In this article I am taking advantage of Equallogic replication to move VMWare VMs between data centers. Step 1 – Setup Equallogic Replication Please see my other article on how to configure this Step 2 – Prepare to migrate To ensure consistency of the VMs I recommend shutting them down and configuring a manual replication [...]

In the below output I have setup an Equallogic using the serial port and putty. Note in this instance I have added the array to an existing group. I also manually set the address of the management interface.   =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2012.08.02 10:10:07 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= Enter the network configuration for the array. Member name []: [...]

In this article I am setting up replication between 2 equallogics based in different offices. The equallogics are in different groups and on different subnets. Pre-requisites 2 Equallogic Arrays each setup in a separate Equallogic groups Connectivity between iSCSI networks. i.e. the iSCSI networks must be able to communicate with each other. Configure Replication Partner [...]

This article explains how to setup an VMWare vSphere ESXi 5.0 host with an Equallogic array. This is all performed via the GUI. Note that the setup for this includes a vmkernal heartbeat instance as recommended by vmware (here) and equallogic (here). Add iSCSI initiator   Setup iSCSI vSwitch In the networking section click on [...]

This article discusses how to install the Equallogic Multipath Extension Module (MEM) using the vSphere CLI. Download the Equallogic MEM Go to the equallogic website and download the Multipath Extension Module (MEM). Copy the MEM to the ESXi server Extract the .zip file you have downloaded. Copy the .zip onto a datastore on the ESXi [...]

This article explains how to install the Dell Multipath Extension module on ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.0. The Dell Multipath Extension Module (MEM) is used to setup ESXi servers to communicate with an Equallogic array. It will setup iSCSI vSwitches and create a custom “equallogic” path selection policy. You will need to download the Equallogic [...]

This article explains how to setup the Dell Equallogic host integration tools for vmware vcenter. Preparation The Dell Equallogic Host Integration Tool is a linux virtual machine that requires access to both the VM network (i.e. your LAN) and the storage network (i.e. the iSCSI network). Therefore you will need to configure your VMware server [...]

The below chart gives an overview of the strong and weak points of each RAID level. I would summarise this as RAID5 – Choose when you want to maximise capacity. Only suitable for small installations RAID6 – A slightly more fault tolerant version of the RAID5 with slightly less capacity RAID10 – When performance is [...]

In the below example I have had a drive failure on an PS4000 and need to generate diagnostics to arrange a replacement with Dell technical support.   Step 1 – Generate Diagnostics     Step 2 – Retrieve Diagnostics via FTP   If you have the email settings configured correctly you can get the diags [...]

Requires vSphere v4 Don’t forget to enable jumbo frames first (esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitchx – where x= switch number) Step 1: Setup vSwitch Create Vmkernal ports for each physical interface Step 2: Setup Vmkernal ports Specify each Vmkernal port to use a specific adapter Step 3: Bind vmkernal ports Bind each vmkernal port to the [...]