VXRAIL APPLIANCE

ADMINISTRATION - LAB
GUIDE
Version 4.7.300

PARTICIPANT GUIDE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE
 Dell Confidential and Proprietary

Copyright © 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC and other
trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be
trademarks of their respective owners.

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Table of Contents

Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment................................................. 2

Lab 0: Part 1 – Log In to Virtual Data Center........................................................................ 3

Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation ...................................................... 6

Lab 1: Part 1 – Accessing Documentation ........................................................................... 7

Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-
In ................................................................................................................................ 11
Lab 2: Part 1 – Log In to vCenter with vSphere Client ........................................................ 12
Lab 2: Part 2 – Explore VxRail Plug-In Functionality .......................................................... 13
Lab 2: Part 3 – Explore VxRail Cluster Configuration ......................................................... 21

Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell .................................................... 29

Lab 3: Part 1 – Explore iDRAC........................................................................................... 30
Lab 3: Part 2 – Explore ESXi Shell ..................................................................................... 32

Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In .................................................... 34

Lab 4: Part 1 – Check VxRail Cluster Health Monitoring Status ......................................... 35
Lab 4: Part 2 – Physical View ............................................................................................ 37

Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster ........ 41
Lab 5: Part 1 – Monitor vSAN Health, Capacity, Objects, and Disks .................................. 42
Lab 5: Part 2 – Monitor vSAN Performance ....................................................................... 49

Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions ............................................ 54

Lab 6: Part 1 – FTT and FTM Interactions ......................................................................... 55
Lab 6: Part 1 – FTT and FTM Interactions - Answers ......................................................... 58
Lab 6: Part 2 – Fault Domains............................................................................................ 61
Lab 6: Part 2 – Fault Domains - Answers ........................................................................... 65

Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies ................................................... 67

Lab 7: Part 1 – Examine Storage Providers and vSAN Storage Policies ............................ 68

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 Lab 7: Part 2 – Create vSAN Storage Policies ................................................................... 71

Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy ................................ 74

Lab 8: Part 1 – Deploy VMs on VxRail vSAN Cluster ......................................................... 75
Lab 8: Part 2 – Create VM Templates ................................................................................ 81

Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group ........................................................... 84

Lab 9: Part 1 – Create Distributed Port Group .................................................................... 85

Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA .................................................................. 89

Lab 10: Part 1 – Examining HA Environment ..................................................................... 90

Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover ..................................................... 96

Lab 11: Part 1 – Node Utilization for Maintenance and Failover ......................................... 97
Lab 11: Part 1 – Node Utilization for Maintenance and Failover - Answers ........................ 99

Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection ........................................................................... 102

Lab 12: Part 1 – Log Collection with VxRail Plug-In ......................................................... 103
Lab 12: Part 2 – Log Collection with vSphere Client ......................................................... 106

Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles ........... 109
Lab 13: Part 1 – View VxRail Related Advisories ............................................................. 110
Lab 13: Part 2 – View VxRail Related KB Articles ............................................................ 112

Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online .................... 114
Lab 14: Part 1 – Explore SolVe Online and Available VxRail Procedures ........................ 115
Lab 14: Part 2 – Power Control Procedures ..................................................................... 118
Lab 14: Part 3 – Generate Capacity Drive Expansion Procedure ..................................... 119
Lab 14: Part 4 – Generate Procedure to Change VLAN ID .............................................. 120

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 Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

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Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

Purpose

Log in to the VxRail Lab Environment.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to the Dell EMC Education Services Virtual Data Center
 Log in to the Jump Server that is used for the lab exercises

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 Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

Lab 0: Part 1 – Log In to Virtual Data Center

Lab Steps
1. Lab resources for most of the lab exercise are located remotely and are
accessed using the Dell EMC Virtual Data Center (VDC).

To start the labs, connect to the VDC and log in to a jump server. Then, launch
the component interfaces required for the lab exercises from the jump server.

The instructor should have given you a Lab worksheet with the Dell EMC VDC
URL and login credentials:
Dell EMC VDC URL: ________________________
VDC User name: ________________
VDC Password: __________________

2. Log in to the Dell EMC VDC.

Log in to a local computer and open Internet Explorer.

Connect to Dell EMC VDC URL - for example https://vdc.emc.com.

Enter the username and password. Click Log On.

3. The VDC page shows the jump server. The jump server has all the required
tools.

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Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

4. Launch a Remote Desktop Connection to the jump server.

Click the jump server.

You may have to download and install the Citrix Receiver software.

In the Windows Security popup, log in with the username Administrator

and the password Passw0rd!
If a Remote Desktop Connection dialog box indicates a certificate error, click
Yes to connect despite the warning.

5. Structure of the labs.

In this lab environment, multiple students share the same VxRail Cluster. Each
student has their own jump host and their own node within the cluster. Each
student can do all the labs in this course, but some coordination is required.
For example, in the setups with four nodes, putting multiple nodes into
maintenance mode could cause issues.

When coordination is required, the lab guide tells you to coordinate with the
students using the same cluster. Record any needed contact information for
your cluster colleagues here.
1) __________________________________________________

2) __________________________________________________

3) __________________________________________________

4) __________________________________________________

You also require your VxRail number and your assigned node:

VxRail Number: __________________________

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 Lab Exercise 0: Log In to VxRail Lab Environment

Node: _______________________________________

6. Exiting the RDC session to the jump server.

You can disconnect or log out.

Disconnect - the session is preserved.
Log out - all the applications are closed.

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Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

Purpose

Find VxRail related documentation in the Dell EMC and VMware web sites.

Tasks

This lab covers the following tasks:

 Find VxRail documentation on the Dell EMC Support site
 Explore the Dell EMC SolVe Community site
 Explore the VxRail Site Preparedness Enablement site
 Explore vSphere and vSAN documentation on the VMware Docs site

References

Lecture Module:
 VxRail Overview

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 Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

Lab 1: Part 1 – Accessing Documentation

Lab Steps
1. This lab is best performed from a computer that is used in the day-to-day
administration of a VxRail environment.

The lab can be performed at your convenience. The lab requires Internet
connectivity to the Dell EMC Support site and a valid Dell EMC support
account.

2. Log in to the Dell EMC Support site and go to the Product Support page for the
VxRail Appliance Series.

The following URL takes you directly to the VxRail Appliance Series support
page:
https://support.emc.com/products/39970_VxRail-Appliance-Series
After a successful login you should see:

3. Review VxRail related documentation.

Click the link in the center panel and see a listing of available
VxRail documentation. To familiarize yourself with what is available, scroll
through the list of documents.

Look for the following titles, and briefly examine each:

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Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

VxRail Documentation Lists available documentation for VxRail, provides a link

Quick Reference List and description for each.

VxRail Appliance 4.7 Describes the VxRail Appliance 4.7.xxx, how it works,
Administration Guide and how to perform administrative tasks.

VxRail Appliance Contains a brief description of VxRail 4.7.xxx releases,

Software 4.7.x Release including new features, lists of known issues and
Notes workarounds.

VxRail Support Matrix Provides information about supported software, firmware,

and hardware versions for Dell EMC VxRail Appliances
based on Dell PowerEdge hardware.

4. Explore the Dell EMC SolVe Community site.

To access the SolVe Community Site, go to:

https://community.emc.com/community/support/solve

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 Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

SolVe Online and SolVe Desktop can be used to generate VxRail procedures.
SolVe Desktop is a user installed Windows application, while SolVe Online is a
web-based application accessed using a web browser.

VxRail procedures are updated based on new releases, so it is best practice to

update SolVe Desktop regularly to ensure that the generated procedures are
current. The benefit of using Solve Online is that you do not have to install an
application and that the procedures generated are always current. SolVe
Desktop can be used offline, while SolVe Online requires an active Internet
connection.

Scroll down in the Overview tab, and view the Helpful Resources section.
This section contains links to download the SolVe Desktop software and to a
YouTube video on installing SolVe Desktop.

Click the Content tab at the top of the web page. Here is where you find
Release Notes and other documentation about SolVe.

5. Explore the VxRail Site Preparedness Enablement site.

The VxRail Site Preparedness Enablement is useful for finding VxRail pre- and
post-deployment documentation and training.
It is available at the following URL:https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-
60392

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Lab Exercise 1: Explore VxRail Documentation

Scroll down and review the Site Readiness Support and Customer Training
section. The VxRail Networking Guide is an important document.

Since VxRail Appliances connect directly to your network. Proper network

configuration is essential for VxRail deployments. Network configuration is
checked at installation and should be evaluated whenever the network is
reconfigured.

6. Explore VMware documentation.

VMware documentation can be useful because vSphere components such as

ESXi, vCenter and vSAN are the main components of VxRail.

a. Go to https://docs.vmware.com – The site has links for the vSphere

components including NSX, vSAN, and vRealize.

b. Explore the documentation under vSphere and vSAN.

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere

Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Purpose

Use vSphere Client to explore a recently deployed VxRail Cluster and become
familiar with the VxRail plug-in.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client
 Check the status of the VxRail plug-in
 Explore the VxRail Dashboard
 Explore the VxRail plug-in functionality at the VxRail vSAN Cluster level
 Explore the VxRail vSAN cluster, and note the naming conventions
 Explore the VxRail distributed switch configuration – topology, port groups,
VMkernel adapters
 Examine the vSAN configuration – performance service, datastore, disk groups,
disks
 Explore the VxRail system VMs – summary view, datastore, storage policy

References

Lecture modules:
 VxRail Administration and Management Overview
 VxRail Management

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Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Lab 2: Part 1 – Log In to vCenter with vSphere Client

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.
All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. vCenter Server IP address and login credentials

The instructor should have given you a Lab worksheet with detailed
information about your VxRail environment.
Refer to the Lab worksheet and record information about:
vCenter Server IP address: __________________
vCenter Server FQDN: ______________________
Example: vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu
Username: [email protected]
Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Log in to vCenter Server with the vSphere Client.

Launch Chrome.
Connect to the vSphere Client URL: https://<vCenter Server FQDN>/ui/
Example: https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/
Use the FQDN instead of the IP address.
Ignore and bypass any privacy/security/certificate warnings.
Enter the vCenter Server username and password. Click Login.
You should be logged in to the vSphere Client.

The lab environment uses the evaluation licenses for vSphere and vSAN. So,
every time you log in to the vSphere Client, you will see a warning message
about expired or expiring licenses.

Close the message, by clicking the X at the end of the message.

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Lab 2: Part 2 – Explore VxRail Plug-In Functionality

Lab Steps
1. Check the status of the VxRail vCenter plug-in.

You should be logged in the vSphere Client.

Navigate to the Administration page - Menu > Administration.

Select Client Plug-Ins under Solutions in the navigation pane. You should
see a list of plug-ins in the center pane.

Look for the VxRail client plug-in, and observe its version and state. The
VxRail plug-in should be enabled.
You may have to scroll down to see the VxRail plug-in. The Recent Tasks
panel may be obscuring the view. To minimize the Recent Tasks panel, click
the icon towards the bottom right of the page.
Contact your instructor if you do not see the VxRail plug-in or if its state is
disabled.

2. Explore the VxRail Dashboard.

Navigate to the VxRail Dashboard - Menu > VxRail. You should see the
VxRail Dashboard.

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Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

What is the Overall System Health?

Is Secure Remote Services configured? In this lab environment, Secure
Remote Services is not configured.
Are there any articles listed under VxRail Community? Clicking any of the
articles takes you to the VxRail Community page.
Are you able to search for Knowledge Base articles? In this lab environment, a
support account is not configured.

