Paravirtual SCSI

Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

Instructor: Eric Siebert - vExpert

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

In This Lesson:
What is a paravirtual SCSI (pvSCSI) adapter?
pvSCSI Requirements
pvSCSI Limitations
How to use pvSCSI
pvSCSI Tips and Best Practices

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

What is a Paravirtual SCSI (pvSCSI) Adapter?

• Paravirtualization refers to virtual hardware that is presented to
VMs that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying
hardware
• Emulated versions of hardware storage adapters from BusLogic
and LSILogic were the only choices available in earlier ESX
releases
• New paravirtual SCSI adapter (pvSCSI) is performance
optimized for virtual environments
• Paravirtual SCSI adapter is a misleading term as all virtual
hardware is considered paravirtual
• pvSCSI adapter uses a special driver to communicate directly
with the hypervisor
 Paravirtual SCSI Adapters
VMware vSphere Pro Series

What is a Paravirtual SCSI (pvSCSI) Adapter?

• Similar to VMDirectPath but a pvSCSI adapter can be shared by
multiple VMs
• pvSCSI adapters offer greater throughput and lower CPU
utilization
• Amount of CPU efficiency is greatest for smaller I/O sizes and
tapers off above 32KB
• pvSCSI is better than LSILogic, except under one condition
where the virtual machine is performing less than 2,000 IOPS
and issuing greater than 4 outstanding I/Os
• Best suited for environments in which guest applications are
very I/O intensive

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

What is a Paravirtual SCSI (pvSCSI) Adapter?

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

pvSCSI Requirements
• Only supported on Windows 2003 & 2008 and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5 virtual machines
• Can be used with any type of storage including Fibre Channel,
iSCSI and NFS
• Requires virtual machine hardware version 7
 Paravirtual SCSI Adapters
VMware vSphere Pro Series

pvSCSI Limitations
• vSphere 4.0 only supported using pvSCSI adapters with non-
boot operating system disks
• Beginning with vSphere 4.0 Update 1 you can use pvSCSI
adapters for boot disks only on Windows 2003 & 2008 VMs, (no
RHEL 5)
• Can be used with direct-attached storage but VMware does not
recommend it because there is not much benefit
• Fault Tolerance feature cannot be used with VMs that have
pvSCSI adapters
• Disk hot add or remove requires a bus rescan from within the
guest

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

pvSCSI Limitations
• Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains
when used on pvSCSI adapters or if memory on the ESX host is
overcommitted
• Hot-adding a pvSCSI adapter is not supported

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

How to Use pvSCSI

• pvSCSI adapter can be selected when creating a VM or
afterwards
• Windows 2003 & 2008 do not include the pvSCSI driver needed
and will not see the disk when you try to install the OS
• Beginning with 4.0 Update 1 the pvSCSI driver is included on a
floppy image located in the vmimages folder that is installed on
all hosts
• pvSCSI driver is also installed as part of the VMware Tools
installation
 Paravirtual SCSI Adapters
VMware vSphere Pro Series

How to Use pvSCSI

• Selecting a pvSCSI adapter when creating a VM
– Must choose the Custom wizard type when creating a VM
– Must choose virtual machine hardware version 7
• Adding a pvSCSI adapter to an existing VM
– VM can be powered on or off
– Edit the VM settings and add a Hard Disk
– On the Advanced Options screen select a SCSI device node
that the first number is different from your existing hard disk
(i.e. 1:0)
– Select the new SCSI controller that is added, click Change
Type and select VMware Paravirtual

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

How to Use pvSCSI

• Changing the adapter type on an existing VM
– If Windows is already installed, make sure VMware Tools is
installed first
– VM must be powered off
– Edit the VM settings and select the SCSI Controller
– Click Change Type and select VMware Paravirtual

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

How to Use pvSCSI

• Installing the device driver while installing Windows
– During the Windows installation press F6 when prompted to
use a 3rd party SCSI driver
– Edit VM settings, select the Floppy Drive and choose the Use
existing floppy image in datastore option for device type
– Click the Browse button and select the vmimages folder in
the Browse Datastores list
– Select the floppies folder and then select the appropriate
(Win2003 or Win2008) pvSCSI floppy image
– Put a checkmark by Connected in the device status section
and click OK
 Paravirtual SCSI Adapters
VMware vSphere Pro Series

How to Use pvSCSI

• Installing the device driver while installing Windows (continued)
– In Windows when the appropriate screen appears press S to
specify an additional device driver and then press Enter
when prompted to insert a floppy disk containing the driver
– The VMware PVSCSI controller will be displayed and
highlighted, press Enter to select it and then press Enter to
continue the Windows installation

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

VMDirectPath Tips and Best Practices

• Use pvSCSI adapters for medium to high disk I/O workloads and
LSI Logic adapters for lower I/O disk workloads
• If unsure about the disk I/O that your VM is generating look at
the disk performance data in the vSphere client
• OK to use a LSI Logic adapter for a VMs boot disk and a
separate PVSCSI adapter for the disk that will store application
data
• If you upgrade from RHEL 5 to a newer, unsupported kernel,
you might not be able to access data on the virtual machine’s
pvSCSI disks. You can runvmware-config-tools.pl with the
kernel-version parameter to regain access
• On Windows servers before changing the SCSI controller type to
VMware Paravirtual make sure VMware Tools is installed or the
VM will not be able to boot

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

Key Terms You Should Know

Paravirtualization - refers to virtual hardware that is presented
to VMs that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying
hardware
IOPS – Input/Output Operations Per Second – a common storage
benchmarking measurement
BusLogic & LSI Logic adapters – popular emulated storage
adapter types used in VMware based on actual physical storage
adapters
 Paravirtual SCSI Adapters
VMware vSphere Pro Series

My Favorite Supporting Resources

1. PVSCSI Storage Performance -
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_pvscsi_perf.pdf
2. Choosing between the PVSCSI or LSI Logic virtual adapter -
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017652
3. PVSCSI and Low IO Workloads -
http://vpivot.com/2010/02/04/pvscsi-and-low-io-workloads/
4. Understanding Paravirtualization -
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware_paravirtualization.
pdf

Paravirtual SCSI Adapters

VMware vSphere Pro Series

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