VMware ESX Server - CLARiiON Integration Workshop (VMWCIWS)

This course is aimed at IT and support personnel who are or will be:

• Supporting various CLARiiON storage, array management, and business continuance configurations with ESX Server
• Administering IT or lab environments supported by CLARiiON storage and ESX Server
• Involved in the development or qualification of CLARiiON hardware or software for ESX Server

To understand the content and successfully complete this course, a student must have a suitable knowledgebase/skill set. The student must be familiar with:

• Creation of RAID Groups, binding of LUNs, and assigning LUNs to hosts
• Expansion of LUNs with the CLARiiON metaLUN feature
• LUN migration on CLARiiON storage systems
• Creation and use of point-in-time LUN replicas with SnapView
• LUN replication with SAN Copy and MirrorView
• Monitoring and managing CLARiiON performance

A list of specific prerequisite courses can be found in EMC Education Services Learning Management System

This instructor-led, lab format class provides students with the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience integrating EMC CLARiiON storage with VMware ESX Server 3.5. The course focuses on operations that EMC Engineers, IT Professionals, and Support personnel may be required to perform when provisioning, managing, migrating, replicating, and performing backups of CLARiiON storage to support a VMware ESX Server, and examines some of the specifics of storage management in an ESX environment. The course focuses on the CLARiiON storage platform and ESX Server virtualization platform and covers base connectivity (including Boot from SAN), array management, virtual machine storage provisioning, storage visibility, multipathing (ESX Multipath), business continuance operations (with CLARiiON Replication Software), and CLARiiON/VMware storage best practices.

Upon successful completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Configure CLARiiON base connectivity to an ESX Server (Boot from SAN)
• Install and configure array management software within a virtual machine and ESX Server
• Provision storage to an ESX Server virtual machine and examine specifics of migrating/expanding VM storage
• Examine storage visibility via ESX and CLARiiON utilities
• Configure and test ESX Multipath for correct operation in a CLARiiON environment
• Integrate CLARiiON Replication Software with ESX Server, and test backup, migration, failover and failback operations involving virtual machines
• Examine storage best practices for ESX Server in a CLARiiON environment
• Implement an appropriate online/offline backup schema for ESX Server
• Perform appropriate performance monitoring for an ESX Server storage environment

Modules

These modules are designed to support the course objectives. The following modules are included in this course:

• Introduction to ESX Server 3.5
• Architecture Overview
• CLARiiON Base Connectivity
• Installation and Configuration of Array Management
• Virtual Machine Storage Provisioning
• Multipathing and Mapping Virtual Machines
• Data Replication in ESX Server Environments
• Online and Offline Backups
• CLARiiON and VMware Performance Considerations

Labs

Labs reinforce the information you have been taught. The labs for this course include:

• Lab 2: Boot from SAN ESX Installation
• Lab 3: Installation/Configuration of Navisphere software
• Lab 4: Virtual Machine Storage Provisioning (Alignment, Migration, Expansion)
• Lab 5: Storage Visibility exercises and ESX/EMC Multipath Configuration
• Lab 6: Data Replication (SnapView, SAN Copy, MirrorView)
• Lab 7: VMware Consolidated Backup and Restore operations
• Lab 8: VMware and CLARiiON Performance Monitoring

Assessments

Successful completion of the lab exercises validate that you have learned the knowledge or skills presented during this class.