3. Navigate to the VxRail Cluster Monitor tab.

Select - Menu > Hosts and Clusters.

Expand the VxRail vCenter.
Expand the VxRail Datacenter.
Select the VxRail Cluster.
Select the Monitor tab in the main pane. You should see something like the
following graphic:

4. Explore the VxRail plug-in functionality in the VxRail Cluster Monitor tab.

You should be in the Monitor tab of the VxRail Cluster.

The VxRail plug-in functionality is under VxRail in the tree panel of the

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Monitor tab.

Observe that there are two features:

Appliances - Shows the physical view of all the VxRail chassis that are part of
the VxRail Cluster. Selecting the chassis shows details about the specific
VxRail nodes. This information will be covered in a future lab exercise
(Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In).
Last Configuration Data Sent - View and download the most recent VxRail
Appliance configuration data that is sent to Dell EMC using Secure Remote
Services.

5. View the Last Configuration Data Sent.

You should be in the Monitor tab of the VxRail Cluster.

Select Last Configuration Data Sent under VxRail. You should see the Last
Configuration Data Sent in the display pane.
Click EXPAND ALL, scroll down, and view all the information. The information
is categorized by Cluster, Appliance, Power Supply, and Nodes.
Scroll back to the top of the view.

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Optional step: Click DOWNLOAD. The configuration data is downloaded.

View the contents of the VxRailConfig.xml file. The configuration file can be
used for record keeping.

6. Explore the VxRail plug-in functionality in the VxRail Host Monitor tab.

You should be in the Monitor tab of the VxRail Cluster.

Select a VxRail Host from the VxRail Cluster the inventory.
The VxRail plug-in functionality is under VxRail in the tree panel of the
Monitor tab.

The Host-level Monitor tab only offers one option for Physical View.
The Physical View shows the front and back views of the host. Clicking an

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

individual component in the Physical View depicts the details of the specific
component. The view also shows the health status of components.
This feature is explored further in a future lab exercise (Monitoring with VxRail
Plug-In).

7. Explore the VxRail plug-in functionality in the VxRail Cluster Configure tab.

You should be in the Monitor tab of a VxRail Host.

Select the VxRail Cluster from the inventory.
Select the Configure tab in the main pane.
The VxRail plug-in functionality is under VxRail in the tree panel of the
Configure tab.
Observe that there are many VxRail plug-in features available in the Configure
tab. You explore some of these features in this exercise.
Select the System option under the VxRail tree panel.

You should see the System information in the display pane. The System page
displays information about VxRail including the software version, provides links
to the product documentation, privacy statement, and software updates.
The System page also displays the vCenter Mode that is used in the VxRail
deployment. The vCenter Mode can be converted from Embedded to an
External vCenter.

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The Convert vCenter Mode feature is only available for VCF on

VxRail or VVD on VxRail deployments. The vCenter mode
conversion is a one-way operation. Once the vCenter mode is
converted to external, you cannot convert it back to Embedded.

8. Explore VxRail System versioning information.

Observe the VxRail version information and the install date.

Click the Update link in the Helpful Information box. The Update link directs
you to the Updates option in the VxRail tree panel on the left.

Observe the components and version information displayed in the Installed

components section. You should see the versions of Dell PTAgent, VMware
ESXi, VxRail Manager, VMware vCenter Server Appliance, and VxRail
Manager VIB. This information is useful if specific versioning information is
required.

9. Explore VxRail Hosts information.

You should be in the Configure tab of the VxRail Host.

Select the VxRail Cluster in the inventory.
Select Hosts under VxRail. You should see the list of VxRail nodes in the
VxRail Cluster. For example:

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Observe the service tag, appliance ID, model, operation status, management
IP address, and hostname. The Hosts page can be used to change the
management IP address or hostname if necessary.
DO NOT edit the IP addresses or hostnames in this lab environment.

10. Explore VxRail Support and Networking settings.

You should be in the Configure tab of the VxRail Cluster.

Select Support under VxRail. Observe that the Support Account and Secure
Remote Services are not configured in this lab environment.

In a typical VxRail deployment, the Support Account and Secure Remote

Services would have been configured.
Select Networking under VxRail. You should see the Configure Network
Environment Settings page.

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This page is used to manage the Internet connection status of the VxRail
Manager VM and to configure proxy settings.

11. Explore the VxRail plug-in functionality in the VxRail Host Configure tab.

You should be in the Configure tab of the VxRail Cluster.

Select a VxRail Host from the inventory.
Select the Configure tab in the main pane.
The VxRail plug-in functionality is under VxRail in the tree panel of the
Configure tab.

The only option here is iDRAC Configuration. Users can change the iDRAC
network settings and create iDRAC users on the selected Host.

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Lab 2: Part 3 – Explore VxRail Cluster Configuration

Lab Steps
1. Explore the VxRail cluster in the Hosts and Clusters view.

You should be logged in to the vSphere Client.

Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view – Menu > Hosts and Clusters.
Expand the VxRail vCenter.
Expand the VxRail Datacenter.
Expand the VxRail Cluster.
You should see something like the following graphic:

Observe the names of the vCenter Server, the datacenter, the cluster, and the
hosts.
The number of hosts and the host names should match the information that
was seen in Part 2 of this lab exercise.

Observe the VMs hosted on the VxRail cluster.

How is this configuration deployed: Customer supplied vCenter or a VxRail
deployed vCenter? ____________________________________

2. Explore the VxRail distributed switch configuration.

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Navigate to the Networking view – Menu > Networking.

Expand the VxRail vCenter.
Expand the VxRail Datacenter.
Expand the Distributed Switch.
You should see something like the following graphic:

Observe the names of the distributed switch and the uplink port group.
For example:
Distributed Switch name - VMware HCIA Distributed Switch
Uplink port group name - VMware HCIA Dist-DVUplinks-xx
The table shows the examples of the other distributed port groups that you
should see.

Distributed Port group Name

Management (Public) Management Network-xxxxxxx

vCenter Server vCenter Server Network-xxxxxxxx

vSAN Virtual SAN-xxxxxxx

vMotion vSphere vMotion-xxxxxxx

VxRail Management (Private) VxRail Management-xxxxxx

3. View the VxRail distributed switch topology.

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 Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Select the Distributed Switch in the navigation pane.

Select the Configure tab in the center pane.
Select Topology under Settings. You should see something like the following
graphic:

Expand the Uplinks, VMkernel Ports, and Virtual Machines in each of the
port groups for more information.
For example, if you expand Uplink1 you see the vmnic from each of the nodes.

4. Determine the active uplinks that are used by the vSAN, vMotion, and
Management network port groups.

In the navigation pane, select the Virtual SAN… port group.

Select the Configure tab in the center pane.

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Select Policies under Settings.

Uplink information is in the Teaming and failover section. Observe the

information about the active, standby, and unused uplinks.

Repeat the same for the vMotion port group and the Management Network
port group.

Active uplinks Standby uplinks Unused

uplinks

vSAN

vMotion

Management Network

What is different about the vSAN port group? _________________

5. View the physical adapters in your VxRail node.

The instructor should have assigned you a VxRail node.

VxRail node: _________________________

Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view.

Select your VxRail node in the navigation pane.
Select the Configure tab in the central pane. Select Physical adapters under
Networking.
How many physical adapters does the node have? __________
Observe the adapters that are in use: _________________________
Are any adapters not being used? ________________________

6. View the virtual switches in your VxRail node.

You should be viewing the physical adapters of the node.

Select Virtual switches under Networking in the Configure tab.
You should see the topology of the Distributed Switch.
Expand the uplinks. Observe the vmnics that are used as uplinks.

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Uplink1 _______________ Uplink2 ____________________

7. View the VMkernel adapters in your VxRail node.

You should be viewing the virtual switches of the node.

Select VMkernel adapters under Networking in the Configure tab.

Observe the information about the VMkernel adapters.

Device Network IP Address Management vMotion vSAN

Label

The Network Label corresponds to the name of the Distributed port group
names that you saw in a previous step. Observe that the vmk0 adapter has an
IPv6 address, while the rest of the adapters have IPv4 addresses. The vmk0
adapter is on the VxRail Management private network that is used for node
discovery.

8. Examine the VxRail vSAN Services.

Select the VxRail cluster in the navigation pane.

Select the Configure tab in the central pane. Select Services under vSAN.

vSAN is automatically configured in a VxRail deployment.

Observe the information about the following services:

Deduplication and compression: ______________
Encryption: __________________
Performance Service: ________________________
Performance Service is off by default. However, in a VxRail deployment, this

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service is turned on as part of the deployment services.

Expand the Performance Service.

Observe the information about:
Stats object health: __________
Stats object storage policy: ________________
Compliance status: _______________________

9. Explore the vSAN Disks.

You should be viewing the vSAN > Services.

Select Disk Management under vSAN in the Configure tab.
The view should default to the By Disk Groups view. As indicated in the upper
right corner of the screen.
Observe the version of the disks at the top of the view - For VxRail 4.7.300 the
version should be 10.0.
Observe the following:
Number of nodes contributing storage to this vSAN: __________
Number of disk groups per node: _________________
Number of disks per disk group: _____________
vSAN Health Status of the disk groups: ___________

Select one of the healthy disk groups, and observe the information about the
disks in the disk group:

Name Drive Disk Tier Capacity vSAN Health State

Type Status

Is this node a Hybrid or All-Flash? ____________

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10. Explore the VxRail vSAN datastore.

Navigate to the Storage view – Menu > Storage.

Expand the VxRail vCenter.
Expand the VxRail Datacenter.

You should see one service datastore per node and one VxRail vSAN
datastore that is shared by all the nodes in the cluster.

Select the VxRail Virtual SAN datastore in the navigation pane.

Select the Configure tab in the central pane.
Select General in the Configure tab.

Observe the information about:

Total Capacity: ______ Provisioned space: ______ Free Space: ______
Default Storage Policy: _____________________

11. Examine the VxRail Manager VM summary view.

Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view.

Select the VxRail Manager VM in the navigation pane. Select the Summary
tab in the central pane.

Observe the following:

CPU USAGE: ______ MEMORY USAGE: ______
STORAGE USAGE: ______

Expand the Related Objects section:

Cluster: _________________ Host _______________________
Networks: ________________ Storage: ____________________

Expand the VM Storage Policies section:

VM Storage Policies: ____________________
VM Storage Policy Compliance: ___________

12. Examine the vSAN object placement for the storage that is used by the VxRail
Manager VM.

Select the Configure tab in the central pane. Select Policies.

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Lab Exercise 2: Explore VxRail Cluster with vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-In

Observe the information about the storage that is used by the VM.

Name VM Storage Policy Compliance Status

Select the Monitor tab in the central pane. Select Physical disk placement
under vSAN.
Observe the information about the vSAN Component and Witness placement
for one of the hard disks.
You should see that the Witness and each of the RAID1 components are on
different hosts.

Type Component State Host

Witness

RAID1 Component

RAID1 Component

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 Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Purpose

To become familiar with the iDRAC UI and ESXi shell.

Under normal circumstances, a VxRail administrator would not require iDRAC or
the ESXI shell. However, it can be useful to access the ESXi shell to run esxcli
commands directly on a host.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to the iDRAC of a VxRail node
 Examine the system summary
 Launch a virtual console

 Examine the ESXi shell and SSH settings

 Log in to the ESXi shell and examine vSwitch configuration

References:

Lecture module:
 VxRail Administration and Management Overview

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Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Lab 3: Part 1 – Explore iDRAC

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.

