HP HPE2-K45 - Using HPE SimpliVity

Hyper Protected is one of the four pillars of HPE SimpliVity’s value proposition, along with Hyper Simple, Hyper Efficient, and Hyper Manageable. Hyper Protected refers to the ability of HPE SimpliVity to provide built-in data protection and disaster recovery for virtual machines (VMs) with unprecedented speed and efficiency. HPE SimpliVity can backup or restore 1TB VM in less than 1 minute, thanks to its unique data architecture that deduplicates, compresses, and optimizes data at inception, and its global federated management that enables policy-based automation across multiple sites. Restoring individual files from a VM backup, defining a storage policy using RAID 6 or RAID 60 to protect the VM, and integrating with Veeam to provide an external backup solution are not specific to HPE SimpliVity’s Hyper Protected capability, and can be done by other solutions as well. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 11, section 1.2. SimpliVity Hyperconverged, section “Hyper Protected”. HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 Node, section “Features”. SimpliVity HyperGuarantee, section “Remain online and recoverable — always”.

HPE SimpliVity is a hyperconverged infrastructure solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and data services in a single platform. HPE SimpliVity integrates with HPE StoreOnce, a disk-based backup appliance, to provide efficient and reliable data protection and disaster recovery for distributed edge sites12.

HPE SimpliVity uses HPE StoreOnce Catalyst, a deduplication protocol, to replicate data from HPE SimpliVity clusters to HPE StoreOnce appliances. HPE SimpliVity leverages its global deduplication and compression capabilities to send only the unique data blocks to HPE StoreOnce, reducing the bandwidth and storage requirements34.

To optimize the replication performance, the design aspects that need to be evaluated are the number of the HPE SimpliVity clusters and Catalyst stores used. According to the HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture document, the following best practices are recommended:

Use one Catalyst store per HPE SimpliVity cluster. This simplifies the configuration and management, and avoids potential performance issues due to contention or fragmentation.

Use one Catalyst store per HPE StoreOnce appliance. This ensures optimal deduplication ratios and avoids unnecessary data movement across appliances.

Use one HPE StoreOnce appliance per HPE SimpliVity federation. This minimizes the network hops and latency, and maximizes the throughput and efficiency.

Use dedicated network interfaces and VLANs for the replication traffic. This isolates the replication traffic from the production traffic, and provides better security and performance.

The other options are not relevant for optimizing the replication performance. The performance optimization features provided by VMFS datastores compared to NFS datastores are not applicable for HPE SimpliVity, as it uses its own file system and data virtualization platform. The intelligent workload optimizer settings are not related to the replication performance, but to the VM placement and load balancing within the HPE SimpliVity cluster. The HPE SimpliVity model used does not affect the replication performance, as long as it meets the minimum requirements for the HPE StoreOnce integration.

References:

1: SimpliVity Hyperconverged | HPE 2: Expand backups to secondary storage with HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure and HPE StoreOnce 3: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce 4: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce: A better together story : [HPE SimpliVitywith HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture] : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer]

 According to the HPE SimpliVity 325 Gen10 QuickSpecs1, this model supports up to one NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPU accelerator. According to the HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 G Node QuickSpecs2, this model supports up to two NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPU accelerators. Therefore, these two models meet the customer needs for HPE SimpliVity nodes that support NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPUs.

The other models do not support NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPUs. According to the HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 QuickSpecs3, this model supports NVIDIA Tesla M10 and P40 GPUs, butnot T4 GPUs. According to the HPE SimpliVity 2600 QuickSpecs4, this model does not support any GPU accelerators. According to the HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 SFFH QuickSpecs, this model supports NVIDIA Tesla V100 and P100 GPUs, but not T4 GPUs. References:

1: HPE SimpliVity 325 Gen10 QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00073576enw

2: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 G Node QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00073577enw

3: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00026086enw

4: HPE SimpliVity 2600 QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00026087enw

: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 SFFH QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00026088enw

The HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide is a document that provides the information about the supported hardware and software components for the HPE SimpliVity solution, such as the HPE SimpliVity nodes, the VMware ESXi hosts, the VMware vCenter Server, the HPE OmniStack software, the HPE SimpliVity Arbiter, and the guestoperating systems1. The guide also provides the compatibility matrix and the configuration guidelines for the HPE SimpliVity solution. The ESXi version (option B) and the guest OS version (option C) are two items that can be found in the HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide, as they are essential for the proper functioning and performance of the HPE SimpliVity solution. The guide lists the supported ESXi versions for each HPE SimpliVity node model and HPE OmniStack software version, as well as the supported guest OS versions for each HPE SimpliVity node model1. The GPU accelerators (option A), the vSphere license (option D), and the processor model (option E) are not items that can be found in the HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide, as they are not relevant or required for the HPE SimpliVity solution. The GPU accelerators are not supported by the HPE SimpliVity solution, as they are not compatible with the HPE SimpliVity nodes2. The vSphere license is not specified by the HPE SimpliVity solution, as it depends on the customer’s choice and needs3. The processor model is not listed by the HPE SimpliVity solution, as it is already determined by the HPE SimpliVity node model4. References:

1: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, pp. 1-25.

