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Hypervisor host considerations

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There are several planning issues related to the hypervisor host that you should consider.

Caution You should not directly modify the configuration of an ONTAP Select virtual machine unless directed to do so by NetApp support. A virtual machine should only be configured and modified through the Deploy administration utility. Making changes to an ONTAP Select virtual machine outside of the Deploy utility without assistance from NetApp support can cause the virtual machine to fail and render it unusable.

Hypervisor independent

Both ONTAP Select and the ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility are hypervisor independent.

The following hypervisors are supported for both ONTAP Select and the ONTAP Select Deploy administration:

  • VMware ESXi

  • Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Note Refer to the hypervisor-specific planning information and release notes for additional details regarding the supported platforms.
Hypervisor for ONTAP Select nodes and administration utility

Both the Deploy administration utility and the ONTAP Select nodes run as virtual machines. The hypervisor you choose for the Deploy utility is independent of the hypervisor you choose for the ONTAP Select nodes. You have complete flexibility when pairing the two:

  • Deploy utility running on VMware ESXi can create and manage ONTAP Select clusters on either VMware ESXi or KVM

  • Deploy utility running on KVM can create and manage ONTAP Select clusters on either VMware ESXi or KVM

One or more instances of ONTAP Select node per host

Each ONTAP Select node runs as a dedicated virtual machine. You can create multiple nodes on the same hypervisor host, with the following restrictions:

  • Multiple nodes from a single ONTAP Select cluster cannot run on the same host. All the nodes on a specific host must be from different ONTAP Select clusters.

  • You must use external storage.

  • If you use software RAID, you can only deploy one ONTAP Select node on the host.

Hypervisor consistency for the nodes within a cluster

All of the hosts within an ONTAP Select cluster must run on the same version and release of the hypervisor software.

Number of physical ports on each host

You must configure each host to use one, two, or four physical ports. Although you have flexibility when configuring the network ports, you should follow these recommendations where possible:

  • A host in a single-node cluster should have two physical ports.

  • Each host in a multi-node cluster should have four physical ports

Integrate ONTAP Select with an ONTAP hardware-based cluster

You cannot add an ONTAP Select node directly to an ONTAP hardware-based cluster. However, you can optionally establish a cluster peering relationship between an ONTAP Select cluster and a hardware-based ONTAP cluster.

VMware hypervisor environment

There are several requirements and restrictions specific to the VMware environment that you should consider before installing the ONTAP Select Deploy utility in a VMware environment.

ESXi host server hardware requirements

There are several minimum resource requirements that your ESXi hypervisor host must meet. You should make sure that the hosts where ONTAP Select is deployed meet the following basic requirements:

  • ESXi server:

    • Hardware and software must be 64-bit

    • Must adhere to the same supported versions as defined for an ONTAP Select node

  • Virtual CPUs (2)

  • Virtual memory (4 GB)

  • Storage (40 GB)

  • DHCP enabled (can also assign a static IP address)

Network connectivity

You must make sure that the ONTAP Select Deploy virtual machine network interface is configured and has a single management IP address. You can use DHCP to dynamically assign an IP address or manually configure a static IP address.

Depending on your deployment decisions, the Deploy VM must be able to connect to the vCenter server, ESXi hypervisor hosts, and ONTAP Select nodes it manages. You must configure your firewalls to allow the required traffic.

Deploy uses the VMware VIX API to communicate with the vCenter server and ESXi hosts. Initially, it establishes a connection using SOAP over SSL on TCP port 443. After this, a connection is opened using SSL on port 902. In addition, Deploy issues PING commands to verify there is an ESXi host at the IP address you specify.

Deploy must also be able to communicate with the ONTAP Select node and cluster management IP addresses using the following protocols:

  • PING command (ICMP)

  • SSH (port 22)

  • SSL (port 443)

Support for IP version 4

ONTAP Select Deploy only supports IP version 4 (IPv4). IP version 6 (IPv6) is not supported. This restriction affects ONTAP Select in the following ways:

  • You must assign an IPv4 address to the management LIF of the Deploy virtual machine.

  • Deploy cannot create ONTAP Select nodes configured to use IPv6 on the ONTAP LIFs.