Release Notes

Configuration and management
13 Dell EMC SC Series and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes Best Practices | 3161-BP-SC
4 Configuration and management
The foundational tasks involved with implementing Virtual Volumes in an environment may be performed only
once or very seldom. This includes the registration of vCenter servers in DSM, creation of protocol endpoints,
registration of the VASA Provider, and the creation of storage containers. This section will identify
configuration and management options post deployment.
4.1 Creating and mapping an SC Series array
Before virtual machines can be deployed with Virtual Volumes and powered on, a datastore of type vVol (also
commonly referred to as a vVol datastore) must be created from a storage container. Storage containers are
seen by vSphere hosts as datastores. This enables many existing vSphere processes and workflows to
remain seamless with the introduction of Virtual Volumes. One vVol datastore typically replaces several
VMFS datastores. SCOS 7.0 storage containers are created per array, per page pool and may not cross array
or page pool boundaries. Create a storage container in DSM by following the steps in the Dell Storage
Manager Administrator’s Guide. When storage containers are being created for a number of hosts in a
vSphere cluster, this action should be performed on the cluster object in DSM rather than on the individual
hosts. While DSM allows the creation of storage containers both in the Storage view and the Servers view, it
is preferable to create storage containers from the Servers view. This is because the workflow also includes
the mapping of the Storage Container to all of the vSphere hosts in the cluster as well as mounting the
Storage Container on all of the vSphere hosts in the cluster for consistency. SC Series arrays currently
support up to 50 storage containers. VMware supports up to 256 storage containers per host each having a
size up to 2
64
bytes.
Best practice: Create storage containers in the Servers view