice, if not the default.

• LSI Logic SAS – This is an evolution of the parallel driver to support a new future facing standard. It began to grown popularity when Microsoft required its use for MCSC within Windows 2008 or newer.

• VMware Paravirtual (aka PVSCSI) – this vSCSI controller is virtualization aware and was been designed to support very high throughput with minimal processing cost and is therefore the most efficient driver. In the past, there were issues if it was used with virtual machines that didn’t do a lot of IOPS, but that was resolved in vSphere 4.1.

Are there performance differences between them?

• PVSCSI and LSI Logic Parallel/SAS are essentially the same when it comes to overall performance capability. PVSCSI, however, is more efficient in the number of host compute cycles that are required to process the same number of IOPS. This means that if you have a very storage IO intensive virtual machine, this is the controller to choose to ensure you save as many cpu cycles as possible that can then be used by the application or host. Most modern operating systems that can drive high IO support one of these two controllers.

How many vSCSI adapters are supported per virtual machine?

It’s also worth noting that you can configure a total of 4 vSCSI adapters per virtual machine. To provide the best performance, one should also distribute virtual disk across as many vSCSI adapters as possible. This configuration provides the capability to process more IO simultaneously and benefit from additional queues if necessary.

What about AHCI SATA?

This is a new storage controller available with vSphere 5.5 and virtual hardware 10. It allows you to connect a large amount of storage to a virtual machine but it wasnâ€™t designed to be as efficient as the PVSCSI or LSI Logic controllers and therefore should not be used with performance sensitive applications.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13iKhavHhg8WdEk3KqXrFe6Z3zHdYE6zO/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt

www.abdelrahmanoreiby.weebly.com

Introduction to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

2020-06-22T16:27:00.002+02:00

Today, with the expansion of a variety of mobile devices such as tablets, mobile phones, laptops and Thin Client, and ... This requirement has been created for users of computer and mobile systems that would like to have access to their applications and data at any time, anywhere. To be Users, from ordinary and professional users, are seeking to access this information easily and with all means without losing their information. Take this example to better understand this.

I am an Alfa employee and work as an accounting officer. Now I can only connect to accounting software through the system that is in my workroom and access the information. I wish I could work with that software if I took my laptop. But the network administrator does not give me that permission, because the security of their information is compromised !!!! The virtual desktop is access to information and applications at any time, anywhere and everywhere. Look at these three words: every time! Everywhere!!!! Any means!

• I mean the device, the mobile device, not the vehicle

• The architecture of the computer systems that we are currently using is, I mean, a PC system.Retrieved from the following layers.

• A hardware layer including RAM, Hard Disk, Motherboard.

• An operating system layer that installs the operating system like Windows 8.

• A layer containing the software that is installed on the operating system.

• And a layer containing our information and settings on that system.

In fact, it is composed of 4 layers, but with the advent of virtual technology, everything has changed. Virtual Desktop is a set of technologies for providing all layers of the computer system on cyberspace, in other words, we virtualize the hardware, software, operating system and configuration layers.

This is in fact a model that is currently used by many companies, but this is an old model in the modern world, and many companies tend to use virtual desktops. This model has problems such as difficult development and complex management and low security. For example, problems such as a client's failure and the need for your presence at the site to fix minor issues or software such as Office if you need to upgrade And you want to run it on all clients, it takes a lot of bandwidth and hundreds of other small and big problems that you suffer.

Virtual Desktop A new way to solve all these problems has arisen. On the virtual operating systems of the operating system, software is configured to be virtualized so that the user does not feel that they are not on their system. Virtual Desktop is a separate process, that is, the isolation of different Windows components, which are managed individually.

In the end, I'll outline some interesting truths about using virtual desktops.

Currently, 29 percent of the world's workforce is at work at any time and place, for example, working with several devices, or at different times, or that in different places by 2017, nearly 50 percent of employees The world would like to choose their own personal device as a system for work and work. Annual data growth rate in some companies is about 20% annually, which is very high.

Want to download this blog as a PDF document, click the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10IcLayUUnEIdGSLOrIMFlZ24nBf9odxi/view

Abd El-Rahman Oreiby

Senior Data Center Engineer

Al Thuraya Security Egypt