StarWind SMI-S and integrations with SCVMM 2012

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Max (staff)
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Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:44 am

This topic is dedicated for all discussions about StarWind's SMI-S provider and it's use/configuration with SCVMM.
current version available for download:
http://starwindsoftware.com/tmplink/Sta ... review.exe
We're currently working on the documentation for the preview, please stay tuned, I will keep the topic updated.
Please feel free to post all your questions to this thread, we will do our best to help you!
Max Kolomyeytsev
StarWind Software
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Anatoly (staff)
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Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:16 am

I will start with the little brieffing:

To install SMI-S provider first of all you need to download it by using the link that my colleague provided above (you can see it once again below this string or you can find it at your Customer Page):
http://starwindsoftware.com/tmplink/Sta ... review.exe
After it will be installed it will try to locate and use StaRWind SAN storage on teh localhost.

You should setup SMI-S before using it. Use ConfiguratorConsole.exe from [installation_path]\OpenPegasus\bin to do it.
Simply start this app from command-line and answer the questions. You should not change device type (leave it "IMG" as proposed).

Notice: Оne iSCSI Traget corresponds to one StarWind Array.

If any target waith device attached hasn`t been created on SAN, then you will not be able to connect to the SMI-S provider since it is not able to provide any StarWind Array (since it doesnt exist obviously).
Unfortunatelly for now it is impossible to create StarWind targets through the SMI-C agent.
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
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Tiago Rost
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Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:37 am

Thanks for the information, can you provide more information on the steps in brief. is there anything needed to be installed on the SCVMM 2012 server and is the RC supported or only RTM? also on the Starwind Server i used the evaluation version and only installed the StarWind iSCSI SAN and the SMI-S provider then do the steps mention which did not worked with me (using RC version of system center), one last thing what the StarWind VSS Provider used for and should i install it?
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Anatoly (staff)
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Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:21 am

We are working hardly on the documentation right now. I will provide you with extract from this document:
First you need to Configure StaRWind Storage (you need to create new Basic Image or CDPtarget)
Then you need to configure SMI-S provider. Here are the steps:

1.Double-click on installer.
2.Click Yes to install SMI-S Agent as a Windows Service.
3.Welcome Page appears. Click Next to continue.
4.Define the folder to install the SMI-S Agent and click Next.
5.Click Install to begin the installation process or click Back to change any settings.
6.During the installation you will be informed about a series of CMD prompts. Click OK to continue the process.
7.In the end the restart is required to complete the installation. It could be done automatically by choosing “Yes, restart computer now” or manually by choosing “No, I will restart the computer later”. During the installation you will be informed about a series of CMD prompts. Click OK to continue the process.
In the end the restart is required to complete the installation. It could be done automatically by choosing “Yes, restart computer now” or manually by choosing “No, I will restart the computer later
8.Choose "reboot machine now option" or do it later
9.Click Finish.

To configure previously installed SMI-S Agent do the following:
1.From %INSTALL PATH%\StarWind SMIS\OpenPegasus\bin run the ConfiguratorConsole.exe — automated script to configure SMI-S Agent. Please, follow the instructions for further correct work.
Note: If SMI-S Agent and Starwind iSCSI SAN Software were installed on different servers enter Host IP address and Host Name of Starwind iSCSI SAN server.
2.Launch the automated script sslsetup.cmd from %INSTALL PATH%\StarWind SMIS\OpenPegasus\bin to generate SSL certificate. Please, follow the instructions for further correct work.
3.After configuring the restart is required for changes take effect.

CONFIGURING SCVMM 2012
Prior to starting the discovery process, you should go ahead and setup a Run As account that will be used to connect to the SMI-S provider.
To configure the Run As account, do the following:
1. Launch the VMM Console.
2. At the bottom left pane of the VMM Console, navigate to Settings.
3. At the top of the VMM Console under of the Home tab, expand Create Run As Account.
4. In the Create Run As Account wizard, enter Name (ex: Storage Account).
5. Enter a description (optionally).
6. For user name use the account with permissions of domain administrator.
7. Enter password and confirm it.
8. Click OK.

This should save the credentials that you can use in the next step when adding storage device.
To discover and classify storage do the following:
1.Launch the VMM Console.
2.Select Fabric at the bottom left pane of the VMM Console.
3.In the VMM Console, right-click on Providers (or Arrays) and select Add Storage Devices. Another way to do this is the follow: at the top of the VMM Console under the Home tab, expand Add Resources and select Storage Devices which launches the Add Storage Devices Wizard.
4.For the Specify Discovery Scope section of the Add Storage Devices Wizard, enter the IP Address or FQDN and port.
Note: If You will use SSL connection leave “Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection” checkbox checked and enter the port 5989, if not – uncheck the checkbox and use the port 5988.
5.For Run As account, click Browse to start the Run As dialog and select previously created account or create new one.
6.Click OK.
7.To continue wizard click Next.
8.During the discover process you will be prompted to import the certificate. Click Import to continue wizard.
Note: To successfully add the storage provider by using SSL if you receive the error messages "SSL certificate common name is invalid" or "Certificate Authority not recognized", you must disable CN verification for the storage provider certificate in the registry. For further details, please refer to the following Microsoft Technet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10563.aspx
9.In the end of discover process you should see StarWind Storage Array listed along with all the storage pools and total capacity. Click Next to continue wizard.
10.Before storage pools can be managed, they must be classified. Click Create classification.
11.In the New Classification dialog box enter a name and description and click Add.
12.Once classifications are created and assigned, ensure all Storage Device pools are selected and click Next.
13.At summary section confirm the settings and click Finish.
14.In the SCVMM Fabric workspace expand Storage and select Providers to confirm the newly added StarWind Storage Provider is listed with a responding status.

