StarWind SAN & NAS CVM 2-node Converged Scenario with VMware vSphere 7

Highly available shared storage servers

• Dedicated 2 storage servers expose highly available shared storage for vSphere and Hyper-V clusters:

1. Install the hypervisor of your choice, VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi or Hyper-V Server, on two dedicated storage servers, and on the compute servers that are intended to connect and utilize the shared storage provisioned by the appliance.

2. StarWind SAN & NAS CVM is deployed on each Hyper-V Server or VMware ESXi server with commodity direct-attached storage.

3. The network interfaces on each node for Management, Data/iSCSI, and Replication interfaces should be connected to different subnets and connected directly according to the network diagram above. Here, the 172.16.10.x subnet is used for the Data (iSCSI) storage traffic, and 172.16.20.x subnet is used for the Replication storage traffic.

NOTE: The vCenter server is recommended for the deployment of multiple ESXi servers.

NOTE: The Failover Cluster feature is recommended for the deployment of multiple Hyper-V servers.

Configuring converged storage server with VMware vSphere

Getting started with StarWind SAN & NAS

1. Start StarWind SAN & NAS CVM.

2. Launch Console to see the VM boot process and get the IPv4 address of the Management network interface.
Note: in case VM has no IPv4 address obtained from a DHCP server, use the Text-based User Interface (TUI) to set up a Management network.

3. Using the web browser, open a new tab and enter the VM IPv4 address to open StarWind SAN & NAS Web Interface. Click “Advanced” and then “Continue to…”

4. StarWind SAN & NAS  welcomes you, and the “Initial configuration” wizard will guide you through the deployment process.

5. In the following step, upload the license file.

6. Read and accept the End User License Agreement to proceed.

7. Review or edit the Network settings and click Next.
Note: Static network settings are recommended for the configuration.

8. Specify the hostname for the virtual machine and click Next.

9. Create an administrator account. Click Next.

10. Review your settings selection before setting up StarWind SAN & NAS.

11. Please standby until the Initial Configuration Wizard configures StarWind SAN & NAS for you.

12. The appliance is set and ready. Click on the Done button to install StarWind vCenter Plugin right now or uncheck the checkbox to skip this step and proceed to the Login page.

13. Repeat the initial configuration on other StarWind SAN & NAS CVMs that will be used to create 2-node or 3-node HA shared storage.

Installing StarWind vCenter Plugin

NOTE: This step is optional. StarWind vCenter plugin integrates the Controller Virtual Machines management into VMware vSphere user interface allowing managing compute and storage resources from a single web console.

1. To install the StarWind Plugin ensure that the version of your VMware vCenter Server Appliance  7.o or newer, then click Next.

2. Specify the vCenter Server FQDN or IP Address and administrator credentials and click Next.

3. Confirm the connection to your vCenter Server Appliance.

4. Review Summary and click the Install button.

5. Wait until the plugin is installed.

6. Click the Open Plugin page to start using StarWind SAN & NAS via the vCenter Plugin interface.

7. Repeat the plugin installation on each StarWind Controller Virtual Machine that will be managed using the StarWind Plugin in the VMware vSphere web interface.

Add Appliance

To create replicated, highly available storage, add partner appliances that use the same StarWind Virtual SAN license key.

1. Navigate to the Appliances page and click Add to open the Add appliance wizard.

2. On the Credentials step, enter the IP address and credentials for the partner StarWind Virtual SAN appliance, then click Next.

3. Provide credentials of partner appliance.

3. Wait for the connection to be established and the settings to be validated

4. On the Summary step, review the properties of the partner appliance, then click Add Appliance.

Configure HA networking

1. Navigate to the Network page and open Configure HA networking wizard.

2. On the Appliances step, select either 2 partner appliances to configure two-way replication, or 3 appliances for three-way replication, then click Next.

NOTE: The number of appliances in the cluster is limited by your StarWind Virtual SAN license.

3. On the Data Network step, select the network interfaces designated to carry iSCSI or NVMe-oF storage traffic. Assign and configure at least one interface on each appliance (in our example: 172.16.10.10 and 172.16.10.20) with a static IP address in a unique network (subnet), specify the subnet mask and Cluster MTU size.

IMPORTANT: For a redundant, high-availability configuration, configure at least 2 network interfaces on each appliance. Ensure that the Data Network interfaces are interconnected between appliances through multiple direct links or via redundant switches.

4. Assign MTU value on all selected network adapters, e.g. 1500 or 9000 bytes. If you are using network switches with the selected Data Network adapters, ensure that they are configured with the same MTU size value. In case of MTU settings mismatch, stability and performance issues might occur on the whole setup.

NOTE: Setting MTU to 9000 bytes on some physical adapters (like Intel Ethernet Network Adapter X710, Broadcom network adapters, etc.) might cause stability and performance issues depending on the installed network driver. To avoid them, use 1500 bytes MTU size or install the stable version of the driver.

5. Once configured, click Next to validate network settings.

6. The warning might appear if a single data interface is configured. Click Yes, continue to proceed with the configuration.

7. On the Replication Network step, select the network interfaces designated to carry the traffic for synchronous replication. Assign and configure at least one interface on each appliance with a static IP address in a unique network (subnet), specify the subnet mask and Cluster MTU size.

IMPORTANT: For a redundant, high-availability configuration, configure at least 2 network interfaces on each appliance. Ensure that the Replication Network interfaces are interconnected between appliances through multiple direct links or via redundant switches.

