Cisco Virtual Wide Area Application Services Configuration Guide (for WAAS 6.2.x)

Benefits of Cisco vWAAS

The following are some of the benefits of deploying Cisco vWAAS on your system:

• On-demand orchestration of WAN optimization
• Fault tolerance with virtual machine (VM) mobility awareness
• Lower operating expenses for customers who are migrating their applications to the cloud
• Private and virtual private cloud environments:

– Use vWAAS to create value-added WAN optimization services on a per-application basis, for optimized delivery to remote branch-office users.

– Associate vWAAS services with application server virtual machines as they are moved in response to dynamic load demand in the cloud, to offer rapid delivery of WAN optimization services, with minimal network configuration or disruption.

• Public cloud environments:

– Deploy vWAAS in public clouds, with the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series, to obtain benefits similar to benefits vWAAS produces in private cloud environments.

• Cisco vWAAS is supported on a wide range of hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V, RHEL KVM, KVM on CentOS, and Microsoft Azure. Each hypervisor is described in Hypervisors Supported for Cisco vWAAS.
• Cisco vWAAS runs on a wide range of platforms, described in Platforms Supported for Cisco vWAAS.

Cisco vWAAS at the Branch and the Data Center

Cisco Virtual WAAS (vWAAS) is a virtual appliance—for both enterprises and service providers—that accelerates business applications delivered from private and virtual private cloud infrastructure. Cisco vWAAS enables you to rapidly create WAN optimization services with minimal network configuration or disruption.

Cisco vWAAS supports WAN optimization in a cloud environment where physical WAE devices cannot usually be deployed. Virtualization also provides various benefits like elasticity, ease of maintenance, and a reduction of branch office and data center footprint.

As shown in Figure 1-1, you can enable vWAAS at the branch and/or the data center:

• At the branch—with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) E-Series servers and E-Series Network Compute Engines (NCEs), on either the Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) or Cisco ISR G2 branch router.
• At the data center—with a Cisco UCS server.

vWAAS supports on-demand provisioning and teardown, which reduces the branch office and data center footprint. Cisco vWAAS software follows the VMware ESXi standard as the preferred platform to deploy data center applications and services.

Figure 1-1 vWAAS in Virtual Private Cloud at WAN Edge, in Branch Office and Data Center

The following hypervisors are supported for Cisco vWAAS:

• Cisco ISR-WAAS
• Cisco NFV Infrastructure Software (NFVIS)
• VMware vSphere ESXi
• Microsoft HyperV
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (RHEL KVM)
• KVM on CentOS
• Microsoft Azure

The following platforms are supported for Cisco vWAAS:

• Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)
• Cisco UCS E-Series Servers
• Cisco UCS E-Series Network Compute Engines (NCEs)
• Cisco ISR-4000 Series
• Microsoft Azure Cloud

For details on the interoperability of the hypervisors and platforms supported for vWAAS, see Table 1-12.

ISR Models: CPUs, Memory, Disk Storage and Supported ISR Platforms

Table 1-1 shows the default number of CPUs, memory capacity, disk storage and supported ISR platforms for each ISR model.

Table 1-1 ISR Models: CPUs, Memory, Disk Storage and Supported ISR Platforms

Note For vWAAS with WAAS Version 6.2.3x or WAAS Version 6.3.1, ISR-4321 with profile ISR-WAAS-200, ISR-WAAS RAM is increased from 3 GB to 4 GB. For this increase in ISR-WAAS RAM to be implemented, you must complete a new OVA deployment of WAAS version 6.2.3x or 6.3.1; the increase in ISR-WAAS RAM is not automatically implemented with an upgrade to WAAS 6.2.3x or 6.3.1.

vWAAS Models: CPUs, Memory and Disk Storage

Table 1-2 shows the default number of CPUs, memory capacity and disk storage for each vWAAS model.

Table 1-2 vWAAS Models: CPUs, Memory and Disk Storage

For the vWAAS models noted below, follow these operating guidelines for CPU, memory, and disk storage:

• When using vWAAS-150 or vWAAS-200 with the KVM hypervisor, you must increase the default memory of 3 GB to 4 GB.

Note For vWAAS with WAAS Version 6.2.3x or WAAS Version 6.3.1, ISR-4321 with profile ISR-WAAS-200, ISR-WAAS RAM is increased from 3 GB to 4 GB. For this increase in ISR-WAAS RAM to be implemented, you must complete a new OVA deployment of WAAS version 6.2.3x or 6.3.1; the increase in ISR-WAAS RAM is not automatically implemented with an upgrade to WAAS 6.2.3x or 6.3.1.

