Managing IT workloads can hog resources because of rising server management tasks, call center support requirements, and maintenance costs. Workload flexibility products from Double-Take Software can help drastically reduce the time and expense of desktop and server provisioning and management, while helping increase the level of control over current infrastructures. This discussion provides an opportunity to look into the benefits of managing IT workloads that are run from an Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area network (SAN) array using Double-Take® Flex software:

  • Ethernet NICs on blades can perform diskless boots from iSCSI.
  • A five-click setup can make any Microsoft® Windows® server into an iSCSI SAN and provide shared modes for the iSCSI storage that allow access to shared volumes for multiple servers or workstations.
  • One unique boot volume per machine or one boot volume that can be shared among multiple machines can be created for bulletproofing desktops.
  • Volumes can be quickly duplicated using snapshot or cloning features specific to an iSCSI storage vendor for efficient deployment.
  • Centralized management provides shared access to network storage to help reduce the cost of managing workloads and restore failed drives to their original states.

Technical Community - Background Reading

Chat Transcript

RogerFaucher What's up with the Nehalem presentation?
erson What presentation?
wb-wpb Today was supposed to be the iSCSI Flex product...don't know what happened
erson Double-Take Flex is today’s topic. It starts in ~45 minutes
wb-wpb Pesky Central time conversion...
RogerFaucher Thanks. Scott Hanson told me there would be a Nehalem performance chat at 1 PM CDT. I just realized I'm a little early for that. I thought Double-Take was tomorrow?
erson Rogerfaucher, the Nehalem chat was last Tuesday at 1 PM CDT. Transcript and other information is available here: www.delltechcenter.com/page/03-31-09+intel+next-generation+microarchitecture
RogerFaucher Aha! Thank you! Make a great day
erson It was a good chat. Next week it's Dell PowerEdge 11th-generation hardware overview, so it's a good time to talk about Nehalem as well. Rogerfaucher, anything in particular that you wanted to ask about Nehalem?
DELL-ScottH Look at all you early birds...what's been going on around here?
erson Rogerfaucher thought it was a Nehalem chat
DELL-ScottH Erson, thanks for directing Roger to last week’s chat page
DELL-ScottH Just saw that, thanks
erson And wb-wpb had some time-zone conversion problems (been there, done that)
DELL-ScottH @roger, the Intel guys that were on last week hang out here: http://communities.intel.com/openport/community/server. So if you have questions directly to them you can ping them on that site. Or you can start a thread on the Nehalem transcript page here, and they should see it too
DELL-ScottH We need one time zone to rule them all!
erson I vote for UTC
DELL-ScottH I vote for IST...I love being off my half-hour :-)
DELL-ScottH s/my/by
RogerFaucher Thanks guys. I'll check out the chat transcript and use Scott's link if I need more info. Gracias!
DELL-ScottH De nada
erson Can we expect some guests from Double-Take today?
DELL-ScottH Yes, Brace Rennels, @brennels on Twitter, and another technical person from Double-Take will be leading the chat today. I haven't installed their solution in the lab yet, so I'm interested in this chat to learn more myself
erson Yes, that new Star Trek movie looks great
wantmoore The new Terminator flick looks sweet too
erson /me reads up on the Twitter-thingy...
erson Wantmoore, sure do, Bale doesn't seem to have made a bad movie in a very long time
DELL-ScottH Hey wantmoore, yeah did you guys see that in Austin they actually showed the whole movie to an audience that thought they were getting a 10 minute trailer?
