StarWind Virtual SAN Compute and Storage Separated Multi-Node Cluster Scale-Out Existing Deployments for VMware vSphere

INTRODUCTION

Traditionally VMware requires having some sort of the shared storage to guarantee the data safety, allow the virtual machines migration, enables continuous application availability and eliminates any single point of failure within IT environment. VMware users have to choose between two options when choosing the shared storage:

• Hyper-Converged solutions, that allows sharing the same hardware resources for the application (i.e. hypervisor, database) and the shares storage, thus decreasing the TcO and achieving the outstanding performance results

• compute and Storage separated solutions that keeps the compute and storage layers separately from each other, thus making the maintenance easier, increasing the hardware usage efficiency and allows building the system accurately for solving the task

This guide is intended for experienced StarWind users, VMware and Windows system administrators and IT professionals who would like to add the Scale-Out node to the StarWind Virtual SAN® cluster. It provides a step-by-step guidance on scaling out the hyper-converged 2-node StarWind Virtual SAN that converts the storage resources of the separated general purpose servers into a fault tolerant shared storage resource for ESXi.

A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by pressing the Help button in the StarWind Management Console.

For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked Questions page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department.

Solution Diagram

The diagram below illustrates the network and storage configuration of the resulting solution described in the guide.

Replacing Partner for (DS2)

1. Add third StarWind node (SW3)

2. Open replication manager for DS2 on the second StarWind node.

3. Click Remove Replica

4. Click Add replica

5. Select Synchronous “Two-Way” Replication and click next

6. Enter name or IP address of the third StarWind node

7. Select Create new Partner device

8. Click Change Network Settings

9. Select HeartBeat and synchronization channels

Click OK. You will return to Network Option for Synchronization Replication. Click Next.

10. Click Create Replica

11. After creation click Finish to close Replication Wizard

Creating Virtual Disk (DS3)

1. Open Add Device Wizard through one of the following ways:

• Right-click a StarWind server and select Add Device (advanced) from the shortcut menu.

• Select a StarWind server and click the Add Device (advanced) button on the toolbar.

2. As Add Device Wizard appears, follow the instructions to complete the creation of a new disk.

3. Select Hard disk device as the type of a device to be created. click Next to continue.

4. Select Virtual disk. Click Next to continue.

5. Specify a virtual disk location and size.

6. Specify virtual disk options.

7. Define the caching policy and specify the cache size (in MB). You can also set maximum available cache size by selecting the appropriate checkbox.

8. Optionally, define the L2 caching policy and the cache size. Click Next to continue.

9. Specify target parameters. Select the Target Name checkbox to enter a custom name of a target.

Otherwise, the name is generated automatically in accordance with the specified target alias.

10. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target.

11. Click Finish to close the wizard.

12. Right-click the recently created device and select Replication Manager from the shortcut menu. Then, click Add replica.

13. Select Synchronous two-way replication as a replication mode.

14. Specify a partner hostname, IP address and port number.

15. Choose create new Partner Device and click Next.

16. Click Change network settings….

17. Specify interfaces for synchronization and Heartbeat channels.

18. Click Create Replica.

19. The successfully added devices appear in the StarWind Console.

Configuring ESXI Cluster

Configuring the iSCSI Initiator

1. Select a host.

2. Click the Manage tab and select the Storage inset and Storage Adapters item.

3. The list of the available storage adapters appears. Select iSCSI Software Adapter. Open Targets.

4. Enter IP address of new StarWind node. Click OK.

5. Do same for each iScSI_Data networks by clicking Add and specifying the server IP address.

6. In the Rescan dialog click OK.

7. Repeat the same procedure for another cluster host.

Setting up a Datastore

1. Right click on host and select New datastore.

2. New Datastore wizard appears.

3. Select VMFS.

4. Enter name of datastore (DS3) and device for datastore.

5. Select VMFS 5

6. Enter datastore size.

7. Verify the settings. Click Finish.

8. Check another host for a new datastore. If a new datastore is not listed among the existing datastores, click Rescan All.