topic Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000 in StoreVirtual Storage

Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

RafaelBianchini — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 02:26:53 GMT

Hi all,

I want to know if I can implement a multisite HA/VMWare olution using P4000 with only 2 controllers.

I will put each one controllers in each site, and implement Network RAID 10.

Is it possible ?

Regards.

Rafael Bianchini

P.S.This thread has been moved from Storage Area Networks (SAN) (Small and Medium Business) to HP StoreVirtual / HP LeftHand Storage- HP Forums Moderator

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

Northwoods — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:26:27 GMT

Yes you can. However, you'll also need to implement a virtual FOM instance for best practice and to keep the SAN up if a node goes offline.

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

oikjn — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:56:51 GMT

if this is really just for DR and you are thinking about it just because the features are included for free with the SAN/iQ software, I would advise you read the multi-site HA/DR readme first and then read it again. A multi-site cluster, while available with the software you purchased, adds significant complications to your setup. You really need three sites (the third can be a cheap hosted site w/ minimal bandwidth, but you really do need that third site) and bandwidth and latency between your two main sites become a major concern and any interruption to that will interrupt your SAN.

Look at remote snapshot replaction before going to a multi-site san and only go to the multi-site option if you 100% have to have 100% uptime. If you go remote snapshot, best practice is to run two management groups so you don't have to worry about multi-site quorum as well. You can still do a good DR solution w/ remote snapshots with failover as well.

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

RafaelBianchini — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:45:45 GMT

Thank you for your reply.

I'm looking for other information about this solution. Can you help me ?

I intend put one VMWare ESXi host more one P4300 Controller, with 7.2 Tb, in each local (2 sites in this case) and establish a Network RAID 10 with a dedicated and redundant optical fiber.

So, after i will configure VMWare HA to complete the DR and High Avaiability solution.

What do you think about this ? And the FOM, is it realy necessary in this case ? Remember, i will use only 2 controllers (enclousers) ( not 4 - 2 per site).

Basicaly, my project is (the SAN part) :

Site A Site B

Host ESXi A Host ESXi B

| | | |

SW ------------FO------------- SW

| | | |

P4000 A P4000 B (just 1 controller per site)

Please, make comments.

Best regards.

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

oikjn — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:35:16 GMT

read the manual and HA guide as listed on the P4000 software page. It will answer all of your questions.

Yes you must have a FOM and technially a 3rd site. Think about a failover solution and how it will be handled. Control of the cluster is handled through a voting quorum... it is impossible to get a majority vote with TWO members, the minimum needed is three which means a FOM for automatic failover or a virtual manager for manual failover, but if you are actually trying to do a multi-site cluster, you would be totally contradicting yourself if in one breath you say you require multi-site and the other breath you say I'm ok with manually restoring quorum.

Why do you think you need a true multi-site cluster and not just go with using remote replication for DR?

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

RafaelBianchini — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:26:35 GMT

I'm thinking about P4000 multisite because i want to delivery a automatic failover / dr project whithout VMWare SRM.

Re: Only 2 Controllers to implement Multi site HA/VMWare with HP P4000

oikjn — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:24:03 GMT

really read that HA manual HP provides. The multi-site feature is included with the Lafthand software, but the cost for you to actually impliment it successfully is typically much more significant. Have you considered latency/bandwidth/uptime of your VPN? Those costs typically make multi-sites a no-go for anybody who is thinking about doing it just because its available.

The HA/DR manual from HP is very complete with what is needed so it shoudl answer all of your questions. The critical issue is that you cannot skimp on the latency/bandwith to the remote site as that is likely to be your slowest point in the system and for a multi-site cluster the data has to be written to both before the write is confirmed.