DELL Compellent Best Practices for Virtualization

All DELL Compellent Best Practices has been moved here.

The most interesting best practice document for me is "Dell Storage Center Best Practices with VMware vSphere 6.x".

Compellent Storage Center Live Volume and vSphere Metro Cluster

Are you interested in metro clusters (aka stretched clusters)?

Watch this video which introduces the new Synchronous Live Volume features available in Dell Compellent Storage Center 6.5.

And if you need more technical deep dive use this guide focuses on two main data protection and mobility features available in Dell Compellent Storage Center: synchronous replication and Live Volume. In this paper, each feature is discussed and sample use cases are highlighted where these technologies fit independently or together.

Compellent Live Volume curretnly doesn't support automated fail-over based on arbiter on third site so that's the reason why it is not certified as VMware vSphere Metro Cluster storage. Certification is just a matter of time. However, you can leverago Compellent Live Volume with vSphere. The only drawback is that whole storage node fail-over has to be done manually which can be enough or preferred method in some environments.

iSCSI and Ethernet

Each manufacturer of Ethernet switch may implement features unique to their specific model. Below are some general tips to look for when implementing an iSCSI network infrastructure. Each tip may or may not apply to a specific installation. Be aware that this is list is inspired by DELL Compellent iSCSI bets practices and it is not an all-inclusive list.

• Bi-Directional Flow Control enabled for all Switch Ports that carry iSCSI traffic, including any inter switch links.
• Separate networks or VLANs from data.
• Separate iSCSI traffic multi-path traffic also.
• Unicast storm control disabled on every switch that handles iSCSI traffic.
• Multicast disabled at the switch level for any iSCSI VLANs - Multicast storm control enabled (if available) when multicast cannot disabled.
• Broadcast disabled at the switch level for any iSCSI VLANs - Broadcast storm control enabled (if available) when broadcast cannot disabled.
• Routing disabled between regular network and iSCSI VLANs - Use extreme caution if routing any storage traffic, performance of the network can be severely affected. This should only be done under controlled and monitored conditions.
• Disable Spanning Tree (STP or RSTP) on ports which connect directly to end nodes (the server or Dell Compellent controller's iSCSI ports.) You can do it by enabling PortFast or EdgePort option  on these ports so that they are configured as edge ports.
• Ensure that any switches used for iSCSI are of a non-blocking design.
• Hard set for all switch ports and server ports for Gigabit Full Duplex if applicable.
• When deciding which switches to use, remember that you are running SCSI traffic over it. Be sure to use a quality managed enterprise class networking equipment. It is not recommended to use SBHO (small business/home office) class equipment outside of lab/test environments.

Do you want configuration examples for DELL PowerConnect and DELL Force10 switches? Leave a comment with particular switch model and firmware version and I'll try my best to prepare it for you.

DELL Storage useful links

Shared storage is essential  and common component in today's era of modern virtualized datacenters. Sorry hyper-converged evangelists, that's how it is today :-) DELL has two very popular datacenter storage products EqualLogic and Compellent. Useful links for datacenter architects and/or administrators are listed below.
 

EqualLogic

• EqualLogic Compatibility Matrix
• EqualLogic Configuration Guide
• Rapid EqualLogic Configuration Portal
• EqualLogic Best Practices Whitepapers

Switch Configuration Guides for EqualLogic SANs provide step-by-step instructions for configuring Ethernet switches for use with EqualLogic PS Series storage using Dell Best Practices.

Another switch configuration guides are in "Rapid EqualLogic Configuration Portal by SIS"

Compellent

• Compellent Compatibility Matrix (this is DELL internal resource - ask your DELL representative)
• Compellent on Dell TechCenter