This module covers the VNX storage system Virtual Data Mover feature.

It provides an overview of a Virtual Data Mover and describes its benefits to the NFS and CIFS file storage environments. Virtual Data Mover operations are also detailed in the module. The creation and management of Virtual Data Movers are also provided in the module.

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Virtual Data Movers

This lesson provides an overview of a Virtual Data Mover (VDM). It also lists benefits of VDMs to CIFS and NFS file storage environments

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Virtual Data Movers

A Virtual Data Mover (VDM) is a VNX software-based Data Mover that is built within a file system; the VDM root file system. The VDM is mounted to, and runs on, a physical Data Mover. The physical Data Mover provides the VDM with CPU, memory, network, and network service resources. This creates a separation of the VDM from the physical hardware. Like a physical Data Mover, a VDM can support multiple CIFS servers and a single NFS server for a single domain namespace. Data file systems can also be mounted to the VDM for its CIFS server(s) and NFS server, providing clients access to the shared and exported data. The VDM is a virtual container that holds configuration data for its CIFS and NFS servers, and their shares and exports. The VDM is portable, able to be moved or replicated autonomously to another physical Data Mover.

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Virtual Data Movers

The system assigns the root file system a name in the form root_fs_<vdm_x>, where <vdm_x> is the name of the VDM. If a VDM name is not specified during creation, a default name is assigned in the form vdm_<x>, where <x> is a unique integer. The VDM stores the majority of the CIFS servers dynamic data within its root file system. This data includes:

CIFS server configuration (compnames and interface names) Local group database for the servers in the VDM

Kerberos information for the servers in the VDM

Share database for the servers in the VDM Home directory information for the servers in the VDM Auditing and Event Log information Secmap for mapping CIFS users

The NFS server specific data includes:

NFS server endpoint and exported file systems Name resolvers and STATD hostname

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Virtual Data Movers

There are a variety of features and configuration information available to physical Data Movers and virtual Data Movers. The table lists features and configuration information for physical and virtual Data Movers.

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Virtual Data Movers

Non-VDM based CIFS servers are not logically isolated and although they are very useful in consolidating multiple servers into one Data Mover, they do not provide isolation between servers as needed in some environments, such as ISPs. All of the configuration and control information is stored in the root file system of the Data Mover. By allowing administrative separation between groups of CIFS servers, VDMs provide the following benefits:

Each Virtual Data Mover has its own separate set of configuration files which makes the CIFS servers easier to manage. Server isolation and security is also provided as a result of the administrative separation of VDMs.

CIFS servers within a VDM can be moved from one physical Data Mover to another without changing the share configuration and CIFS environment can be replicated from a source to a destination site. This allows configuration and management flexibility for the administrator to accomplish load balancing without interrupting services for other VDMs within the same Data Mover.
Combining VDMs with Replicator allows that various replication solutions, including CIFS Asynchronous Data Recovery solutions can be implemented.

VDMs provide a multiple domains solution benefit for NFS servers. Without VDMs, a Data Mover is limited to a single NFS server that can service users from a single domain naming space; either DNS, NIS or LDAP. Like a physical Data Mover, a VDM can only support a single NFS server from a single naming space. By using multiple VDMs, it is possible to support multiple NFS servers, with each VDM supporting an NFS server from a different domain naming space.

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Virtual Data Movers

When a VDM is operational, it runs on a physical Data Mover. The physical Data Mover has the VDM root file system mounted to its root file system. The NFS and CIFS servers configured on the VDM are available on the network through the physical Data Mover interfaces and network services. The VDM has the exported/shared user data file system(s) mounted to its root file system. In this operational state, NFS and CIFS clients have access to the data through the VDM.

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Virtual Data Movers

A VDM can be moved from its source physical Data Mover to another target physical Data Mover within a VNX system. The move operation is performed in Unisphere by selecting the Properties dialogue window of the VDM. The VDM being moved unmounts its data file system(s) and unloads from its source Data Mover. The VDM then loads onto the new Data Mover and mounts its data file systems.

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Virtual Data Movers

A VDM can be unloaded from its source physical Data Mover on the VNX system. An unload operation can be used to stop all user data access from the VDM. Prior to unloading a VDM, its data file system(s) must first be unmounted as a separate operation performed by the administrator. The unload operation is performed in Unisphere by selecting the Properties dialogue window of the VDM. An unloaded VDM stops its access of the physical Data Mover CPU, memory, network interfaces and service resources. The NFS and CIFS servers on the VDM stop and remain inactive. The VDM root file system is also unmounted by the physical Data Mover. The VDM is permanently unloaded from the physical Data Mover. If the physical Data Mover is rebooted, it will not reload the VDM. The root file system of the VDM does not get deleted by the unload operation, it is available for reloading onto a physical Data Mover at a later time.

Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Virtual Data Movers

This lesson covered overview of a Virtual Data Mover (VDM). It also listed benefits of VDMs to CIFS and NFS file storage environments

Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Virtual Data Movers

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This lesson covers creating a VDM, the states and attributes of a VDM, and several considerations for implementing VDMs.

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Virtual Data Movers

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To create a VDM with Unisphere, follow the listed navigation to open the Create Virtual Data Mover dialogue window. From the Data Mover drop down list, select the physical Data Mover to create the VDM. In the Name field input the name of the VDM. The dialogue screen offers two options for the storage used to create the VDM root file system from. The Default Storage Allocation option instructs the system to take a 128 MB slice from the best matching storage pool for balance and capacity. If the Storage Pool option is selected the dialogue window changes, providing two additional drop down lists. The Storage System drop down offers the user a list of available storage systems. The Storage Pool drop down offers the user a list of available storage pools. The VDM root file system will be created from the storage selected.

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Virtual Data Movers

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A VDM in the loaded state is its normal fully operational active mode. By default, a VDM is created in the loaded state. A loaded VMD has its data file system(s) mounted read/write and the NFS and CIFS servers in the VDM are running and serving data. It is not possible to load one VDM into another VDM. A VDM in the Unloaded state is inactive. The VDM does not have data file systems mounted and its root file system is not mounted on the physical Data Mover. The VDM does not access any resources from the physical Data Mover and its NFS and CIFS servers are stopped. A VDM can be permanently unloaded or temporarily unloaded from the VNX command line interface (CLI). If Unisphere is used to unload a VDM, it is permanently unloaded from the source Data Mover. The VDM is available to be manually reloaded onto a physical Data Mover at any time. A VDM in the mounted state has its root file system mounted read-only to the physical Data Mover. The VDM is inactive and its NFS and CIFS servers are unavailable to clients. No changes can be made to a mounted VDM. When a VDM is being replicated, the VDM replica is in the mounted state. A VDM can also be set to the mounted state using the CLI.

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Virtual Data Movers

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The table summaries the VDM states and their characteristic attributes.

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Virtual Data Movers

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There are a few considerations that are important concerning VDM names. Since VDMs are portable and can be moved with a VNX system or replicated to another VNX system, VDM names need to be unique to avoid conflicts. It is also important to know that when a VDM is renamed, the VDMs root file system name will also change to reflect the name of the VDM. So if VDM names need to be changed for avoiding naming conflicts, their root file system names will also be changed.

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Virtual Data Movers

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When a VDM is created, it inherits the internationalization mode that is set on the physical Data Mover. If the VDM is moved or replicated to another Data Mover, the modes are compared. If modes do not match, the system will not allow the VDM to load and run on the target Data Mover. VDMs can be converted from ACSII to Unicode mode and the conversion is not reversible. A Unicode mode cannot be converted to ASCII mode. For more information refer to the product document Configuring Virtual Data Movers on VNX available from the EMC Support page.

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Virtual Data Movers

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When using VDMs with NFS there are some important considerations to know. The NFS server on the VDM supports NFSv3 and NFSv4 over the TCP protocol. The VDM does not support NFS in any version over the UDP protocol. The NFS server supports a single domain naming space per VDM. To support NFS environments having multiple domain naming spaces requires having a VDM configured for each naming space. The configuration of NFS on a VDM is done with through CLI only. This course does not cover implementing NFS on VDMs. Please refer to the product document Configuring Virtual Data Movers on VNX available from the document section of the EMC support site.

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Portability is a key function of the VDM and a key consideration when implementing them. What VDMs make portable are their NFS and CIFS servers and those objects depend on networking and network services. If a VDM is moved or replicated to a target physical Data Mover without similar networking and services available, the VDMs NFS and CIFS servers will not operate to serve data to clients. The DNS naming service is critical for CIFS Active Directory environments. The DNS, LDAP and NIS naming services are also critical to NFS environments. The NTP service is also a key service to maintain consistent time for the servers and clients using NFS and CIFS file storage protocols. Data Mover network interface names are also critical to the NFS and CIFS servers. The servers are bound to the interface name. When a VDM with NFS and CIFS servers are ported, the target Data Mover must have the same interface names available to the VDMs NFS and CIFS servers. Since NFS and CIFS servers export and share their file systems to clients, it is important when moving a VDM that the target Data Mover have access to the same storage and disk volumes that the NFS and CIFS server file systems are built upon. If a VDM is ported using Replicator, it is critical that the data file systems are also replicated with the VDM. There are additional VDM and CIFS considerations that will be covered within the CIFS module later in this course.

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Virtual Data Movers

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This lesson covered creating a VDM, the states and attributes of a VDM, and several considerations for implementing VDMs.

Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Virtual Data Movers

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This module covered the VNX storage system Virtual Data Mover feature. It provided an overview of a Virtual Data Mover and described its benefits to the NFS and CIFS file storage environments. Virtual Data Mover operations were also detailed in the module.

Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Virtual Data Movers

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