Implementing Cisco HyperFlex Solutions / Edition 1

by Jalpa Patel, Manuel Velasco, Avinash Shukla

Overview

Cisco HyperFlex solutions enhance data center efficiency, agility, and resiliency by tightly integrating core infrastructure (compute, storage, networking, and system management), increasing automation, and simplifying lifecycle management. This authoritative, comprehensive guide brings together knowledge, detailed configuration options, and real-world case studies for successfully deploying Cisco HyperFlex technologies in environments of all types.

Three expert authors present easy-to-understand overviews of key Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) concepts, show how HyperFlex technologies apply them, and present detailed reference examples with topologies, configurations, and verifications for each major feature. Drawing on extensive experience helping Cisco customers adopt HyperFlex, they present best practices for optimizing design, streamlining deployment, avoiding pitfalls, and maximizing value.

This guide will be indispensable to every IT and network professional, manager, or consultant involved in planning, deploying, or operating Cisco HyperFlex or evaluating any HCI solution. Reflecting current trends in HCI deployment, it will be valuable in both small-scale environments and large-scale data centers.

• Explore how and why data centers have evolved from traditional to converged and hyperconverged infrastructure
• Review the essentials of HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure connectivity
• Understand HyperFlex Data Platform architecture, components, topologies, and supported hardware
• Compare HyperFlex standard, stretch, and edge clusters, and understand their respective roles
• Install and deploy each type of Cisco HyperFlex cluster, including preparation, prerequisites, and components
• Manage HyperFlex via HyperFlex Connect: HX storage cluster status, components, encryption, replication, and more
• Maintain HyperFlex: clustering, virtual machine management, native snapshots, ReadyClones, and more
• Scale HyperFlex clusters, replace hardware, and upgrade software
• Configure and manage advanced HyperFlex Data Platform disaster recovery features
• Integrate supported third-party data protection solutions, including Veeam Availability Suite, Cohesity, and Commvault
• Utilize the cloud-based Cisco Intersight platform to deploy HyperFlexAnywhere, including edge and standard clusters

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780136601913
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	Networking Technology
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jalpa Patel (CCIE No. 42465) is a senior technical leader in the Customer Experience group at Cisco Systems. Her areas of interest include Cisco Unified Computing System and virtualization, hyperconverged infrastructure solutions,application-centric SDN for application agility and data center automation, and Nexus switches, which are the foundation for a next-generation unified fabric data center. She is currently focusing on building SaaS solutions for all data center technologies.

Jalpa has over 18 years of experience in networking and system management. She is leading innovation within Cisco to change support models. She has authored and published IEEE papers and regularly presents at industry conferences. Jalpa holds a M.S. degree in telecommunication networks from New York University and a B.S. degree in electronics and communications from a Gujarat university in India. She has also earned an advanced program management certificate from Stanford University. Manuel Velasco (CCIE No. 49401) is a customer support specialist in the Customer Experience group at Cisco Systems. In his previous role, he worked as a TAC engineer at Cisco,supporting multiple data center technologies, including Cisco Unified Computing System and virtualization, Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), and Cisco HyperFlex. He has over 8 years of experience in data center technologies.Manuel holds a B.S. degree in computer engineering from CalPoly–San Luis Obispo. AvinashShukla (CCIE No. 28418) is a technical leader at Cisco Systems. He has 11 years of experience in Cisco CX roles, spanning professional and technical services, and holds a dual CCIE in Collaboration and Datacenter. His current focus areas include Cisco HyperFlex, Cisco UCS and virtualization, Cisco Intersight, data center automation, and Kubernetes. He enjoys customer interaction and thrives on solving new challenges to improve customer experience every day.Avinash holds a B.Tech. in electronics and communication from IIIT in Hyderabad, India. He has co-authored IEEE publications and presents regularly at Cisco Live. He has won numerous Cisco awards for innovation, technical excellence, and customer focus, and he has presented many training sessions to Cisco partners and customers. He has also authored several tech notes and guides on data center technology to simplify day-to-day operations for customers.

Table of Contents

Preface xix

Introduction 1

Introduction to HCI 3

Cisco's HCI Solution: HyperFlex Overview 4

Deployment Options of Cisco HyperFlex 6

Cisco HyperFlex Advantages 7

Chapter 1 Overview of Data Center Products 15

Cisco Unified Computing System 15

UCS-B Series Products 16

UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect 16

UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects 17

UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects 18

UCS 5108 Chassis 19

Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers 20

Cisco UCS Manager (UCSM) 20

UCS-C Series Products 22

UCS-S Series Products 23

Cisco Intersight Cloud-Based Management (SaaS Solution) 23

HyperFlex Data Platform 24

HyperFlex Hybrid Nodes 25

HyperFlex All Flash Nodes 26

HyperFlex Edge for Remote and Branch Offices 27

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series System Management Components 28

