VSICM6 M06 Storage

Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
Module 6
© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

You Are Here
1. Course Introduction 7. Virtual Machine Management

2. Software-Defined Data Center 8. Resource Management and
Monitoring
3. Creating Virtual Machines
9. vSphere HA and vSphere Fault
4. vCenter Server Tolerance
5. Configuring and Managing 10. Host Scalability
Virtual Networks
11. vSphere Update Manager and
6. Configuring and Managing Host Maintenance
Virtual Storage
12. Installing vSphere Components
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-2

Importance
Storage options give you the flexibility to set up your storage based on
your cost, performance, and manageability requirements.
Shared storage is useful for disaster recovery, high availability, and
moving virtual machines between hosts.

Module Lessons
Lesson 1: Storage Concepts
Lesson 2: iSCSI Storage
Lesson 3: NFS Datastores
Lesson 4: VMFS Datastores
Lesson 5: Virtual SAN Datastores
Lesson 6: Virtual Volumes

Lesson 1:
Storage Concepts
6-5
Learner Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to meet the following
objectives:
• Describe VMware vSphere® storage technologies and datastores
• Describe the storage device naming convention

Basic Storage Overview
ESXi
Hosts
Datastor VMFS NFS

e
Types
File
System
Storage Direct Fibre

Technologies Attached Channel
FCoE iSCSI NAS

Storage Protocol Overview
Boot from vSphere vSphere Raw Device

Storage vSphere HA
SAN vMotion DRS Mapping
Protocol Support
Support Support Support Support
Fibre ● ● ● ● ●
Channel
FCoE ● ● ● ● ●
iSCSI ● ● ● ● ●
NFS ● ● ●
DAS ● ●
Virtual ● ● ●
Volumes
Virtual SAN ● ● ●

About Datastores
A datastore is a logical storage unit
that can use disk space on one
physical device or span several
physical devices.
Types of datastores:
• VMware vSphere® VMFS
Host Host
• NFS
Datastores are used to hold virtual

machine files, templates, and ISO
images.
Datastore

About VMFS5
VMFS5:
• Allows concurrent access to
shared storage.
• Can be dynamically expanded.
• Uses a 1 MB block size, good
Host Host
for storing large virtual disk
files.
• Uses subblock addressing,
good for storing small files: the
subblock size is 8 KB.
• Provides on-disk, block-level
locking.
VMFS Datastore

About NFS
NFS:
• Is storage shared over the
network at the file system level
• Supports NFS version 3 and
4.1 over TCP/IP
Host Host
NFS Datastore

Virtual SAN Overview
Virtual SAN
vSphere
3-64
SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD
Virtual SAN Aggregated Datastore

About Virtual Volumes
Overview
vSphere • Native representation of VMDKs on
Virtual Volumes SAN/NAS: No LUNs or volume management.
• Works with existing SAN/NAS systems.

PE • A new control path for data operations at the
VM/VMDK level.
• Snapshots, replications, and other operations

at the VM level on external storage.
Replication Snapshots Caching • Automates control of per-VM service levels.
• Protocol endpoint provides standard protocol

Encryption Deduplication access to storage.
• Storage containers can span an entire array.

Storage Device Naming Conventions
Storage devices are identified in several ways:
• Runtime name: Uses the convention vmhbaN:C:T:L. This name is not
persistent through reboots.
• Target: Identifies iSCSI target address and port.
• LUN: A unique identifier designated to individual or collections of hard disk
devices. A logical unit is addressed by the SCSI protocol or SAN protocols that
encapsulate SCSI, such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel.

Physical Storage Considerations
You should discuss vSphere storage needs with your storage
administration team, including the following items:
• LUN sizes
• I/O bandwidth
• I/O requests per second that a LUN is capable of
• Disk cache parameters
• Zoning and masking
• Identical LUN presentation to each VMware ESXi™ host
• Active-active or active-passive arrays
• Export properties for NFS datastores

Review of Learner Objectives
You should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Describe VMware vSphere® storage technologies and datastores
• Describe the storage device naming convention

Lesson 2:
iSCSI Storage
6-17
Learner Objectives
objectives:
• Describe uses of IP storage with ESXi
• Describe iSCSI components and addressing
• Configure iSCSI initiators

iSCSI Components

iSCSI Addressing
iSCSI target name:

iqn.1992-08.com.mycompany:stor1-47cf3c25
or
eui.fedcba9876543210
iSCSI alias: stor1
IP address: 192.168.36.101
iSCSI initiator name:

iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:train1-64ad4c29
or
eui.1234567890abcdef
iSCSI alias: train1
IP address: 192.168.36.88

iSCSI Initiators

Setting Up iSCSI Adapters
You set up software or hardware adapters before an ESXi host can work
with a SAN.
Supported iSCSI adapter types (vmhba):
• Software adapter
• Hardware adapter:
• Independent hardware adapter
• Dependent hardware adapter

ESXi Network Configuration for IP Storage
A VMkernel port must
be created for ESXi to
access software iSCSI.
The same port can be
used to access
NAS/NFS storage.
To optimize your
vSphere networking
setup, separate iSCSI
networks from
NAS/NFS networks:
• Physical separation is
preferred.
• If physical separation is
not possible, use
VLANs.