2: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 Node Data sheet, HPE, 2019, p. 5.

3: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 27.

4: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 17.

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR is a disaster recovery orchestration tool that automates and simplifies the recovery process of VMs protected by HPE SimpliVity backups. It can be used in the event of disaster to efficiently restore VMs across the primary and secondary sites, which consist of multiple HPE SimpliVity nodes12.

HPE SimpliVity RapidDR requires VMware vCenter Server, a centralized management platform for VMware vSphere environments, to perform the recovery operations. VMware vCenter Server is licensed per instance, which means that each vCenter Server installation requires a separate license3 .

To reduce the vCenter Server license cost, a customer can use only a single vCenter Server instance to manage the HPE SimpliVity federation, which is a group of HPE SimpliVity clusters that share the same configuration and policies. This deployment scenario is possible when the federation is managed centrally, which means that all the HPE SimpliVity nodes are registered to the same vCenter Server instance, regardless of their physical location .

The other options are not valid for reducing the vCenter Server license cost. The number of VMs covered by a single recovery plan does not affect the vCenter Server license requirement, as long as the VMs are managed by the same vCenter Server instance. Enabling Enhanced Linked Mode for vCenter allows multiple vCenter Server instances to share information and provide a single pane of glass view, but it does not eliminate the need for separate licenses for each vCenter Server instance. Disabling Intelligent Workload Optimizer, a feature that balances the VM workload across the HPE SimpliVity cluster, has no impact on the vCenter Server license requirement.

References:

1: HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 2: HPE SimpliVity RapidDR - Starter License - 25 VMs - CDW 3: VMware vCenter Server - VMware : VMware vCenter Server Licensing, Pricing and Packaging : [HPE SimpliVity Federation Design and Scaling Guide] : [HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture] : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer] : [HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster Guide] : [HPE SimpliVity Remote RapidDR Software Installation and Startup Service]

According to the HPE SimpliVity documents and learning resources, mixing nodes with different drive configurations within a cluster is not recommended, as it can result in unbalanced 10 performance and capacity utilization. This is because the HPE SimpliVity nodes use a distributed file system that replicates data across all nodes in the cluster, and the data efficiency and backup features depend on the consistent performance of the underlying storage devices. Therefore, it is best to use nodes with the same drive configuration and capacity within a cluster, and avoid mixing All-flash and hybrid nodes, or nodes with different drive types, sizes, or speeds. The other options are incorrect because they are either false or irrelevant. Mixing nodes with different drive configuration does not require an additional license, nor is it available only for AMD-based nodes. Mixing All-flash and hybrid nodes in the same cluster is not supported, as it can causeperformance and capacity issues. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 42; HPE SimpliVity networking explained; HPE SimpliVity Releases

 According to the HPE InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity Getting Started document1, HPE InfoSight provides the following functionality for HPE SimpliVity:

Monitoring of cluster, node, and virtual machine performance, capacity, and health

Reporting of system configuration, inventory, and compliance

Analysis of trends, anomalies, and root causes

Prediction of future resource needs and potential issues

Recommendation of best practices and optimization actions

One of the key features of HPE InfoSight is the ability to monitor the latency of virtual machines, which is the time it takes for a request to be processed by the system. Latency is an important indicator of the performance and efficiency of the system, and HPE InfoSight provides detailed and granular data on the latency of each virtual machine, as well as the breakdown of the latency components, such as CPU, memory, network, and storage. HPE InfoSight also provides alerts and notifications when the latency exceedsthe predefined thresholds, and helps to identify and resolve the root causes of the latency issues.

Therefore, the correct answer is D. monitoring of virtual machine latency, as this is one of the functionality that HPE InfoSight provides for HPE SimpliVity. References:

1: HPE InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity Getting Started, https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/api/document/a00089726en_us?docLocale=en_US

According to the HPE SimpliVity documents and learning resources, each datastore in an HPE SimpliVity cluster is presented to the HPE SimpliVity nodes as a VMFS datastore. A VMFS datastore is a VMware-specific file system that allows multiple ESXi hosts to access the same storage device concurrently. HPE SimpliVity uses VMFS datastores to store virtual machine files and provide shared storage to all virtual machines on the hosts. HPE SimpliVity does not use vSAN, NFS, or vVol as the datastore type. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 41; SimpliVity Video - How to Create a HPE SimpliVity Datastore