VNXe3200 Unisphere Management

VNXE3200 UNISPHERE
MANAGEMENT
VNXe3200 Unisphere Management
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 3
Welcome to Legal Eagles.......................................................................................................... 4
Business Challenge .................................................................................................................. 5
Solution ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Key Components .................................................................................................................................. 7
VNXe3200................................................................................................................................. 8
Lab Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Lab Environment ..................................................................................................................... 10
Lab Scenario ........................................................................................................................... 11
Labs ........................................................................................................................................ 12
Lab 1 -Unisphere for VNXe ................................................................................................................ 13
Navigating Unisphere.............................................................................................................. 14
Create a Custom Dashboard .................................................................................................. 32
Lab 2 - Array Management................................................................................................................. 44
Multicore FAST Cache ............................................................................................................ 45
Hosts ....................................................................................................................................... 48
Snapshot Protection Schedules .............................................................................................. 55
Lab 3 - Provision Block Storage ......................................................................................................... 59
Storage Pools.......................................................................................................................... 60
LUNs ....................................................................................................................................... 85
VMware Datastores............................................................................................................... 101
Lab 4 - Provision File Storage ........................................................................................................... 111
NAS Servers ......................................................................................................................... 112
File Systems.......................................................................................................................... 116
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 131
Congratulations! .................................................................................................................... 132
Page 2
Introduction
Page 3
Welcome to Legal Eagles

Welcome
Legal Eagles is a small law firm with 8 partners, 30 associates and about 200 employees with two
offices about 300 miles apart. Legal Eagles has a single VNXe3200 supporting much of its IT
operations which include VMware virtualization, SharePoint for document stores, and Exchangebased email. Their IT team is small with only four people, a director and three IT administrators who
are responsible for applications, servers, network, and storage systems.
Page 4
Business Challenge
Administrators are constantly looking for ways to simplify storage management. This can be very
difficult, because many storage-management operating environments require an in-depth knowledge
of storage concepts. For customers that manage storage products from different vendors, this
becomes a real challenge, especially when vendors use different terminology. In most cases,
navigation is based on storage concepts rather than management tasks, which makes it very hard
for the IT generalist to manage storage.
Page 5
Solution
To address these concerns, EMC introduced Unisphere for VNXe, a fundamentally different and new
approach to storage management. The VNXe3200 storage system provides a consolidated platform
for provisioning, managing, and monitoring application data storage within organizations and
networks of all sizes. Unisphere for VNXe allows users to manage storage using an easy-tounderstand language instead of arcane storage terms. It also embeds best practices into the user
interface for a faster, simpler experience when completing everyday administrative tasks.
Unisphere for VNXe is a graphical, application-oriented model with a web-familiar look and feel.
Management of VNXe3200 storage systems is simplified, allowing the utilization of advanced
features without requiring an in-depth understanding of these technologies. A support ecosystem
provides access to learning materials and support resources, making storage management easier
than ever. The result is immediate productivity and efficiency.
In this lab, you will see how Unisphere for the VNXe3200 simplifies the entire storage management
process.
Page 6
Key Components
Page 7
VNXe3200
The VNXe3200 is the newest member of the VNX Family of storage systems and the most
affordable flash optimized hybrid array in the market. The VNXe3200 delivers the enterprise-level
features and the reliability of VNX2 systems in an easy to set up and easy-to-use package designed
for resource-constrained IT departments in any size company. The VNXe3200 is multicore optimized
(with MCx) to support high scaling and performance requirements. FAST VP and Multicore FAST
Cache deliver fast response times and drive down the cost of storage by leveraging the low cost per
IOP of Flash Drives and the density and low cost per gigabyte of large Near-Line SAS Drives. The
VNXe3200 has leading-edge efficiency features to lower overall costs. It can reduce capacity
requirements by up to 50% with thin provisioning and file-level deduplication.
The VNXe3200 was designed to be simple. You can setup unified storage - NAS and SAN - in less
than 15 minutes. All the common connection protocols are supported. Fibre Channel host
connections means the VNXe3200 can now be deployed in a wider set of customer configurations.
Unified snapshot technology with a built-in scheduler covers both File and Block data. Deep
integration with VMware environments simplifies provisioning and deploying virtualized applications.
The online Support ecosystem means customers are just one click away from a support specialist
via online chat.
Page 8
Lab Overview
Page 9
Lab Environment
This lab will be using VNXe Demo software so not all features of the system will be fully functional.
LP01
Hostname: LP01.vlab.local
IP Address: 192.168.1.250
Unisphere VNXe Demo software
Page 10
Lab Scenario
You have just been hired at Legal Eagles as an IT administrator for the office in Miami. Your boss,
Jamie, had to fly to the office in Tampa for a series of meetings, so he won't be with you on your first
day. You received the following email when you arrived in the office:
Welcome Aboard!
We are so glad you have joined the team, and we know you will be a great addition. The first day on
a job is always exciting, and I'm sorry I can't be there to get you moving along.
You've finished all the HR paperwork, and obviously logged into your email account, so it looks like
you are ready to get started. Since I am out of the office, I need you to provision some storage for
users in the Miami office, as well as provision storage for the new customer tracking database.
The new VNXe3200 was deployed last week, so here are your tasks:
Provision a Windows share for the Marketing Department (3 GB)

