TECHNICAL NOTES

EMC VMAX3 Unified

Embedded NAS Technical Overview
H13904
REV A01
January, 2015

This technical notes document contains information on these topics:

Executive Summary.................................................................................. 2
Audience ................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................. 2
VMAX3 Hypervisor ................................................................................... 3
Hypervisor CPU Core Allocation Multicore Emulation ...........................3
Hypervisor Memory Allocation ................................................................4
Hypervisor Storage Allocation Cut Through Device (CTD) .....................4
Hypervisor Network Connectivity (vNIC) ..................................................5
Embedded NAS........................................................................................ 5
eNAS Components..................................................................................6
eNAS with Service Level Objectives ........................................................7
Managing eNAS ....................................................................................... 8
Provision Storage for File ......................................................................11
Configuring Link and Launch ................................................................12
Enabling Alerts .....................................................................................14
Conclusion ............................................................................................ 14
References............................................................................................14

Executive Summary

Executive Summary
Organizations around the globe need IT infrastructure that can deliver instant access
to the huge volumes of data intrinsic to traditional transaction processing/data
warehousing and to a new generation of applications built around the world of social,
mobile, and big data. EMC is redefining Data Center Cloud Platforms to build the
bridge between these two worlds to form the next generation of Hybrid Cloud.
VMAX3 Unified storage extends the value of VMAX to file storage enabling
customers to deploy one infrastructure to easily manage mission-critical block and
file resources. VMAX3 unified storage enables customers to significantly increase
data availability, dramatically simplify operations, and accelerate productivity.

Audience
This technical notes document is intended for anyone who needs to understand
Embedded NAS (eNAS) and the components and technology in EMC VMAX3
family (100K, 200K, 400K) arrays to provide a unified platform.

Introduction
VMAX3 arrays introduce the industrys first open storage and hypervisor converged
operating system, HYPERMAX OS 5977. It combines industry-leading high
availability, I/O management, quality of service, data integrity validation, storage
tiering, and data security with an open application platform.
HYPERMAX OS 5977 features the first real-time, non-disruptive storage hypervisor
that manages and protects embedded services by extending VMAX high availability to
services that traditionally would have run external to the array. It also provides direct
access to hardware resources to maximize performance.
VMAX3 is the first enterprise data services platform purpose-built to deliver and
manage predictable service levels at scale for hybrid clouds. It is based on the
worlds first and only Dynamic Virtual Matrix that delivers agility and efficiency at
scale. Hundreds of CPU cores are pooled and allocated on-demand to meet the
performance requirements for dynamic mixed workloads. VMAX3 arrays provide up
to three times the performance of previous generation arrays with double the density.
VMAX unified storage introduces embedded file data services that enable customers
to consolidate islands of block and file storage, simplify management, and reduce
deployment costs by up to 33%. Embedded NAS (eNAS) uses the hypervisor
provided in HYPERMAX OS 5977 to create and run a set of virtual machines on VMAX3
controllers. These virtual machines host two major elements of eNAS: software data
movers and control stations which are distributed based on the mirrored pair
architecture of VMAX3 to evenly consume VMAX3 resources for both performance and
capacity.

2 EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

VMAX3 Hypervisor

VMAX3 Hypervisor
HYPERMAX OS 5977 runs on top of the Dynamic Virtual Matrix leveraging its scale out
flexibility of cores, cache, and host interfaces. The embedded storage hypervisor
reduces external hardware and networking requirements, delivers high levels of
availability, and dramatically reduces latency. The hypervisor can also be nondisruptively upgraded.
Within the VMAX3 Hypervisor, virtual machines (VMs) provide the host platform that
includes CPU processing, memory, network interface card (NIC), ports, data storage
by using a Cut-through device (CTD), and external network through the Management
Module Control Station (MMCS). VMs run within the front end FA emulation of the
VMAX3. VMs can also be referenced as HYPERMAX OS Containers.
The primary components of the VMAX3 Hypervisor are shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Hypervisor Concepts Virtual Machines

Hypervisor CPU Core Allocation Multicore Emulation

Using the new Multi-Core emulation capability in the VMAX3 arrays, the CPU
processing is provided using CPU cores from the FA emulation. The cores are pooled
for front-end, back-end, and for HYPERMAX OS 5977 functions. All of the CPU cores
on the director will work on I/O from all of the ports. This helps ensure VMAX3
directors ports are always balanced.

EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

VMAX3 Hypervisor

Figure 2. VMAX3 Multi-Core Emulation

Hypervisor Memory Allocation

Memory is allocated to the hypervisor as shown in Figure 3 from the VMAX3 director
cache during the initial setup. This memory is then allocated to each Virtual Machine
(VM) on that director for the purpose of embedded applications.

Figure 3. HYPERMAX OS 5977 Hypervisor Memory Allocation

Hypervisor Storage Allocation Cut Through Device (CTD)

Data storage for both the boot and application data is provided using a Cut-through
Device (CTD) as shown in Figure 4 which acts like an HBA that accesses LUNs in the
VMAX3 array. The CTD has two components to enable access to the LUNs through an
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Embedded NAS

FA port. The first is the CTD Server thread. This runs on the FA emulation and
communicates with the CTD Client in the embedded operating system. The second is
the CTD Client Driver. The CTD Client Driver is embedded in the host operation system
and communicates with the CTD server running on the FA emulation. An operating
system running in a VM must have the CTD client driver installed to access the LUNs.
Embedded application ports are virtual ports specifically provided for use by the VMs
that contain the applications, such as Embedded NAS. They are addressed as ports
32-63 per director FA emulation. The virtual ports are provided to avoid contention
with physical connectivity in the VMAX3. As with physical ports, LUNs can be
provisioned to the virtual ports.

Figure 4. Cut-Through Device

Hypervisor Network Connectivity

Network connectivity for the VMs is provided by a virtual NIC (vNIC). The vNIC is
connected to the VMAX3 engine internal network providing communication to
HYPERMAX OS 5977 and other VM instances. The VM management external network
connectivity is provided through a HYPERMAX OS component called the network
address translation (NAT) Gateway which is part of the Infrastructure Manager (IM)
emulation. The NAT Gateway provides translation services between external and
internal IP addresses and utilizes a separate network connection on each of the two
Management Module Control Stations (MMCS).

Embedded NAS
Embedded NAS (eNAS) extends the value of VMAX3 to file storage by enabling the
customer to leverage vital enterprise features including Service Level Objective based
provisioning, Host I/O limits, and FAST technologies for both block and file storage.
VMAX3 Unified is a multi-controller, transaction NAS solution designed for customers
requiring hyper consolidation for block storage (the traditional VMAX use case)
combined with moderate file storage in mission-critical environments. Common
eNAS use cases include running Oracle on NFS, VMware on NFS, Microsoft SQL
on SMB 3.0, home directories, and Windows server consolidation.

EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

Embedded NAS

eNAS uses the hypervisor provided in HYPERMAX OS 5977 to create and run a set of
virtual machines on VMAX3 controllers. These virtual machines host two major
elements of eNAS: software data movers and control stations, and are distributed
based on the mirrored pair architecture of VMAX3 to evenly consume VMAX3
resources for both performance and capacity.
eNAS supports equivalent NAS capabilities as found on the VNX2 File Operating
Environment (OE).

eNAS Components
Figure 5 shows the eNAS storage system architecture components.

Figure 5. Embedded NAS Architecture

Management Module Control Station (MMCS): Provides environmental monitoring

capabilities for power, cooling, and connectivity. Each MMCS has two network
connections that will connect to the customers local area network (LAN). One to
allow monitoring of the system, as well as remote connectivity for the EMC Customer
Support team, the second for use by the Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway.
Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway: Provides translation services between
external and internal IP addresses and utilizes a separate network connection on
each of the two MMCS.
Control Station (CS): Provide management functions to the file-side components
referred to as Data Movers. The control station is responsible for Data Mover failover.
There is a primary CS which is configured with a matching secondary CS to ensure
redundancy.
Software Data Mover (DM): Accesses data from the backend and provides host
access using the I/O Modules that supports the NFS, CIFS, and pNFS protocols.
Data Mover I/O options: Using PCI Pass-through, the following I/O modules are
available for the NAS Services on the Data Mover:

4-port 1 GBaseT Ethernet copper module

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Embedded NAS

2-port 10 GBaseT Ethernet copper module

2-port 10 Gb Ethernet optical module

4-port 8Gbps Fibre Channel module for NDMP Back-up use. There is a
maximum of 1 per DM.

