Lab Guide

Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo

Guide
Lab Guide

EMC Solutions Group

Abstract

This Lab Guide serves as a guide for a demonstration of the features of

SmartConnect of EMC Isilon storage systems.

April 2013

 
 Copyright © 2013 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its

publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” EMC Corporation makes
no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in
this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this

publication requires an applicable software license.

For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation
Trademarks on EMC.com.

All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 2
Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 4  
Purpose ........................................................................................................................................... 4  
Scope .............................................................................................................................................. 4  
Terminology ..................................................................................................................................... 4  

Technology overview ........................................................................................................................... 6  

EMC Isilon storage system ............................................................................................................... 6  

Lab overview ........................................................................................................................................ 7  

Lab environment .............................................................................................................................. 7  
Labs ................................................................................................................................................ 7  

Lab 1 – Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Basic ..................................................................... 8  

Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 8  
Lab .................................................................................................................................................. 8  
Connect to the Web Administration Interface ............................................................................... 8  
Configure SmartConnect.............................................................................................................. 9  
Verify that SmartConnect is working .......................................................................................... 13  
Map a drive to the SmartConnect zone name ............................................................................. 14  
Show DNS entries used for SmartConnect ................................................................................. 18  
Find which node the client is connected to ................................................................................ 19  

Lab 2 – Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Advanced (Optional) ............................................ 20  

Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 20  
Lab ................................................................................................................................................ 20  
Configure SmartConnect with Dynamic IPs ................................................................................ 20  
Mount the cluster from the Linux Client .......................................................................................... 25  
Find which node the Linux Client has mounted .......................................................................... 27  
Reboot the node the Linux client has mounted .......................................................................... 28  
Display which node the client connection is still copying data through ...................................... 32  
See the result of the node coming back online .......................................................................... 32  

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 34  
Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 34  
Support ......................................................................................................................................... 34  
Customer .................................................................................................................................. 34  
EMC personnel .......................................................................................................................... 34  

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 3
Introduction

Purpose This Lab Guide serves as a guide to a demonstration of the SmartConnect feature of
EMC Isilon storage systems. SmartConnect provides client that connect to the cluster
a simple name that will distribute connections across all the nodes and allow for high
service availability when node failures occur.

Scope This Lab Guide provides:

§ A set of illustrated labs to demonstrate the SmartConnect feature of EMC Isilon
storage solution. The cluster must already be configured as specified in the Isilon
Pod Demo Guide.
§ Configure and Demonstrate SmartConnect basic functions
§ Configure SmartConnect Basic
§ Map drives to the SmartConnect zone name
§ Optionally Show DNS entries required
§ Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Advanced (Optional)
§ Configure SmartConnect Advanced zone
§ Mount SmartConnect zone name from Linux client
§ Reboot the node the Linux Client is attached to
§ Show uninterrupted service as node is offline and comes back online

Terminology Table 1 explains EMC Isilon storage systems terminology.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Description
EMC Isilon storage system
Isilon Node The building blocks of an EMC Isilon storage system. A node is made up
of a server with CPU, memory, network connections and hard drives.
Isilon Network Subnet Network object used mange networking on an EMC Isilon storage system.
It contains information about a specific subnet, such as Netmask,
Gateway, etc as well as the SmartConnect Service IP. It also contains one
or more Isilon IP Address Pools.
Isilon IP Address Pool Address Pools contain a range of IP address, SmartConnect zone
information as well as the interfaces from the nodes that should be
included in this pool.
SmartConnect Service IP A highly available IP address used to receive DNS request from the DNS
server. The client NEVER connects to or uses this IP address

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 4
Term Description
SmartConnect Zone The fully qualified DNS name the client will connect to when mapping or
Name mounting the cluster. This is a property of the pool and when the client
connects to the zone name, they will connect to one of the IP address and
interfaces that are part of that pool.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 5
Technology overview

EMC Isilon storage OneFS® is EMC Isilon's seventh-generation operating system that provides the
system intelligence behind all Isilon® scale-out storage systems. It combines the three
layers of traditional storage architectures—file system, volume manager and RAID—
into one unified software layer, creating a single intelligent file system that spans all
nodes within a cluster.

OneFS enables:

• Independent or linear scalability of performance and capacity to over 85

Gigabytes per second of throughput and more than 15.5 petabytes of capacity
in a single filesystem
• A single point of management for large and rapidly growing repositories of data
• Mission-critical reliability and high availability with state-of-the-art data
protection
Unlike simple NAS namespace aggregation products, Isilon's OneFS operating system
is truly distributed and intelligently stripes data across all nodes in a cluster to create
a single, shared pool of storage. OneFS offers unsurpassed mission critical reliability
and industry- leading drive rebuild times.

