6.0.1
Table Of Contents
- vSphere Storage
- Contents
- About vSphere Storage
- Updated Information
- Introduction to Storage
- Overview of Using ESXi with a SAN
- Using ESXi with Fibre Channel SAN
- Configuring Fibre Channel Storage
- Configuring Fibre Channel over Ethernet
- Booting ESXi from Fibre Channel SAN
- Booting ESXi with Software FCoE
- Best Practices for Fibre Channel Storage
- Using ESXi with iSCSI SAN
- Configuring iSCSI Adapters and Storage
- ESXi iSCSI SAN Requirements
- ESXi iSCSI SAN Restrictions
- Setting LUN Allocations for iSCSI
- Network Configuration and Authentication
- Set Up Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- About Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- Dependent Hardware iSCSI Considerations
- Configure Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- About the Software iSCSI Adapter
- Modify General Properties for iSCSI Adapters
- Setting Up iSCSI Network
- Using Jumbo Frames with iSCSI
- Configuring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Adapters
- Configuring CHAP Parameters for iSCSI Adapters
- Configuring Advanced Parameters for iSCSI
- iSCSI Session Management
- Booting from iSCSI SAN
- Best Practices for iSCSI Storage
- Managing Storage Devices
- Storage Device Characteristics
- Understanding Storage Device Naming
- Storage Refresh and Rescan Operations
- Identifying Device Connectivity Problems
- Edit Configuration File Parameters
- Enable or Disable the Locator LED on Storage Devices
- Working with Flash Devices
- About VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache
- Working with Datastores
- Understanding VMFS Datastores
- Understanding Network File System Datastores
- Creating Datastores
- Managing Duplicate VMFS Datastores
- Upgrading VMFS Datastores
- Increasing VMFS Datastore Capacity
- Administrative Operations for Datastores
- Set Up Dynamic Disk Mirroring
- Collecting Diagnostic Information for ESXi Hosts on a Storage Device
- Checking Metadata Consistency with VOMA
- Configuring VMFS Pointer Block Cache
- Understanding Multipathing and Failover
- Raw Device Mapping
- Working with Virtual Volumes
- Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Upgrading Legacy Storage Profiles
- Understanding Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Working with Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Creating and Managing VM Storage Policies
- Storage Policies and Virtual Machines
- Default Storage Policies
- Assign Storage Policies to Virtual Machines
- Change Storage Policy Assignment for Virtual Machine Files and Disks
- Monitor Storage Compliance for Virtual Machines
- Check Compliance for a VM Storage Policy
- Find Compatible Storage Resource for Noncompliant Virtual Machine
- Reapply Virtual Machine Storage Policy
- Filtering Virtual Machine I/O
- VMkernel and Storage
- Storage Hardware Acceleration
- Hardware Acceleration Benefits
- Hardware Acceleration Requirements
- Hardware Acceleration Support Status
- Hardware Acceleration for Block Storage Devices
- Hardware Acceleration on NAS Devices
- Hardware Acceleration Considerations
- Storage Thick and Thin Provisioning
- Using Storage Providers
- Using vmkfstools
- vmkfstools Command Syntax
- vmkfstools Options
- -v Suboption
- File System Options
- Virtual Disk Options
- Supported Disk Formats
- Creating a Virtual Disk
- Example for Creating a Virtual Disk
- Initializing a Virtual Disk
- Inflating a Thin Virtual Disk
- Removing Zeroed Blocks
- Converting a Zeroedthick Virtual Disk to an Eagerzeroedthick Disk
- Deleting a Virtual Disk
- Renaming a Virtual Disk
- Cloning or Converting a Virtual Disk or RDM
- Example for Cloning or Converting a Virtual Disk
- Migrate Virtual Machines Between DifferentVMware Products
- Extending a Virtual Disk
- Upgrading Virtual Disks
- Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
- Example for Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode RDM
- Creating a Physical Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
- Listing Attributes of an RDM
- Displaying Virtual Disk Geometry
- Checking and Repairing Virtual Disks
- Checking Disk Chain for Consistency
- Storage Device Options
- Index
When you run multiple virtual machines, VMFS provides specic locking mechanisms for virtual machine
les, so that virtual machines can operate safely in a SAN environment where multiple ESXi hosts share the
same VMFS datastore.
In addition to virtual machines, the VMFS datastores can store other les, such as virtual machine templates
and ISO images.
Sharing a VMFS Datastore Across Hosts
As a cluster le system, VMFS lets multiple ESXi hosts access the same VMFS datastore concurrently.
Figure 16‑1. Sharing a VMFS Datastore Across Hosts
VMFS volume
host
A
host
B
host
C
virtual
disk
files
VM1 VM2 VM3
disk1
disk2
disk3
For information on the maximum number of hosts that can connect to a single VMFS datastore, see the
Conguration Maximums document.
To ensure that the same virtual machine is not accessed by multiple servers at the same time, VMFS
provides on-disk locking.
Sharing the same VMFS volume across multiple hosts oers the following advantages:
n
You can use VMware Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) and VMware High Availability (HA).
You can distribute virtual machines across dierent physical servers. That means you run a mix of
virtual machines on each server so that not all experience high demand in the same area at the same
time. If a server fails, you can restart virtual machines on another physical server. In case of a failure, the
on-disk lock for each virtual machine is released. For more information about VMware DRS, see the
vSphere Resource Management documentation. For information about VMware HA, see the vSphere
Availability documentation.
n
You can use vMotion to migrate running virtual machines from one physical server to another. For
information about migrating virtual machines, see the vCenter Server and Host Management
documentation.
VMFS Metadata Updates
A VMFS datastore holds virtual machine les, directories, symbolic links, RDM descriptor les, and so on.
The datastore also maintains a consistent view of all the mapping information for these objects. This
mapping information is called metadata.
Metadata is updated each time you perform datastore or virtual machine management operations. Examples
of operations requiring metadata updates include the following:
n
Creating, growing, or locking a virtual machine le
vSphere Storage
148 VMware, Inc.