HP P4000 LeftHand SAN Solutions for server and client virtualization with Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-VSolution brief

MaxiMize Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V ROi

2Optimize, simplify, and save in Microsoft virtualized environments.

Optimize: Improve application availability.

Eliminate planned and unplanned downtimeNetwork RAIDSnapshot and Remote Copy integrationMulti-site SANNondisruptive scale capacity and performancePeer Motion data mobility with Cluster Swap

Simplify:Streamline solution deployment and management.

Spend less time on system managementHP Insight Control for Microsoft System CenterHP Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager VSS provider and requestor functionality P4000 Device-Specific Module (DSM) for multipath I/O (MPIO)HP LeftHand Application Aware Snapshot Manager

Save: Cut storage TCO.

Reduce storage deployment costsPay-as-you-grow: Scale capacity and performance as needed.Space-efficient thin provisioning Reservationless snapshots All-inclusive SAN software suite

Storage designed and qualified to work with Microsoft Hyper-VBusinesses are embracing server and end-user workload virtualization to reduce costs and increase agility, efficiency, and availability. With Microsoft Hyper-V included with Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft puts the benefits of virtualization within reach of a broader audience and offers a seamless solution for organizations looking to virtualize their Microsoft Windows applications and infrastructure.

Getting the most from virtualized environments requires high-performance integrated storage systems. Because virtualization concentrates workloads onto a smaller hardware footprint, single points of failure must be eliminated and high availability, disaster recovery, and fault tolerance are required. The ease with which virtual machines can be created and moved makes it more difficult to track and manage them. This can add cost and complexity. To get the most from Microsoft Hyper-V, organizations need a storage system that is qualified and designed to work with it, and will support key features today and in the future. At the same time, organizations often want virtualization to reduce costs. Therefore, they require storage systems that will provide a high value for their investment.

Boost Hyper-V ROI: Optimize, simplify, and save with HP P4000 LeftHand SAN SolutionsHP P4000 LeftHand SAN Solutions deliver federated storage that is highly optimized for application virtualization in general and Hyper-V virtualization specifically. HP works closely with Microsoft to ensure that LeftHand SANs support key Hyper-V features and the Microsoft platform from management tools to applications.

The HP LeftHand portfolio offers affordable enterprise functionality with a comprehensive feature set and simplified central management for all locations. Superior application availability and disaster recovery features are integrated into LeftHand SAN Solutions to provide comprehensive failover and failback protection for any situation. With HP LeftHand, organizations can offer continuous data availability to users and applications while meeting demand in real time.

Leverage the power of HP and Microsoft partnership.Going strong after more than 25 years, the HP and Microsoft global strategic alliance is one of the industrys longest-standing alliances. HP and Microsoft recently extended the long-term partnership to deliver new solutions built on the next-generation infrastructure-to-application modeldesigned to greatly simplify IT and accelerate the move to cloud computing. As Global Strategic Alliance Partners, HP Storage and Microsoft engineering and technical marketing teams work together to: Conduct regular roadmap reviews and joint solution definition

and planning sessions.Certify and validate HP Storage solutions with Microsoft

Windows Server platforms.Simplify end-to-end management.Produce reference architectures, best practice deployment

guides, technical whitepapers, and technical webcasts to speed deployment, reduce risk, and get predictable results.

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3Optimize: Improve application availabilityVirtual environments are expected to be available to more users, more of the time , as compared to a traditional infrastructure. HP LeftHand SAN Solutions are designed to maximize application availability in virtualized environments. They do this using built-in protection against data faults and site failures, as well as providing the ability to scale nondisruptively.

Network RAID stripes and protects multiple copies of data across a cluster of storage nodes, eliminating any single point of failure. Network RAID is configured on a per-volume basis, and dictates how a logical volumes blocks are laid out across the cluster. This provides reliability that can be configured to best meet the performance and capacity requirements for specific applications and data. This configuration can be done without taking the system offline.

Snapshot and Remote Copy integration for Windows servers and applications including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft SharePoint make application backup and recovery simple.