wantmoore No way, that’s awesome
DELL-ScottH http://tinyurl.com/dg9ncx. Leonard Nimoy was here! I'm sooo mad
erson Best Star Trek movie of all time is of course Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
wantmoore That’s hilarious
DELL-ScottH No way. Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn! :-)
wantmoore Maybe we should just debate iSCSI versus FC. Probably have a similar outcome
DELL-ScottH Oh yeah
erson FC is dead
DELL-ScottH That would be more along the lines of a Star Trek versus Star Wars discussion :-)
erson The FC crowd seems to get behind FCoE
wantmoore Yeah, they think that’s their saving grace
erson Think I read some strong opinions about that on Dell community. More exactly here: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/insideit/default.aspx
erson Hmmm, that's not pretty exact :)
erson Hi Dt_toronto
DT_Toronto Hello
DELL-ScottH Hello DT
DELL-ScottH Or does that stand for the whole Double-Take (DT) Toronto team? :-)
DT_Toronto That is correct—Toronto team—engineering group behind Flex
DELL-ScottH Cool, nice to know...Brace should be here in a second
DELL-ScottH Hello all. The chat starts in about 8 minutes. Couple of things to note: if you click links you might get exited from the chat; if you right-click them you can avoid this
DELL-ScottH Hello brace
DELL-ScottH The Toronto engineering team (dt_toronto) is on too
brennels Hi Scott
ESPettit Hi guys...don't know if I can stay long, but will try. Thanks
DELL-ScottH Hello justpaul
justpaul Hey, Scotth
DELL-ScottH Espettit, stay as long as you like; you can read the transcript tomorrow on the same link that got you here, and you can ask any follow-up questions on that page. We will officially kick off in a few minutes
ESPettit Cool, good to know
DELL-ScottH Idle chit chat till then
DELL-ScottH FYI, don't worry about writing any URLs down that are mentioned today; you can click them in the transcript tomorrow
justpaul Re Star Wars versus Star Trek, should we wait for the JJ Abrams re-imagining before making a final determination? :)
DELL-ScottH Yes, but some Austin folks got to see the whole movie last night! http://tinyurl.com/dg9ncx
brennels Hi Scott, how do you attach URLs to the chat?
DELL-ScottH Just copy and paste
brennels Not working for some reason—let me try again
DELL-ScottH Use Shift-Ins for the paste
justpaul Img, I live in Dallas... I could have made it
brennels If anyone Twitters, you can use the hashtag #dell-dtflex for this session
DELL-ScottH Just tweeted the start; usually this is when people start to come in
DELL-ScottH Welcome Cristian
erson Phew, it premieres early here in Sweden as well
Cristian_Lamson Hello Scott
DELL-ScottH Welcome everyone! Let's kick it off and late comers can catch up
brennels There are a few documents posted on the chat session page for preview, including a Double-take Flex data sheet
DELL-ScottH Thanks to everyone for joining the chat session today. Couple of quick housekeeping things. Very informal, ask questions anytime, and don't worry about interrupting. We can sort it all out in real time :-)
DELL-ScottH The chat is recorded, so you can view the transcript tomorrow on this same link that got you here. So don't worry about writing down URLs Also, right-click URLs or you might exit from the chat. If you do get exited, just click Action, Recent Room History and it will show you what you missed
DELL-ScottH I'd like to welcome Brace Rennels (brennels) from Double-Take Software and the Toronto engineering team from Double-Take (dt_toronto) to today's session to take us through the new Double-Take Flex solution. Brace, all yours!
brennels Thanks Scott, so to get everyone up to speed we can start with what Double-Take Flex is. I am having some problems attaching URLs right now, but all the briefs and data sheets can be found at www.doubletake.com
DELL-ScottH I'll get the links
erson Product Overview: www.doubletake.com/documents/flex/flex_datasheet.pdf
brennels Double-Take Flex allows you to provision workstations and servers from iSCSI storage quickly
DELL-ScottH Here’s the data sheet: www.doubletake.com/documents/flex/flex_datasheet.pdf
DELL-ScottH Dang erson, you're too fast :-)
brennels Thanks, erson
DELL-ScottH Here's the main product page: www.doubletake.com/english/products/double-take-flex/pages/default.aspx
wantmoore Scott, hanging out in IRC chats gives you mad typing skills
DELL-ScottH So Brace, what's the 10,000 foot description of Flex?
brennels You can also turn any direct attached storage on a Windows server into iSCSI storage if you don't already have a fly EqualLogic
DELL-ScottH "Fly," is that a technical term? :-)
erson Pretty fly for a white guy?
