Overview of Managing HP 3PAR StoreServ technologies in the MUK classroom



Once again, a training course on managing storage systems HP 3PAR based on the StoreServ OS (I, II) was successfully held at the CC MUK (Kiev ) . This course consists of 5 days, in two parts (2 and 3 days), the first part is general information about the 3PAR architecture and its capabilities including local replication. In the second part, we are already talking about remote replication and disaster-proof configurations. On the first day of the course there was more theory, then all the following days, students were 80% loaded with labs, and only a little theory. Your attention is the beginning of the course on Storserv. In the first 3 hours, the instructor reviewed the course, which will be the next 5 days, then did a review of the 3PAR storage system , as part of an in-depth technical course. Under the cut report from the event and the recording of the first 3 hours of the course.

In the course, students got acquainted with all the main teams of 3PAR.



To understand how to work with 3PAR OS, you need to understand the entire topology and architecture of the entire HP 3PAR family. At the beginning of the course, the instructor briefly walked through all the basic, common 3PAR functionalities. ( A review of the new 3PAR was already on our blog ). Then, as the new 3PAR appeared, I reviewed what was new. 3PAR is designed this way, and it is especially clearly visible in the new, 8 series, it is unique in that it blurs the lines between high-end and mid-range, it can vary from the lower bar to high solutions. The instructor specially reviewed the entire architecture so that students could know exactly “what works with what and how” at the physical level, and at the software level.



Thin provisionig functionality was considered, which, by the way, first appeared in 3PAR. Therefore, its own name has migrated to the general term for the entire industry of the warehouses.

We reviewed the new StoreServ console , which now looks like a unified software for managing all HP equipment - OneView (in secret - very similar to linux). The previous console is implemented in Java, uses port 5753 - encrypted, 5782 - not encrypted connection - the interface looks like a thick VMware client. A feature of the console is that it is the same for the entire 3PAR line. If you own this HP storage management console, you can figure out and manage any 3PAR model, including the high-end for $ 1 million.



The important thing is that the instructor is not a “pure theorist”, but an engineer working in projects. Attendees here, in our laboratory, could "feel" everything that was discussed on the course. The instructor brought to disassemble and study the controller. In this course, the instructor welcomes a deviation towards real problems and questions from the students.



Basically, the course is about the 7th thousandth series , and separate modules were added for the new models of 8,000 and 20,000 series.

In 3PAR, all disks are virtualized, in order not to load only 1 disk, all data is sort of “spread out”. There is no classic raid, in the traditional sense, a raid does not occur on the disk, but through blocks. This approach gives independence from iron and fits very well into the modern SSD concept, where there are no tracks, sectors, but blocks. Zero detection is another 3PAR chip, it also uses thin provisionig, 3PAR detects 16 kb in microscopic portions, and the closest competitor has a block (I / O) of several megabytes. Another feature is that the entire range of 3PAR storage systems is based on special chips that hardware accelerate I / O operations, just like a video card accelerates the video of your PCs. Major storage vendors moved to Xeons, but HP remained true to its architecture,

"Three guys"
Among HP engineers, there is a legend about the emergence of 3PAR storage systems, in 2000 they created "three guys." They acted cunningly: they looked at what was best on the market and took it to their storage systems - and with that went into the market. On this system, "from birth" it was necessary to perform many different - heterogeneous tasks. The idea of ​​heterogeneous loading in 3PAR has been solved perfectly. The architecture itself is designed so that the tasks do not interfere with each other. For example, 3PAR implements virtual domain technology ( Virtual Domen ) - when 1 3PAR is divided into several separate volumes, storage systems that do not see each other at all. For example, when the data center is cut between different customers, and they do not interfere with each other, no matter what tasks they set for their parts of the storage system.



From the very beginning, 3PAR licensed every sneeze when HP bought 3PAR - the number of licenses decreased significantly. Now, in the case of storage up to 48 disks - you pay for the volume, more than 48 disks - nothing is licensed. Out of the box, 3PAR works without a license - thin provisioning , deduplication , and Adaptive Flash Cash . All other functions are licensed.