All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. iDRAC IP address and login credentials for your VxRail node.

The instructor should have given you a Lab Worksheet with detailed
information about your VxRail environment. The instructor should have also
assigned you a specific VxRail node.
Refer to the Lab worksheet and record information for your node:
VxRail node name: _________________
iDRAC IP address: __________
iDRAC Username: root
iDRAC Password: calvin

3. Log in to iDRAC.

Launch Firefox. Connect to the iDRAC IP address of your node.

(Any supported browser can be used, Firefox is recommended for this lab.)
https://<iDRAC IP address>
Ignore and bypass any privacy/security/certificate warnings.
Enter the iDRAC username and password. Click Log In.
You should be logged in to iDRAC.

4. Explore the iDRAC Dashboard.

Observe the Health Information:

System Health
Storage Health
Are there any health issues?

Observe the System Information:

Power State
Model
Operating System

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 Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Operating System Version

Service Tag

Review the recent logged events at the bottom of the page.

5. Review the storage on the node.

Click Storage in the menu bar.

Click Physical Disks in the Storage Overview page.

Observe the disk information:

Number of SSDs
Size of each SSD
Number of HDDs
Size of each HDD

6. Navigate back to the iDRAC Dashboard.

Click Dashboard in the menu bar.

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Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Lab 3: Part 2 – Explore ESXi Shell

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to iDRAC.

2. Launch a virtual console.

Click Launch Virtual Console in the Virtual Console box.

Click OK in the Opening viewer.jnlp dialog box.
Ignore and bypass all the security warnings, click Continue, or Run as
appropriate.
The ESXi console eventually launches.
If you are prompted to update Java, select Later.

3. Check the ESXi Shell and SSH status on the node.

Refer to your lab worksheet for the root password of the node.
Root password: VMw@r3!!123
You should be on the ESXi console.
Press <F2>
Enter the login name of root and the root password and press .

Use the down arrow key and select Troubleshooting Options and press .
Is ESXi Shell enabled? _______________ Ensure it is enabled by checking
the status on the right that will state if the ESXi Shell is enabled or not.

Validate that ESXi Shell

is enabled here

Is SSH Enabled? ____________

Press <Esc ><Esc> and go back to the home screen of the console.

4. Open an ESXi Shell session and login.

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 Lab Exercise 3: Explore iDRAC and ESXi Shell

Press +
Log in with the root credentials.
Username: root
Password: VMw@r3!!123

5. Display the physical NICs on the node.

Run the esxcli command:

esxcli network nic list

Observe the following:

Number of physical NICs
NICs with a Link Status of Up
NICs with a Link Status of Down

6. Display standard virtual switch information.

Execute the esxcli command:

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup list

What is this virtual switch used for? _________________________

7. Display distributed virtual switch information.

Execute the esxcli command:

esxcli network vswitch dvs vmware list | more

Observe the following:

Name: ______________
Uplinks: _____________

The information should match the information that was seen in Lab 2: Part 3.

8. Log out, and close the console.

Type exit to logout of the console

Press <Alt>+<F2> and return to the home screen of the ESXi console.
Close the console.

9. Log out of iDRAC.

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Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Purpose

Use the VxRail Plug-In to monitor a VxRail Cluster.

This lab assumes that you have completed the Explore VxRail Cluster with
vSphere Client Using VxRail Plug-in Lab.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Check VxRail Cluster heath monitoring status
 Use the VxRail physical view to explore the details of:

 Nodes
 NIC
 Power supplies
 Disks

References:

Lecture module:
 VxRail Management

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 Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Lab 4: Part 1 – Check VxRail Cluster Health Monitoring Status

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.

All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. Log in to the vCenter Server with the vSphere Client.

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/
User: [email protected]
Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Navigate to the VxRail Cluster Configure tab.

Select - Menu > Hosts and Clusters.

Expand the VxRail vCenter.
Expand the VxRail Datacenter.
Select the VxRail Cluster.
Select the Configure tab in the main pane.

4. Check the VxRail Health Monitoring Status.

Select Health Monitoring under VxRail.

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Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Ensure that the Health Monitoring Status is Enabled.

What is a use case for disabling health monitoring?

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 Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Lab 4: Part 2 – Physical View

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to the vSphere Client viewing the Health Monitoring
page of the VxRail Cluster.

2. Navigate to the VxRail Cluster Appliances page.

Select the Monitor tab.

Select Appliances under VxRail.

The Appliances view shows the physical view of all the VxRail chassis that
forms the VxRail Cluster. This example shows a cluster with one G560 chassis
with four nodes.
The top of the display shows the Cluster ID, Last Timestamp, Number of
Chassis, Connected, Health State, and Operational State of the cluster.

To view information about one of the VxRail nodes, click on one of the nodes
in the chassis.
What node-specific information is shown?
Are there any triggered VxRail alerts specific to the selected node? The alert
listing can be filtered based on severity.
What maintenance activities are available when selecting the ACTIONS drop-
down button?

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Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

3. Navigate to the VxRail Host Physical View.

Select a VxRail host from the Hosts and Clusters navigation pane.
Select the Monitor tab.
Select Physical View under VxRail.

The Physical View of a node shows the front and back view of the chassis.
The top of the display shows the Appliance ID, Service Tag, System Health,
iDRAC IP Address, Appliance PSNT, Model, ESXi IP address, and iDRAC
IP address.
What VxRail components are shown in the Front View?
What VxRail components are shown in the Back View?

4. Explore the node information panel of the selected node.

The node information panel on the right has three sections, OVERVIEW,
BOOT DEVICE, and ALERTS. Observe each of these sections one by one to
answer the questions below.

Where can the node warnings be found?

Which sections provide information about how long the node has been
powered on for?
Which tab lists the Slot of the selected node in the rack?
Which tabs provide Firmware information? How are they different?

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 Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

What maintenance activities can be performed on the node by selecting the

ACTIONS drop-down button?

5. Explore NIC details.

Click one of the NIC ports in the middle of the Back View ( )
and observe the information about the NIC. Select each NIC individually.

Port MAC Address Link Speed Link Status

6. Explore Power Supply details.

Select one of the Power Supplies in the Back View and observe the
information:
Serial Number: ______________ Slot: _____________
Part Number: _____________ Health: _______________
Name: ________________

Are there any Alerts listed for this power supply?

7. Explore Disk details.

To gather details about all the disks in the node, observe the Front View of
the node.
To gather details about a specific disk, select an individual disk and see the
Disk Information pane.

How many disks does this node have? _________________

How many SSDs? ________ How many HDDs? _________
Which slots are the SSDs in? _______
On All-Flash systems, all the disks are SSDs. Is this node a Hybrid or an All-
Flash system? ______________

Click one of the SSDs, and observe the information:

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Lab Exercise 4: Monitoring with VxRail Plug-In

Status LED: ______________ Disk Type: _________________

Remaining Write Endurance: ________
Manufacturer: _____________ Capacity: __________

If the node has HDDs - Click one of the HDDs and observe the information:
Status LED: ______________
Manufacturer: _____________ Capacity: __________

What maintenance tasks can be performed from the Disk Information

section? _______________________________
Is it possible to view disk-based Alerts from this view? ____________

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of

VxRail vSAN Cluster

Purpose

Use the vSphere Client to monitor the health and performance of a VxRail vSAN
cluster.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client
 Monitor vSAN health
 View the details of nodes, NICs, and disks
 Correlate events
 Monitor vSAN capacity
 Monitor vSAN virtual object
 Monitor vSAN physical disks
 Monitor vSAN performance – cluster, host, and VM

References:

Lecture module:
 Managing vSAN

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Lab 5: Part 1 – Monitor vSAN Health, Capacity, Objects, and

Disks

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.

All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. Log in to vCenter Server with the vSphere Client.

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/

User: [email protected]

Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Monitor vSAN Health.

Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view.

Select the VxRail cluster in the navigation pane.

Select the Monitor tab in the center pane. Expand the vSAN entry in the left
navigation and select Health.

You should see something like the following graphic:

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

When was the Health last checked? _________________

Do all the tests have a green check mark? ________________

List the tests which do not show a result of Passed:

_____________________________

At this stage, do not worry about resolving any failed test.

Expand each test group to see a listing of the tests in the group. For example,
the graphic below shows the Data and Capacity utilization tests.

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

4. View information for a specific vSAN health test

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN > Health view.

Expand a group with a Warning result. Expand any other test group if you do
not see one with a Warning.

Select one of the individual tests. Review the information for the test.

Select the Info tab of the center pane and click the Ask VMware link in the
upper-right corner. It launches another browser tab with the VMware KB
related to the issue.

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Review and close the VMware KB and return to the vSphere Client.

5. View information about vSAN Disk Balance

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN > Health view.

In the center pane, expand Cluster.

Select the vSAN Disk Balance test, and view the Overview information.

Average Disk Usage: __________

Maximum Disk Usage: ____________

Maximum Load Variance: ___________

Average Load Variance: ______________

Select the Info tab of the vSAN Disk Balance test, click Ask VMware – View
the VMware KB related to vSAN disk balance.

Review and close the VMware KB and return to the vSphere Client.

Go back to the Overview tab of the vSAN Disk Balance health check.

The Configure Automatic Rebalance button will redirect you to the

Advanced Options UI for automatic rebalance configuration. When automatic
rebalance is enabled, vSAN balances the cluster automatically without user
intervention. Automatic Rebalance is not configured in this lab.

6. Monitor vSAN Capacity.

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN view.

Select Capacity under the expanded vSAN entry in the navigation pane.

Observe the information in the Capacity Overview section.

What is the total capacity of the cluster? __________

What is the Free capacity of the cluster? ___________

What is the Reserved capacity? _______________

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

What is the Actually written capacity? _________

Observe the Usable capacity analysis section.

What is the Effective free space with the policy - vSAN Default Storage
Policy? _________

Observe the Usage breakdown before dedup and compression section.

Are deduplication and compression enabled? __________________

Does a hybrid VxRail Appliance support deduplication and compression?

_________

7. Monitor vSAN Capacity – Used Capacity Breakdown.

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN > Capacity view.

In the Usage breakdown before dedup and compression section, select

EXPAND ALL next to Usage by categories.

Observe the breakdown of the used capacity that is grouped by categories.

You can click on the chart on the right for more information.

Categories Usage (%)

VMDK - Primary data

VM home objects (VM namespace)

Swap objects

Performance management objects

File system overhead

Checksum overhead

8. Monitor vSAN - Virtual Objects.

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN view.

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Select Virtual Objects below the vSAN entry in the navigation pane.

Observe the VMs that are using vSAN storage: _______________________

Expand the VxRail Manager VM from the View Placement Details section.

Observe the objects used by this VM: __________________________

What storage policy is associated with these objects?

___________________________

9. Monitor vSAN Virtual Objects Performance management object.

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN > Virtual Objects view. In the View
Placement Details section:

Observe the storage policy that is assigned to Performance management object:

____________

Select the checkbox for Performance management object, click View Placement
Details at the top of the table.

Observe that the Witness and the Components are each hosted on different
nodes.

Type Component State Host

Witness

RAID1 Component

RAID1 Component

To exit the Physical Placement window, click the CLOSE button.