Cisco MDS 9000 Multilayer Director SAN Switches 29

Cisco MDS 9700 Series Multilayer Director 30

Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Director 31

Network Switches 31

Nexus 5000 Series Products 31

Nexus 9000 Series Products 33

Cisco Nexus 9000 NX-OS Mode 33

Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI Mode 34

Hypervisors 36

VMWare vSphere Hypervisor 37

Microsoft Hyper-V 38

Summary 39

Chapter 2 HyperFlex Architecture 41

HyperFlex Architecture Components 42

Storage Controller Virtual Machine 42

HX Services 43

IO Visor 44

Log Structure File System 44

Data Optimization 45

HyperFlex Cleaner 45

Cluster Resource Manager (CRM) 46

Zookeeper 46

HyperFlex HX-Series Node Overview 47

HX220 M5/M4 Series 47

HXAF220c-M5SX All Flash 48

HX220c-M5SX Hybrid 48

HXAF220c-M4S All Flash 48

Cisco HyperFlex HX220c-M4S Hybrid Node 49

HX240 M5/M4 Series 49

HXAF240c-M5SX All Flash 49

HX240c-M5SX Hybrid 49

HX240c-M5L Hybrid 50

HXAF240c-M4SX All Flash 50

HX240c-M4SX Hybrid 51

FIXAF220c-M5N All-NVMe 51

All Flash, Hybrid, and All-NVMe 51

Cisco HyperFlex Compute-Only Nodes 52

Physical Installation 52

Supported Media 54

Physical Topology 58

HyperFlex Standard Cluster/HyperFlex Extended Cluster Topology 58

Fabric Interconnect Connectivity 59

HX-Series Rack-Mount Servers Connectivity 60

Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers Connectivity 62

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Topology 63

HyperFiex Edge Cluster Topology 64

Edge Network Connectivity 66

Summary 73

Chapter 3 Installing HyperFlex 75

Installation Prerequisites 76

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series System Components 77

Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects (FIs) 78

Cisco Nexus Switches 78

HyperFlex Software Versions 78

Host Requirements 79

Disk Requirements 79

Converged Nodes 79

Compute-Only Nodes 81

Browser Recommendations 81

Port Requirements 81

HyperFlex External Connections 87

UCS/Fabric Interconnect Network Provisioning 88

Configuration for HyperFlex 3.5 88

Network Settings 91

VLAN and vSwitch Requirements 91

Cisco UCS Requirements 92

Hypervisor Requirements 93

Storage Cluster Requirements 94

vCenter Configuration Requirements 95

System Services Requirements 96

CPU Resource Reservation for Controller VMs 96

Memory Resource Reservation for Controller Virtual Machines 97

Controller VM Locations 97

Auto-Support Requirements 100

Single Sign-On Requirements 101

Installing Cisco HyperFiex System Servers 101

Physical Connectivity Illustrations for Direct Connect Mode Cluster Setup 101

Installation Workflow 103

Deploy the HX Data Platform Installer OVA by Using the vSphere Web Client 104

Configuring and Deploying a Standard HyperFiex Cluster 107

HX Data Platform Installer Navigation Aid Buttons 117

Running the Postinstallation Script 117

Sample Post Installation Script 118

Installing HyperFlex Edge/Robo Cluster (ESXi, 3 Node) 120

HyperFlex Edge Deployment Options 121

HyperFlex On-Premises OVA Installer 121

Installation Overview 121

Configuring and Deploying a HyperFlex Edge Cluster (Gigabit Ethernet Only) 123

Configuring and Deploying a HyperFlex Edge Cluster (10 Gigabit Ethernet Only) 128

HyperFlex Edge Postinstallation Tasks 129

Installing a HyperFlex Stretch Cluster (ESXi) 130

Preinstallation Checklist 130

Network Requirements and Network Topology 130

Witness Requirements 132

Network Latency Requirements for the Witness VM 132

Fabric Interconnect and Node Requirements 132

VMware Requirements 133

ACI Requirements 133

UCS Manager Requirements 133

VLAN Requirements 133

Stretch Witness 133

Deploying the Witness Node 134

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Network IP Addressing 136

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Guidelines 138

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Limitations 138

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Installation 139

HyperFlex Stretch Cluster Postinstallation 150

Summary 150

Chapter 4 Managing HyperFlex 151

Logging in to HyperFlex Connect 151

Local Access 151

Role-Based Access Control 152

Dashboard Page 154

Settings Page 155

Auto-Support Settings 156

Support Bundle Settings 156

Notifications Settings 157

Kubernetes 158

Device Connector 159

Alarms Page 160

Events Page 162

Activity Page 163

Performance Page 164

System Information Page 165

Controller VM Access 167

Nodes Page 167

Disks Page 168

Datastores Page 169

Virtual Machines Page 171

Upgrade Page 172

UCS Server Firmware 173

HX Data Platform Upgrade 173

ESXi Upgrade 173

Progress Page 174

Web CLI Page 174

Replication 175

Replication Pairing 176

Encryption 177

Summary 181

Chapter 5 Maintaining HyperFlex 183

HyperFlex Licensing 184

Registering a Cluster with Smart Licensing 184

Creating a Registration Token 185

Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing Through a Controller VM 188

