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70 Dell EMC SC Series: Best Practices with VMware vSphere | 2060-M-BP-V
Adding a VASA 2.0 storage provider to vCenter
The SC Series VASA 2.0 provider is a integrated component of the DSM Data Collector, and supersedes the
VASA 1.0 provider built into the CITV or DSITV appliance.
16.5 Virtual Volumes (vVols)
vVols with vSphere 6.x offer a new approach to managing storage that delivers more granular storage
capabilities to the VMDK level. To accomplish this task, VMware introduced new concepts such as storage
containers, protocol endpoints, and storage providers. This new vVols framework delivers software defined
storage and storage policy-based management capabilities to traditional arrays.
For more detailed information about VMware Virtual Volumes, read the VMware document, What’s New:
vSphere Virtual Volumes.
With these new foundational changes in mind, there are additional best practices that need to be followed.
• VMware vCenter Server and the DSM Data Collector servers need to be made highly available. Any
disruption in services may affect availability of virtual machines stored within virtual volumes.
• When using vSphere HA, restart priority should be modified so that vCenter and DSM are brought up
first.
• vCenter and DSM virtual machines must be stored on traditional datastores residing on SAN storage.
Do not store or migrate these virtual machines onto a vVol datastore.
• Take regular array snapshots to protect vCenter and the VASA provider within DSM.
• Ensure proper NTP time synchronization between vCenter, ESXi, DSM, and the arrays.
Caution: When using Virtual Volumes, the VASA 2.0 provider contained within DSM becomes a critical piece
of infrastructure. The DSM VM needs to be protected from outages and loss of data like any other business-
critical enterprise application. Without the VASA provider active, vCenter cannot bind or unbind virtual
volumes to or from the protocol endpoints. In addition, if the VASA provider is lost completely, recovery of
virtual disks from within the storage container will become an arduous task.
For more information about the requirements for configuring SC Series storage and DSM for Virtual Volumes,
read the following documents before beginning the implementation:
• Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrators Guide
• Dell EMC SC Series Virtual Volumes Best Practices