Another feature of 3PAR is that this storage loves symmetry and balance. In general, 3PAR is so designed, and the principle of balance is always respected there, if the controllers are sure to have an even number, etc. HP will never sell 3PAR, which is not load balanced. The controller will definitely have a partner, first of all, in order to rewrite the cache in case of any failures. Sometimes the symmetry requirement requires the addition of more disks and shelves, but productivity increases many times, although students checked that 3PAR works with any number of disks and shelves, though it is not always optimal.

Controllers fight
HP 3PAR first started making 2, 4, 6, controller storage (a pair number is required) in the middle-range segment. 3PAR has both file and block access. Marking C - means unified file and block access, however, 8,000 and 20,000 series refused this marking - all models are already unified there from the factory.


ASIC in the controller

There was also a module dedicated to the work of 3PAR with cloud technologies and deduplication. For example, when you have VMware OSstarts formatting the disk, then 3PAR will not do anything so as not to load the back-end disks, because formatting is, in essence, recording zeros, and their 3PAR detects in 16 kb blocks with its ASIC and does not write to disks, but only updates metadata, thus increasing throughput. Also, if you install one Windows OS in VMware, you can deduplicate it to the number of VDI machines you need. Already out of the box, without a license, 3PAR is equipped with a port for deduplication. There are vendors who already produce disks with an encryption chip, 3PAR does not encrypt these disks on its own, it uses chips built into the disks, it only stores the key at home. But there is such a rule that if you want to switch to encrypted drives in your 3PAR, you will need to transfer all drives to encryption.

The instructor made a review of different software to assess what you can get with 3PAR, or how else you can use it. To consider in more detail what you and where you will receive in 3PAR, students used the HPE QuickSpecs tool .



Separately, the instructor dwelled on common issues that engineers and system administrators encounter when working with 3PAR. About when and how service requests are processed. Which partnership numbers track 3PAR service contracts. In which case, it’s not worth the risk to lose service support.

Also, the instructor indicated the "chips", which few people pay attention to. For example, the developers were tasked with the convenience of the management console (one that is similar to OneView). The developers did something like an internal Twitter system, which records all the records of the system, its status, etc. - This is a great tool for reviewing the general picture and history of storage for administrators. He talked about the web version of the management console (OneView), which can manage up to 16 3PARs. This web platform, which not everyone can do so far, but will soon be able to manage any HP equipment, be it a server, storage, or a switch. This web platform is already used in the administration of 3PAR storage systems when you create file services (this functionality is called File Persona). Another plus of this web console is that there is a search “all over”. Since if you have 16 3PARs, for example, then finding something without this search is problematic, the search is similar to windows search. An interesting feature for archiving data isVirtual Lock - it happens that customers have requirements when “data needs to be stored for 5 years” - and 3PAR can lock data at the hardware level like that, and even it cannot unlock it :).



The instructor, in addition to issues relating only to software, touched upon purely technical issues, which are described in few places. For example, he talked about the fact that in the series of equipment different revisions are used (with different xeons). Indeed, few people know about the firmware, which can be used to upgrade the 7200 series equipment to the 7400: the hardware is the same, and the functionality is activated in the console. 3PAR also has such a trick - the power supply has its own battery so that if the power cord is pulled out so that it can write data from the cache. Tuning of system performance and features of its implementation were also considered.

And many, many other things that were considered in this course, which we did not write about, you can watch the video, or attend courses yourself.

After the first two parts of the Managing HP 3PAR StoreServ course, you will be able to visit III, the newest and most advanced part, where there is a deepening in the technologies of Adaptive optimization and AdaptiveFlashCache .

Below is a video of the first 3 hours of the course.



We invite you to the next 3PAR training courses:
January 18–20, 2016 HK902S Managing 3PAR Disk Arrays
January 21–22, 2016 HK904S Managing HP 3PAR Disk Arrays: Replication and Performance
February 8–10, 2016 H9P97S Managing HP 3PAR StoreServ III



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