8. Assign MTU value on all selected network adapters, e.g. 1500 or 9000 bytes. If you are using network switches with the selected Replication Network adapters, ensure that they are configured with the same MTU size value. In case of MTU settings mismatch, stability and performance issues might occur on the whole setup.

NOTE: Setting MTU to 9000 bytes on some physical adapters (like Intel Ethernet Network Adapter X710, Broadcom network adapters, etc.) might cause stability and performance issues depending on the installed network driver. To avoid them, use 1500 bytes MTU size or install the stable version of the driver.

9. Once configured, click Next to validate network settings.

10. If only one Replication Network interface is configured on each partner appliance, a warning message will pop up. Click Yes, continue to acknowledge the warning and proceed.

11. Wait for the configuration completion.

12. On the Summary step, review the specified network settings and click Configure to apply the changes.

Add physical disks

Attach physical storage to StarWind Virtual SAN Controller VM:

• Ensure that all physical drives are connected through an HBA or RAID controller.
  
• To get the optimal storage performance, add HBA, RAID controllers, or NVMe SSD drives to StarWind CVM via a passthrough device.
  

For detailed instructions, refer to Microsoft’s documentation on DDA. Also, find the storage provisioning guidelines in the KB article.

Create Storage Pool

1. Navigate to the Storage pools page and click the + button to open the Create storage pool wizard .

2. On the Appliance step, select partner appliances on which to create new storage pools, then click Next.

NOTE: Select 2 appliances for configuring storage pools if you are deploying a two-node cluster with two-way replication, or select 3 appliances for configuring a three-node cluster with a three-way mirror.

3. On the Physical disks step, select physical disks to be pooled on each node, then click Next.

IMPORTANT: Select an identical type and number of disks on each appliance to create storage pools with a uniform configuration.

4. On the Profile step, select one of the preconfigured storage profiles, or choose Manual to configure the storage pool manually based on your redundancy, capacity, and performance requirements, then click Next.

NOTE: Hardware RAID, Linux Software RAID, and ZFS storage pools are supported. To simplify the configuration of storage pools, preconfigured storage profiles are provided. These profiles recommend a pool type and layout based on the attached storage:

• High capacity – creates Linux Software RAID-5 to maximize storage capacity while maintaining redundancy.
• High performance – creates Linux Software RAID-10 to maximize storage performance while maintaining redundancy.
• Hardware RAID – configures a hardware RAID virtual disk as a storage pool. This option is available only if a hardware RAID controller is passed through to the StarWind Virtual SAN.
• Better redundancy – creates ZFS Striped RAID-Z2 (RAID 60) to maximize redundancy while maintaining high storage capacity.
• Manual – allows users to configure any storage pool type and layout with the attached storage.

5. On the Summary step, review the storage pool settings and click Create to configure new storage pools on the selected appliances.

NOTE: The storage pool configuration may take some time, depending on the type of pooled storage and the total storage capacity. Once the pools are created, a notification will appear in the upper right corner of the Web UI.

IMPORTANT: In some cases, additional tweaks are required to optimize the storage performance of the disks added to the Controller Virtual Machine. Please follow the steps in this KB to change the scheduler type depending on the disks type: https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware.com/guidance/starwind-vsan-for-vsphere-changing-linux-i-o-scheduler-to-optimize-storage-performance/

Create Volume

1. Navigate to the Volumes page and click the + button to open the Create volume wizard.

2. On the Storage pool step, select partner appliances on which to create new volumes, then click Next.

NOTE: Select 2 appliances for configuring volumes if you are deploying a two-node cluster with two-way replication, or select 3 appliances for configuring a three-node cluster with a three-way mirror.

3. On the Settings step, specify the volume name and size, then click Next.

4. On the Filesystem type step, select Standard, then click Next.

5. Review Summary and click the Create button to create the pool.

Create HA LUN using WebUI

This section describes how to create LUN in Web UI. This option is available for the setups with Commercial, Trial, and NFR licenses applied.

For setups with a Free license applied, the PowerShell script should be used to create the LUN – please follow the steps described in the section: Create StarWind HA LUNs using PowerShell

1. Navigate to the LUNs page and click the + button to open the Create LUN wizard.

2. On the Protocols step, select the preferred storage protocol and click Next.

3. On the LUN availability step, select the High availability and click Next.

NOTE: The availability options for a LUN can be Standalone (without replication) or High Availability (with 2-way or 3-way replication), and are determined by the StarWind Virtual SAN license.

Below are the steps for creating a high-availability iSCSI LUN.

4. On the Appliances step, select partner appliances that will host new LUNs and click Next.

IMPORTANT: Selected partner appliances must have identical hardware configurations, including CPU, RAM, storage, and networking.

5. On the Volumes step, select the volumes for storing data on the partner appliances and click Next.

IMPORTANT: For optimal performance, the selected volumes must have identical underlying storage configurations.

6.  On the Failover strategy step, select the preferred failover strategy and click Next.

NOTE: The failover strategies for a LUN can be Heartbeat or Node Majority. In case of 2-nodes setup and None Majority failover strategy,  Node witness (requires an additional third witness node), or File share witness (requires an external file share) should be configured. These options are determined by StarWind Virtual SAN license and setup configuration. Below are the steps for configuring the Heartbeat failover strategy in a two-node cluster.

7. On the LUN settings step, specify the LUN name, size, block size, then click Next.

NOTE: For high-availability configurations, ensure that MPIO checkbox is selected.

8. On the Summary step, review the LUN settings and click Create to configure new LUNs on the selected volumes.