10. Monitor vSAN - Physical Disks.

You should be on the Monitor > vSAN view.

Select Physical Disks below the vSAN entry in the navigation pane.

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

To see the disks, expand each node in the center pane. View the State and
vSAN Health Status of each disk.

Note: You may have to scroll to the right to see the State and vSAN Health
Status columns.

Observe the type of disks that each node has: ________________________

Are all the disks Mounted? ________ Are all the disks Healthy? ________

Select one of the nodes, and view the Objects on Host in the lower portion of
the pane.

Select one of the HDDs, and view the Objects on Disk in the lower portion of
the pane.

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Lab 5: Part 2 – Monitor vSAN Performance

Lab Steps
1. You should be still logged in to the vSphere Client looking at the Monitor >
vSAN view.

2. Navigate to the Monitor Performance view of the VxRail cluster.

Select the Performance entry under vSAN in the navigation pane.

The purpose of this lab exercise is to see what types of performance graphs
and metrics are available for a vSAN cluster. In this lab environment, there is
no active IO, so the data that is observed in the graphs is not immediately
useful.

3. Explore the vSAN - VM performance graphs.

The vSAN Performance view should have the VM tab that is selected by default.

Set the Time Range to Last 1 Hour. Click the SHOW RESULTS button.

Observe the available graphs and metrics.

Hover over the line graphs to view Read and Write statistics. View the maximum
observed:

Read IOPS: ____________ Write IOPS: __________________

Read Throughput: ___________ Write Throughput: _______________

Read Latency: ___________ Write Latency: _______________

Outstanding IO: __________

4. Explore the vSAN - Backend performance graphs.

Select BACKEND tab at the top of the Performance view.

Set the Time Range to Last 1 Hour. Click the SHOW RESULTS button.

Observe the available graphs and metrics.

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

View the maximum observed:

Read IOPS: ____________ Write IOPS: __________________

Read Throughput: ___________ Write Throughput: _______________

Read Latency: ___________ Write Latency: _______________

Outstanding IO: ___________

5. Navigate to the Monitor Performance view of a node.

Select a VxRail node in the Hosts and Clusters navigation pane.

Select the Monitor tab in the central pane. Locate the vSAN entry in the
navigation pane and select Performance below it.

Observe the categories for which vSAN performance graphs are available.
They are listed in tabs at the top of the pane:

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

6. Explore the vSAN - Disk Group performance graphs for the node.

In the node Performance view, select the DISKS tab at the top of the pane.

Locate the Disk Group drop-down menu at the top of the pane. Select one
disk group.

Observe the available graphs for the whole group:

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

7. Explore the vSAN Disk performance graphs for the node.

You should be viewing the node Performance view with the DISKS tab that is
selected at the top of the pane.

To change from the default whole group, use the drop-down menu to the right
of Disk Group, and select the first disk in the group. The first disk is a flash
disk and is the Cache disk for the vSAN disk group.

Observe the available graphs:

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Select the second disk - this disk could be a flash disk or a hard drive depending on
the type of node you have. Observe the available graphs:

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

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Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

Is there a difference in the graphs available for the first disk compared to the
second disk? _________________________________

What is a possible reason? _______________________

Hint: The first disk is the Cache disk for the vSAN disk group, the second disk is a
Capacity disk.

8. Explore the vSAN - Physical Adapters performance graphs for the node.

You should be in the node Performance view.

Select PHYSICAL ADAPTERS tab at the top of the pane.

Locate the Physical Adapter drop-down menu.

Which vmnic is being used for vSAN traffic on this node?

___________________

Observe the available graphs: _____________________________________

_________________________________________________________

9. Explore the vSAN - Host Network performance graphs for the node.

You should be in the node Performance view.

Select HOST NETWORK tab at the top of the pane.

Locate the Network drop-down menu.

Which VMkernel (vmk) is being used for vSAN traffic? ___________________

Select the VMkernel.

Observe the available graphs: _____________________________________

_________________________________________________________

10. Navigate to the Monitor Performance view of the VxRail Manager VM.

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 Lab Exercise 5: Monitor Health and Performance of VxRail vSAN Cluster

Select the VxRail Manager VM in the Hosts and Clusters navigation pane.

Confirm that the view is on the Monitor tab with the Performance option
selected under the vSAN entry in the navigation pane.

Observe the categories for which vSAN performance graphs are available:

_____________________________

_____________________________

11. Explore the vSAN – VM performance graphs for the VxRail Manager VM.

The VM tab should be selected by default in the Performance view of the

VxRail Manager VM.

Observe the available graphs and metrics: ________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

12. Explore the vSAN – VIRTUAL DISKS performance graphs for the VxRail
Manager VM.

Select the VIRTUAL DISKS tab at the top of the Performance pane.

To determine how many virtual disks this VM contains, use the Virtual Disk
drop down menu.

Select one of the disks.

Observe the available graphs and metrics: ____________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

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Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Purpose

To understand the implications of using fault domains and different FTT and FTM
settings in the storage policy.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Perform calculations necessary for FTT and FTM compliance in storage policies
 Perform calculations and see if fault domains improve availability

References:

VMware vSAN Design and Sizing Guide

Lecture module:
 Managing vSAN

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 Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Lab 6: Part 1 – FTT and FTM Interactions

Lab Steps
1. VMware vSAN provides a VxRail Cluster with self-healing software defined
storage.

Three variables define the data protection in a standard VxRail vSAN cluster.

Failures to Tolerate (FTT) which specifies how many failures the configuration
can tolerate without rebuilding before data is lost.
Failure Tolerance Method (FTM) which specifies whether Mirroring or Erasure
Coding is used to tolerate the failures.
Fault Domains which specify areas of the cluster that are expected to fail
together (for example nodes in the same chassis or rack.)

By default, there are no fault domains so each node is treated as a fault

domain. For small clusters, the default fault domain configuration gives the
best availability.
Part 1 of the lab deals with FTT and FTM interactions, without the explicit
configuration of fault domains. Part 2 deals with enabling fault domains.

The table lists the minimum number of nodes that are required for various FTT
and FTM settings:

FTT 1 2 3

FTM Mirroring Erasure Mirroring Erasure Mirroring

Coding Coding
RAID-5 RAID-6

Minimum 3 4 5 6 7
nodes for copies=2 3+1 RAID copies=3 4+2 RAID copies=4
compliance witness=1 group witness=2 group witness=3

Erasure coding requires the use of all-flash nodes.

2. The minimum configuration comes with a limitation.

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Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

All the nodes are used so there is no spare node to rebuild. Any node outage
is tolerated until the node is returned to service. Remember, outages include a
node being down for maintenance.

For example, a 3-node cluster would have to use FTT=1 and FTM=Mirroring. If
a node goes down, either for maintenance or due to a failure, that would be
tolerated. However, the cluster would not be able to rebuild. Any additional
failure could lead to data loss or data unavailability.

In situations where availability is important, the recommendation is that the

cluster is sized to at least the minimum required nodes plus one extra node.
The additional node would enable VxRail to heal by regenerating the
components from the failed node.

Each of the questions can have more than one correct answer.

3. You have a hybrid 6-node VxRail cluster.

You would like it to be able to rebuild after a failure.

What FTT and FTM settings would work?

________________________________________________________

4. You have a cluster workload that would work best with Erasure Coding and is
required to tolerate one failure.

The cluster is also required to tolerate one failure when one node is down for
maintenance.

How should the cluster be configured? Circle the applicable boxes.

Hybrid storage All-Flash Storage

3 Nodes 4 Nodes 5 Nodes 6 Nodes

5. You have an all flash 6-node VxRail cluster.

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 Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

You would like it to be able to rebuild after a failure.

What FTT and FTM settings would work?

________________________________________________________

6. You have a cluster workload that would work best with mirroring and is
required to tolerate two failures.

How should the cluster be configured? Circle the applicable boxes.

Hybrid storage All-Flash Storage

3 Nodes 4 Nodes 5 Nodes 6 Nodes

7. You have an all flash 3-node VxRail cluster.

Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

________________________________________________________

8. You have an all flash 4-node VxRail cluster.

Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

________________________________________________________

9. You have an all flash 5-node VxRail cluster.

Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

________________________________________________________

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Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Lab 6: Part 1 – FTT and FTM Interactions - Answers

Lab Steps
1. You have a hybrid 6-node VxRail cluster.

You would like it to be able to rebuild after a failure.

What FTT and FTM settings would work?

The VxRail Cluster has hybrid storage, FTM must be mirroring.

FTT = 1 requires three nodes plus one node to rebuild is four nodes.
FTT = 2 requires five nodes plus one node to rebuild is six nodes.

No other FTT/FTM combinations would work.

2. You have a cluster workload that would work best with Erasure Coding and is
required to tolerate one failure.

The cluster is also required to tolerate one failure when one node is down for
maintenance.

How should the cluster be configured?

All-Flash is required for Erasure coding.

All-Flash with FTT = 1 requires four nodes.
Add one node for maintenance so the cluster should have at least five nodes.
Six nodes also enable rebuilds if a failure occurs when one node is down for
maintenance.

Hybrid storage All-Flash Storage

3 Nodes 4 Nodes 5 Nodes 6 Nodes

3. You have an all flash 6-node VxRail cluster.

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 Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

You would like it to be able to rebuild after a failure.

What FTT and FTM settings would work?

FTT = 1 and FTM = mirroring requires three nodes, so that would work as
there are extra nodes to rebuild.
FTT = 1 and FTM = erasure coding requires four nodes, so that would work as
there are extra nodes to rebuild.
FTT = 2 and FTM = mirroring requires five nodes, so that would work as there
are extra nodes to rebuild.
FTT = 2 and FTM = erasure coding requires six nodes, so that would not work
as there are no extra nodes for rebuild.
FTT = 3 and FTM = mirroring requires seven nodes, so that would not work.

4. You have a cluster workload that would work best with mirroring and is
required to tolerate two failures.

How should the cluster be configured?

All flash or hybrid storage would work.

Mirroring with FTT = 2 requires five nodes. Five or six nodes would work.

Hybrid storage All-Flash Storage

3 Nodes x4 Nodes 5 Nodes 6 Nodes

5. You have an all flash 3-node VxRail cluster.

Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

FTT = 1 and FTM = mirroring requires three nodes, so that would work. But
there are no extra nodes so it would not have room to rebuild.
No other FTT/FTM combinations would work.

6. You have an all flash 4-node VxRail cluster.

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Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

FTT = 1 and FTM = mirroring requires three nodes, so that would work as
there are extra nodes to rebuild
FTT = 1 and FTM = erasure coding requires four nodes, so that would work as
there are no extra nodes to rebuild
No other FTT/FTM combinations would work.

7. You have an all flash 5-node VxRail cluster.

Which FTT and FTM settings could be configured on it? Would any of those
configurations be able to self-heal before the node was restored?

FTT = 1 and FTM = mirroring requires three nodes, so that would work as
there are extra nodes to rebuild.
FTT = 1 and FTM = erasure coding requires four nodes, so that would work as
there are extra nodes to rebuild.
FTT = 2 and FTM = mirroring requires five nodes, so that would work. But
there are no extra nodes to rebuild.
No other FTT/FTM combinations would work.

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 Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Lab 6: Part 2 – Fault Domains

Lab Steps
1. Fault domains enable you to protect against nodes that are likely to fail in
groups.

