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 17‑1. Types of Datastores
Datastore Type Description
VMFS (version 5 and 6) Datastores that you deploy on block storage devices use the
vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) format. VMFS is a
special high-performance file system format that is optimized for
storing virtual machines. See Understanding VMFS Datastores.
NFS (version 3 and 4.1) An NFS client built into ESXi uses the Network File System
(NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS
volume. The volume is located on a NAS server. The ESXi host
mounts the volume as an NFS datastore, and uses it for storage
needs. ESXi supports versions 3 and 4.1 of the NFS protocol.
See Understanding Network File System Datastores
vSAN vSAN aggregates all local capacity devices available on the
hosts into a single datastore shared by all hosts in the vSAN
cluster. See the Administering VMware vSAN documentation.
Virtual Volumes Virtual Volumes datastore represents a storage container in
vCenter Server and vSphere Client. See Chapter 22 Working
with Virtual Volumes.
Depending on your storage type, some of the following tasks are available for the datastores.
n
Create datastores. You can use the vSphere Client to create certain types of datastores.
n
Perform administrative operations on the datastores. Several operations, such as renaming a
datastore, are available for all types of datastores. Others apply to specific types of datastores.
n
Organize the datastores. For example, you can group them into folders according to business
practices. After you group the datastores, you can assign the same permissions and alarms on the
datastores in the group at one time.
n
Add the datastores to datastore clusters. A datastore cluster is a collection of datastores with shared
resources and a shared management interface. When you create the datastore cluster, you can use
Storage DRS to manage storage resources. For information about datastore clusters, see the
vSphere Resource Management documentation.
Understanding VMFS Datastores
To store virtual disks, ESXi uses datastores. The datastores are logical containers that hide specifics of
physical storage from virtual machines and provide a uniform model for storing the virtual machine files.
The datastores that you deploy on block storage devices use the native vSphere Virtual Machine File
System (VMFS) format. It is a special high-performance file system format that is optimized for storing
virtual machines.
Use the vSphere Client to set up the VMFS datastore in advance on the block-based storage device that
your ESXi host discovers. The VMFS datastore can be extended to span over several physical storage
devices that include SAN LUNs and local storage. This feature allows you to pool storage and gives you
flexibility in creating the datastore necessary for your virtual machines.
vSphere Storage
VMware, Inc. 155