• When vWAAS-6000, 1300, 12000, or 50000 are used with Akamai Connect and when connections are more than 70% of TFO, response time will be on the higher side. Adding CPUs to these models when used with Akamai Connect may improve response time.

VMware VMFS Block Size and vWAAS Disk Size

Table 1-3 shows the VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) block size and associated vWAAS maximum disk file size. For more information on VMware and vWAAS interoperability, see Table 1-12.

Table 1-3 VMware VMFS Block Size and vWAAS Maximum File Size

Note For vWAAS models that have a disk size greater than 256 GB, a VMFS block size greater than 1 MB is required.

vWAAS Models: OVA and NPE OVA Files

Table 1-4 shows the OVA and NPE OVA file for each vWAAS model (all models are available with WAAS version 4.3.1 and later, except as noted):

Table 1-4 OVA and NPE OVA Files, by vWAAS Model

vCM Models: CPUs, Memory, Disk Storage and Managed Nodes

Table 1-5 shows the number of managed nodes and disk storage for each vCM model, as well as the required and recommended number of vCPUs and the required and recommended memory capacity.

Note Cisco vWAAS installation packages are configured with the minimal required amounts of CPU and memory resources to accommodate the various hypervisor setups. These minimal requirements are sufficient for initial setup and a limited number of nodes.

However, as the number of managed devices on your system increases, the Central Manager service can experience intermittent restarts or flapping—device states when under resource shortage. To remedy this, please configure the recommended values for number of CPUs and memory shown in Table 1-5.

Table 1-5 vCM Models: Managed Nodes, vCPUs, Memory, and Disk Storage

Note If your WAAS Central Manager restarts intermittently with the following vCM models - vCM-500, vCM-1000, or vCM-2000 - it may be due to insufficient system resources. To remedy this, for these vCM models we recommend that you upgrade your system with the CPU and memory resources show in Table 1-6.

Table 1-6 Recommended CPU and Memory Upgrade for vCM-500, vCM-1000, and vCM-2000

vCM Models: OVA and NPE OVA Files

Table 1-7 shows the OVA and NPE OVA file for each vCM model (all models are available with WAAS version 4.3.1 and later, except as noted):

Table 1-7 OVA and NPE OVA Files, by vCM Model

Cisco ISR-WAAS

Cisco ISR-WAAS is the implementation of vWAAS running in a Cisco IOS-XE software container on a Cisco ISR4400 Series router. “Container” in this context refers to a KVM hypervisor that runs virtualized applications on the Cisco ISR-4400 Series router.

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cisco vWAAS for VMware ESXi provides cloud-based application delivery service over the WAN in ESX/ESXi-based environments. Cisco vWAAS on VMware vSphere ESXi is delivered an OVA file. The vSphere client takes the OVA file for a specified vWAAS model, and deploys an instance of that vWAAS model.

For more information, see Chapter 3, “Cisco vWAAS and VMware vSphere ESXi”.

RHEL KVM and KVM on CentOS

Cisco vWAAS on RHEL KVM (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a virtual WAAS appliance that runs on a RHEL KVM hypervisor. Cisco vWAAS on RHEL KVM extends the capabilities of ISR-WAAS and vWAAS running on the Cisco UCS E-Series Servers.

• Cisco vWAAS on RHEL KVM is available for vWAAS with WAAS Version 6.2.1x and later,
• Cisco vWAAS on KVM on CentOS (Linux Community Enterprise Operating System) is available for vWAAS with WAAS version 6.2.3.

Note Cisco vWAAS on RHEL KVM can also be deployed as a tar archive (tar.gz) to deploy Cisco vWAAS on Cisco Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure Software (NFVIS). The NFVIS portal is used to select the tar.gz file to deploy vWAAS.

For more information, see Chapter 4, “Cisco vWAAS on KVM”.

Microsoft Hyper-V

Cisco vWAAS for Microsoft Hyper-V, available for vWAAS with WAAS Version 6.1.x and later, provides virtualization services through hypervisor-based emulations.

Cisco vWAAS on Microsoft Hyper-V extends Cisco networking benefits to Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V deployments.

For more information, see Chapter 5, “Cisco vWAAS on Microsoft Hyper-V”.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a Microsoft cloud computing platform that can be used to build and host applications online, using the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. Cisco vWAAS in Azure is available for vWAAS with WAAS Version 6.2.1x and later. Cisco vWAAS in Azure is also part of WAAS support for Office 365, and end-to-end solution with enterprise branch offices.

For more information, see Chapter 6, “Cisco vWAAS in Microsoft Azure”.

