NetApp and VMware vSphere Storage Best Practices

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ETHERNET STORAGE NETWORKING BEST PRACTICES .................................................46
9.1 10 GIGABIT ETHERNET................................................................................................................................ 46
9.2 VIRTUAL LANS (VLANS) .............................................................................................................................. 46
9.3 FLOW CONTROL........................................................................................................................................... 46
9.4 SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL ..................................................................................................................... 47
9.5 BRIDGE PROTOCOL DATA UNITS .............................................................................................................. 47
9.6 NETAPP VIRTUAL INTERFACES ................................................................................................................. 47
9.7 ETHERNET SWITCH CONNECTIVITY.......................................................................................................... 48
10 CONFIGURING ETHERNET STORAGE NETWORKS ...........................................................49
10.1 HIGHLY AVAILABLE STORAGE DESIGNS WITH TRADITIONAL ETHERNET SWITCHES ................. 49
10.2 VMKERNEL CONFIGURATION WITH TRADITIONAL ETHERNET......................................................... 52
10.3 A STORAGE ARCHITECTURE WITH TRADITIONAL ETHERNET.......................................................... 54
10.4 DATASTORE CONFIGURATION WITH TRADITIONAL ETHERNET....................................................... 56
10.5 VMKERNEL CONFIGURATION WITH MULTI-SWITCH TRUNKING ....................................................... 57
10.6 A STORAGE ARCHITECTURE WITH MULTISWITCH TRUNKING ......................................................... 59
10.7 DATASTORE CONFIGURATION WITH MULTISWITCH TRUNKING ...................................................... 60
11 INCREASING STORAGE UTILIZATION .................................................................................61
11.1 DATA DEDUPLICATION............................................................................................................................ 62
11.2 ZERO-COST VIRTUAL MACHINE CLONING ........................................................................................... 64
11.3 STORAGE THIN PROVISIONING.............................................................................................................. 64
12 VIRTUAL MACHINE BEST PRACTICES ................................................................................68
12.1 WINDOWS VM FILE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE OPTION ....................................................................... 68
12.2 ENSURING OPTIMUM VM AVAILABILITY ............................................................................................... 68
12.3 ENSURING OPTIMAL STORAGE PERFORMANCE ................................................................................ 69
12.4 THE IMPACT OF PARTITION MISALIGNMENT ....................................................................................... 69
12.5 IDENTIFYING PARTITION ALIGNMENT................................................................................................... 70
12.6 CORRECTIVE ACTIONS FOR VMS WITH MISALIGNED PARTITIONS.................................................. 71
12.7 CREATE PROPERLY ALIGNED PARTITIONS FOR NEW VMS .............................................................. 72
13 VIRTUAL MACHINE STORAGE LAYOUT ..............................................................................74
13.1 DEFAULT VIRTUAL MACHINE LAYOUT ................................................................................................. 74
13.2 VIRTUAL MACHINE LAYOUT WITH NETAPP SNAP* TECHNOLOGIES ............................................... 74
14 STORAGE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT....................................................................80
14.1 MONITORING STORAGE UTILIZATION WITH NETAPP OPERATIONS MANAGER............................. 80
14.2 STORAGE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................................... 80
15 DISK-BASED SNAPSHOT BACKUPS FOR VMWARE..........................................................87
15.1 COMPLEMENTARY SNAPSHOT TECHNOLOGIES ................................................................................ 87
15.2 IMPLEMENTING NETAPP SNAPSHOT BACKUPS FOR VMWARE VSPHERE ..................................... 88
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