When used correctly fault domains can improve overall availability. When used
incorrectly they can damage system availability.
A fault domain consists of one or more vSAN nodes that are grouped
according to their physical location in the data center. Each fault domain only
takes one piece of a vSAN object (mirror, witness, or RAID element). If the
nodes fail together, the system is still protected.
Each fault domain should be a group of nodes that may fail together. You
must have sufficient fault domains to meet the compliance requirements
of the storage policy. If you do not have sufficient fault domains, the policy is
noncompliant and prevents the creation of VMs.

Example 1: A 6-node cluster is spread across three racks, with two nodes per
rack. Each rack could be set up as a fault domain. With FTT=1 and
FTM=Mirroring, you need three fault domains for compliance. In this
circumstance, setting up fault domains would improve availability.
Example 2: A 6-node cluster is spread across three racks, with two nodes per
rack. Each rack could be set up as a fault domain. With FTT=1 and
FTM=Erasure coding, you need four fault domains for compliance. The policy
would be noncompliant, and better availability would be achieved without fault
domains.

For extra protection, the consideration as in the previous lab around having an
extra node for rebuilds apply to fault domains also. If a node fails, a different
node in the fault domain could be used to rebuild. If the entire fault domain
fails, an extra fault domain would be required.

For each question, specify whether fault domains would improve availability,
and if so how the fault domains should be configured.
Each question can have more than one correct answer.

2. A 20-node cluster is spread across two racks in one row.

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Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

FTT

FTM

3. A 20-node cluster is spread across four racks in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

FTT

FTM

4. A 20-node cluster is spread across 10 racks in two rows.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

FTT

FTM

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5. A 20-node cluster is spread across 10 racks in five rows.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

FTT

FTM

6. A 5-node cluster is spread across one rack in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

FTT

FTM

7. A 9-node cluster is spread across three racks in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Fault domains?

Fault domain
configuration

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Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

FTT

FTM

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 Lab Exercise 6: FTT/FTM/Fault Domain Interactions

Lab 6: Part 2 – Fault Domains - Answers

Lab Steps
1. A 20-node cluster is spread across two racks in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

No - With only two racks there is no way to have the storage components in
different fault domains. The default setup with each node being its own fault
domain is best.

2. A 20-node cluster is spread across four racks in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Yes - Each rack can be a fault domain. With four racks, FTT = 1 for both
erasure coding and mirroring would enable the storage components to each
be stored in different fault domains.

3. A 20-node cluster is spread across 10 racks in two rows.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Yes - Each rack can be a fault domain. Any combination of FTT/FTM would
work with 10 fault domains.

4. A 20-node cluster is spread across 10 racks in five rows.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Yes - In this case, fault domains could be created with racks or rows.
Using rows, five fault domains can be created.
FTT of 1, FTM could be Mirroring or Erasure Coding.
FTT of 2 and FTM of mirroring is also possible.
FTT of 2 and FTM of Erasure coding is not possible.

Using racks, 10 fault domains can be created. Any combination of FTT/FTM

would work.

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5. A 5-node cluster is spread across one rack in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

No - Only one rack so no FTT/FTM combinations work with Fault Domains.

The default is better.

6. A 9-node cluster is spread across three racks in one row.

Should fault domains be configured? If so, how should they be configured?

Yes - Using the three racks as fault domains. FTT = 1 with mirroring works.

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 Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Purpose

Use the vSphere Client to manage vSAN storage policies.

Tasks

Tasks covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client
 Examine the available storage providers
 Examine the configured storage policies, and view the details of the VXRAIL-
SYSTEM-STORAGE-PROFILE
 Create vSAN storage policies with different rules

References:

Lecture module:
 Managing vSAN

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Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Lab 7: Part 1 – Examine Storage Providers and vSAN Storage

Policies

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.

All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. Log in to vCenter Server with the vSphere Client.

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/

User: [email protected]

Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Examine the vSAN Storage Providers.

Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view.

Select the VxRail vCenter server in the navigation pane.

Select the Configure tab in the center pane. Select Storage Providers under
More in the Configure tab.

You should see something similar to the following graphic:

You will see one VMware vSAN Storage Provider that is internally managed within
vCenter.

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 Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

4. View the details of the VMware vSAN Storage Provider.

Select the VMware vSAN Storage Provider in the center pane and view its
details in the window directly below the list of providers.

The General section should be selected by default.

Provider name: _________________ Provider status: ______________

Activation: _______________ Provider version: ___________________

VASA API Version: __________

5. The VxRail vSAN cluster is automatically configured during the initial setup of
VxRail. Enabling vSAN automatically configures and registers a vSAN storage
provider for each host in the cluster.

6. Examine the preconfigured vSAN storage policies.

Navigate to the VM Storage Policies view.

Menu > Policies and Profiles > VM Storage Policies

You should see something like the following graphic:

The initial setup of VxRail creates a VxRail vSAN storage policy and the
default vSAN storage policy. You may have to scroll to the bottom of the pane
to see all the storage policies.

What is the VXRAIL-SYSTEM-STORAGE-PROFILE used for?

_____________________________

What is the vSAN Default Storage Policy used for? _____________

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7. View the details of the VXRAIL-SYSTEM-STORAGE PROFILE.

Select the VXRAIL-SYSTEM-STORAGE-PROFILE in the center pane. You

should see information about the policy in the lower section of the window.

Select the Rules tab. Observe the information under Rule-set 1.

How many failures are configured in Failures to tolerate: _________

What RAID protection does this policy provide? ________________

Object space reservation: ______________________

What is the purpose of the object space reservation setting?

____________________________

Select the VM Compliance tab. Observe the VMs associated with the
selected policy. What VMs use this policy?
_______________________________

Based on the rule set information and the VMs that this policy applies to, what
can you conclude? _________________________________

View the compliance status column. Are any of the components out of
compliance? ____________________________

8. View the details of the vSAN Default Storage Policy.

Select the vSAN Default Storage Policy in the center pane. You should see
information about the policy in the lower section of the window.

Select the Rules tab. Observe the information under Rule-set 1.

What type of RAID protection does this policy provide? ________________

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 Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Lab 7: Part 2 – Create vSAN Storage Policies

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to the vSphere Client looking at the details of the
vSAN Default Storage Policy.

2. Navigate to the listing of VM Storage Policies.

Select VM Storage Policies in the navigation pane.

3. Create a vSAN storage policy – FTM=RAID1, FTT=1.

Click Create VM Storage Policy

Name and description – Name: Enter <your name>-RAID1-FTT1

Click NEXT.

Policy structure – Select the box next to Enable rules for "vSAN" storage

Click NEXT

Use the drop-down to add Failures to tolerate – Set FTT to 1 failure - RAID-
1 (Mirroring)

Click NEXT

Storage compatibility – Is the VxRail vSAN datastore listed in the Compatible

storage section? ________________

Click NEXT

Click FINISH to create the policy.

Your new storage policy should be listed under VM Storage Policies.

4. Create a vSAN storage policy – FTM=RAID1, FTT=2, Force provisioning=Yes.

Click Create VM Storage Policy

Name: Enter <your name>-RAID1-FTT2-Force

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Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Click NEXT.

Policy structure – Select the box next to Enable rules for "vSAN" storage

Click NEXT

Use the drop-down to add Failures to tolerate – Set FTT to 2 failures -

RAID-1 (Mirroring)

Click NEXT

Storage compatibility – Is the VxRail vSAN datastore listed in the Compatible

storage section? _____________ Why? __________

Do you have enough nodes for FTM=RAID-1 and FTT=2? __________

Click BACK to go back to vSAN settings. Click the Advanced Policy Rules
near the top of the window.

Locate the Force provisioning option and enable it. Click NEXT

What is the consequence of setting force provisioning to yes?

________________________________________

Click NEXT.

Storage compatibility – Is the VxRail vSAN datastore listed in the Compatible

storage section? _____________ Why? __________

Click NEXT.

Click FINISH to create the policy.

Your new storage policy should be listed under VM Storage Policies.

5. Create a vSAN storage policy – FTM=RAID5, FTT=1.

Click Create VM Storage Policy.

Name: Enter <your name>-RAID5-FTT1 – Click NEXT

Policy structure – Select the box next to Enable rules for "vSAN" storage

Click NEXT

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 Lab Exercise 7: Manage vSAN Storage Policies

Use the drop-down to add Failures to tolerate – Set FTT to 1 failure - RAID-
5 (Erasure Coding)

Click NEXT.

Storage compatibility – Is the VxRail vSAN datastore listed in the Compatible

storage section? _____________

Do hybrid nodes support Erasure coding? ________________

Only All-Flash systems with at least 4 nodes can support FTT=1 and
FTM=Erasure Coding.

Click NEXT

Click FINISH to create the policy.

Your new storage policy should be listed under VM Storage Policies.

6. The VM Storage Policies listing should list the three policies that you created.

<your name>-RAID1-FTT1

your name>-RAID1-FTT1

<your name>-RAID5-FTT1

Storage policies can be edited to make any needed changes. To edit a storage
policy, select the policy and click Edit Settings.

These policies are used in an upcoming lab.

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Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage

Policy

Purpose

Deploy a new VM on a VxRail cluster and apply the preferred vSAN storage policy.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client
 Deploy new VMs on a VxRail cluster with the required vSAN storage policy
 Create VM templates

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 Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

Lab 8: Part 1 – Deploy VMs on VxRail vSAN Cluster

Lab Steps
1. Log in to the vSphere Client:

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/

User: [email protected]

Password: VMw@r3!!123

While this lab is designed for use by multiple students simultaneously, it does
use shared resources.

You can see the work that other students do, and they can see your work.
Following the naming convention is important so that you can see what is
yours.

2. Deploy an OVF Template on your node.

a. Go to the Hosts and Clusters view.

b. Right-click your node in the Navigator pane and select Deploy OVF
Template.

c. You should be presented with the Deploy OVF Template wizard.

3. Select an OVF template.

a. Select the Local file option and then click the Choose Files button.

b. Use the explorer to go to <Class Directory>\VMs\VM1, and select the

LinuxLabVM1.ovf and LinuxLabVM1-1.vmdk files. Click Open to select
the files. Hint: Hold the CTRL key, and select both files.

c. Click NEXT.

4. Select a name and folder.

For the Name of this VM use <your-name>-VM1.

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The name enables you to identify which VMs are yours since they are visible
throughout the cluster. If you had multiple VxRail clusters using the same
external vCenter, you would choose which VxRail the VM was going to run on.

a. If it is not already selected, select VxRail-Datacenter for the location

b. Click NEXT.

5. Select a compute resource and review details.

Since you right clicked on a node to deploy this VM, that node is selected as a
compute resource. You could select the cluster or another node. If you select
the cluster, vSphere decides where to deploy the VM. HA, DRS, and vMotion
may move the VM to other nodes.

a. Select VxRail-VirtualSAN-Cluster and notice that the Compatibility checks

are automatically processed.

b. Click NEXT. It may take a short amount of time to validate the requested
configuration.

c. The next pane reviews the configuration of the template.

d. Click NEXT.

6. Select storage

The Select Storage pane is the only difference between deploying a VM using
traditional storage and deploying a VM using vSAN storage on a VxRail. Use
the vSAN storage policy that you created earlier.

a. In the Select virtual disk format drop-down menu, select Thin Provision
from the available options.

b. For the VM Storage Policy, select the policy that is called <Your Name>-
RAID1-FTT1 that you created earlier. Notice that only one datastore is in the
Compatible list. The other datastores are Incompatible with the selected
policy. Also observe that the select virtual disk format automatically
changes to As defined in the VM storage policy.

c. Select the datastore that begins with VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore.

d. Click NEXT.

