User guide

Technical white paper | HP Enterprise Virtual Array Storage and VMware vSphere 4.x and 5.x configuration best practices
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• Vdisk size
• Vdisk WWN
• Name of the vSphere server name from which the datastore was created
Creating the convention
HP recommends naming VMFS datastores and RDMs in vCenter with the same name used when creating the Vdisk in
Command View EVA or when using SSSU scripting tools. While this approach is beneficial, it may require some coordination
with the storage administrator.
Note
When creating Vdisks in Command View or SSSU, Vdisk names are unique to the particular array.
In a vSphere cluster, ESX prevents you from creating datastores with the same name, regardless of the array they are
created on. This capability yields an environment where datastore names are unique across the entire infrastructure, while
RDM names are unique to the particular vSphere host – or, depending on your choice of names, to the entire infrastructure.
Using descriptive naming
When creating Vdisks in Command View EVA, HP recommends using descriptive naming for the datastore. For example, a
suitable naming convention might be as follows:
<Location>_<Location Attribute>_<Department>_<Vdisk Type>_<Usage>_#
Table 7 outlines the various components of this naming convention.
Table 7. Sample naming convention
Component
Description
Example
<Location>
Geographical location of the team, group or division for
which the storage is being allocated
The location could be a city, state,
country, or a combination thereof.
<Location Attribute>
Specific attribute of the particular location, such as an
office building floor or the scope of the department
• Building R5
• Third floor
<Department>
Job function of the team, group or division for which the
storage is being allocated
• IT
• Sales
• Finance
<Vdisk Type>
Type of Vdisk
• RDM
• VMFS (datastore)
<Usage>
How the Vdisk will be used
• VM boot
• Exchange logs
• Exchange data
• Oracle_archLogs
• Oracle_data
<#>
Provides enumeration in the event that multiple disks
with the same name should be needed
• 1
• 0002
The following are examples of this sample naming convention:
• Houston_Enterprise_Sales_VMFS_VMBoot_1
• Houston_Enterprise_Sales_VMFS_VMBoot_2
• LA_Corporate_IT_RDM_ExchLogs_1
• LA_Corporate_IT_RDM_ExchLogs_2