Provision Block storage for the customer tracking database (one 1 GB virtual disk)
Understand the different levels of protection that we offer
Familiarize yourself with Unisphere (You will be using it again!)
Thanks for being part of our team,

Jamie Gore
IT Director, Miami
Legal Eagles
Page 11
Labs
You will be going through the following labs to accomplish your tasks:
Lab 1 - Unisphere for VNXe

Lab 2 - Array Management
Lab 3 - Provision Block Storage
Lab 4 - Provision File Storage
Page 12
Lab 1 -Unisphere for VNXe
Page 13
Navigating Unisphere
Since this is your first time browsing Unisphere for VNXe, let's navigate around Unisphere and take a
look at the system.
Launch Unisphere
1. On your desktop, click Start Unisphere VNXe Demo.
Page 14
ActiveX
1. Right-click on the ActiveX restriction and choose Allow Blocked Content...
Confirm
1. Click Yes to confirm
Page 15
Login
1. Type admin as the User and Password123! as the Password
2. Click Login
Page 16
View the Dashboard

The Unisphere Dashboard provides a convenient starting point for configuring system settings,
managing resources, and viewing storage protection. The Unisphere Dashboard consists of widgets
designed to provide quick access to system status information and tools for performing common
tasks.
Page 17
View System Capacity

1. Click System from the top menu bar
2. Click System Capacity
Page 18
System Capacity Chart

The chart depicts the utilization details and free space of your storage system.
Page 19
View System Performance

2. Click System Performance
Page 20
System Performance Charts

The System Performance charts display historical performance data for CPU, Disk, LUN, and
Storage Processor.
Note: This lab is running demo software which only includes a limited number of performance charts.
The actual VNXe3200 will include additional performance data including CIFS, Cache, FC, File
System, NFS, Network Port, and iSCSI.
1. Select the LUN Response Time and CPU charts
Page 21
System Performance Charts - Data Points

1. Hover over one of the data points to see the utilization at that particular time
CPU
1. Uncheck LUN Response Time to remove the chart from being displayed
Page 22
Time
1. Click 3 Hours to get a more granular view of the data
Page 23
Breakdown
1. Click Storage Processor for the Breakdown Category to get an idea of how busy each SP is
during this time
Page 24
Filter
You can also apply filters to the chart to only display certain resources, such as SPA.
1. Click Manage Filter
Page 25
SPA Filter
1.
2.
3.
4.
Under Filter, select Storage Processor

Select SPA
Click OK
Click OK
Page 26
SPA Chart
Now the graph will only display the CPU utilization of SPA.
Page 27
View System Health

The System Health section provides you with an interactive graphic that visually displays the VNXe
hardware and system components.
2. Click System Health
Page 28
System Health - Disk

1. Click the first disk in the DPE (Disk Processor Enclosure)
Note how the disk is also selected under System Components and the details are displayed under
Component Description.
Page 29
System Health - Port

1. Expand SP A
2. Click SP A Ethernet Port 2
Note that the Ethernet Port is now highlighted. The System Health page allows you to easily identify
the physical location of ports, drives, fans, or other hardware components.
Page 30
Return to Dashboard
1. Click Dashboard to return to the main dashboard
Page 31
Create a Custom Dashboard

You can customize the Unisphere dashboards to include multiple tabs and multiple widgets in each
tab. These widgets can contain the information you want to monitor including system health,
capacity, and tasks that you perform frequently. You can add additional widgets to any dashboard
tab. Alternatively, you can create a new dashboard tab and add the widgets you want.
Jamie asked you to create a custom dashboard to track the capacity on the array.
Dashboard
1. Click + to create a new dashboard
Page 32
New Name
1. Double-click Dashboard 1
2. Change New Name to Custom Dashboard
3. Click OK
Page 33
Populate Custom Dashboard