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 Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

7. Select networks

This section determines what networks the new VM connects to.

a. There are two columns that are listed for Source Network and Destination
Network. To reveal a drop-down menu of available networks in the
environment, select the entry under Destination Network from its drop
down menu.

b. Select the VxRail## Customer VM Network

c. Click NEXT.

d. Review the information and click FINISH.

The VM deployment takes a few minutes. You may also review the progress in
Recent Tasks panel to view when this task completes.

8. When the VM is fully deployed, continue.

a. Select the VMs and Templates icon above the Navigator pane.

b. Expand the VxRail-Datacenter folder.

c. Right-click your VM, and select Power > Power On.

d. Select your VM, and select the Summary tab.

e. Click the Launch Web Console link that is located in the central pane.

f. Select Web Console and click OK in the pop-up that is displayed.

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g. Log in to the VM
Username: user
Password: user1234

h. Run the command ip addr show eth0 and verify the eth0 has an IP
address of 192.168.1.1.

i. Type exit.

j. Close out of the web console and return to the vSphere Client.

9. A second VM must now be deployed to communicate with the first. The steps
are similar to the deployment of the first VM.

a. In the Navigator pane, click the Hosts and Clusters icon

b. Right-click your node in the Navigator pane and select Deploy OVF
Template.

c. Select Local file and then click Choose Files.

d. Go to <Class Directory>\VMs\VM2, and select the LinuxLabVM2.ovf and

LinuxLabVM2-1.vmdk files. Hint: Hold the CTRL key, and select both files.

e. Click NEXT.

10. For the Name of this VM use <your-name>-VM2.

a. Select VxRail-Datacenter for the location.

b. Click NEXT.

11. Here you select where the VM is deployed. It is possible to select the cluster or
an individual node.

a. Select VxRail-VirtualSAN-Cluster

b. Click NEXT.

c. The next pane reviews the configuration of the template.

d. Click NEXT.

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 Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

12. In the Select Storage section, use the vSAN storage policy that you created
earlier.

a. For the VM Storage Policy, look for the RAID5 policy <Your Name>-
RAID5-FTT1 that you created earlier.

You may notice that the <Your Name>-RAID5-FTT1 policy you are looking
for is unavailable. Erasure coding requires all-flash storage.

Set the VM Storage Policy to the <Your Name>-RAID5-FTT1 policy if

available, else select <Your Name>-RAID1-FTT1.

b. Select the datastore that begins with VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore.

c. Click NEXT.

13. Select the network this VM connects to.

a. Select the VxRail## Customer VM Network.

b. Click NEXT.

c. Review the information and click FINISH.

The VM deployment takes a few minutes. You may also review the progress in
Recent Tasks panel to view when this task completes.

14. When VM2 is fully deployed, continue.

a. Select the VMs and Templates icon in the Navigator pane.

b. Open the VxRail-Datacenter folder.

c. Select your VM2. Right-click the VM, and select Power > Power On.

d. Select your VM2, and select the Summary tab.

e. Click the Launch Web Console link that is located in the central pane.

f. Select Web Console and press OK in the pop-up that is displayed.

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Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

g. Log in to the VM
Username: user
Password: user1234

h. Run the command ip addr show eth0 and verify the eth0 has an IP
address of 192.168.1.2

i. Type exit.

j. Close out of the web console and return to the vSphere Client.

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 Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

Lab 8: Part 2 – Create VM Templates

Lab Steps
1. VM templates can be created in two different ways. Converting a VM to a
template and cloning a VM to a template.

Once again, the only difference with a traditional vSphere environment is that
you use a vSAN policy and the vSAN datastore.

It is also worth mentioning that you may see other VMs and templates in this
lab from other students doing their labs. All your VMs, Templates, and Profiles
should start with your name.

a. Select the VMs and Templates icon in the Navigator pane.

b. Right-click the <Your name>-VM2 virtual machine

Create a template by looking under the Template selection in the pop-up

menu. You should see that Convert to Template and Export OVF Template
are both unavailable. Why are they unavailable?
_______________________________________

2. Convert to template would change the VM to a template. A running VM cannot

be converted to a template. The VM must be turned off. Exporting to an OVF
creates a cross platform image that can be deployed across multiple
hypervisors. Since the VM state is not preserved, the VM must be turned off.

A running VM can be cloned. The following steps create a clone and then
convert the clone to a template:

a. Right-click the <Your name>-VM2 virtual machine, and select Clone in the
pop-up menu. You should see Clone to Virtual Machine, Clone to
Template and Clone as Template to Library. Libraries can be used to
share images across multiple vSphere clusters that share the SSO domain.

b. Multiple clusters do not exist in this SSO domain since an internal vCenter is
being used for this VxRail. Select Clone to Template.

3. The wizard is similar to the create VM wizard you saw in the previous lab.

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Lab Exercise 8: VM Deployment with vSAN Storage Policy

a. Name the template <Your Name> Template of VM2.

b. Select the VxRail-Datacenter for the location.

c. Click NEXT

4. Next, you need a compute resource and a storage resource.

a. Select the cluster that starts with VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Cluster.

b. After the Compatibility check succeeds, click NEXT.

c. For the VM storage policy, select <Your Name>-RAID1-FTT1

d. The VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore… is the only compatible datastore.

Select it.

e. Click NEXT

5. This screen validates the configuration.

a. Check that the following information is correct:

Cluster
Datastore
VM storage policy

b. Click FINISH

The process takes a minute while the VM is cloned and the clone is converted
to a template. When the task is completed, you should see a new template.

6. Convert a VM to a template. The VM must be turned off.

a. Select <Your Name>-VM2 and right click in the pop-up menu select Power
> Power Off.

b. In the pop-up window, select YES.

c. Right-click <Your Name>-VM2 and select Template > Convert to

Template.

d. In the pop-up window, select YES.

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The process happens more quickly than the clone to template since all the
data does not need to be rewritten. Notice that the <Your-name>-VM2 no
longer has the VM icon and now has the template icon.

7. The purpose of this lab is not to teach you how to manage VMs in a vSphere
environment.

The purpose is to show that a VxRail vSphere environment is similar to what

you already know. If you would like to clone VMs or vMotion VMs, do so now.
Use the same procedures, you would use in any other vSphere 6.7
environment.

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Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

Purpose

Use the vSphere Client to add a new distributed port group to an existing VxRail
VDS.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to the vSphere Client
 Create a new distributed port group
 Verify settings for the new port group

References:

Lecture module:
 Managing Virtualization

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 Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

Lab 9: Part 1 – Create Distributed Port Group

Lab Steps
1. Log in to the vSphere Client: https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui

User: [email protected]

Password: VMw@r3!!123

While this lab can be performed by multiple students simultaneously, it does

use shared resources.

You can see the work that other students do, and they can see your work.
Following the naming convention is important so that you can identify what is
yours.

2. To create a distributed port group, find the distributed virtual switch. The
distributed switch is created as part of the installation process of a VxRail.
Hence, it uses the VxRail naming convention.

a. From the Menu drop down, select Networking.

b. From the left navigation page, expand the vCenter vxrail##-

vcenter.vsb.edu and expand VxRail-Datacenter.

c. Expand the VMware HCIA Distributed Switch in the navigation pane.

Under the distributed switch, you see the uplinks and the distributed port
groups that have already been created. Most of the existing port groups are
the default VxRail port groups, however, there may be some distributed port
groups that are created by other students.

A distributed port group can be used to attach virtual machines to new

networks or for vSphere features that require communication across the
cluster.

3. Right-click the VMware HCIA Distributed Switch, and select Distributed Port
Group > New Distributed Port Group.

Wait for the wizard to popup.

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Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

4. Complete the Name and location section -

For Name use <Your Name>-DPortGroup for the name of the Distributed
Port Group so that it can be identified.

Click NEXT.

5. Complete the Configure Settings section -

Set Port binding to Static Binding, the recommended setting for general use.
It means that each VM in the group has a port that is reserved for it.
Conversely, Ephemeral - no binding enables the ports to be configured from
the individual hosts when vCenter is not available. This is useful for recovery
purposes.

Set Port allocation to Elastic. vCenter can dynamically increase or decrease

the number of ports in the group, based on the need for port groups. Ports are
added in groups of 8 as needed. Fixed requires the number of ports to be
increased manually.

Leave Number of ports at 8.

Leave Network resource pool set to (default). Network resource pools are
used to setup QoS and priority for the virtual networks connecting through the
physical uplinks on each node.

For VLAN type, select VLAN. Selecting VLAN enables you to specify the
VLAN ID for this distributed port group.

For the VLAN ID, concatenate your VxRail number with your node number.
For example, if you are on VxRail 22 and node 1, then use 221.

Advanced - Select Customize default policies configuration. This option

enables you to configure security exceptions, traffic shaping, teaming, failover,
and monitoring. All these configurations are identical to what they would be on
a traditional vSphere 6.7 cluster.

Click NEXT.

6. Complete the Security section. Accept the default settings and click NEXT.

7. Complete the Traffic shaping section. Accept the default settings and click

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 Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

NEXT.

8. Complete the Teaming and failover section.

Customize the uplink settings to match the existing virtual machine port
groups. Configure uplink2 as a standby uplink.

In the Failover order section, click uplink2 and then click the down arrow
button to move it under Standby uplinks. If uplink3 and uplink4 are present,
select each uplink and then use the down arrow button to move them under
Unused uplinks. Your uplink configuration should look like the illustration
below. Uplink1 should be active, and uplink2 should be standby. Any other
uplink should be under unused.

Leave all the other settings at the default values. Click NEXT.

9. Complete the Monitoring section. Accept the default settings and click NEXT.

10. Complete the Miscellaneous section. Accept the default settings and click
NEXT.

11. Complete the Ready to complete section. Verify the new port group
configuration. If everything is correct, click FINISH to create the virtual port
group.

In the work pane, select the Configure tab and then select Settings
>Topology to see the new distributed port group. The new distributed port
group is also displayed under the VMware HCIA Distributed Switch in the left

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Lab Exercise 9: Configure VDS Port Group

Navigation Pane.

12. Examine the newly created distributed port group. In the left Navigation pane,
select the newly created distributed port group. In the work pane, select the
Configure tab and then select Settings > Policies.

Confirm that uplink1 is listed as an active uplink, and uplink2 is listed as a

standby uplink. Networking is configured in the distributed virtual switch, but
not in the physical switch. To use this network, you would need to configure
the ToR switch the VxRail is connected to. The VLAN would be connected to
the physical ports on the nodes.

SmartFabric Services with DellEMC OpenManage Network Integration

(OMNI) plug-in is not configured in this lab setup. When adding a new port
group to a VxRail cluster deployed with SmartFabric Services and OMNI,
the OMNI plug-in automatically updates the SmartFabric and configures
the physical ports of the ToR switches.

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 Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

Purpose

To demonstrate the HA capabilities of a VxRail vSAN cluster.

Tasks

Tasks covered in this lab exercise are:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client
 Move VM to an unused node with vMotion
 Validate VMware HA setting
 Restart node and have VMware HA restart a VM

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Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

Lab 10: Part 1 – Examining HA Environment

Lab Steps
1. VMware High Availability is one of the simplest and most effective ways to
improve the availability of the services that virtual machines provide.