Multi-site SAN, qualified for use with Hyper-V, provides the ability to assign storage nodes in the cluster to different logical or physical sites including racks, rooms, buildings, and cities. Based on this assignment, the software automatically makes the appropriate configuration and operational decisions to protect data from site failure. With LeftHand, when the failed site comes back online, its storage nodes automatically obtain any changed data blocks so that resynchronization is automatic and transparent to the application servers.

Nondisruptively scale capacity and performance with a grow-on-demand model where nodes can be added to the cluster as needed without disrupting application availability. Applications remain online during maintenance events such as adding nodes and updating software or firmware for continuous availability. Every time a storage node is added to a cluster, it increases the clusters capacity, input/output operations per second, network throughput, cache CPU and RAM.

Peer Motion data mobility with Cluster Swap migrates data from one cluster to another without disruption and without taking systems offline. Using the Cluster Swap feature, users can replace or upgrade entire storage clusters with no downtime or disruption to applications. Peer Motion volume migration allows users to migrate volumes online between tiers of storageMDL SAS for capacity, SAS for performance, and SSD for ultra-high performance. These capabilities increase the agility of virtualized IT to meet changing resource demands in real time, update software, and optimize resource utilizationall while maintaining appropriate service levels.

Simplify: Streamline solution deployment and managementScalability requires a system to scale without increasing complexity, especially management complexity. HP LeftHand SANs enable organizations to deploy and scale virtualization solutions with streamlined, centralized management with either the HP LeftHand Centralized Management Console or Microsoft System Center.

HP Insight Control for Microsoft System Center delivers in-depth infrastructure monitoring and management directly from the Microsoft System Center console. Included free as part of HP Insight Control, these extensions deliver comprehensive system health and alerting, driver and firmware updates, OS deployment, detailed inventory, and proactive virtual machine management in a flexible, easy-to-install package.

HP Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager provides seamless integration with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and System Center Essentials, allowing administrators to proactively streamline IT operations and increase systems availability by monitoring and managing Microsoft Windows environments and HP Storage products through a common Microsoft System Center Operations Manager console.

VSS provider and requestor functionality can request VSS-managed, application consistent snapshots that are fully integrated with the LeftHand snapshot feature set. Customized schedules and retention policies can be created within the HP LeftHand Centralized Management Console or CLI for both locally and remotely retained application-consistent snapshots. Policies are set on a volume basis and the framework is volume-set aware. The HP LeftHand VSS snapshot solution supports SQL, Exchange, SharePoint, and Hyper-V.

HP LeftHand DSM for multipath I/O enhances performance and redundancy using full support for native Microsoft MPIO including multiple active/active or active/passive paths between a Windows host and the LeftHand SAN. This increases the available throughput for host access to storage and eliminates a single point of failure at the host Network Interface Card. HP LeftHand users can leverage additional multi-pathing capabilities with the HP LeftHand DSM for Microsoft MPIO. This tool provides direct active paths from a Windows host to each node of a LeftHand storage cluster for optimized performance and data access policies. The HP LeftHand DSM for Microsoft MPIO can be used independently or in conjunction with the native Microsoft DSM.

* Based on data collected from HP VirtualSystem CV2 for Citrix XenDesktop on Microsoft Hyper-V FAQs. For more information, visit h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-8733ENW.pdf.

Simplify client virtualization with HP Converged Solutions.A typical client virtualization solution takes six to twelve months to implement from conception to production. However, with HP VirtualSystem CV2 for Citrix XenDesktop on Microsoft Hyper-V, it is possible to shorten that time by 50 percent* or more without compromising performance, operating costs, information security, or user experience. Optimized to a single rack solution for client virtualization, this ready-to-run, best-in-class solution offers single vendor support, delivering reliability plus flexibility for business agility. The HP VirtualSystem CV2 includes everything required to support desktop virtualization including BladeSystem servers, LeftHand SAN, HP Networking, PDUs, and HP Insight Control.