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Click Customize to show the widgets panel

Double-click System Information
Double-click System Capacity
Double-click File Systems
Double-click LUNs
Results
1. Click Customize to close the widgets panel
The new widgets on your Custom Dashboard are now available. Note that you can also drag these
widgets around to rearrange them.
Page 34
Customize Dashboard Widgets

You can customize individual widgets in Unisphere for VNXe. Based on the dashboard widget you
are working on, the title bar of each widget appears with a set of icons in the top-right corner of the
window:
Filter
Tools
Export
Help
Maximize
Remove
Filter Button
1. Click the Filter icon in the LUNs widget
2. Enter FC into the Filter for: box
Page 35
The LUNs widget will now only display anything that matches FC.
Page 36
Tools Button
1. Click the Tools icon in the LUNs widget
2. Click Choose Columns
Page 37
Choose Columns
1. Clear Description
2. Click OK
You will see the Description column is no longer displayed in the widget.
Page 38
Export Button
The Export icon allows you to export the contents of the widget to a comma separated value (CSV)
file. You will not be using the Export button today.
Page 39
Help Button
The Help icon will open the Unisphere Online Help for the content displayed in the widget. You will
not be using the Help button today.
Page 40
Maximize
1. Click the Maximize button in the System Capacity widget
Restore
The Maximize button will convert to a Restore button. Click the Restore button to view all the
widgets in the dashboard again.
Page 41
Remove Widget
You can also remove widgets from your Custom Dashboard.
1.
Click the Remove button to remove the LUNs widget from the dashboard
Page 42
Removed
As you can now see, the LUNs widget has been removed from your Custom Dashboard.
Page 43
Lab 2 - Array Management
Page 44
Multicore FAST Cache

FAST Cache
Let's check if Multicore FAST Cache is configured on this array.
1. Hover over Storage
2. Click FAST Cache
Page 45
General
The General tab shows the FAST Cache Status, Total Space, and Number of Disks.
Page 46
Disks
1. Click the Disks tab
This tab displays the Names of the disks that are used for FAST Cache and their Capacity.
Page 47
Hosts
Hosts Page
Let's take a look at the hosts that are registered on this array.
1. Hover over Hosts
2. Click Hosts
Page 48
Hosts
All of the registered hosts on this array are listed here.
1. Select Win7
2. Click Details
Page 49
Win7
The General page displays basic information about the host such as Status, Name, Type, Managed
By, Description, and Operating System.
Page 50
LUNs
1. Click the LUNs tab
This page displays the LUNs and Snapshots that this host has access to.
Note: The listing order of the Storage Resources may vary from the screenshot.
Page 51
Initiators
1. Click the Initiators tab
This page displays the list of FC/iSCSI Initiators used by this host.
Initiator Paths
1. Click the Initiator Paths tab
This page displays the list of FC/iSCSI Initiator Paths used by this host.
Page 52
VMware Hosts Page

Now let's take a look at the VMware hosts that are registered on this array.
1. Hover over Hosts
2. Click VMware Hosts
Page 53
VMware Hosts
1. Expand the 10.244.214.223 vCenter
2. Expand the 10.244.214.222 ESXi host
3. Expand the VMware vCenter Server Appliance VM
You can see the VMware vCenters, ESXi hosts, VMs, and their Hard Disks listed here.
Page 54
Snapshot Protection Schedules

IT Approved Protection Schedules
The IT Department currently only uses one protection schedule for all storage resources. The details
of this schedule are listed in the table below.
Page 55
View Snapshot Schedules

Jamie said he was able to create this protection schedule on the array before he left. Verify that this
protection schedule is available.
1. Hover over Settings on the top menu bar
2. Click Snapshot Schedules
Page 56
Snapshot Schedules
The Snapshot Schedules page lists all the configured schedules on the system. This list displays
the Name, Type (System Defined or User Defined), and indicates whether the schedule is In Use.
1. Click Schedule00
Note how the details of the schedule are listed in the Schedule Description area below.
Page 57
Return to Dashboard
Page 58
Lab 3 - Provision Block

Storage
Page 59
Storage Pools
View Storage Pool
Now verify the Storage Pool that has already been created on the array.
2. Click Storage Pools
Page 60
View Storage Pool Details