When a VM becomes unavailable, it is restarted on another server. There is a

short outage while VMware figures out what components have failed and
where they should be restarted. There are options to determine which virtual
machines should be restarted, in what order they should restart, and what
should happen in the case of degradation. Basic high availability is set up by
default on a VxRail. You can enable additional features based on your needs.

There is nothing unique to a VxRail about VMware High Availability (HA).

Since it is a useful VMware feature, it would be useful to review its functionality
in a VxRail environment.

2. Log in to the vSphere Client:

https://vcenter##.vsb.edu/ui

User: [email protected]

Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Check the default HA setting for VxRail. Click Menu and select Hosts and
Clusters. Then open the vCenter and Datacenter in the navigation pane if
they are not already open.

a. Select the Cluster VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Cluster...

b. Select the Summary tab in the work pane.

c. Expand the vSphere HA section toward the bottom of the work pane.

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 Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

Here you can see that this cluster is mostly idle. You can also see the CPU
and Memory that is reserved for failover. The graphic shows the default
configuration. Proactive HA moves VMs when a host is degraded. Host
monitoring means that the ESXi hosts are monitored, and if one of them fails,
the VMs that were running on it are restarted. VM Monitoring captures the
heartbeat information from VMware tools on the individual VMs, and enables a
failed VM to be restarted automatically. In the lab, VMware tools are not
installed so leave it disabled.

4. HA failover is initiated by powering off one of the VxRail nodes in the cluster.
Ensure that vCenter is not running on the node that is going to be powered
off. The failover would still work, however, monitoring would be much more
difficult.

a. Select the VMware vCenter Server Appliance VM.

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Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

b. Select the Summary tab.

c. Under Host, observe the hostname that vCenter is running on:

_______________________________________________

d. Select the <Your Name>-VM1 VM.

e. Select the Summary tab.

f. Under Host, observe the hostname the VM is running on:

_______________________________________________

5. If your VM is running on the same node as vCenter, it is best to move it before

failing the node. If you do not do this step, when the node running your VM
and vCenter reboots, your connection to vCenter is lost. In this case, you have
to reauthenticate with vCenter.

a. Right-click <Your Name>-VM1

b. Select Migrate

c. Select Change compute resource only, click NEXT.

d. Select one of the VxRail nodes that is not used by the vCenter Server
Appliance.

e. Notice that the Compatibility checks succeeded, and click NEXT.

f. Leave the default network, and click NEXT.

g. Select Schedule vMotion with high priority (recommended) and click

NEXT.

h. Click FINISH

There is nothing special about this vMotion. Like on any other VMware cluster,
the VM stays up while the VM is migrated from one host to another. Since the
system has little utilization, the migration should complete quickly.

6. While the vMotion is running, check the configuration of vSphere HA. To check
and modify further vSphere HA configuration items:

a. In the navigation pane, select Hosts and Clusters.

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 Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

b. Select the cluster that starts with VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Cluster.

c. In the work pane, select the Configure tab.

d. Select Services > vSphere Availability option on the left.

Proactive HA defines what vSphere should do with VMs running on a

degraded host. What is Proactive HA set to?

_____________________________________________________

Host Isolation is when a host is not able to communicate with the rest of the
vSphere cluster. What is Host Isolation set to?

______________________________________________________

7. Check that your VM has successfully moved.

a. Select <Your Name>-VM1 in the navigation pane.

b. Select the Summary tab in the work pane.

c. Observe the host your VM is now running on.

______________________________________________________

d. Is it running on a different host from the vCenter VM host?

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Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

8. To show VMware HA restarting a VM, reboot the node that is running the VM.
First check the nodes in the cluster. Do any of them have a red icon? If they
do, someone else in your cluster is doing the lab.

You can wait to do the lab with your own VM or watch their VM restart.

a. In the navigation pane, select the node (ESXi host) your VM was running on.

b. Right-click Power > Reboot

c. In the Enter a Reason pop up window, type Lab HA test and click OK

9. Observe what happens. The entire process takes about 10 minutes.

 The host that is rebooting gets a red icon and is labeled not responding.

 The host and cluster have the red circle removed.

 The VM loses the green triangle that indicates that it is running and is
labeled disconnected.

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 Lab Exercise 10: Restart VM Using HA

 The VM gets the green triangle back and is now running on a new host.

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Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

Purpose

To understand the implications of node utilization and failover in a VxRail vSAN

cluster.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Perform calculations and validate that there are sufficient resources for normal
operations, and in the event of a failure.

References:

Lecture module:
 VxRail Availability Management

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 Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

Lab 11: Part 1 – Node Utilization for Maintenance and Failover

Lab Steps
1. VxRail components do not perform optimally at high levels of utilization. The
details on how performance degrades depends on which resource is over
used and how over used it is.

The best practice for VxRail is to avoid utilization above 80%, at that point
performance issues begin. If utilization ever exceeds 100%, outages should be
expected.
Utilization calculations should be done separately for compute capacity,
memory utilization, network bandwidth, storage capacity (GB), and storage
performance (IOPS).

For simplicity, all the calculations in this lab are based on memory
utilization.

2. A VxRail cluster with eight nodes is running at 65% utilization.

What is the utilization with one node down for maintenance? _________
Will the loss of a node result in over utilization? _________

What is the utilization if an extra node fails while the first node is still down for
maintenance? ____________
Will that lead to over utilization? _____________

3. A 10 node VxRail cluster is at 90% utilization and is experiencing performance

problems.

How many nodes should be ordered to bring the utilization down to less than
50%? ________________________

At that point how many nodes need to be out of service for utilization to again
exceed 80%? ____________________

4. A 12 node VxRail cluster is at 50% utilization.

Utilization is growing at the rate of 5% a month. Utilization will be 55% the next
month, and then 60%, and so on. How long until utilization climbs above 80%?

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Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

____________________

At that point how many nodes should be added to return the cluster to under
50% utilization? _______________________

5. A 4 node VxRail cluster is at 70% utilization.

What is the utilization with one node down? _____________

After six months, the cluster is at 90% utilization. How many nodes should be
added to bring down the utilization to less than 50%?
_____________________

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 Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

Lab 11: Part 1 – Node Utilization for Maintenance and Failover

- Answers

Lab Steps
1. In general, these questions are answered with the formula:

Future Utilization = Current Nodes x Current Utilization/Future Nodes

As stated in the labs, 80% utilization is considered overutilization

2. A VxRail cluster with eight nodes is running at 65% utilization.

What is the utilization with one node down for maintenance? _________
Will the loss of a node result in over utilization? _________

What is the utilization if an extra node fails while the first node is still down for
maintenance? ____________
Will that lead to over utilization? _____________

In a VxRail cluster with 8 nodes running at 65% utilization. 74%

What is the utilization with 1 node down for maintenance?

Will bringing that node down lead overutilization? No

What is the utilization if an extra node fails while the first 87%
node is still down for maintenance?

Will that lead to over utilization? Yes

3. A 10 node VxRail cluster is at 90% utilization and is experiencing performance

problems.

How many nodes should be ordered to bring the utilization down to less than
50%? ________________________

At that point how many nodes need to be out of service for utilization to again
exceed 80%? ____________________

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Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

A 10 node VxRail cluster is at 90% utilization 8 nodes must be added for a total of
and is experiencing performance problems. 18 nodes.
How many nodes should be ordered to bring
the utilization down to fewer than 50%?

At that point how many nodes need to be out 7 nodes down would lead to 82%
for utilization to again exceed 80%? utilization.

4. A 12 node VxRail cluster is at 50% utilization.

Utilization is growing at the rate of 5% a month. Utilization will be 55% the next
month, and then 60%, and so on. How long until utilization climbs above 80%?
____________________

At that point how many nodes need to be added to return the cluster to under
50% utilization? _______________________

A 12 node VxRail cluster is at 50% 6 months

utilization. But utilization is growing
at 5% a month. How long will it be
until utilization climbs above 80%?

At that point how many nodes need 8 nodes for a total of 20 nodes(Round up)
to be added to return the cluster to
under 50% utilization?

5. A 4 node VxRail cluster is at 70% utilization.

What is the utilization with one node down? _____________

After six months, the cluster is at 90% utilization. How many nodes need to be
added to bring down the utilization to less than 50%?
_____________________

A 4 node VxRail cluster is at 70% utilization. 93%

What is the utilization with one node down?

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 Lab Exercise 11: Node Utilization and Failover

After 6 months, the 4 node cluster is now at 90% 4 nodes for a total of 8 nodes
utilization. How many nodes need to be added to
bring down utilization to less than 50%?

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Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

Purpose

Create a log bundle using VxRail Plug-In. Dell EMC support may request a log
bundle to help diagnose issues.

Export system logs using the vSphere Client. Dell EMC support or VMware support
may request diagnostic information that is related to vCenter Server or the ESXi
nodes to diagnose issues.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to vCenter with the vSphere Client.
 Use VxRail Plug-In to create log bundle.
 Examine the contents of the log bundle.
 Export system logs for selected hosts, vCenter Server, and vSphere Client.
 Examine the contents of the log bundle.

References:

Lecture module:
 Maintenance and Troubleshooting

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 Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

Lab 12: Part 1 – Log Collection with VxRail Plug-In

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to your jump server. See Lab 0 for instructions.

All the lab steps are run from the jump server.

2. Log in to the vSphere Client.

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/

Username: [email protected]
Password: VMw@r3!!123

3. Create a Log Bundle.

Go to the Hosts and Clusters view – Menu > Hosts and Clusters.

Expand the VxRail vCenter.

Expand VxRail-Datacenter.

Click VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Cluster-######

Select the Configure tab.

The VxRail plug-in functionality is under VxRail in the tree panel of the
Configure tab.

Select VxRail > Troubleshooting.

Click CREATE. The CREATE button is located in the upper right corner of the
Log Collection pane.

In the Create Log Bundle dialog, you can select logs for VxRail Manager,
vCenter, ESXi, iDRAC, and PTAgent.
ESXi, IDRAC, and PT Agent logs require selecting specific hosts.

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Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

In this lab, you create a log bundle for VxRail Manager, iDRAC, and PTAgent.
Select the boxes to include VxRail Manager, iDRAC, and PTAgent.

Select the first host in the Host Selection list.

Click GENERATE.

Monitor the status in the Log Collection window. The Status column shows a
value of In Progress while the log bundle is being generated. The process can
take several minutes, please be patient. The status changes to Completed
with a green check mark after the log bundle has been successfully generated.

Select the log bundle that was generated.

To download the log bundle, click DOWNLOAD.

Chrome automatically saves the file to the Downloads folder. Firefox and
Internet Explorer give you the option to either open or save the file to the
Downloads folder. Ensure that you save the file. The filename starts with
VxRail_Support_Bundle. The name also includes the date and time.

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 Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

You may see a "Failed - Bad Certificate" error message when trying to
download the log bundle. To resolve the bad certificate issue:
a) Open a Firefox session to https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu.
b) Click Download trusted root CA certificates. Save the Zip file to a
known location.
c) Extract the contents of the downloaded file. Go to the certs/win folder.
d) Right click on each of files in the win folder and install them.
e) Open a new browser session to the vSphere client and try to download
the VxRail log bundle again.

4. Examine the contents of the log bundle.

Use the Windows File Explorer to locate the log bundle in the
C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads folder.