Tested Microsoft Exchange performanceHP LeftHand Storage Systems are tested to work with Microsoft Exchange deployments under the Microsoft Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP). ESRP provides a framework for Microsoft Certified storage providers to test storage solutions targeted for Exchange deployment. For example, one ESRP test demonstrated that HP LeftHand SAN Solutions can deliver the performance and capacity necessary to support 64,000 Exchange users with 750 MB mailboxes. To review the wide range of ESRP tests conducted on various LeftHand SAN Solutions and system configurations, visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/ff182054.aspx.

HP LeftHand Application Aware Snapshot Manager supports VSS-consistent, application-managed snapshots of Hyper-V virtual machines. VSS agents inside the guest operating system are triggered by the Microsoft VSS writer for Hyper-V to quiesce the file system when snapshots are taken. The HP LeftHand VSS provider then captures the data in a quiesced state and preserves it in the hardware snapshots on the SAN. These application consistent snapshots are fully integrated with the HP LeftHand Remote Copy and SmartClone features so protecting and recovering Hyper-V virtual machines with LeftHand snapshot technology is fast, easy, and reliable.

Save: Cut storage TCOIn todays competitive business environment, costs are usually a key part of IT decision making. HP LeftHand SAN Solutions are designed to be cost-effective from the outset, enable organizations to buy what they need, and scale up seamlessly in the future.

Pay-as-you-grow: Scale capacity and performance as needed Unlike traditional SAN storage architectures, LeftHand SANs scale capacity and performance linearly to seamlessly grow with the business. All P4000 storage nodes are pre-optimized to balance performance and capacity resources within the node so that customers can start with what they need today and easily grow by adding storage nodes to their clusters without taking systems offline.

Thin provisioning efficiencies underlie every LeftHand SAN Solution function including snapshots, remote copy, and volume migration, providing excellent capacity utilization with the potential for significant storage cost savings.

Reservationless snapshots create thinly provisioned, instant point-in-time copies of data on a per-volume basis, providing a highly effective and space-efficient system for disaster recovery.

The all-inclusive SAN software suite included with HP LeftHand SAN Solutions provides the latest SAN/iQ platform, the Centralized Management Console, Application Aware Snapshot Manager, and an array of value-added tools required to integrate a LeftHand SAN solution with a Hyper-V environment. This eliminates the need to purchase additional software and services to get a solution up and running which helps drive down TCO.

Maximize ROI with a SAN optimized for Hyper-VA growing number of organizations are taking advantage of the virtualization power built into Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. These organizations often find that cost-effective, high-performance storage is the missing piece of the virtualization value equation. HP LeftHand SAN Solutions enable them to get the storage they need today with high availability and disaster recovery built-in, and then scale it seamlessly in the future. With the ability to centrally manage SAN storage using familiar System Center tools, leverage application-aware SAN software to optimize Windows workloads, and even implement SAN features using internal or direct-attached storage through VSA, LeftHand SANs help organizations of all sizes maximize the value of Hyper-V virtualization.

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Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

4AA3-9294ENW, Created February 2012

HP P4000 LeftHand SAN Solutions support online frictionless scalability with simplified and consolidated management for maximizing server and storage utilization. For more information, visit www.hp.com/go/p4000.

Virtual SAN Appliance: Shared storage for Hyper-V without external SAN hardwareThe HP LeftHand VSA software provides complete SAN functionality for Hyper-V without external SAN hardware. By virtualizing the internal disk capacity of the server running Hyper-V, the VSA eliminates the need for external shared storage required to implement advanced hypervisor features. LeftHand VSA is Microsoft qualified as an iSCSI SAN.VSAs running on separate hosts create a clustered pool of

storage with the ability to replicate data across the hosts, allowing volumes to stay online in the event of a server failure.

Small to medium businesses and remote office customers can lower their IT infrastructure costs and better protect business critical systems without purchasing additional hardware.

The same Centralized Management Console can be used to manage both HP LeftHand physical SANs and virtual VSA SANs.

VSA for remote office/branch office scenariosBranch offices often need the same IT services as found in headquarters, but deploying physical SANs can be cost-prohibitive. The LeftHand VSA enables the creation of a fully featured, shared SAN inside a Hyper-V environment on existing servers or direct-attached storage, supporting high availability, disaster recovery, and remote management for branch offices without requiring additional storage systems, onsite IT staff, or large capital investments.