OneFS also delivers unique cluster-aware symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)

capabilities that enable the system to move tasks between processors for extremely
efficient workload balancing. In conjunction with OneFS‘ ability to stripe data across
all nodes in a cluster, Isilon achieves the high aggregate bandwidth and transactional
performance required to power next generation enterprise data centers.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 6
Lab overview

Lab environment The environment for this lab includes the following:
• 4 x EMC Isilon virtual storage nodes
• 1 x Windows 7 Client
o Username: user1
o Password: Password123
• 1 x Windows 2008 R2 Server
o Username: Administrator
o Password: Password123
• 1 x Linux client
o Username: root
o Password: a

Labs This lab includes the following labs:

• Lab 1: Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Basic
§ Configure SmartConnect
§ Show functionality
§ Show DNS entries required (Optional)
• Lab 2: Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Advanced (Optional)
§ Configure SmartConnect Advanced zone
§ Mount SmartConnect zone name from Linux client
§ Reboot the node the Linux Client is attached to
§ Show uninterrupted service as node is offline and comes back online

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 7
Lab 1 – Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Basic

Overview In this lab, you will configure the cluster to use SmartConnect with the default pool
that is already created in the previous lab. The DNS entries needed are already
created on the DNS server. If the customer wants to see these, they can be displayed
as specified in the last section of this lab. You will then show how the Round Robin
policy is working with the DNS test script and map a drive by this SmartConnect
name.

Lab Connect to the Web Administration Interface

Be sure the cluster is built with 4 nodes as documented in the Isilon Management
Demo Guide

Choose any of the web browsers installed. They all default to loading the
Administration Web Interface. Agree to any SSL certificate warnings that appear
because the cluster is using a self-signed certificate.

Login to the web interface as "admin" with the password of "a".

Some of the browsers will automatically fill this in for you.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 8
Point out the current IPs configured on the cluster and how, without SmartConnect
configured, the cluster can be used by IP. However, without SmartConnect, managing
connections would be very difficult.

Configure SmartConnect

To configure SmartConnect, click Cluster and select Networking Configuration

Click the "subnet0" link

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 9
Note the default pool is currently configured with static IPs and no SmartConnect.

Then first thing to do is define a SmartConnect Service IP that will receive DNS
requests from the DNS server in the environment.

Do this by clicking the "Edit" link next to the "Settings" section

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 10
In the "SmartConnect service IP:" field, type 192.168.0.100 and click the Submit
button

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 11
Click the "Edit" link next to the "SmartConnect settings" section

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 12
In the "Zone name:" field, type cluster.vlab.local

This is the name clients will use to connect to the cluster. DNS must be configured
with delegation for this name as well for this to work.

In the "SmartConnect service subnet:" field, select subnet0 and click the Submit
button

Choosing subnet0 tells the Isilon cluster that DNS requests are going to coming to
the cluster via the SmartConnect Service IP defined in subnet0

Now may be a good time to talk with the customer about Connection policy options

Verify that SmartConnect is working

To verify that SmartConnect is working, click the Windows Icon and select DNS
Test icon

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 13
This will execute a powershell script that asks the DNS server what the IP is for
cluster.vlab.local, waits 2 seconds, and does it again. It does this for a total of 12
times.

Each time a DNS query is performed, the SmartConnect zone "hands out" a different
IP address based on the connection policy, which is currently set to Round Robin.

Note: This can be done with the nslookup command or dig on other systems. If this
does not work for some reason, check your setting on the cluster as well as the DNS
entries in the DNS server. Instructions on how to view DNS Server entries are later in
this document.

Map a drive to the SmartConnect zone name

To make the demo cleaner, be sure to disconnect any mapped drives.

Switch to Windows Explorer, right-click all the mapped drives and select Disconnect
 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 14
To map a drive, click the Windows Icon, right-click on the Computer label and
select Map network drive...

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 15
In the "Drive" dropdown, choose Y:

In the "Folder" field, type \\cluster.vlab.local\ifs

Check the box for "Connect using different credentials"

Click Finish

Guest access is not enabled by default in OneFS 7.0. A cluster user has been created
for this demo called clusteruser1. Authenticate with this user.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 16
In the Username field type in clusteruser1

In the Password field type in a

Click the Arrow icon

In windows explorer, click on the Computer icon

Point out the mapped drive using the name, instead of the IP

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 17
Show DNS entries used for SmartConnect

To get to the DNS Manager, click the Windows Icon and select DNS Server

When prompted to "Enter the password for administrator@vlab.local:", type

Password123 and press Enter

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 18
Expanded the DNS browser on the left by clicking the small arrow to display DNS >
isilon-dc-1.vlab.local > Forward Lookup Zones > vlab.local

Show the serviceip Host (A) record used for 192.168.1.100

Select the cluster folder on the left

This is the Delegation Record; otherwise know as NS record, for cluster.vlab.local.

