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
NFS 4.1 provides multipathing for servers that support the session trunking. When the trunking is
available, you can use multiple IP addresses to access a single NFS volume. Client ID trunking is not
supported.
NFS and Hardware Acceleration
Virtual disks created on NFS datastores are thin-provisioned by default. To be able to create thick-
provisioned virtual disks, you must use hardware acceleration that supports the Reserve Space
operation.
NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 support hardware acceleration that allows your host to integrate with NAS devices
and use several hardware operations that NAS storage provides. For more information, see Hardware
Acceleration on NAS Devices.
NFS Datastores
When you create an NFS datastore, make sure to follow specific guidelines.
The NFS datastore guidelines and best practices include the following items:
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You cannot use different NFS versions to mount the same datastore on different hosts. NFS 3 and
NFS 4.1 clients are not compatible and do not use the same locking protocol. As a result, accessing
the same virtual disks from two incompatible clients might result in incorrect behavior and cause data
corruption.
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NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 datastores can coexist on the same host.
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ESXi cannot automatically upgrade NFS version 3 to version 4.1, but you can use other conversion
methods. For information, see NFS Protocols and ESXi.
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When you mount the same NFS 3 volume on different hosts, make sure that the server and folder
names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match, the hosts see the same NFS
version 3 volume as two different datastores. This error might result in a failure of such features as
vMotion. An example of such discrepancy is entering filer as the server name on one host and
filer.domain.com on the other. This guideline does not apply to NFS version 4.1.
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If you use non-ASCII characters to name datastores and virtual machines, make sure that the
underlying NFS server offers internationalization support. If the server does not support international
characters, use only ASCII characters, or unpredictable failures might occur.
Firewall Configurations for NFS Storage
ESXi includes a firewall between the management interface and the network. The firewall is enabled by
default. At installation time, the ESXi firewall is configured to block incoming and outgoing traffic, except
traffic for the default services, such as NFS.
Supported services, including NFS, are described in a rule set configuration file in the ESXi firewall
directory /etc/vmware/firewall/. The file contains firewall rules and their relationships with ports and
protocols.
vSphere Storage
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