Right-click the VxRail_Support_Bundle*.zip file and select Extract All. The

Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders dialog opens.
Select the option to Show Extracted files when complete. Click Extract.

Open the VxRail_Support_Bundle* folder. You should see three files. One
each for iDRAC, PTAgent, and VxRail.

Double-click the vxrail_data_collection*.zip file. Open the

vxrail_data_collection* folder. Open the logs folder.

Some useful logfiles are:

Log file Location under Useful for troubleshooting

vxrail_data_collection

loudmouth.log ..\logs\loudmouth Node discovery issues

marvin.log ..\logs\marvin\tomcat\logs First run issues

lcm.log ..\logs\mystic Upgrade issues

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Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

Lab 12: Part 2 – Log Collection with vSphere Client

Lab Steps
1. Log in to the vSphere Client:

https://vxrail##-vcenter.vsb.edu/ui/

User: [email protected]
Password: VMw@r3!!123

2. Export System Logs.

Go to the Hosts and Clusters view – Menu > Hosts and Clusters.

Right-click the VxRail vCenter instance, and select Export System Logs...

The Export System Logs dialog box opens.

In the Select hosts page:

Select your VxRail node.

Select the option to Include vCenter Server and vSphere UI Client logs.

Click NEXT.

In the Select logs page:

Accept the default selections. Feel free to expand the different sections to see
all the available categories for which logs can be collected. The performance

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 Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

data can be optionally included. Typically the Customer support resource

specifies the logs that must be collected.

Click EXPORT LOGS.

Chrome opens a new browser tab and saves the file to the Downloads folder.
Firefox and Internet Explorer give you the option to either open or save the file
to the Downloads folder. Ensure that you save the file.

The log bundle can be large, and the export process can take some time
to complete. You can follow the progress of the log bundle download in
the Recent Tasks panel. In this lab environment, the log export process
took about 10 minutes – one node and vCenter Server logs with the
default selections. The support bundle was about 1.2 GB.

3. Examine the contents of the log bundle.

Use the Windows File Explorer to locate the log bundle in the
C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads folder. The name of the zipped logfile
starts with VMware-vCenter-support and includes the date and time.

Double-click the logfile. You should see log bundles for the node and vCenter.
The bundles have the .tgz extension. Extracted logfiles should be similar to the
files shown in the graphic. TGZ bundles can be opened with tools like WinZip
or 7-Zip.

4. Optional step

Use 7-Zip to decompress and extract:

a. Contents of the downloaded file

b. Contents of the vCenter TGZ archive

c. Contents of the TGZ archive extracted from the TGZ archive

The contents of the last TGZ should look something like:

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Lab Exercise 12: Log Collection

Navigate to var\log folder.

View the various categories for which logs are collected.

5. Optional step

Use 7-Zip to decompress and extract:

a. Contents of the VxRail node TGZ archive

b. Contents of the TAR archive extracted from the TGZ archive

The contents of the TAR should look something like:

Navigate the folder structure down to ~\var\run\log.

View the various logfiles here.

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 Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles

Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and

Knowledgebase Articles

Purpose

Review VxRail related advisories and knowledgebase (KB) articles on the Dell
EMC Support site.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Log in to the Dell EMC Support site.
 View VxRail related advisories.
 View VxRail related KB articles.

References:

Lecture module:
 Maintenance and Troubleshooting

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Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles

Lab 13: Part 1 – View VxRail Related Advisories

Lab Steps
1. The lab is best performed from your own computer that is used for day-to-day
administration of a VxRail environment.

This lab can be performed at your convenience. The lab requires Internet
connectivity to the Dell EMC Support site and a valid Dell EMC support
account.

2. Log in to the Dell EMC Support site and go to the Product Support page for the
VxRail Appliance Series.

The following URL takes you directly to the VxRail Appliance Series support
page:
https://support.emc.com/products/39970_VxRail-Appliance-Series
After a successful login you should see:

3. Review the Advisories that are related to VxRail.

Click the link in the center panel and see a listing of the relevant
advisories.
These advisories are the Dell EMC Technical Advisories (DTA) and Dell EMC
Security Advisories (DSA) for the VxRail Appliance.

Click a specific advisory, and read the details.

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 Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles

You can sign up for advisory alerts by clicking the link in the
upper right corner of the Technical and Security Advisories page.

4. Go back to the VxRail Appliance Series support page by clicking the

link in upper left corner of the Technical and
Security Advisories page.

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Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles

Lab 13: Part 2 – View VxRail Related KB Articles

Lab Steps
1. You should be logged in to the Dell EMC Support site looking at the VxRail
Appliance Series support page.

2. Review KB articles that are related to VxRail.

Click the link in the center panel and see a listing of all the
VxRail KB articles.
You can filter the list of articles by various criteria.

3. Filter the list to only show How To articles.

Click How To, under Dell EMC Article Type, in the panel on the left.
Here are some useful articles that you should see in the listing:

Article KB Number

VxRail: How to determine Compatibility/Interoperability of 530184

various components in the VxRail environment

VxRail: How to determine if a storage drive should be replaced 529853

in a VxRail vSAN cluster and preparation

VxRail: VxRail and external vCenter interoperability matrix 520355

VxRail: Proactive health check is reporting critical/error/info 523995

Click each of the articles, and view the details. Each article opens in a new
browser tab. Close the browser tab after reviewing the article.
Clear the How To filter to go back to the full listing of VxRail KB articles.

4. Filter the list to only show Break Fix articles.

Click Break Fix under Dell EMC Article Type in the panel on the left.
Here are some useful articles that you should see in the listing.

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 Lab Exercise 13: View VxRail Advisories and Knowledgebase Articles

Article KB Number

VxRail: When upgrading Dell nodes to 4.5.x or 4.7.x, the vSAN 528230
Health service item "Controller firmware is VMware certified"
may be in warning status

VxRail: event code: VXR014076/MYSTIC014076 - vSAN 522795

Health Alarm 'Hosts with connectivity issues'

VxRail: Failed to shut down service VMs 474256

Click each of the articles, and view the details. Each article opens in a new
browser tab. Close the browser tab after reviewing the article.

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Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with

SolVe Online

Purpose

Use Dell EMC SolVe Online to generate VxRail procedures.

Tasks

Tasks that are covered in this lab exercise include:

 Explore SolVe Online and available VxRail procedures.
 Generate power control procedures.
 Generate the procedure for adding capacity drives to VxRail E series nodes.
 Generate the procedure for changing the VLAN ID of the VM Networks.

References:

Lecture module:
 Maintenance and Troubleshooting

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 Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

Lab 14: Part 1 – Explore SolVe Online and Available VxRail

Procedures

Lab Steps
1. The lab is best performed from your own computer that is used for day-to-day
administration of the VxRail environment.

This lab can be performed at your own convenience.

The instructions in this lab are for Dell EMC SolVe Online.

VxRail procedures can also be generated using Dell EMC SolVe Desktop. Dell
EMC SolVe Desktop should have already been installed, authorized, and
VxRail Appliance generator downloaded.

2. Launch SolVe Online.

You can log in to SolVe Online using https://solveonline.emc.com.

You should see something similar:

3. Review Top Service Topics for VxRail.

Click Top Service Topics.

Select VxRail from the product listing on the left.

You should see a listing of the top service topics that are related to VxRail.

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Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

View the details of one of the topics. Clicking the topic opens a new browser
tab. Return to the SolVe Online browser tab after you have reviewed the
article.

4. View VxRail Appliance procedures.

Click All Products.

Scroll down.

Click VxRail Appliance.

Expand VxRail Procedures.

The list of available procedures depends on your access level. The graphic
shows the Customer view.

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 Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

5. View available Hardware Replacement Procedures.

Select Hardware Replacement Procedures.

Select VxRail E560/E560F. Scroll down and view the components that can be
replaced for this node type.
______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Select VxRail G560/G560F. View the components that can be replaced for
this node type.
______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Is there a difference in the components that can be replaced between these

two node types? _____________________________________________

Click CANCEL.

6. View available Hardware Upgrade/Expansion Procedures.

Select Hardware Upgrade/Expansion Procedures.

View the list of available procedures.

______________________________________________________________
________________________

Click CANCEL.

7. View available ‘How To’ Procedures.

Select ‘How To’ Procedures.

Is the system running Virtual Cloud Foundation on VxRail? Select No. Click
NEXT.

View the list of available procedures:

______________________________________________________________
________________________

Click CANCEL.

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Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

Lab 14: Part 2 – Power Control Procedures

Lab Steps
1. SolVe Online should be open on the VxRail Appliance procedures listing.

2. Generate power control procedures.

Select Power Control Procedures.

Select Your Power Control Activity - Select Power Down a Running VxRail
Cluster.

A box appears with references to KB articles. Click Acknowledge.

What VxRail Software Version is the Cluster running? - Select v4.7.3xx.

Click NEXT.

Usage information - Leave the fields blank.

Click NEXT.

Click GENERATE. The procedure is generated, and the document is

downloaded.

Open the downloaded document, and review the procedure.

3. Review the generated procedure.

What user interface is used to initiate the shutdown of a VxRail Cluster?

_________________________________

The VxRail Plug-In Shut Down Cluster feature provides users a graceful
shutdown for the entire cluster with a few clicks. During the shutdown
procedure, VxRail Manager provides detailed error messages with links to
appropriate knowledge base articles if there are any problems.

Users are responsible for properly shutting down all client VMs. VxRail
Manager shuts down all VMs in the cluster. Dell EMC recommends the
graceful shutdown of all client VMs before performing this procedure.
Adequate planning should be done before performing this procedure.

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 Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

Lab 14: Part 3 – Generate Capacity Drive Expansion

Procedure

Lab Steps
1. SolVe Online should be open on the VxRail Appliance procedures listing.

2. Generate the capacity drive expansion procedure for VxRail E series nodes.

Select Hardware Upgrade/Expansion Procedures.

Select Capacity Drive (HDD/SSD) Expansion.

Click NEXT.

Select the VxRail Appliance - Select VxRail E560/E560F.

Scroll down.
What VxRail Software Version is the Cluster Running? Select v4.7.300.
Click NEXT.

Usage information - Leave the fields blank.

Click NEXT.

Click GENERATE. The procedure is generated, and the document is

downloaded.

Open the downloaded document, and review the procedure.

3. Review the generated procedure.

Review the section on Handling FRUs. Why is use of an ESD kit important?
__________________________________________
Review the section on Materials needed. What is a requirement for the new
drives? __________________________________
What software interface is used to run the disk expansion procedure?
______________________________________________

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Lab Exercise 14: Generate VxRail Procedures with SolVe Online

Lab 14: Part 4 – Generate Procedure to Change VLAN ID

Lab Steps
1. SolVe Online should be open on the VxRail Appliance procedures listing.

2. Generate procedure for changing the VLAN ID of the VM Networks.

Select ‘How To’ Procedures.

Is the system running Virtual Cloud Foundation on VxRail? Select No.

Click NEXT.

Select ‘How To’ Change VLAN ID.

Click NEXT.

Select the VxRail Software Version - Select v4.7.300.

Click NEXT.

Select Change the VLAN ID of the VM Networks.

The link redirects to the VMware documentation - Configure VLAN Tagging
on a Distributed Port Group or Distributed Port.

Review the procedure.

VxRail Appliance Administration - Lab Guide

Page 120 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Appliance Administration - Lab Guide

© Copyright 2019 Dell Inc. Page 121