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
NFS 4.1 and Fault Tolerance
Virtual machines on NFS v4.1 support the new Fault Tolerance mechanism introduced in vSphere 6.0.
Virtual machines on NFS v4.1 do not support the old, legacy Fault Tolerance mechanism.
In vSphere 6.0, the newer Fault Tolerance mechanism can accommodate symmetric multiprocessor
(SMP) virtual machines with up to four vCPUs. Earlier versions of vSphere used a different technology for
Fault Tolerance, with different requirements and characteristics.
NFS Upgrades
When you upgrade ESXi to version 6.5, existing NFS 4.1 datastores automatically begin supporting
functionalities that were not available in the previous ESXi release. These functionalities include Virtual
Volumes, hardware acceleration, and so on.
ESXi does not support automatic datastore conversions from NFS version 3 to NFS 4.1.
If you want to upgrade your NFS 3 datastore, the following options are available:
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Create the NFS 4.1 datastore, and then use Storage vMotion to migrate virtual machines from the old
datastore to the new one.
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Use conversion methods provided by your NFS storage server. For more information, contact your
storage vendor.
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Unmount the NFS 3 datastore, and then mount as NFS 4.1 datastore.
Caution If you use this option, make sure to unmount the datastore from all hosts that have access
to the datastore. The datastore can never be mounted by using both protocols at the same time.
NFS Storage Guidelines and Requirements
When you use NFS storage, follow specific guidelines related to NFS server configuration, networking,
NFS datastores, and so on.
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NFS Server Configuration
When you configure NFS servers to work with ESXi, follow recommendation of your storage vendor.
In addition to these general recommendations, use specific guidelines that apply to NFS in vSphere
environment.
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NFS Networking
An ESXi host uses TCP/IP network connection to access a remote NAS server. Certain guidelines
and best practices exist for configuring the networking when you use NFS storage.
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NFS File Locking
File locking mechanisms are used to restrict access to data stored on a server to only one user or
process at a time. NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 use incompatible file locking mechanisms.
vSphere Storage
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