THE TOP 10 TIPS & TRICKS TO ROCK YOUR XTREMIO WORLD

THE TOP 10 TIPS & TRICKS TO ROCK
YOUR XTREMIO WORLD
Presented at EMC World 2015
Whether you attended our Birds of a Feather session at EMC World 2015 or not, EMC
Customer Service would like to provide you with a list of the Top 10 items we believe
you should leverage now to optimize your XtremIO environment. Should you have any
questions or if you’d like to add anything to our list based on your own experience
using XtremIO, please visit the XtremIO space on the EMC Community Network and
share your thoughts with us.
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8
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LEVERAGE YOUR TOOLS

Use MiTrend to estimate data reduction and know what to expect.

Use the XtremIO PoC Toolkit in evaluations and Proof-of-Concept tests to
understand the limits of possible solutions.

Use EMC Grab and AWR to analyze the application and environment. Understand
if speeding up storage is likely to improve user experience.
PLAN FOR AVAILABILITY AND
RECOVERABILITY

Remember that the power infrastructure is part of High-Availability (HA) design.

Always provide redundant power feeds. Backup generators for mission critical
facilities and applications are also useful.

Upgrade to XtremIO version 4.0 to enjoy the best performance and maximum
data protection.

Run the Virtual XMS in VMware Fault-Tolerant HA configuration.

Use RecoverPoint for a well-matched data protection solution.
VIRTUAL DESKTOP AND VIRTUAL SERVER
INFRASTRUCTURE

Use Eager Zeroed Thick (EZT) formatted virtual disks. EZT provides the best
performance. Normally EZT disks require fully allocated capacity, but XtremIO
does not suffer this conventional capacity penalty because zeroes receive special
treatment and are not accounted for at all.

Eliminate unique data on desktops (like local applications, exchange cache etc.)
and redirect user data to NAS. Isilon is a great architectural match for XtremIO.

Consider both capacity and performance when sizing a solution.

Regularly manage free space within Guest VM’s. Use “sdelete” to unmap free
space for Windows VM. On Linux, use the discard mount option or regularly run
the fstrim command. Then use vSphere “vmkfstools” for ESXi 5.1 and scsi unmap
for ESXi 5.5 and later. Run these commands on the data stores to reuse capacity
from the deleted files at regular intervals.
OPTIMIZE YOUR DATABASE

Configure Oracle Redo logs to use 4KB block size. The default 512B block size will
result in unnecessary load on the storage array. Use the BlockSize clause in
11gR2 and higher.

Use Oracle coarse grain striping of 1MB for DATA.

Set the starting offset
HANDOUT
of partition to 1MB if using ASM.
6
5
UNLEASH DATA SERVICES

Leverage content aware, zero cost, instantaneous, and space efficient snapshots
for protection against logical corruption.

Use Writable snapshots copies for development and testing. Much better than
brute force copying of application data.

Use XtremIO native Data at Rest Encryption capabilities to protect data security
with no impact to performance.
TRANSFORM YOUR WORKFLOWS

Use XtremIO Snapshots instead of data copies for Dev/Test/Report/Backup.

Take advantage of VAAI, ODX, and VSS.
o
4
3
2
VAAI: Clone Blocks (XCOPY), Block Zero (Write same), Atomic Test and Set
(ATS) and Block Delete (SCSI UNMAP).
ALIGN AND OPTIMIZE

Align the VMFS5 data stores at 1MB offset. Data Stores created using vCenter will
automatically align.

RDM devices >2TB should use GPT with 1MB offset. This will improve the IO
performance by 8-15%.

Generally speaking, use more than a single LUN for a performance-critical
application. A minimum of 4 is recommended as a best practice.

Align disk partitions, file system allocation sizes, and application access block
sizes along 8KB boundaries.
ECOSYSTEM BEST PRACTICES

For large arrays, distribute target ports across multiple SAN zones/VLANs.

For optimal performance connect XtremIO host and storage ports to the SAN with
dedicated bandwidth (line rate cards and ports instead of shared mode).

Leverage free EMC integration tools (e.g., VSI, ESI).

Leverage free community resources (e.g., PowerShell, Python code) like
http://emccode.github.io

XtremIO always provides in-line data reduction services such as de-duplication
and compression. Customers have the option of turning these services off on their
hosts or applications allowing for an optimized utilization of host CPU cycles.
HOST-SIDE BEST PRACTICES

XtremIO is Active/Active so use all controllers and paths if possible. Use the
“Show Connection Map” feature by right clicking on Initiator Groups to validate
balancing.

Enable Round-Robin multipathing using PowerPath or vendor-provided native
multipath solutions.

Adjust HBA I/O Throttle of the Cisco UCS FNIC HBA to 1024 by changing adapter
policy for Linux and VMware.

Tune the HBA queue depths if possible for XtremIO’s low latencies (typically 256
or 128).

Increase the LUN queue-depth settings from 32 to 256.

Number of consecutive requests from a single VM from 8 to 64 in vSphere
(especially with large sized luns >1TB).

Adjust OS parameters as appropriate to optimize for low latency (e.g., Linux disk
scheduler = noop).
1
SIMPLIFY SUPPORT & MANAGEMENT

Tie XtremIO users into LDAP or set up key-based user authentication for simple,
secure access.

Connect XtremIO alerting to your environment (ESRS, SNMP, syslog, etc.).

Integrate ESRS to allow quick support and proactive maintenance activities.

Take advantage of EMC Ecosystem Integration – VSI, AppSync, ESI, and ESA.

If using Vulnerability tools for security assessment, make sure scans don’t hit all
the controllers at the same time.

Get the most stable code and newest features by performing a NDU to the latest
released version.

Use EMC online resources (Online Support site, EMC Community Network, etc.).

Use XtremIO 4.0 features such as single XMS managing multiple clusters for
improved management productivity.

Monitor physical storage usage and plan for capacity expansion.

Use Software Defined Storage tools such as ViPR for standardization and
automation.
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Published in the USA. April 2015 v1.2
EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The
information is subject to change without notice.