What is the VSA?The VSA stands for Virtual Storage Appliance, a feature-rich, clustered, iSCSI SAN powered by LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ®.
What use is the VSA intended for?
VSA is intended for demonstration and evaluation of LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ® technology.
Some of the many uses for the iSCSI SANs built by SAN/iQ® VSAs:
• Free iSCSI target
• SAN/iQ® evaluation
• Demonstration of products that consume iSCSI storage
What are the different versions of the VSA for?
There are Demo and Eval versions available of the VSA:
• The “demo” version is the smallest and is formatted for use on all VMware products but ESX. It is configured to use 224MB of memory and 5GB of disk space for each VSA. Many “demo” VSAs could be configured to run on a single desktop or portable computer. This version is the most portable and is best for SAN/iQ® feature demonstrations.
• The “Eval” version is formatted for use on either VMware Server or VMware ESX and is larger than the “demo”. It is configured to use 1GB of memory and up to 2047GB of disk space for each VSA. This version is best for building SAN/iQ® clusters with more significant storage capacity and performance.
What are the minimum requirements to run a VSA?
The minimum requirements for each Demo version of the VSA are
• 224MB of memory
• 5GB of free disk space
• A VMware virtualization product
What VMware products does the VSA run on?
The VSA should run on any VMware virtualization product. It has been tested with:
• VMware Player version 1.x (1.0.4 or higher) and 2.x
• VMware Workstation version 5.5.x (5.5.3 or higher) and 6.x
• VMware Server version 1.x (1.0.2 or higher)
• VMware ESX Server version 3.x (3.0.1 and higher)
What features are enabled and for how long?
All SAN/iQ® features can be used for a trial period of 30 days.
After 30 days, volumes will be disconnected if any licensed features are in use.
Licensed features include:
• Clustering
• Snapshots
• Remote Copy
• Multi-Site SANs
The VSA can be used for free indefinitely as a single node iSCSI target without snapshots or
remote copy. If a configuration (management group) is deleted and recreated the 30 days trial period of licensed features starts again.
Can I use the one download to make many VSAs?
Yes, the same download or source VSA can be copied many times to create multiple VSAs. Do not copy a VSA once it has been configured.
Can I convert between versions?
Yes, other than the size of memory and vmdk (virtual disk) configuration the three versions are the same. Those attributes can be edited to move between versions if desired. Doing so requires indepth understanding of the virtualized hardware that makes up a VSA and how to change it.
What virtual hardware is required for the SAN/iQ VSA?
VSAs all have at least the following hardware.
• 1 virtual CPU; This can be increased to 2 if desired for performance.
• 224MB to 1GB; Adjusted for the size of data.
• 1 Network adapter.
• 2 LSI Logic SCSI controllers.
• Three virtual hard drives:
+ Hard Disk 1
- SAN/iQ® Operating System Disk
- Always 308 MB and must be on SCSI 0:0
+ Hard Disk 2
- Mirrored SAN/iQ® Operating System Disk
- Always 308 MB and must be on SCSI 0:1
+ Hard Disk 3
- Data disk
- Any size from 5GB to 2047GB and must be on SCSI 1:0
Why does the VSA have only one Ethernet adapter?
For simplicity.
All SAN/iQ® platforms but the VSA have at least 2 Gigabit Ethernet adapters which are typically bonded for performance and failover. The network or virtual switch used to host the VSA’s single adapter should be a bonded gigabit network if possible. That bond should be enabled by either the host operating system or by VMware ESX virtual switches. The VSA is purposely limited to a single Ethernet adapter to avoid confusion about which technology should be used to team multiple adapters.
What do I do if I need a different size disk on the VSA then what it came with?
Replace Hard Disk 3 with one of any size between 5GB and 2047GB.
The vmdk that a VSA uses for data storage (SCSI 1:0) can be replaced with a vmdk of almost any size. The minimum vmdk size is 5GB, as the “demo” version comes configured with. The maximum size of a vmdk is affected by the VMware product used to host the VSA. Typically, that means up to 950GB for non-ESX and 2TB for ESX. Increasing the size of the “demo” version requires increasing the amount of memory available to the VSA. VSAs need about 1MB of memory for every 2GB of storage, in addition to at least 220MB for SAN/iQ®.
For example: changing the data vmdk of a “demo” version to 100GB would require the VSAs memory to be increased to at least 270MB.
How do I replace the data disk / vmdk of a VSA?
Only do this if the VSA is not currently in a Management Group or has never been used. With the VSA powered off, remove the current Hard Drive 3 (SCSI 1:0) and add a new Hard Drive 3 (SCSI 1:0) of the desired size. Adjust the memory of the VSA to have at least 220MB + 1MB for every 2GB of space on the new data Hard Drive 3 (SCSI 1:0). Power on the VSA and using the SAN/iQ® Centralized Management Console (CMC) configure RAID on the VSA.
Why do I have to configure RAID on the VSA after it is setup?
Configuring RAID lets the VSA format the new Hard Drive for use by SAN/iQ®. On first use, or if the Hard Drive 3 (SCSI 1:0) has been changed, RAID must be configured on the VSA in the SAN/iQ® Centralized Management Console.
What is meant by RAID (virtual) in the VSAs disk configuration?
It means the VSA is using a virtual disk.
In real SAN/iQ® platforms there are other RAID settings, depending on the hardware. Possible RAID configurations are 0, 5, 6, 10, and 50. The VSA uses a virtual hard drive, which could be on a single hard drive, or on a RAID set of any type and any number of disks. Because SAN/iQ is unaware of the actual RAID setting, it calls it out as “RAID (virtual)”.