6.5.1
Table Of Contents
- vSphere Storage
- Contents
- About vSphere Storage
- Updated Information
- 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 Requirements
- ESXi iSCSI SAN Restrictions
- Setting LUN Allocations for iSCSI
- Network Configuration and Authentication
- Set Up Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- About Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
- About the Software iSCSI Adapter
- Modify General Properties for iSCSI Adapters
- Setting Up iSCSI Network
- 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
- Edit Configuration File Parameters
- 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
- 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
- Raw Device Mapping
- Software-Defined Storage and Storage Policy Based Management
- About Storage Policy Based Management
- Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Working with Virtual Machine Storage Policies
- Populating the VM Storage Policies Interface
- Default Storage Policies
- Creating and Managing VM Storage Policies
- Storage Policies and Virtual Machines
- Assign Storage Policies to Virtual Machines
- Change Storage Policy Assignment for Virtual Machine Files and Disks
- Monitor Storage Compliance for Virtual Machines
- Check Compliance for a VM Storage Policy
- Find Compatible Storage Resource for Noncompliant Virtual Machine
- Reapply Virtual Machine Storage Policy
- 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
- 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
This chapter includes the following topics:
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DRS Support for Flash Read Cache
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vSphere High Availability Support for Flash Read Cache
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Configure Flash Read Cache for a Virtual Machine
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Migrate Virtual Machines with Flash Read Cache
DRS Support for Flash Read Cache
DRS supports virtual flash as a resource.
DRS manages virtual machines with Flash Read Cache reservations. Every time DRS runs, it displays
the available virtual flash capacity reported by the ESXi host. Each host supports one virtual flash
resource. DRS selects a host that has sufficient available virtual flash capacity to start a virtual machine.
DRS treats powered-on virtual machines with a Flash Read Cache as soft affined to their current host and
moves them only for mandatory reasons or if necessary to correct host over-utilization.
vSphere High Availability Support for Flash Read Cache
Flash Read Cache is supported by High Availability (HA).
vSphere HA restarts a virtual machine with Flash Read Cache on a target host that meets the Flash Read
Cache, CPU, Memory, and overhead reservations. If unreserved flash is insufficient to meet the virtual
flash reservation, vSphere HA does not restart a virtual machine. If the target host does not have
sufficient virtual flash resource available, reconfigure the virtual machine to reduce or drop the Flash
Read Cache.
Configure Flash Read Cache for a Virtual Machine
You can configure Flash Read Cache for your virtual machine.
When you enable Flash Read Cache, you can specify the block size and cache size reservation.
Block size is the minimum number of contiguous bytes that can be stored in the cache. This block size
can be larger than the nominal disk block size of 512 bytes, between 4 KB and 1024 KB. If a guest
operating system writes a single 512-byte disk block, the surrounding cache block size bytes are cached.
Do not confuse the cache block size with the disk block size.
Reservation is a reservation size for cache blocks. There is a minimum number of 256 cache blocks. If
the cache block size is 1 MB, then the minimum cache size is 256 MB. If the cache block size is 4 K, then
the minimum cache size is 1 MB.
For more information about sizing guidelines, search for the Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache
in VMware vSphere white paper on the VMware website.
Prerequisites
Set up virtual flash resource.
vSphere Storage
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