You can see that Jamie created a storage pool named MultiTier. Let's take a deeper look at the
MultiTier Pool.
1. Select the MultiTier pool
2. Click Details
Performance Tier
This page will show you the Status, Name, Description, Total Space, and Tier information about
this pool.
Page 61
1. Expand the 5 NL SAS Disks
Page 62
Performance Tier Details

Note that the Capacity Tier's details are displayed such as capacity, size, speed, number, and RAID
protection.
Page 63
Back to Storage Pools

You were just informed that some additional Flash drives were just added to this array which needs
to be added to this pool.
Page 64
Expand Storage Pool

1. Click Expand
Page 65
Select Storage - Extreme Performance Tier

1. Check the Extreme Performance Tier
2. Click Next
Page 66
Select Amount of Storage - Flash Disks

1. Ensure Use 5 of 10 disks (733.7 GB) is selected
2. Click Next
Page 67
Summary - Add Extreme Performance Tier

1. Click Finish
Page 68
Results - Add Extreme Performance Tier

1. When the job completes click X
2. Click Close
Page 69
View Storage Pool Details - Extreme Performance Tier

1. Select the MultiTier Pool
2. Click Details
Page 70
Extreme Performance Tier

Note that the Extreme Performance Tier has now been added to this pool and it has 5 Flash
drives.
Page 71
Utilization
1. Click the Utilization tab
This tab shows the Used Space, Snapshot Size Used, Available Space, Subscription, and Total
Space. It also allows you to configure the Alert Threshold for the pool which will trigger a warning.
Page 72
FAST VP
1. Click the FAST VP tab
This tab shows the Data Relocation State, Start Time, End Time, Estimated Time for Data
Relocation, Amount of Data Relocated, and Amount of Data to Relocate. Below, you can see a
breakdown of each tier and the amount of data that will be moved up, down, and within a tier.
Page 73
Disks
1. Click the Disks tab
This tab shows the details of the disks that are in the pool.
Note: Since this lab is running Unisphere VNXe Demo software, the Flash drives that were just
added will not be displayed here. In an actual VNXe3200 storage system, the Flash drives would
appear in this list.
Page 74
Settings
1. Click the Settings tab
Here you can configure the pool's FAST Cache and the Snapshot Auto-Delete settings.
Page 75
Pool History View

1. Click the Pool History View tab
This tab shows you a historical chart about the capacity utilization of the pool.
Page 76
Storage Pools
You were also just asked to create a new pool with some of the new Flash drives.
Page 77
Create Storage Pool

1. Click Create
Page 78
Specify Pool Name

1. For Name, enter Flash Pool
2. Click Next
Page 79
Select Storage
1. Check the Extreme Performance Tier
2. Click Next
Page 80
Select Amount of Storage

1. Ensure Use 5 of 10 disks (733.7 GB) is selected
2. Click Next
Page 81
Summary
1. Click Finish
Page 82
Results
1. Once the job completes, click X
2. Click Close
View Storage Pools

The newly created Flash Pool will now be listed on the the Storage Pools page.
Page 83
Note: Since this lab is running Unisphere VNXe Demo software, the pool will automatically show
space has been used for demonstration purposes.
Page 84
LUNs
LUNs
Jamie also asked you to create a virtual disk for the customer tracking database.
2. Click LUNs
Page 85
Create
1. Click Create
Page 86
Create a LUN Group or LUN

1. Select Create a LUN
Page 87
Create a LUN
1. Enter Database for LUN Name
2. Click Next
Page 88
Configure a LUN
1. For Storage Pool, select MultiTier (Tiered, 7.8 TB free)
2. Change the size to 500 GB
3. Click Next
Page 89
Configure Snapshot Schedule

You were told that this LUN needs its own customized snapshot schedule so create a new one here.
1. Click Customize Schedule
2. Click Create
Page 90
Select a snapshot schedule

1. Enter Database Schedule for the name
2. Click Modify
Page 91
Modify Schedule Rule

You want the snapshot schedule to take a snapshot every day at 12 AM and keep them for 7 days.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Check 0:00
Uncheck 4:00
Change Expiration value to 7 Days
Click Modify Rule
Page 92
Continue
1. Click Next
Page 93
Configure Host Access

