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
n
ESXi supports Layer 2 and Layer 3 Network switches. If you use Layer 3 switches, ESXi hosts and
NFS storage arrays must be on different subnets and the network switch must handle the routing
information.
n
Configure a VMkernel port group for NFS storage. You can create the VMkernel port group for IP
storage on an existing virtual switch (vSwitch) or on a new vSwitch. The vSwitch can be a vSphere
Standard Switch (VSS) or a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS).
n
If you use multiple ports for NFS traffic, make sure that you correctly configure your virtual switches
and physical switches.
n
NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 support IPv6.
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.
NFS 3 locking on ESXi does not use the Network Lock Manager (NLM) protocol. Instead, VMware
provides its own locking protocol. NFS 3 locks are implemented by creating lock files on the NFS server.
Lock files are named .lck-file_id..
NFS 4.1 uses share reservations as a locking mechanism.
Because NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 clients do not use the same locking protocol, you cannot use different NFS
versions to mount the same datastore on multiple hosts. Accessing the same virtual disks from two
incompatible clients might result in incorrect behavior and cause data corruption.
NFS Security
With NFS 3 and NFS 4.1, ESXi supports the AUTH_SYS security. In addition, for NFS 4.1, the Kerberos
security mechanism is supported.
NFS 3 supports the AUTH_SYS security mechanism. With this mechanism, storage traffic is transmitted
in an unencrypted format across the LAN. Because of this limited security, use NFS storage on trusted
networks only and isolate the traffic on separate physical switches. You can also use a private VLAN.
NFS 4.1 supports the Kerberos authentication protocol to secure communications with the NFS server.
Nonroot users can access files when Kerberos is used. For more information, see Using Kerberos for
NFS 4.1.
In addition to Kerberos, NFS 4.1 supports traditional non-Kerberos mounts with the AUTH_SYS security.
In this case, use root access guidelines for NFS version 3.
Note You cannot use two security mechanisms, AUTH_SYS and Kerberos, for the same NFS 4.1
datastore shared by multiple hosts.
NFS Multipathing
While NFS 3 with ESXi does not provide multipathing support, NFS 4.1 supports multiple paths.
vSphere Storage
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