After all of this you can create Logical Unit through VMM
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
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Tiago Rost
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Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:22 pm

Anatoly thank you very very much, the steps is very clear and worked like charm, thank you once again :wink:
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anton (staff)
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Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:37 pm

Your ideas / feedback / suggestions about SMI-S provider in StarWind are welcomed. Thank you very much for cooperation!
Tiago Rost wrote:Anatoly thank you very very much, the steps is very clear and worked like charm, thank you once again :wink:
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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ticktok
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:22 am

Hi Anton,
Thanks for the detailed set up. I posted earlier regarding my experiments with the SMI-S provider showing up with 0 Capacity and you advised me to try a smaller image file of say 2Gb. I have had more time today to experiment further and found the following:-
When the target is configured as available for clustering the 0Gb capacity etc. shows up in SCVMM2012
When the target is configured without clustering the Capacity shows up as the storage available of the volume on which the targets are created - along with its available free space.

I have the ability to create logical units on both the Starwind targets (available for clustering and Not). But can only assign the logical units to the Host Cluster not to individual hosts for the clustered target.

For the target without clustering support there seems to be no way the VMM Manager to assign the storage to an individual host.

I am running the Free version of Starwind iSCSI SAN - does this version not support what I am trying to do? Should I be using an Evaluation version?
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ticktok
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:30 am

The second issue with SCVMM 2012 is that despite the storage array showing up in VMM Manager there does not seem to be a method to add the ISCSI array to any of the hosts managed by VMM Manager. In the storage panel for either a cluster or an individual host the ability to add an iSCSI array is greyed out and unavailable.

I posted a request to this forum:-
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For ... b79795c124

but did not mention that the Storage array was StarWind
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anton (staff)
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:07 am

Well it was not me who had posted step-by-step guide but thank you for thanking me :)

Of course it's a bug! Both ways clustered and non-clustered should work the same way. I'll point developers to this thread. Thank you for reporting! :)
ticktok wrote:Hi Anton,
Thanks for the detailed set up. I posted earlier regarding my experiments with the SMI-S provider showing up with 0 Capacity and you advised me to try a smaller image file of say 2Gb. I have had more time today to experiment further and found the following:-
When the target is configured as available for clustering the 0Gb capacity etc. shows up in SCVMM2012
When the target is configured without clustering the Capacity shows up as the storage available of the volume on which the targets are created - along with its available free space.

I have the ability to create logical units on both the Starwind targets (available for clustering and Not). But can only assign the logical units to the Host Cluster not to individual hosts for the clustered target.

For the target without clustering support there seems to be no way the VMM Manager to assign the storage to an individual host.

I am running the Free version of Starwind iSCSI SAN - does this version not support what I am trying to do? Should I be using an Evaluation version?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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anton (staff)
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:07 am

Wow! I had a gut feeling it's StarWind but I had to ask :) OK, we're checking both issues you've reported.
ticktok wrote:The second issue with SCVMM 2012 is that despite the storage array showing up in VMM Manager there does not seem to be a method to add the ISCSI array to any of the hosts managed by VMM Manager. In the storage panel for either a cluster or an individual host the ability to add an iSCSI array is greyed out and unavailable.

I posted a request to this forum:-
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For ... b79795c124

but did not mention that the Storage array was StarWind
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Yuriy (staff)
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:00 pm

Thank you for your report, Ticktok!

We will try to reproduce each issue reported by you in our QA lab.

We will notify you of the results as soon as possible.
ticktok wrote:The second issue with SCVMM 2012 is that despite the storage array showing up in VMM Manager there does not seem to be a method to add the ISCSI array to any of the hosts managed by VMM Manager. In the storage panel for either a cluster or an individual host the ability to add an iSCSI array is greyed out and unavailable.

I posted a request to this forum:-
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For ... b79795c124

but did not mention that the Storage array was StarWind
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Yuriy (staff)
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:56 pm

Ticktok, please, specify type of the storage device that you try to use with SMI-S? IMG or IBV?
Please, note that preview of SMI-S provider supports only IMG and IBV types of storage for now.
ticktok wrote:Hi Anton,
...
When the target is configured as available for clustering the 0Gb capacity etc. shows up in SCVMM2012
When the target is configured without clustering the Capacity shows up as the storage available of the volume on which the targets are created - along with its available free space.
...
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ticktok
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:12 am

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:07 pm

Yuriy (staff) wrote:Ticktok, please, specify type of the storage device that you try to use with SMI-S? IMG or IBV?
Please, note that preview of SMI-S provider supports only IMG and IBV types of storage for now.
ticktok wrote:Hi Anton,
...
When the target is configured as available for clustering the 0Gb capacity etc. shows up in SCVMM2012
When the target is configured without clustering the Capacity shows up as the storage available of the volume on which the targets are created - along with its available free space.
...
The storage device is IMG.
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Tiago Rost
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Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:45 am

hello again,

am facing a strange problem when creating logical LUN using SCVMM 2012, after adding the Starwind to the SCVMM 2012 RC when i create new logical LUN the system center console disconnected and then give me error 1700 "the virtual machine manager server on the SCVMM server stopped while this job was running. This may have been caused by a system restart" it only happen when creating LUN, but the thing is the LUN gets created in the Starwind Server but not shown in the SCVMM console. Is it because am using RC version of System Center?
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Tiago Rost
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Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:33 am

update,.. i have installed the RTM version of SCVMM 2012 and the same problem still exist.
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