1 Module: Introduction To VNX Management

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This module focuses on explaining of where this course fits into your VNX curriculum.

To
gain the most benefit from this course, certain prerequisite knowledge is required. A brief
review of these prerequisites will be discussed, along with cross-references to the
prerequisite courses to help you obtain this knowledge.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 1
Having an understanding of where this management course fits into your VNX curriculum
will help you find the additional training you require, as well as have realistic expectations
of what is covered in this course.

Shown here is a depiction of the VNX training options available to you.

The prerequisite courses for this class are shown above the management courses, while the
expert-level classes are below.

This VNX Unified Storage Management course also has two derivative courses: VNX Block
Storage Management, and VNX File Storage Management. Each of these courses are a
subset of the ‘Unified’ course, focusing specifically on its own storage services.

Technical certification through the EMC Proven™ Professional VNX Solutions Specialist Exam
for Storage Administrators (E20-547) is based on the prerequisite courses and VNX Unified
Storage Management (or a combination of VNX Block Storage Management and VNX File
Storage Management).

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 2
The prerequisite eLearning, VNX Fundamentals, provides an effective overview of the VNX
storage system.

The VNX Series unifies EMC’s file-based and block-based offerings into a single product that
can be managed with one easy to use GUI. VNX is a storage solution designed for a wide
range of environments that include midtier-to-enterprise. The back end storage connectivity
is via Serial attached SCSI (SAS) which provides up to 6 Gb/s connection.

The VNX Unified Storage platform supports the NAS protocols (CIFS for Windows and NFS
for UNIX/Linux, including pNFS, and FTP/SFTP for all clients), as well native block protocols
(Fiber Channel, iSCSI, and FCoE).

VNX is built upon a fully redundant architecture for high availability and performance.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 3
VNX Fundamentals introduces the available models in the VNX family. The VNX2 Series
(VNX with MCx) consists of five Unified and two Gateway models. VNX2 can scale up to 6
PB of storage. Each model is built on multi-core CPU technology, which means that each
CPU consists of two or more independent central processing units. The multiple CPU cores
provide better performance. The key to such performance is that the EMC VNX Operating
Environment (OE) is designed for Multi-Core Optimization (MCx). With MCx, all services are
spread across all cores.

Shown here are the current VNX models. There are also derivative models, VNX-F and VNX-
CA, which are specialized for particular requirements.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 4
VNX storage systems consist of the following hardware components. The components included in
your system will depend on the model.

All VNX Storage systems have two Storage Processors (SPs). SPs carry out the tasks of saving and
retrieving of block data. SPs utilize I/O modules to provide connectivity to hosts and 6 Gb/s Serial
Attached SCSI (SAS) to connect to disks in Disk Array Enclosures. SPs manage RAID groups and
Storage Pools and are accessed and managed through SP Ethernet ports using either a CLI or EMC
Unisphere. Unisphere is web-based management software. SPs are major components contained
inside both Disk Processor Enclosures and Storage Processor Enclosures.

Storage Processor Enclosures (SPEs) house two Storage Processors and I/O interface modules.
SPEs are used in the high-end-enterprise VNX models, and connect to external Disk Array Enclosures.

Disk Processor Enclosures (DPEs) house two Storage Processors and the first tray of disks. DPEs
are used in the midsize-to-high-end VNX models.

A Data Mover Enclosure (DME) houses the File CPU modules called Data Mover X-Blades. Data
Movers provide file host access to a VNX storage array. This access is achieved by connecting the DMs
to the SPs for back-end (block) connectivity to the disk enclosures. DMEs are used in all File and
Unified VNX models and act as a gateway between the file and block storage environments.

A Control Station (CS) allows management of File storage, and act (in File or Unified systems) as a
gateway to the Storage Processors. Only Storage Processors can manage Block storage. Control
Stations also provide Data Mover failover capabilities.

Disk Array Enclosures (DAEs) house the non-volatile hard and Flash drives used in the VNX
storage systems.

Standby Power Supplies (SPSs) provides power to the SPs and first Disk Array Enclosure to ensure
that any data that is in transit is saved if a power failure occurs.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 5
• A brief description of the core VNX features is discussed in VNX Fundamentals.

• VNX high availability and redundancy features provide five-nines (99.999% availability)
access to data.

• All hardware components are redundant, or have the option to be redundant. Redundant
components include: dual Storage Processors with mirrored cache, Data Movers, Control
Stations, storage media via RAID and sparing, etc.

• High availability to LUNs is provided by trespassing LUNs from one SP to another,


Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA), and Symmetric Active-Active.

• Paths to Block data are also redundant within the array. Each drive has two ports
connected to redundant SAS paths. (Outside of the array, path redundancy can be
provided at both the host and network levels.

• Network features LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) and Ethernet Channel protect
against an Ethernet link failure, while Fail Safe Networking protects against failures of an
Ethernet switch.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 6
VNX Virtual Provisioning improves storage capacity utilization by only allocating storage as
needed. File systems as well as LUNs can be logically sized to required capacities, and
physically provisioned with less capacity.

Deduplication and compression are available for both Block and File services. While
compression for both Block and File use the same underlying technology, File-level
deduplication uses EMC Avamar technology.

VNX File Level Retention is a capability available to VNX File that protects files in a NAS
environment from modification and deletion until a user specified retention date.