Note

A minimum of 1 Ethernet I/O module is required per Software Data Mover.

Within the VMAX3 family the specifications of e NAS depend on the array model. A
comparison of eNAS in the three VMAX3 arrays models is found in Table 1.
Table 1. Embedded NAS Model Comparison

COMPONTENTS

VMAX 100K

VMAX 200K

VMAX 400K

Logical Cores

Memory (GB)

Logical Cores

10/20

16/32

Memory (GB)

12

48/96

48/96

I/O Modules
(Max)

6/12

6/12

Max Software Data

Movers

Max NAS Capacity

/ Array (TB Usable)

256TB

768TB

768TB

Control Stations (2)

Software Data
Movers (2/4)

Note

Each Software Data Mover can support up to 256TB of usable capacity.

eNAS with Service Level Objectives

eNAS supports Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) and Service Level Objectives
features. All FAST managed storage groups are represented as mapped pools on
eNAS. If the storage group devices are created out of multiple disk groups, the
technology type is mixed. For single disk groups, the disk technology type is the
physical disk type (EFD, SAS). Devices outside of FAST storage control are discovered
as default Service Level Objective (DSL) devices and associated to the system defined
pool (symm_dsl).

EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

Managing eNAS

File
System

NAS
Storage
Pools

System Defined Pool

(symm_dsl)

Mapped Pool

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

Diamond

Silver

Platinum

Bronze

Gold

Optimized

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

TDEV

Storage Resource Pool 1

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT

TDAT

TDAT

TDAT

Pool 1
RAID 5 (7+1)

Disk
Groups

eNAS_App2

TDEV

Storage
Resource
Pool
Data
Pools

User Defined
Pool

Service Level Objectives

eNAS_App1

Storage
Groups

File
System

File
System

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

Pool 3
RAID 5 (3+1)

Pool 2
RAID 1

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

TDAT
TDAT

Pool 4
RAID 6 (14+2)

DG 1

DG 2

DG 3

DG 4

eMLC
200GB

15K
300GB

10K
600GB

7.2K
2TB

Figure 6. Overview of Disks consumed from VMAX3 on eNAS

Figure 6 gives a high level overview of how a file system created on eNAS is related to
underlying disk groups. File systems can be created on a pool or a meta volume.
There are three types of NAS Storage Pools: mapped pool, system defined pool, and
user defined storage pools. All FAST managed storage groups are represented as
mapped pools. A FAST managed storage group is one which has either Service Level
Objective or Storage Resource Pool (SRP) defined.

Managing eNAS
Unisphere for VMAX 8.0.1 has been enhanced to include a file dashboard and
interface to create and automatically provision storage to the eNAS Data Movers
which facilitate the File I/O for end customers. The Unisphere for VMAX 8.0.1 release
has additional functionality that focuses on providing faster troubleshooting and
provisioning for VMAX administrators who are supporting file storage. A new File
Dashboard, as seen in Figure 7, allows the user to perform the following tasks:

View Capacity details

View and manage block and file assets

Display the mapping of file systems to storage groups

Allows for the provisioning of storage for file systems

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Managing eNAS

View Data Mover health status

View File Storage alerts

Unisphere Link and Launch to EMC Unisphere

Figure 7. Unisphere for VMAX - File Dashboard

The capacity panes in the File Dashboard as shown in Figure 8, provides a quick look
at the free versus total capacity of the File Storage Groups, the free versus total
capacity for the file systems associated with the file storage groups, and the file
storage pools with the most consumed capacity.

Figure 8. File Dashboard Capacity Details

In the summary pane of the File Storage Dashboard, the number of File Systems, File
Storage Groups, and File Masking Views are provided.

EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

Managing eNAS

Figure 9. File Dashboard Summary

Each of the summary items provides a link to detailed information. Figure 10 displays
each of the file systems, the associated storage group, pool, and allocated capacity.

Figure 10. File Systems Summary

The File Storage Groups details are displayed in Figure 11 allowing easy access to
view and modify the storage groups associated with eNAS.

