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Hyper-V Installation

The Delphix Engine is a virtual appliance that runs in a hypervisor. In this section, you’ll find requirements to run Delphix on Hyper-V including supported versions and instance configurations as well as recommended configuration parameters for optimal performance.

Contact your Delphix representative to request this capability. Delphix will assist you to review that all Hyper-V requirements are met to successfully run a Delphix Engine with the most appropriate configuration for your Use Cases.

If the Delphix Engine competes with other virtual machines on the same host for resources it will result in increased latency for all operations. As such, it is crucial that your Hyper-V host is not over-subscribed, as this eliminates the possibility of a lack of resources for the Delphix Engine. This includes allowing a percentage of CPU resources for the hypervisor itself as it can de-schedule an entire VM if the hypervisor is needed for managing IO or compute resources.

Supported Versions

  • Hyper-V Version: 10.0 and later
  • Gen 1 only is supported

Virtual CPUs

Requirements Notes
8 vCPUs - CPU resource shortfalls can occur both on an over-committed host as well as competition for host resources during high IO utilization.
- CPU reservations are strongly recommended for the Delphix VM so that Delphix is guaranteed the full complement of vCPUs even when resources are overcommitted.
- It is suggested to use a single core per socket unless there are specific requirements for other VMs on the same Hyper-V host. 
Never allocate all available physical CPUs to virtual machines - CPU for the Hyper-V Server to perform hypervisor activities must be set aside before assigning vCPUs to Delphix and other VMs. 
- We recommend that a minimum of 8-10% of the CPUs available are reserved for hypervisor operation. (e.g. 12 vCPUs on a 128 vCore system).

Memory

Requirements Notes
128 or higher GB vRAM (recommended)
64GB vRAM (minimum)
- The masking service on the Delphix Engine uses its memory to process database and file blocks.
- Memory reservations are required for the Delphix VM. The performance of the Delphix Engine will be significantly impacted by the over-commitment of memory resources in the Hyper-V Server.
- Reservations ensure that the Delphix Engine will not be forced to swap pages during times of memory pressure on the host. A swapped page will require orders of magnitude more time to be brought back to physical memory from the Hyper-V swap device.
Memory for the Hyper-V Server to perform hypervisor activities must be set aside before assigning memory to Delphix and other VMs. Failure to ensure sufficient memory for the host can result in a hard memory state for all VMs on the host which will result in a block for memory allocations.

Network

Requirements Notes
Virtual ethernet adapter requirements. - SR-IOV recommended for all virtual ethernet adapters that will be used for Delphix data IO.
- Jumbo frames recommended.
- A 10GbE NIC in the Hyper-V Server is recommended.
If the network load in the Hyper-V Server hosting the Delphix engine VM is high, dedicate one or more physical NICs to the Delphix Engine. - Adding NICs only works if VMs are discovered using different interfaces.

SCSI Controller

Requirements Notes
LSI Logic Parallel - Per Hyper-V Storage I/O Performance Tuning Guidelines, it is recommended that you attach multiple disks to a single virtual SCSI controller and create additional controllers only as they are required to scale the number of disks connected to the virtual machine. For example, a VM with 3 virtual disks should distribute the disks across the single SCSI controller as follows:
- IDE Controller 1 - Boot Drive
- SCSI Controllers - Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 3
Note: For load purposes, we generally focus on the DB storage and ignore the controller placement of the system disk.

Storage Configuration

Note

You must always attach a minimum of 2 storage pools to the Delphix Engine; one for rpool and other for domain0 pool.

Requirements Notes
Storage used for Delphix must be provisioned from storage that provides data protection. For example, using RAID levels with data protection features, or equivalent technology.
The Delphix Engine does not protect against data loss originating at the hypervisor or SAN layers.

Delphix Storage Operations

There are three types of data that Delphix stores on disk, which are:

  1. Delphix VM Configuration Storage: stores data related to the configuration of the Delphix VM. VM Configuration Storage includes the Hyper-V configuration data as well as log files.
  2. Delphix Engine System Disk Storage: stores data related to the Delphix Engine system data, such as the Delphix .ova settings.

