6.7
Table Of Contents
- vSphere Storage
- Contents
- About vSphere Storage
- Introduction to Storage
- Getting Started with a Traditional Storage Model
- 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 Recommendations and Restrictions
- Configuring iSCSI Parameters for Adapters
- Set Up Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- Configure Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- Configure the Software iSCSI Adapter
- Configure iSER Adapters
- Modify General Properties for iSCSI or iSER Adapters
- Setting Up Network for iSCSI and iSER
- 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 Rescan Operations
- Identifying Device Connectivity Problems
- Enable or Disable the Locator LED on Storage Devices
- Erase Storage Devices
- Working with Flash Devices
- About VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache
- Working with Datastores
- Types of Datastores
- Understanding VMFS Datastores
- Upgrading VMFS Datastores
- Understanding Network File System Datastores
- Creating Datastores
- Managing Duplicate 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
- Failovers with Fibre Channel
- Host-Based Failover with iSCSI
- Array-Based Failover with iSCSI
- Path Failover and Virtual Machines
- Pluggable Storage Architecture and Path Management
- Viewing and Managing Paths
- Using Claim Rules
- Scheduling Queues for Virtual Machine I/Os
- Raw Device Mapping
- Storage Policy Based Management
- Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Workflow for Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Populating the VM Storage Policies Interface
- About Rules and Rule Sets
- Creating and Managing VM Storage Policies
- About Storage Policy Components
- Storage Policies and Virtual Machines
- Default Storage Policies
- Using Storage Providers
- Working with Virtual Volumes
- About Virtual Volumes
- Virtual Volumes Concepts
- Virtual Volumes and Storage Protocols
- Virtual Volumes Architecture
- Virtual Volumes and VMware Certificate Authority
- Snapshots and Virtual Volumes
- Before You Enable Virtual Volumes
- Configure Virtual Volumes
- Provision Virtual Machines on Virtual Volumes Datastores
- Virtual Volumes and Replication
- Best Practices for Working with vSphere Virtual Volumes
- Troubleshooting Virtual Volumes
- Filtering Virtual Machine I/O
- 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
- Thin Provisioning and Space Reclamation
- Using vmkfstools
- vmkfstools Command Syntax
- The vmkfstools Command Options
- -v Suboption
- File System Options
- Virtual Disk Options
- Supported Disk Formats
- Creating a Virtual Disk
- Initializing a Virtual Disk
- Inflating a Thin Virtual Disk
- Converting a Zeroedthick Virtual Disk to an Eagerzeroedthick Disk
- Removing Zeroed Blocks
- Deleting a Virtual Disk
- Renaming a Virtual Disk
- Cloning or Converting a Virtual Disk or RDM
- Extending a Virtual Disk
- Upgrading Virtual Disks
- Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
- 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
Table 15‑1. Using Flash Devices with ESXi
Functionality Description
vSAN vSAN requires flash devices. For more information, see the Administering VMware vSAN
documentation.
VMFS Datastores You can create VMFS datastores on flash devices. Use the datastores for the following
purposes:
n
Store virtual machines. Certain guest operating systems can identify virtual disks
stored on these datastores as flash virtual disks. See Identifying Flash Virtual Disks.
n
Allocate datastore space for the ESXi host swap cache. See Configuring Host Swap
Cache
Virtual Flash Resource (VFFS) Set up a virtual flash resource and use it for the following functionalities:
n
Use as Virtual Flash Read Cache for your virtual machines. See Chapter 16 About
VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache.
n
Allocate the virtual flash resource for the ESXi host swap cache. This method is an
alternative way of host cache configuration that uses VFFS volumes instead of VMFS
datastores. See Configure Host Swap Cache with Virtual Flash Resource.
n
If required by your vendor, use the virtual flash resource for I/O caching filters. See
Chapter 23 Filtering Virtual Machine I/O.
Identifying Flash Virtual Disks
Guest operating systems can identify virtual disks that reside on flash-based datastores as flash virtual
disks.
To verify if this feature is enabled, guest operating systems can use standard inquiry commands such as
SCSI VPD Page (B1h) for SCSI devices and ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE (Word 217) for IDE devices.
For linked clones, native snapshots, and delta-disks, the inquiry commands report the virtual flash status
of the base disk.
Operating systems can detect that a virtual disk is a flash disk under the following conditions:
n
Detection of flash virtual disks is supported on ESXi 5.x and later hosts and virtual hardware version 8
or later.
n
Detection of flash virtual disks is supported only on VMFS5 or later.
n
If virtual disks are located on shared VMFS datastores with flash device extents, the device must be
marked as flash on all hosts.
n
For a virtual disk to be identified as virtual flash, all underlying physical extents should be flash-
backed.
Marking Storage Devices
You can mark storage devices, which are not properly detected, as local flash devices.
When you configure vSAN or set up a virtual flash resource, your storage environment must include local
flash devices.
vSphere Storage
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