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
Handles physical path discovery and removal.
n
Provides logical device and physical path I/O statistics.
As the Pluggable Storage Architecture illustration shows, multiple third-party MPPs can run in parallel with
the VMware NMP. When installed, the third-party MPPs replace the behavior of the NMP and take control
of the path failover and the load-balancing operations for the storage devices.
Figure 18‑5. Pluggable Storage Architecture
third-party
MPP
third-party
MPP
VMkernel
pluggable storage architecture
VMware NMP
VMware SATP VMware PSP
VMware SATP VMware PSP
VMware SATP
third-party SATP third-party PSP
The multipathing modules perform the following operations:
n
Manage physical path claiming and unclaiming.
n
Manage creation, registration, and deregistration of logical devices.
n
Associate physical paths with logical devices.
n
Support path failure detection and remediation.
n
Process I/O requests to logical devices:
n
Select an optimal physical path for the request.
n
Depending on a storage device, perform specific actions necessary to handle path failures and
I/O command retries.
n
Support management tasks, such as reset of logical devices.
VMware Multipathing Module
By default, ESXi provides an extensible multipathing module called the Native Multipathing Plug-In
(NMP).
Generally, the VMware NMP supports all storage arrays listed on the VMware storage HCL and provides
a default path selection algorithm based on the array type. The NMP associates a set of physical paths
with a specific storage device, or LUN. The specific details of handling path failover for a given storage
array are delegated to a Storage Array Type Plug-In (SATP). The specific details for determining which
physical path is used to issue an I/O request to a storage device are handled by a Path Selection Plug-In
(PSP). SATPs and PSPs are sub plug-ins within the NMP module.
With ESXi, the appropriate SATP for an array you use will be installed automatically. You do not need to
obtain or download any SATPs.
vSphere Storage
VMware, Inc. 207