DELL-ScottH So that's bundled as part of the Flex solution. iSCSI...sounds neat, you have paper on that?
wantmoore Oh cool. Kinda like SANmelody
brennels DT, Flex allows you to create shared access to your network storage for rapidly provisioning either workstations or servers
DELL-ScottH So I could take a PowerEdge 1950 with PowerVault MD1000 and turn into a poor man's PowerVault MD3000i?
brennels Yes, and then you can share a boot image on that iSCSI storage to boot multiple machines simultaneously
DELL-ScottH Hello Miked. Use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
erson When using Double-Take Flex to make a Windows server an iSCSI target, does it support "persistent reservations" in "SCSI Primary Commands-3"?
DELL-ScottH And Miked gets respect :-)
erson So that Hyper-V failover clustering will work?
DT_Toronto Yes, iSCSI-3 persistent reservations are supported
MikeD_DT Well, I do from brennels, anyway =)
brennels It also enables using existing Ethernet NICs on blades to perform a diskless boot from iSCSI
justpaul Shared images are only available using sanFly (as opposed to my NetApp filer) correct?
DT_Toronto Shared images are supported using local RAM or local HD storage as well
DELL-ScottH And I meant the PowerEdge R610 in the example...have to slap myself to start using the new Dell 11th-generation server names :-)
DT_Toronto In other words, you can use NetApp or EqualLogic or MD, etc. for shared images
DELL-ScottH So with Flex I can point my chassis, or rack of blades, to this iSCSI software target and have one image that boots them all?
DELL-ScottH Like, one "ring" to rule them all?
DT_Toronto Yes
DELL-ScottH Where do the unique attributes get stored for the individual blades? In some config file? How large is that?
erson I assume that could be used in a read-only fashion as well so that reboots always give you a server/workstation in pristine condition?
DT_Toronto Individual data is stored in a file
brennels Yep, and you can also have multiple disk images with different operating systems and can share those images to have a single/multiple server(s) boot multiple operating systems, if needed
DELL-ScottH I'm starting to get it. So if I wanted to change what a server/blade was doing, all I have to do is remap what iSCSI boot target it points at, correct? So it could be a Windows box one minute and a Linux box the next?
DT_Toronto If Flex Storage Server, that individual data can be stored on the same location as the .vhd file (target) or located elsewhere
DELL-ScottH Hello Rob_d. Use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
DT_Toronto Scott, can present multiple operating systems (targets) as a menu item if desired. A reboot is all that is needed to reselect an OS/different target
DELL-ScottH Really? You have a screen shot of that? Sort of like the old "menu" option in the autoexec.bat with DOS. That is cool
justpaul ^screenshot
DELL-ScottH No, I actually wanted to shoot my screen :-)
DT_Toronto Screen shot is available; looks a lot like a DOS bat file
DELL-ScottH Very neat; I've got to get this up and running in my lab
brennels I do have a few screen shots of Flex and can post on the usergroup.doubletake.com for viewing
DELL-ScottH Is there any automation to it?
DT_Toronto Menu list can be set as failover, in case target #1 is not reachable, target#2 is tried, etc.
DELL-ScottH Those would be great to see. Can you post the links back on the main chat page when you do that?
justpaul Anyone going to talk about persistence and shared images?
DT_Toronto All items in both consoles (storage and Flex management) are WMI scriptable
DELL-ScottH Yes, interested in that too
DT_Toronto Justpaul, what would you like to know about persistence/shared images?
justpaul How are users’ data separated from the image?
DT_Toronto We use a write filter to separate those out. In other words, the target master image is read-only; any and all writes are put elsewhere
justpaul So changes are stored in delta files?
erson And that was stored in a .vhd file?
DELL-ScottH So can I specify that I want a non-persistent session, so it goes back when the machine reboots?
