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
Virtual Machine Storage Policies 20
Virtual machine storage policies are essential to virtual machine provisioning. These policies help you dene
storage requirements for the virtual machine and control which type of storage is provided for the virtual
machine, how the virtual machine is placed within the storage, and which data services are oered for the
virtual machine.
When you dene a storage policy, you specify storage requirements for applications that run on virtual
machines. After you apply this storage policy to a virtual machine, the virtual machine is placed in a specic
datastore that can satisfy the storage requirements. In software-dened storage environments, such as
Virtual SAN and Virtual Volumes, the storage policy also determines how the virtual machine storage
objects are provisioned and allocated within the storage resource to guarantee the required level of service.
In environments with third-party I/O lters installed, you can use storage policies to enable an additional
level of data services, such as caching and replication, for virtual disks.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“Upgrading Legacy Storage Proles,” on page 227
n
“Understanding Virtual Machine Storage Policies,” on page 228
n
“Working with Virtual Machine Storage Policies,” on page 230
n
“Creating and Managing VM Storage Policies,” on page 231
n
“Storage Policies and Virtual Machines,” on page 236
Upgrading Legacy Storage Profiles
In vSphere 5.x, virtual machine storage policies were called storage proles and had a dierent format.
When you upgrade the vSphere environment from a 5.x version to vSphere 6.x, storage proles that you
created in the earlier versions are converted to storage policies.
All the components of legacy storage proles are transformed into new formats or objects. Any system-
dened storage capabilities are converted into storage-specic data services based on metadata. User-
dened capabilities become datastore tags.
Table 20‑1. Old and New Formats of Storage Policies
vSphere 5.x vSphere 6.x
Virtual machine storage prole Virtual machine storage policy
System-dened capabilities Storage-specic data services
User-dened capabilities Datastore tags
N/A Common data services
VMware, Inc. 227