Delphix VM Configuration Storage

The Delphix VM configuration must be stored on an NTFS volume(s).

Requirements Notes
The volumes should have enough available space to hold all Hyper-V configuration and log files associated with the Delphix Engine. If a memory reservation is not enabled for the Delphix Engine (in violation of memory requirements stated above), then space for a paging area equal to the Delphix Engine's VM memory must be added to the volumes containing the Delphix VM configuration data.

Delphix Engine System Disk Storage

Requirements Notes
The Delphix Engine disks must be stored on NTFS volume(s). The volume for the Delphix Engine System Disk Storage is often created on the same volume as the Delphix VM definition. In that case, the volume must have sufficient space to hold the Delphix VM Configuration, the virtual disk for the system disk, and a paging area if a memory reservation was not enabled for the Delphix Engine.
The Delphix .vhdx file is configured for a 128GB system drive. The volume where the .vhdx is deployed should, therefore, have at least 128GB of free space prior to deploying the .vhdx.

Metadata Disk(s)

In addition to making sure the latest Hyper-V patches have been applied, check with your hardware vendor for updates specific to your hardware configuration. VHDXs (virtual machine disks).

Requirements Notes
A minimum of 4 VHDXs should be allocated for database storage. Allocating a minimum of 4 VHDXs for database storage enables the Delphix File System (DxFS) to make sure that its file systems are always consistent on disk without additional serialization. This also enables the Delphix Engine to achieve higher I/O rates by queueing more I/O operations to its storage.
If using VHDXs:
- Each VHDX should be the only VHDX on its NTFS volume
- The VHDX volumes should be assigned to dedicated physical LUNs on redundant storage.
- The VHDXs should be created as the Fixed Size type.
Provisioning VHDXs from isolated volumes on dedicated physical LUNs:
- Reduces contention for the underlying physical LUNs
- Eliminates contention for locks on the volumes from other VMs and/or the Hyper-V Server Console
The quantity and size of VHDXs or RDMs assigned must be identical across all 4 controllers. If the underlying storage array allocates physical LUNs by carving them from RAID groups, the LUNs should be allocated from different RAID groups. This eliminates contention for the underlying disks in the RAID groups as the Delphix engine distributes IO across its storage devices.
The physical LUNs used for NTFS volumes and RDMs should be of the same type in terms of performance characteristics such as latency, RPMs, and RAID level. The total number of disk drives that comprise the set of physical LUNs should be capable of providing the desired aggregate I/O throughput (MB/sec) and IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) for all virtual databases that will be hosted by the Delphix Engine.
The physical LUNs used for NTFS volumes can be thin-provisioned in the storage array. If the storage array allocates physical LUNs from storage pools comprising dozens of disk drives, the LUNs should be distributed evenly across the available pools.

Installing Hyper-V

  1. Download the image from Delphix’s Download site and copy it to your VM directory.
  2. Start the Hyper-V Manager and specify Name and Location and then select Next.
  3. Specify the Generation, configure memory, and then select Next. Memory: 64 GB (minimum), 128 GB (recommended)
  4. Set up Networking by selecting vNIC then select Next.
  5. Attach the downloaded image as a boot disk. Create a unique boot disk for each image.
    Note: Boot disks cannot be shared.
    • Use an existing virtual hard disk.
    • Browse to the location of VM.
    • Select the Image.
  6. Select Finish, the VM will appear in the inventory.
  7. Customize the VM by selecting Settings:
    • Delphix recommends having the IDE be the first device to boot from (under BIOS setting).
    • Adjust the number of CPU (min 8)
    • Add Hard Drive. Use VHDX formatted disks. Recommend Fixed Size. Note: Differencing Disk Types are not supported.
    • 128 GB Disk Storage
  8. Repeat step 7 as necessary.
  9. Connect to the console and start the VM.
  10. Once the installation is complete go to Setting up the Delphix Engine section to learn how to activate the masking service now that you have the software installed.