1. Provide LUN Access to the Windows 2k8 host
2. Click Next
Page 94
Summary
1. Click Finish
Page 95
Results
1. When the job completes click X
2. Click Close
Page 96
Database LUN
The new Database LUN will now be listed here.
1. Select Database
2. Click Details
Page 97
Host Access
1. Click on the Host Access tab
Ensure the Windows 2k8 host has LUN access.
Page 98
Snapshots
1. Click on the Snapshots tab
Ensure the Database Schedule is configured to take a snapshot Every day at 0:00, keep for 7
days and the State is Enabled.
Page 99
FAST VP
1. Click on the FAST VP tab
Note the LUN has been distributed to be 33% on the Extreme Performance Tier, 33% on the
Performance Tier, and 33% on the Capacity Tier.
Note: Since this lab is running Unisphere VNXe Demo software, the distribution of storage among
the tiers will not change if the Tiering Policy is altered.
Page 100
VMware Datastores
VMware Datastores
Now let's take a look at the VMware Datastores that are used to host the virtualized environment.
2. Click VMware Datastores
Page 101
Create
You will now create a new VMFS Datastore for the Marketing department.
1. Click Create
Page 102
Specify Datastore Type

1. Select VMFS
2. Click Next
Page 103
Specify Name
1. Enter Marketing Datastore for Name
2. Click Next
Page 104
Configure Storage
1. Change Size to 750 GB
2. Click Next
Page 105

1. Select Schedule00
2. Click Next
Page 106
Configure Host Access

1. Select LUN Access for 10.244.214.222
2. Click Next
Page 107
Summary
1. Click Finish
Page 108
Results
1. Once the job is complete, click X
2. Click Close
Page 109
Marketing Datastore
The Datastore is now created and will automatically be scanned into vSphere as a new VMFS
Datastore.
Return to Dashboard
Page 110
Lab 4 - Provision File Storage
Page 111
NAS Servers
Now, you will provision File storage.
You will start by checking if there are any NAS Servers created. NAS Servers are intended for multitenant usage of File shares (CIFS or NFS) on VNXe3200 systems. This means that File-level
storage resources can be shared between several different groups of users, all having isolated
access to the File Systems through the NAS Servers.
NAS Servers
Now that you understand what a NAS Server does, you can create one on the VNXe system.
1. Hover over Settings
2. Click NAS Servers
NAS Server Details

1. Select NASServer00
Page 112
2. Click Details
Page 113
General
The General tab displays information such as Server Name, Storage Pool, Storage Processor,
Network Interfaces, DNS, and NIS information.
Page 114
Sharing Protocols
1. Click Sharing Protocols
The Sharing Protocols tab displays if NFS and/or CIFS are enabled and related configuration
information.
Page 115
File Systems
Now that you have verified the NAS Server has already been created and configured, let's take a
look at the File Systems.
File Systems
2. Click File Systems
Page 116
FileSystem00 Details
1. Select FileSystem00
2. Click Details
Page 117
General
The General tab displays information such as Status, Name, Description, NAS Server, Protocol,
and Advanced Attributes.
Page 118
Snapshots
1. Click the Snapshots tab
This tab displays information about the Protection Schedule and the current Snapshots of
FileSystem00.
Shares
1. Click the Shares tab
This tab displays information about the shares that have been created on this File System. You can
create different shares for different paths within the same File System.
Page 119
FAST VP
1. Click the FAST VP tab
The FAST VP tab displays the Distribution of Data among Storage Tiers for the File System, just
like for LUNs.
Page 120
File System for Marketing

Jamie asked you to create a new File System, also for the Marketing Department.
1. Click File Systems
Page 121
Create File System

1. Click Create
Page 122
Configure File System Type

1. Ensure Windows shares (CIFS) is selected
2. Click Next
Page 123
Specify File System Name

1. For Name, enter Marketing
2. Click Next
Page 124
Configure File System Storage

1. Change the Size to 500 GB
2. Click Next
Page 125
Configure Share
1. Change the Name to Marketing
2. Click Next
Page 126

1. Select Schedule00 for the snapshot schedule
2. Click Next
Page 127
Summary
1. Click Finish
Page 128
Results
1. When the job is complete, click X
2. Click Close
Page 129
View File Systems

Verify the newly created Marketing File System is displayed in the list.
Page 130
Conclusion
Page 131
Congratulations!
Not bad for the first day on the job!
You have successfully used Unisphere for VNXe to perform a few different management tasks in
your storage environment. Jamie will be happy to hear about your progress!
Now you have seen just how simple it is to manage your storage environment with Unisphere for
VNXe. Thank you for your interest in EMC and the VNXe3200 system.
Page 132

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