With quotas, a limit can be specified on the number of allocated disk blocks and/or files that
a user/group/tree can have on a VNX file system, controlling the amount of disk space and
the number of files that a user/group/tree can consume.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 7
While VNX Fundamentals introduces FAST and FAST VP, this technology is discussed in
depth in the VNX FAST Suite Fundamentals prerequisite eLearning.

FAST VP automates movement of data across media types based on the level of the data’s
activity. This optimizes the use of high performance and high capacity drives according to
their strongest attributes. FAST VP improves performance and cost efficiency.

FAST Cache uses Flash drives to add an extra cache tier. This extends the array’s read-write
cache and ensures that unpredictable I/O spikes are serviced at Flash speeds.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 8
The VNX Local Protection Suite Fundamentals prerequisite eLearning expands upon the
general overview of the features shown here that is provided in VNX Fundamentals.

VNX SnapSure is a feature for File data services. SnapSure provides a read-only or
read/write, point-in-time view of VNX file systems. SnapSure is used primarily for low-
activity applications such as backup and user-level access to previous file versions.
SnapSure uses Copy on First Write technology.

VNX Snapshot is Block feature that integrates with VNX Pools to provide a point-in-time
copy of a source LUN using redirect on first write methodology.

VNX SnapView Snapshot is also a Block feature that provides point-in-time copies of source
LUNs. SnapView integrates with Classic LUNs and uses Copy on First Write technology.

SnapView Clone provides a full copy of a LUN.

Appliance-based, RecoverPoint/SE local protection replicates all block data for local
operational recovery, providing DVR-like rollback of production applications to any point-in-
time. It tracks all data changes to every protected LUN (Journal volume).

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 9
While VNX Fundamentals introduces the remote protection features of VNX, the VNX
Remote Protection Suite Fundamentals prerequisite eLearning explains these features in
detail.

VNX Remote Protection features include SAN Copy, MirrorView, Replicator and
RecoverPoint/SE CRR.

SAN Copy copies LUN data between VNX storage systems and any other storage array. SAN
Copy is software-based, and provides full or incremental copies, utilizing SAN protocols (FC
or iSCSI) for data transfer.

MirrorView is a feature of VNX for Block used for remote disaster recovery solutions.
MirrorView is available in both synchronous (MirrorView/S) and asynchronous
(MirrorView/A) modes.

Replicator is a VNX File features that produces a read-only copy of source file system. The
copy can be local or remote. VNX Replicator transfers file system data over an IP network.
Changes to the source file system are tracked and transmitted on a time interval. VNX
Replicator can be used as an asynchronous disaster recovery solution for both NFS and
CIFS.

RecoverPoint/SE Remote Replication, is a comprehensive data protection solution that


provides bi-directional synchronous and asynchronous replication for block data between
VNX systems of a WAN. RecoverPoint/SE CRR allows users to recover applications remotely
to any significant point in time without impact to the production operations.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 10
VPLEX Continuous Operations allows administrators to have the exact same information in
two separate locations accessible at the same time from both locations. Companies can
achieve improved levels of continuous operations, non-disruptive migrations/technology
refresh, and higher availability of their infrastructure. VPLEX allows active/active VNX data
access strategy over distance, load balance across two VNX arrays, and supports automated
failover.

VNX supports NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol), which is an open standard
backup protocol designed for NAS environments. During NDMP operations, backup software
is installed on a third party host, while the Data Mover is connected to the backup media
and server as the NDMP server. NDMP provides the ability to backup multi-protocol (CIFS
and NFS) file systems.

EMC Common Event Enabler is a File-level alerting framework for CIFS and NFS. It notifies
antivirus servers of potentially virulent client files, and uses third-party antivirus software to
resolve virus issues.

VNX Controller-Based Encryption encrypts all data at the Storage Processor. All data on disk
is encrypted such that it is unreadable if removed from the system and attached to a
different VNX.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 11
Unisphere for VNX, Navisphere Secure CLI, and the VNX CLI via the Control Station are the
core configuration and management interfaces of the VNX. Using these interfaces, users
can fully administer a VNX system. The focus of this course is management via Unisphere
for VNX.

Unisphere Central is software that provides centralized multi-box monitoring of hundreds of


VNX systems whether they reside in a data center or are deployed in remote and branch
offices.

Unisphere Analyzer is the VNX performance analysis tool to help identify bottlenecks and
hotspots in VNX storage systems, and enable users to evaluate and fine-tune the
performance of their VNX system.

Unisphere Quality of Service Manager (UQM) measures, monitors, and controls application
performance on the VNX storage system.

VNX Family Monitoring and Reporting automatically collects block and file storage statistics
along with configuration data, and stores them into a database that can be viewed from
dashboards and reports.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 12
As the focus of this course is on the native VNX management tools, our next module will
provide further detail on various aspects of VNX Unisphere security and basic management
usage.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 13
This module covered a very brief summary of the prerequisite knowledge to help gain the
most value of this course. We defined a large number of VNX aspects and directed you to
the prerequisite eLearnings to help you acquire a fuller understanding to each.

If you have not yet consumed any of the eLearnings listed, you can register and enroll in
these during your off hours this week.

In addition to the prerequisite courses, we also identified additional training that you may
find valuable after this management course. These courses are VNX Unified Storage
Performance Workshop, VNX Block Storage Remote Protection with MirrorView, and VNX
File Storage Remote Protection with Replicator.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Introduction to VNX Management 14

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