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
The Virtual Volumes functionality helps to improve granularity. It helps you to differentiate virtual machine
services on a per application level by offering a new approach to storage management. Rather than
arranging storage around features of a storage system, Virtual Volumes arranges storage around the
needs of individual virtual machines, making storage virtual-machine centric.
Virtual Volumes maps virtual disks and their derivatives, clones, snapshots, and replicas, directly to
objects, called virtual volumes, on a storage system. This mapping allows vSphere to offload intensive
storage operations such as snapshot, cloning, and replication to the storage system.
By creating a volume for each virtual disk, you can set policies at the optimum level. You can decide in
advance what the storage requirements of an application are, and communicate these requirements to
the storage system. The storage system creates an appropriate virtual disk based on these requirements.
For example, if your virtual machine requires an active-active storage array, you no longer must select a
datastore that supports the active-active model. Instead, you create an individual virtual volume that is
automatically placed to the active-active array.
Virtual Volumes Concepts
With Virtual Volumes, abstract storage containers replace traditional storage volumes based on LUNs or
NFS shares. In vCenter Server, the storage containers are represented by Virtual Volumes datastores.
Virtual Volumes datastores store virtual volumes, objects that encapsulate virtual machine files.
Watch the video to learn more about different components of the Virtual Volumes functionality.
Virtual Volumes Part 1: Concepts
(http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2296383276001?
bctid=ref:video_vvols_part1_concepts)
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Virtual Volumes
Virtual volumes are encapsulations of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives.
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Virtual Volumes and Storage Providers
A Virtual Volumes storage provider, also called a VASA provider, is a software component that acts
as a storage awareness service for vSphere. The provider mediates out-of-band communication
between vCenter Server and ESXi hosts on one side and a storage system on the other.
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Storage Containers
Unlike traditional LUN and NFS-based storage, the Virtual Volumes functionality does not require
preconfigured volumes on a storage side. Instead, Virtual Volumes uses a storage container. It is a
pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage capabilities that a storage system can
provide to virtual volumes.
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Protocol Endpoints
Although storage systems manage all aspects of virtual volumes, ESXi hosts have no direct access
to virtual volumes on the storage side. Instead, ESXi hosts use a logical I/O proxy, called the
protocol endpoint, to communicate with virtual volumes and virtual disk files that virtual volumes
encapsulate. ESXi uses protocol endpoints to establish a data path on demand from virtual
machines to their respective virtual volumes.
vSphere Storage
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