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
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Binding and Unbinding Virtual Volumes to Protocol Endpoints
At the time of creation, a virtual volume is a passive entity and is not immediately ready for I/O. To
access the virtual volume, ESXi or vCenter Server send a bind request.
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Virtual Volumes Datastores
A Virtual Volumes (VVol) datastore represents a storage container in vCenter Server and the
vSphere Web Client.
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Virtual Volumes and VM Storage Policies
A virtual machine that runs on a Virtual Volumes datastore requires a VM storage policy.
Virtual Volumes
Virtual volumes are encapsulations of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives.
Virtual volumes are stored natively inside a storage system that is connected to your ESXi hosts through
Ethernet or SAN. They are exported as objects by a compliant storage system and are managed entirely
by hardware on the storage side. Typically, a unique GUID identifies a virtual volume. Virtual volumes are
not preprovisioned, but created automatically when you perform virtual machine management operations.
These operations include a VM creation, cloning, and snapshotting. ESXi and vCenter Server associate
one or more virtual volumes to a virtual machine.
The system creates the following types of virtual volumes for the core elements that make up the virtual
machine:
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Data-VVol. A data virtual volume that corresponds directly to each virtual disk .vmdk file. As virtual
disk files on traditional datastores, virtual volumes are presented to virtual machines as SCSI disks.
Data-VVols can be either thick or thin provisioned.
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Config-VVol. A configuration virtual volume, or a home directory, represents a small directory that
contains metadata files for a virtual machine. The files include a .vmx file, descriptor files for virtual
disks, log files, and so forth. The configuration virtual volume is formatted with a file system. When
ESXi uses the SCSI protocol to connect to storage, configuration virtual volumes are formatted with
VMFS. With NFS protocol, configuration virtual volumes are presented as an NFS directory. Typically,
it is thin provisioned.
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Swap-VVol. Created when a VM is first powered on. It is a virtual volume to hold copies of VM
memory pages that cannot be retained in memory. Its size is determined by the VM’s memory size. It
is thick provisioned by default.
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Snapshot-VVol. A virtual memory volume to hold the contents of virtual machine memory for a
snapshot. Thick provisioned.
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Other. A virtual volume for specific features. For example, a digest virtual volume is created for
Content-Based Read Cache (CBRC).
Typically, a VM creates a minimum of three virtual volumes, data-VVol, config-VVol, and swap-VVol. The
maximum depends on how many virtual disks and snapshots reside on the VM.
vSphere Storage
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