Prerequisites¶
This section will detail the hardware/software requirements needed to deploy the Delphix Engine with the Masking service. The Delphix Engine is a self-contained operating environment and application that is provided as a Virtual Appliance. Our Virtual Appliance is certified to run on a variety of platforms including VMware, AWS, and Azure.
The Delphix Engine should be placed on a server where it will not contend with other VMs for network, storage or other compute resources. The Delphix Engine is a CPU and I/O intensive application, and deploying it in an environment where it must share resources with other virtual machines, can significantly reduce performance.
For those using both Delphix Virtualization and Delphix Masking, note that these must be deployed separately. A Delphix engine may only be used for either masking or virtualization. Running both masking or virtualization operation on one engine is not supported.
Client Web Browser¶
The Delphix Engine's graphical interface can be accessed from a variety of different web browsers. The Delphix Engine currently supports the following web browsers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 11.0 or higher
- Microsoft Edge 40.x or higher
- Mozilla Firefox 35.0 or higher
- Chrome 40 or higher
TIP - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Make sure that Internet Explorer is not configured for compatibility mode.
VMware Platform¶
This section covers the virtual machine requirements for installation of a dedicated Delphix Masking Engine on the VMware Virtual platform.
Versions¶
The Delphix Engine can be run on several version of VMware ESX/ESXI (see support matrix).
Virtual CPUs¶
The minimum amount of virtual CPUs is 8v CPUs. CPU resource shortfalls can occur under high I/O throughput conditions. Also, CPU reservation is strongly recommended for the Delphix VM, so that Delphix is guaranteed the full complement of vCPUs even when resources are overcommitted.
Virtual Memory¶
The minimum amount of virtual memory is 16GB vRAM but we highly recommend 32GB or higher. The masking service on the Delphix Engine uses its memory to process database and file blocks. More memory can sometimes improve performance. Memory reservation is a requirement for the Delphix VM. Overcommitting memory resources in the ESX server will significantly impact the performance of the Delphix Engine. Reservation ensures that the Delphix Engine will not stall while waiting for the ESX server to page in the engine’s memory.
TIP - Do not allocate all memory to the Delphix VM
Never allocate all available physical memory to the Delphix VM. You must set aside memory for the ESX Server to perform hypervisor activities before you assign memory to Delphix and other VMs. The default ESX minimum free memory requirement is 6% of total RAM. When free memory falls below 6%, ESX starts swapping out the Delphix guest OS. We recommend leaving about 8-10% free to avoid swapping
For example, when running on an ESX Host with 512GB of physical memory, allocate no more than 470GB (92%) to the Delphix VM (and all other VMs on that host).
Storage¶
System Disk¶
The minimum recommended storage size of the System Disk (rpool) is 300 GB.
The VMFS volume must be located on shared storage in order to use vMotion and HA features.
The VMDK for the System Disk is often created in the same VMFS volume as the Delphix VM definition. In that case, the datastore must have sufficient space to hold the VMDK for the System Disk and the Delphix VM definition.
Configuration Disk(s)¶
The minimum recommended storage size of the Configuration Volume (domain0) is 50 GB.
AWS EC2 Platform¶
This section covers the virtual machine requirements for installation of a dedicated Delphix Masking Engine on Amazon's Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) platform.
For best performance, the Delphix Masking Engine and all database/file servers should be in the same AWS region.
Instance Types¶
The Delphix Masking Engine can run on a variety of different instances, including large memory instances (preferred) and high I/O instances. We recommend the following large memory and high I/O instances:
| Large Memory Instances (preferred) | High I/O Instances (supported) |
|---|---|
|
|
Larger instance types provide more CPU, which can prevent resource shortfalls under high I/O throughput conditions. For more information please refer to, Deployment for AWS EC2 .
TIP - Estimating Delphix VM Memory Requirements
On the AWS EC2 platform, the Delphix Masking Engine must have sufficient memory to operate when multiple masking jobs are running. Our recommendation is to provide 8 GB of memory for the Delphix Masking Engine in addition to any memory that will be used by running jobs.
Network Configurations¶
You must deploy the Delphix Engine and all database or file hosts in a VPC network to ensure that private IP addresses are static and do not change when you restart instances. When adding environments to the Delphix Engine, you must use the host's VPC (static private) IP addresses.
The EC2 Delphix instance must be launched with a static IP address; however, the default behavior for VPC instances is to launch with a dynamic public IP address – which can change whenever you restart the instance. If you're using a public IP address for your Delphix Engine, static IP addresses can only be achieved by using assigned AWS Elastic IP Addresses.
TIP - Port Configuration
The default security group will only open port 22 for secure shell (SSH) access. You must modify the security group to allow access to all of the networking ports used by the Delphix Engine and the various source and target engines. See Network Connectivity Requirements for information about specific port configurations.