Virtual Machine Management 189

HX Data Platform Native Snapshots Overview 190

Benefits of HX Data Platform Native Snapshots 190

Native Snapshot Considerations 191

Native Snapshot Best Practices 192

Understanding SENTINEL Snapshots 193

Native Snapshot Timezones 193

Creating Snapshots 193

Scheduling Snapshots 195

Reverting to a Snapshot 196

Deleting Snapshots 198

ReadyClones 199

Benefits of HX Data Platform ReadyClones 200

Supported Base VMs 200

ReadyClones Requirements 200

ReadyClones Best Practices 201

Creating ReadyClones Using HX Connect 201

Creating ReadyClones Using the HX Data Platform Plug-in 203

Datastores 205

Adding Datastores 205

Scaling HyperFlex Clusters 207

Node Expansion 207

Adding a Converged Node 208

Adding a Compute Node 213

Expanding a Stretch Cluster 213

Configuring Sites for Expanding a Cluster 214

Expanding a Cluster 217

Removing Nodes 217

Removing Converged Nodes 217

Removing a Compute Node 224

Increasing Storage Capacity by Adding Drives 225

Hardware (Disk) Replacement 225

Replacing SSDs 225

Replacing NVMe SSDs 226

Replacing Housekeeping SSDs 227

Replacing or Adding HDDs 229

Upgrading HyperFlex Software 230

Upgrading HyperFlex 230

Pre-Upgrade Workflow 231

Downloading UCS Infra, B-Series, C-Series, and Storfs Bundles 232

Verifying the Pre-Upgrade UCS Server Firmware (C-Bundle) Version 234

Using UCS Manager 234

Using HX Connect 234

Pre-Upgrade Validation 235

Viewing the HyperFlex Cluster Health 235

Checking the Cluster Storage Capacity 236

Verifying That DRS Is Enabled 236

Verifying and Configuring the Net.TeamPolicyUpDelay Default Value 236

Viewing ESX Agent Manager 237

Verifying the Health of a HyperFlex Cluster in Cisco UCS Manager 238

Verifying v Motion Interfaces 239

Verifying Upstream Network Connectivity 240

Configuring the Cluster Access Policy in Lenient Mode 241

Verifying That No Major Alarms Are Reported for the HyperFlex Cluster in HyperFlex Connect 241

Hypercheck Utility 242

Storage Controller VM and ESXi Node Checks 242

Installing and Running Hypercheck 243

Upgrading UCS Infrastructure Firmware 248

Upgrade Procedure 252

Recommended Upgrade Method 252

Online Upgrade Process 252

Offline Upgrade Process 259

Post-Upgrade Check 261

Summary 261

Chapter 6 Advanced Features 263

Data Protection 263

Replication Overview 265

Port Requirements for Replication 265

Replication Considerations 266

Recovery Considerations 267

Replication Networking Overview 267

Replication Network Considerations 269

M*N Connectivity Between Clusters 269

Configuring a Replication Network in HX Connect 270

Replication Pair Overview 273

Procedure for Creating Replication Pair 274

Protecting Virtual Machines 276

Creating Protection Groups 277

Protecting Virtual Machines 279

Disaster Recovery Overview 281

Compatibility Matrix for Disaster Recovery Operations 281

Testing Virtual Machine Recovery 282

Recovering Virtual Machines 284

Plan Migration 285

HyperFlex Backup 286

Veeam Availability Suite 286

Changed Block Tracking 288

Cohesity 289

Cohesity Protection 289

Cohesity Recovery 290

Commvault 290

Summary 291

Chapter 7 Deploying HyperFlex Anywhere with Cisco Intersight 293

Cloud-Based Management 293

HyperFlex Cluster Policies in Intersight 296

Cisco HyperFlex Edge Cluster Deployment 297

Intersight Arbitrator Overview for 2-Node 298

Physical Topology 299

Cisco HyperFlex Edge Single-Switch Configuration 299

Cisco HyperFlex Edge Dual-Switch Configuration 300

Logical Topology 301

Installing Cisco HyperFlex Edge with the Cisco Intersight Platform 304

Intersight Installation Prerequisites 304

Cisco Integrated Management Controller Configuration 306

Claiming Devices in Cisco Intersight 308

Cisco HyperFlex Edge Clusters Installation Wizard 310

Postinstallation Configuration 320

Standard UCSM Managed HyperFlex Cluster Deployment 321

Summary 322

Index 323