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
You can use the Virtual Volumes datastores with traditional VMFS and NFS datastores and with vSAN.
Note The size of a virtual volume must be a multiple of 1 MB, with a minimum size of 1 MB. As a result,
all virtual disks that you provision on a Virtual Volumes datastore must be an even multiple of 1 MB. If the
virtual disk you migrate to the Virtual Volumes datastore is not an even multiple of 1 MB, extend the disk
to the nearest even multiple of 1 MB.
Virtual Volumes and VM Storage Policies
A virtual machine that runs on a Virtual Volumes datastore requires a VM storage policy.
A VM storage policy is a set of rules that contains placement and quality-of-service requirements for a
virtual machine. The policy enforces appropriate placement of the virtual machine within Virtual Volumes
storage and guarantees that storage can satisfy virtual machine requirements.
You use the VM Storage Policies interface to create a Virtual Volumes storage policy. When you assign
the new policy to the virtual machine, the policy enforces that the Virtual Volumes storage meets the
requirements.
If you do not create the VM storage policy compatible with the Virtual Volumes datastore, the system uses
default No Requirements policy. The No Requirements policy is a generic Virtual Volumes policy that
contains no rules or storage specifications. The policy allows Virtual Volumes storage arrays to determine
the most appropriate placement for the VM objects.
Virtual Volumes and Storage Protocols
A virtual volumes-based storage system provides protocol endpoints that are discoverable on the physical
storage fabric. ESXi hosts use the protocol endpoints to connect to virtual volumes on the storage.
Operation of the protocol endpoints depends on storage protocols that expose the endpoints to ESXi
hosts.
Virtual Volumes supports NFS version 3 and 4.1, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and FCoE.
No matter which storage protocol is used, protocol endpoints provide uniform access to both SAN and
NAS storage. A virtual volume, like a file on other traditional datastore, is presented to a virtual machine
as a SCSI disk.
Note A storage container is dedicated to SCSI or NAS and cannot be shared across those protocol
types. An array can present one storage container with SCSI protocol endpoints and a different container
with NFS protocol endpoints. The container cannot use a combination of SCSI and NFS protocol
endpoints.
Virtual Volumes and SCSI-Based Transports
On disk arrays, virtual volumes support Fibre Channel, FCoE, and iSCSI protocols.
When the SCSI-based protocol is used, the protocol endpoint represents a proxy LUN defined by a T10-
based LUN WWN.
vSphere Storage
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