Storage Configurations¶
Elastic Block Store (EBS) Requirements¶
All attached storage devices must be EBS volumes. Delphix does not support the use of instance store volumes. Because EBS volumes are connected to EC2 instances via the network, other network activity on the instance can affect throughput to EBS volumes. EBS optimized instances provide guaranteed throughput to EBS volumes and are required (for instance types that support it) in order to provide consistent and predictable storage performance.
Use EBS volumes with provisioned IOPs in order to provide consistent and predictable performance. The number of provisioned IOPs depends on the estimated IO workload on the Delphix Engine. Provisioned IOPs volumes must be configured with a volume size at least 30 GiB times the number of provisioned IOPs. For example, a volume with 3,000 IOPS must be configured with at least 100 GiB.
I/O requests of up to 256 kilobytes (KB) are counted as a single I/O operation (IOP) for provisioned IOPs volumes. Each volume can be configured for up to 4,000 IOPs.
System Disk¶
The minimum recommended storage size for the System Disk (rpool) is 300 GB.
Configuration Disk(s)¶
The minimum recommended storage size of the Configuration Volume (domain0) is 50 GB.
Azure Platform¶
This section covers the virtual machine requirements for installation of a dedicated Delphix Masking Engine on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
For best performance, the Delphix Masking Engine and all database/file servers should be in the same Azure Region.
Instance Types¶
The Delphix Engine can run on a variety of different Azure instances. We recommend the following instances:
-
DS14v2 - 16 CPUs, 112GB, 32 devices
-
DS15v2 - 20 CPU, 140GB, 40 devices
-
GS3 - 8 CPUs, 112GB, 16 devices
-
GS4 - 16 CPUs, 244GB, 32 devices
-
GS5 - 32 CPUs, 448GB, 64 devices
TIP - Estimating Delphix VM Memory Requirements
On the Azure platform, the Delphix Masking Engine must have sufficient memory to operate when multiple masking jobs are running. Our recommendation is to provide 8 GB of memory for the Delphix Masking Engine in addition to any memory that will be used by running jobs.
Network Configurations¶
The Delphix Engine and all database/file servers must be in the same Azure Virtual Network (VNet).
TIP - Port Configuration
You must modify the Network Security Group (NSG) to allow access to all of the networking ports used by the Delphix Engine and the various data sources. See Network Connectivity Requirements for information about specific port configurations.
Storage Configurations¶
Requirements¶
When configuring storage for the Delphix Engine we recommend Azure Premium Storage which uses solid-state drives (SSDs). Devices up to 4096 GB are supported with a total maximum of 256 TB.
I/O requests of up to 256 kilobytes (KB) are counted as a single I/O operation (IOP) for provisioned IOPs volumes. IOPS vary based on storage size with a maximum of 7,500 IOPS.
System Disk¶
The minimum recommended storage size for the System Disk (rpool) is 300 GB.
Configuration Disk(s)¶
The minimum recommended storage size of the Configuration Volume (domain0) is 50 GB.
Google Cloud Platform¶
This section covers the virtual machine requirements for installation of a dedicated Delphix Masking Engine on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Machine Types¶
The following is a list of instance types that are supported to deploy Delphix on GCP. Delphix periodically certifies new instance types, which will be added to the list here.
| Requirements | Notes |
|---|---|
| n2-standard-(32,64,96) | Larger instance types provide more CPU, which can prevent resource shortfalls under high I/O throughput conditions. |
| n2-highmem-(32,64,96) | Larger instances also provide more memory, which the Delphix Engine uses to cache database blocks. More memory will provide better read performance. |
Network Configuration¶
| Requirements | Notes |
|---|---|
| Virtual Private Cloud | You must deploy the Delphix Engine and database/file servers in a VPC network to ensure that private IP addresses are static and do not change when you restart instances. When adding connectors to the Masking Engine, you must use the host's VPC (static private) IP addresses. |
| Static Public IP | The GCP Delphix instance must be launched with a static IP address; however, the default behavior for VPC instances is to launch with a dynamic public IP address – which can change whenever you restart the instance. |
| Security Group Configuration | The default security group will only open port 22 for SSH access. You must modify the security group to allow access to all of the networking ports used by the Delphix Engine and the various source and target engines. |
| Premium Networking | It is recommended to use GCP Premium Tier Networking. |
Storage Configuration¶
System Disk¶
The minimum recommended storage size for the System Disk (rpool) is 300 GB.
Configuration Disk(s)¶
The minimum recommended storage size of the Configuration Volume (domain0) is 50 GB.
Additional GCP Configuration Notes¶
- Delphix supports both Zonal and Regional SSD persistent disks.