Platforms Supported for vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

For each hypervisor used with vWAAS, Table 1-12 shows the types of platforms supported for vWAAS, including minimum WAAS version, host platform, and disk type.

Note For vWAAS for WAAS Version 6.2.x with Cisco Enterprise NFVIS, the vWAAS must run as an unmanaged VM.

Table 1-12 Platforms Supported for vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

Components for Deploying vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

For each hypervisor used with vWAAS, Table 1-13 shows the components used to deploy vWAAS, including package format, deployment tool, pre-configuration tool (if needed), and network driver.

Table 1-13 Components for Deploying vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

Components for Managing vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

For each hypervisor used with vWAAS, Table 1-14 shows the components used to manage vWAAS, including vCM model, vWAAS model, number of instances supported, and traffic interception method used.

Table 1-14 Components for Managing vWAAS, by Hypervisor Type

vWAAS on Cisco UCS E-Series Servers and NCEs

This section has the following topics:

• vWAAS and Cisco UCS E-Series Interoperability
• vWAAS and Cisco UCS E-Series Memory Guidelines and Requirements

vWAAS and Cisco UCS E-Series Interoperability

Cisco UCS E-Series servers and UCS E-Series NCEs (Network Compute Engines) provide platforms for Cisco vWAAS and Cisco ISR routers. Table 1-15 shows the supported operating systems, Hypervisors, Cisco ISR routers, and minimum version of IOS-XE used.

Table 1-15 vWAAS and UCS E-Series Interoperability

vWAAS and Cisco UCS E-Series Memory Guidelines and Requirements

When calculating memory requirements for your vWAAS system, include the following parameters:

• vWAAS on VMware

– A minimum of 2 GB of memory is needed for VMware v5.0, v5.1, or v6.0.

– A minimum of 4 GB of memory is needed for VMware v5.5.

– Table 1-16 shows memory and disk storage for Cisco UCS E-Servers/NCEs

• You must also allocate memory overhead for vCPU memory. The amount is dependent on the number of vCPUs for your system: 1, 2, 4, or 8 vCPUs.

– Table 1-18 shows vCPUs, ESXi server datastore memory, and disk space by vWAAS model.

– Table 1-19 shows vCPUs, ESXi server datastore memory, and disk space by vCM model.

Example1: A deployment of vWAAS-750 on the UCS-E140S, using VMware v6.0.

1. UCS-E140S has a default value of 8 GB memory (which can be expanded to 48 GB).

2. vWAAS-750 requires 6 GB memory + VMware v6.0 requires 2 GB memory = 6 GB memory, which is below the default memory capacity of the UCS-E140S.

3. You can deploy vWAAS-750 on the UCS-E140S without adding additional memory to the UCS-E140S DRAM.

Example1: A deployment of vWAAS-1300 on the UCS-E140S, using VMware v6.0.

1. UCS-E140S has a default value of 8 GB DRAM, (which can be expanded to 48 GB).

2. vWAAS-1300 requires 6 GB memory + VMware v6.0 requires 2 GB DRAM = 8 GB memory, which equals the memory capacity of UCS-E140S.

3. To deploy vWAAS-1300 on the UCS-E140S, you must add additional memory to the UCS-E140S memory.

Note For the vWAAS datastore, you can use either SAN storage or local storage on the ESXi server. NAS (Network-Attached Storage) storage should only be used in nonproduction scenarios (for test purposes, for example).

Table 1-16 Memory and Disk Storage for Cisco UCS E-Servers/NCEs

VMware ESXi for Cisco vWAAS and Cisco WAAS

This section contains the following topics:

• VMware ESXi Versions Supported for Cisco WAAS
• ESXi Server Datastore Memory and Disk Space for vWAAS and vCM Models

VMware ESXi Versions Supported for Cisco WAAS

Table 1-17 VMware ESXi Versions Supported for Cisco WAAS

• VMware vCenter server and vSphere client version 4.x management software.

ESXi Server Datastore Memory and Disk Space for vWAAS and vCM Models

This section has the following topics:

• Table 1-18 shows ESXi server datastore memory and disk space per vWAAS model, for WAAS v4.3.1 through v5.3.5, and for WAAS v5.4.x through v6.x.
• Table 1-19 shows ESXi server datastore memory and disk space per vCM model, for WAAS v4.3.1 through v5.3.5, and for WAAS v5.4.x through v6.x.

Table 1-18 vCPUs, ESXi Server Datastore Memory, and Disk Space by vWAAS Model

Table 1-19 vCPUs, ESXi Server Datastore Memory, and Disk Space by vCM Model