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
Hardware Acceleration Requirements
The hardware acceleration functionality works only if you use an appropriate host and storage array
combination.
Table 24‑1. Hardware Acceleration Storage Requirements
ESXi Block Storage Devices NAS Devices
ESXi Support T10 SCSI standard, or block
storage plug-ins for array integration
(VAAI)
Support NAS plug-ins for array integration
Note If your SAN or NAS storage fabric uses an intermediate appliance in front of a storage system that
supports hardware acceleration, the intermediate appliance must also support hardware acceleration and
be properly certified. The intermediate appliance might be a storage virtualization appliance, I/O
acceleration appliance, encryption appliance, and so on.
Hardware Acceleration Support Status
For each storage device and datastore, the vSphere Web Client display the hardware acceleration
support status.
The status values are Unknown, Supported, and Not Supported. The initial value is Unknown.
For block devices, the status changes to Supported after the host successfully performs the offload
operation. If the offload operation fails, the status changes to Not Supported. The status remains
Unknown if the device provides partial hardware acceleration support.
With NAS, the status becomes Supported when the storage can perform at least one hardware offload
operation.
When storage devices do not support or provide partial support for the host operations, your host reverts
to its native methods to perform unsupported operations.
Hardware Acceleration for Block Storage Devices
With hardware acceleration, your host can integrate with block storage devices, Fibre Channel or iSCSI,
and use certain storage array operations.
ESXi hardware acceleration supports the following array operations:
n
Full copy, also called clone blocks or copy offload. Enables the storage arrays to make full copies of
data within the array without having the host read and write the data. This operation reduces the time
and network load when cloning virtual machines, provisioning from a template, or migrating with
vMotion.
n
Block zeroing, also called write same. Enables storage arrays to zero out a large number of blocks to
provide newly allocated storage, free of previously written data. This operation reduces the time and
network load when creating virtual machines and formatting virtual disks.
vSphere Storage
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