DT_Toronto The deltas, or caches, as we call them, can be committed back to the master image
DELL-ScottH Oh, "can" be
DT_Toronto Master image is a .vhd file when using Flex Storage
erson Okay
justpaul Okay, here's a scenario: a user has booted master image A, made changes (stored in delta). Now, I have a new image with the latest version of Microsoft Office that I would like to deploy. Would the deltas be destroyed when assigning the new image to the user's computer?
DT_Toronto Can I specify that I want a non-persistent session, so it goes back when the machine reboots. Yes
DT_Toronto Yes, true today. Deltas would be gone upon committal of master image
justpaul NDA?
DT_Toronto We are working on a solution to this
erson So no persistent sessions then without committing the cache back to the master image?
DT_Toronto Not true; persistent sessions stay on. Does not require a commit
erson Okay, great
brennels Good information
DT_Toronto NDA = ?
justpaul Non-disclosure agreement regarding future plans
DT_Toronto Nothing here so far is NDA
DELL-ScottH And please no NDA stuff on the chat, as it’s recorded and public :-)
DELL-ScottH Hey, did you guys know you can right-click on a person and send them a private message in the chat? ;-)
erson Very timely information there :)
brennels I think something else that is neat is that workstations can use local CPU for process-intensive applications, so the loads don't saturate the SAN
erson Is there any advantage to using Double-Take Flex to provide my NICs with the possibility to boot from iSCSI even though my NICs already have that capability?
DT_Toronto Absolutely. Centralized management of that ability
justpaul Graphics and video responsiveness is a boon as well
DT_Toronto Also, we support full ISOE [Internet SCSI (iSCSI) Offload Engine] and TOE [TCP Offload Engine] capabilities of Broadcom NICs on Dell (and other) platforms under iSCSI boot
DELL-ScottH So I don't have to touch the BIOS of each machine to change the iSCSI boot target. Can do that in the Double-Take Flex console, right?
DT_Toronto Yes, all done from one console. Much easier
justpaul ISOE and TOE = very cool!
DELL-ScottH Do you guys have a demo recorded where I could see it in action?
erson Feels like Flex would be a great addition to most VDI setups
DT_Toronto What in particular would you like to see?
DT_Toronto We complement VDI
justpaul Speaking of plans, is there a plan for Flex to find its way into the road warrior environment?
brennels Working on a video and should have a camtasia demo coming soon
DELL-ScottH Just an overview...console, boot menu, booting the servers/workstations
DT_Toronto Operating systems can be streamed into Virtual Machine Streaming; OS into VMs can improve VDI server utilization by 15 percent*
DELL-ScottH @brennels, cool, let me know when you have it
DT_Toronto Road warrior: nothing public
brennels @dell-scotth, I thought we had Flex in the Dell test lab a few weeks ago or has that been removed by now?
DELL-ScottH That was a different lab—not mine
DT_Toronto Was in two Dell labs
DELL-ScottH I have to carve off some time to play with it...or finish my time machine
brennels @dt_tornto, can't you use snapshot and clone functions of iSCSI as well?
DT_Toronto Yes, in terms of (if not using Flex), that would be the way to quickly deploy new desktops or server boot images that are clones of another: sysprep, seal, copy/clone/snap, assign in Flex console, rinse, and repeat—if not using Flex Storage server, I mean
justpaul Flex Storage server = sanFly?
DT_Toronto Yes
erson What do I need in terms of hardware for the management console?
DT_Toronto Nothing exciting; runs on a basic XP machine. Does not consume lots of memory, I/O, resources
erson Web-based interface?
DT_Toronto No
brennels I smell new on a new Dell :)
DT_Toronto MMC 3.0
justpaul Erson wants to run it on his iPhone
brennels How does booting from a SAN improve security for workstations?
erson The iPhone is that new phone that all the geeks have, right? ;)
DELL-ScottH Yeah, and we all tweet from it :-)
DT_Toronto Data taken of a local HD and put in backroom storage
brennels So when the workstation boots up the next day it has access to the same data
brennels Can you replicate the boot images offsite for DR?
