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
Virtual Volumes and Storage Protocols
A virtual volumes-based storage system provides protocol endpoints that are discoverable on the physical
storage fabric. ESXi hosts use the protocol endpoints to connect to virtual volumes on the storage.
Operation of the protocol endpoints depends on storage protocols that expose the endpoints to ESXi
hosts.
Virtual Volumes supports NFS version 3 and 4.1, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and FCoE.
No matter which storage protocol is used, protocol endpoints provide uniform access to both SAN and
NAS storage. A virtual volume, like a file on other traditional datastore, is presented to a virtual machine
as a SCSI disk.
Note A storage container is dedicated to SCSI or NAS and cannot be shared across those protocol
types. An array can present one storage container with SCSI protocol endpoints and a different container
with NFS protocol endpoints. The container cannot use a combination of SCSI and NFS protocol
endpoints.
Virtual Volumes and SCSI-Based Transports
On disk arrays, virtual volumes support Fibre Channel, FCoE, and iSCSI protocols.
When the SCSI-based protocol is used, the protocol endpoint represents a proxy LUN defined by a T10-
based LUN WWN.
As any block-based LUNs, the protocol endpoints are discovered using standard LUN discovery
commands. The ESXi host periodically rescans for new devices and asynchronously discovers block‐
based protocol endpoints. The protocol endpoint can be accessible by multiple paths. Traffic on these
paths follows well‐known path selection policies, as is typical for LUNs.
On SCSI-based disk arrays at VM creation time, ESXi makes a virtual volume and formats it as VMFS.
This small virtual volume stores all VM metadata files and is called the config‐VVol. The config‐VVol
functions as a VM storage locator for vSphere.
Virtual volumes on disk arrays support the same set of SCSI commands as VMFS and use ATS as a
locking mechanism.
Virtual Volumes and NFS Transports
With NAS storage, a protocol endpoint is an NFS share that the ESXi host mounts using IP address or
DNS name and a share name. Virtual Volumes supports NFS version 3 and 4.1 to access NAS storage.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 formats are supported.
No matter which version you use, a storage array can provide multiple protocol endpoints for availability
purposes.
vSphere Storage
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