Point out how this is configured to forward DNS requests for this domain to
serviceip.vlab.local

Find which node the client is connected to

To find Client Connections, click Dashboard and then click Client Connections

On this page it is clear which node the client is connected to

That completes Lab 1: Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Basic

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 19
Lab 2 – Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect Advanced (Optional)

Overview In this lab you will show how SmartConnect Advanced and by used with NFSv3 clients
to allow for continuous client operations as node failures occur. This is done by
configuring a new pool with several IP addresses and a different SmartConnect zone
name than was used for SMB. Once Linux Client has mounted the cluster and is
copying data, you will reboot that node it is connected to. This will show the non-
disruptive operation for the client as well as how the EMC Isilon storage system is
able to automatically re-join the node once it comes back online.

Lab Configure SmartConnect with Dynamic IPs

When working with clients that use the NFSv3, dynamic IPs can be used. In this
demo the Linux Client will be used for this.

To configure the networking click Cluster Management and select Network

Configuration

Click the "subnet0" link

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 20
Click the "Add pool" link next to the "IP Address Pools" section

In the field "Name:", type nfs-pool

Click the New button next to the "IP range (low-high):" section
 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 21
In the "Low IP" field, type 192.168.1.201

In the "High IP" field, type 192.168.1.221

Click the Next button

In the field "Zone name:", type nfs.vlab.local

In the "SmartConnect service subnet" field, choose subnet0

In the "IP allocation method" field, choose Dynamic

Click the Next button

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 22
Highlight the ext-1 interfaces for all 4 nodes in the left pane and click the Right
Arrow button

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 23
Click the Submit button

There are two pools now in this subnet. One static pool, commonly used for SMB
client and management and one dynamic pool, used for NFSv3 clients.

Refresh this page.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 24
 Expand the nfs-pool by click on the + icon.

Show how all the dynamic IPs are used in the pool and how each nic is using multiple
IPs

To see the current cluster status, click Dashboard

Point out the multiple IP address on each node now. You can hover for the label #
addresses and the system will display all the IPs on that node.

Mount the cluster

from the Linux
Client

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 25
To connect to the Linux Client, click the Windows Icon and select the Linux Client
icon

At the "login as:" prompt, enter root and press Enter

At the "password:" prompt, enter a and press Enter

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 26
Type df -h to display the current volumes

Type mount nfs.vlab.local:/ifs /mnt

Type df -h to display the newly mounted Isilon cluster

Type cp -r /demodata /mnt

Immediately go to the next step

Find which node the Linux Client has mounted

Switch to the web browser with the Web Administration Interface to the cluster

To find Client Connections, click Dashboard and then click Client Connections

Look for the node number that is associated with the NFS client.

Note: remember this node number. In the next step we are going to reboot that
node.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 27
Reboot the node the Linux client has mounted

To connect to the Linux Client, click the Windows Icon and select the PuTTY icon

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 28
SSH to the node number that you discovered your client was connected to

In the "Host Name (or IP address)" field, enter the corresponding IP address

Node 1: 182.168.1.101

Node 2: 182.168.1.102

Node 3: 182.168.1.103

Node 4: 182.168.1.104

Click the Open button

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 29
Click the Yes button, if the security dialog appears

At the login as: prompt, type root and press Enter

At the Password: prompt, type a and press Enter

At the # prompt, type reboot and press Enter

At any point, you can switch to Linux Client to show that copy is still running without
any problems.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 30
Switch to the web browser with the Web Administration Interface to the cluster

To see the current cluster status, click Dashboard

Point out how the dynamic IP addresses have now moved to different nodes since
one of the nodes are offline. You can hover over the label # addresses and the
system will display all the IPs on that node.

Switch back to the Linux client to show that the copy is still going even though the
node it has mounted to is offline. The IP moved from that node to another one. In the
next step, you can determine which node the IP and NFS connection moved to.

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 31
Display which node the client connection is still copying data through

To see the client connections, click Dashboard and then click Client
Connections

On this page clearly displays which node the NFS client has mounted

See the result of the node coming back online

Switch to the web browser with the Web Administration Interface to the cluster

To see the current cluster status, click Dashboard

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 32
The node will no longer be red once it has come back online and automatically
rejoined the cluster.

Be sure to point out that nothing happened to the clients connected to that node and
there was no administrator intervention needed to get the node back into the cluster.

Point out how the node is back online and all the dynamic IPs have re-distributed to
all the nodes that are now online.

Scroll down and see the Client connection summary, showing where client currently
connected

Under New events, notice the message about the Node being rebooted for
maintenance purposes.

That completes Lab 2: Configure and demonstrate SmartConnect

Advanced

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 33
Conclusion

Summary During this demonstration, you completed the following labs:

• Demonstrated the configuration and use of SmartConnect Basic
• Demonstrated the configured and use of the SmartConnect Advanced
Support Customer
For any issues or feedback, or for further information about EMC products, solutions,
and demonstrations, contact your EMC representative.

EMC personnel
For any issues or feedback, please email GDP POD SUPPORT. Please include as much
detail as possible to ensure your email is addressed in a timely manner.

That completes the demonstration of

Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab

Thank You

 
Isilon OneFS 7.0 SmartConnect vLab Demo Guide 34