DT_Toronto Sure, actually a cool feature when used with the migration capability. A downed IBM server booting from a SAN can take a Dell server, point it to the same IBM image, run our migration tool, and then reboot that Dell server to use that image the IBM was using
DELL-ScottH Hello uoeap, use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
brennels Would that be in combination with Double-Take Move?
justpaul Is it possible to cache the image to the local HD? (For extra credit, use Double-Take’s replication technology for ensuring updates)
brennels @justpaul, Nice :)
DT_Toronto That native migration function, called Winmigr8, is native to Flex. It offers basic P2V2P migration capabilities. We have a utility (systemcopy) that can be used in reverse to bring the SAN boot image back down to the local HD and is then bootable
justpaul That's more like disconnecting the master image instead of caching it, right?
DT_Toronto Well, yes, in the case where you would want to move back to local HD booting...copy is VSS enabled; although, there are lots of advantages to booting from the SAN (another conversation)
justpaul Scenario: we have three sites. Using one SAN storage, I would like the remote sites to download a copy to minimize WAN traffic. As a new image is created, I would like to replicate (or push) it down to the remote PCs. Once fully sent, offer that image as the primary boot image on reboot.
justpaul Okay, "download a copy to minimize WAN traffic" didn't sound right at all. Maybe download during off-peak hours or stream...yeah, stream while caching the contents to the hard drive
DT_Toronto Can work with that. FTP one image, say a single .vhd boot image (if using Flex Storage) or using native EqualLogic mirror capabilities or the like, and then get into the console and assign it out to remote PCs...this could work
DELL-ScottH We are getting close to the end of the hour...please feel free to stay on as long as you like. I just wanted to make sure to thank the Double-Take team for joining us today, and let everyone know about the Double-Take user community: http://usergroup.doubletake.com/
brennels Thanks Scott, and thanks for everyone who joined
justpaul Thanks to the Double-Take and Dell teams
DELL-ScottH And remind everyone that the transcript will be posted tomorrow. If there are further questions, you can ask them directly on the page. I appreciate everyone coming out today!
brennels Don't forget to check out the briefs attached to the session for a little more information. Take care
justpaul Okay, so throwing an idea out there: boot from the SAN with local caching capabilities. That way, with a shared, static image, each machine would theoretically only download a block of data once (until the image is changed/updated.) Also, theoretically, the cache could eventually become the full image, but the user would have to request every block before that happened
erson Nice chat everyone. Thanks to the Double-Take team! Getting late here in Sweden, so I better log off. See you next chat
DELL-ScottH Thanks erson!
brennels Thanks erson, have a good night
DELL-ScottH Yes thanks very much to the Toronto team
DT_Toronto We can do that, using local caches, commit that delta back to a master to the SAN
brennels A special thanks to the Toronto team
erson And yes, now that I'm on Twitter I will actually try to post something also. :)
justpaul @dt_toronto, Cool, I have the trial and will try to set something like that up. Thanks!
erson Hoping for some PowerEdge R710/EqualLogic PS6000/PowerConnect 6248 action soon-ish, so that might be twitter-worthy
wantmoore I'm still waiting on Scott to send me my demo PowerEdge R710s
erson /me gets to bed but keeps session open to not miss any further talk that doesn't make it to Scotth’s transcript
DELL-ScottH @wantmoore, oh, I'm supposed to put them on the truck?
wantmoore *Shakes head*
erson Scotth, at least show us some pictures from the lab
DELL-ScottH @erson, lol, yeah lots of stuff doesn't make it
DELL-ScottH Pic…
wantmoore If you'd send me some servers, you could fit that Xsigo in the rack
DELL-ScottH Link in a sec…
wantmoore I’m just trying to help
DELL-ScottH www.delltechcenter.com/album/19628/techcenter+lab+r805s+arrive
DT_Toronto No more questions? Then heading out. Can e-mail me at smarfisi@doubletake.com if any technical questions, scenarios, etc.
DELL-ScottH Thanks again!
DT_Toronto You are quite welcome...bye!