Figure 11. File Storage Group Summary

10 EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

Managing eNAS

Detailed NAS active management (Share management, replication, Quotas, etc), is

performed within EMC Unisphere. EMC Unisphere, shown in Figure 12, is preinstalled and runs on the eNAS Control Stations. The link between Unisphere for
VMAX and EMC Unisphere is based on context sensitive Link and Launch.
This is the same management interface that is used for VNX OE File 8.1, for additional
documentation please refer to the VNX OE for File 8.1 documentation available on
http://support.emc.com

Figure 12. EMC Unisphere

Provision Storage for File

Creating or expanding storage for file has been simplified and automated with
Unisphere for VMAX and eNAS. Using the Provision Storage for File wizard as seen in
Figure 13, FAST, Service Level Objectives, and Dynamic Host I/O Limits can be
assigned to storage groups at the time of provisioning. Upon any change to the
eNAS storage, an automatic and intelligent discovery for devices activity occurs,
called Diskmark. Diskmark maps FAST managed devices to system mapped pools
and non-FAST managed devices to the system defined pool called symm_dsl.
Diskmark will also update the properties for pools and file systems for changes that
happen after the Storage Group is created, like a change in the Service Level
Objective.

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11

Managing eNAS

Figure 13. Provision Storage for File

Configuring Link and Launch

In order to use the context sensitive links in EMC Unisphere, you must first register
the Link and Launch Client. To create the client registration in Unisphere for VMAX,
from the system selector, select All Symmetrix , and select Home > Administration >
Link and Launch.

Figure 14. Unisphere for VMAX - Link and Launch

Click the Create button to open the Register Launch Client dialog box. Provide a
unique Client ID and password to be associated with the client. This information will
be entered in EMC Unisphere to complete the registration.

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Managing eNAS

Figure 15. Unisphere for VMAX - Register Launch Client

Once the launch client is registered in Unisphere for VMAX, open EMC Unisphere.
From the Storage pane, in the Configure Unisphere for VMAX task list, click Register
Unisphere for VMAX.
In the Configure Unisphere VMAX Credentials window opens, the Symmetrix ID will be
populated with the VMAX serial number.
Select from the drop-down the Unisphere for VMAX Host. The port and version will be
populated
Fill in the Username, Client ID, and Client Password that were setup in Unisphere for
VMAX.

Figure 16. Register Unisphere for VMAX

Once Link and Launch is registered, from EMC Unisphere the context sensitive links
can be used to view the Dashboard, Alerts, Performance, and Expand VMAX Storage
Groups from Unisphere for VMAX.

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13

Conclusion

Enabling Alerts
The alerts that appear on the File Dashboard in Unisphere for VMAX by default are
disabled. This is to minimize the number of alerts storage administrators initially
receive. Enabling the alerts can be accomplished in the Alert Policies settings as
seen below. To access the Alert Policies in Unisphere for VMAX, from the system
selector, select All Symmetrix , and select Home > Administration > Alert Policies.

Figure 17. Enable File Dashboard Alerts

Conclusion
VMAX unified storage introduces embedded file data services that enable customers
to consolidate islands of block and file storage, simplify management, and reduce
deployment costs by up to 33%. eNAS uses the hypervisor provided in HYPERMAX OS
5977 to create and run a set of virtual machines on VMAX3 controllers. These virtual
machines host two major elements of eNAS: software data movers and control
stations and are distributed based on the mirrored pair architecture of VMAX3 to
evenly consume VMAX3 resources for both performance and capacity.
eNAS extends the value of VMAX3 to file storage by enabling customer to leverage
vital enterprise features including Service Level Provisioning, Host I/O limits, and
FAST technologies for both block and file storage. VMAX3 Unified is a multicontroller, transaction NAS solution designed for customers requiring hyper
consolidation for block storage (the traditional VMAX use case) combined with
moderate file storage in mission-critical environments.

References
Reference information and product information can be found at support.emc.com
including:
14 EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

Conclusion

EMC VMAX3 Family with HYPERMAX OS Product Guide

EMC HYPERMAX OS for VMAX 100K 200K 400K New Features White Paper
EMC VMAX3 Service Level Provisioning with Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)
VMAX3 Family with HYPERMAX OS 5977 Release Notes
VNX OE for File 8.1 Documentation

EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview

15

Conclusion

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.
Published January, 2015
EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its
publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.
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All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.
For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to EMC
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16 EMC VMAX3 Unified Em b ed d ed NAS Tec hnic a l Overview