Creating Datastores and Discovering iSCSI Targets
Based on the environment
and storage needs, you can
create VMFS, NFS, or virtual
datastores as repositories for
virtual machines.
The iSCSI adapter discovers
storage resources on the
network and determines which 192.168.36.101:3260
ones are available for access.
An ESXi host supports the
following discovery methods:
• Static SendTargets
SendTargets
• Dynamic, also called Request Response
SendTargets
The SendTargets response iSCSI Target:
192.168.36.101:3260
returns the IQN and all
available IP addresses.

iSCSI Security: CHAP
iSCSI initiators use
CHAP for authentication
purposes.
By default, CHAP is not
configured.
ESXi supports two types
of CHAP authentication:
• Unidirectional
• Bidirectional
ESXi also supports per-

target CHAP
authentication.

Multipathing with iSCSI Storage
Software or dependent
hardware iSCSI:
• Use multiple NICs.
• Connect each NIC to a
separate VMkernel port.
• Associate VMkernel ports
with the iSCSI initiator.
Hardware iSCSI:
• Use two or more hardware
iSCSI adapters.
Configure port binding in the Adapter

details window of the iSCSI adapter.

Lab 9: Accessing iSCSI Storage
Configure access to an iSCSI datastore
1. Add a VMkernel Port Group to a Standard Switch
2. Configure the iSCSI Software Adapter and Connect It to the Storage

• Describe uses of IP storage with ESXi
• Describe iSCSI components and addressing
• Configure iSCSI initiators

Lesson 3:
NFS Datastores
6-29
Learner Objectives
objectives:
• Describe NFS components
• Describe the differences between NFS v3 and NFS v4.1
• Configure and manage NFS datastores

NFS Components
NAS Device or a Directory to Share

Server with Storage with the ESXi Host
over the Network
192.168.81.33
192.168.81.72
ESXi Host with
VMkernel Port
NIC Mapped to
Defined on Virtual
Virtual Switch
Switch

Configuring an NFS Datastore
Create a VMkernel port:
• For better performance and security, separate it from the iSCSI network.
Provide the following information:

• NFS version: v3 or v4.1
• NFS server names or IP addresses
• Folder on the NFS server, for example, /templates and /nfs_share
• Host to create the datastore on
• Whether to mount the NFS file system read-only
• Datastore name
• Authentication parameters

NFS Dual Stack Not Supported
NFS v3 locking is not compatible with NFS v4.1:
• NFS v3 uses proprietary client-side cooperative locking. NFS v4.1 uses server-
side locking.
Best practice:
• Configure an NFS array to allow only one NFS protocol.
• Use either NFS v3 or NFS v4.1 to mount the same NFS share across all ESXi
hosts.
• Mounting an NFS share as NFS v3 on one ESXi host and as NFS v4.1 on
another ESXi host can lead to data corruption.

NFS Datastore Name and Configuration

Configuring AD and NFS Servers to Use Kerberos
Before enabling Kerberos on ESXi
hosts:
• Create an account in AD for NFS v4.1
access.
– Enable Kerberos DES encryption.
– Account set to never expire.
• Configure NFS servers to use

Kerberos.
• Configure NFS server shares to grant
full access to the AD account used.

Configuring Host Authentication and NFS Kerberos
Credentials
Add each ESXi host to the AD domain. Configure NFS Kerberos
credentials.
VCLASS.LOCAL
dc.vclass.local

Configuring the Datastore to Use Kerberos
You should enable Kerberos authentication when creating each
datastore.

Viewing IP Storage Information
You can view the details of the VMFS or NFS datastores that you
created.

Unmounting an NFS Datastore
Unmounting an NFS datastore causes the files on the datastore to
become inaccessible to the ESXi host.

Multipathing and NFS Storage
One recommended configuration
for NFS multipathing:
• Configure one VMkernel port.
• Use adapters attached to the same NIC NIC
physical switch to configure NIC
teaming.
• Configure the NFS server with
multiple IP addresses: Physical
– IP addresses can be on the same Switch
subnet.
• To use multiple links, configure NIC
teams with the IP hash load-
balancing policy. vmnic0 vmnic1
ESXi Host

Enabling Session Trunking and Multipathing
Multiple IP addresses are configured for each NFS v4.1 datastore.
192.168.0.203, 192.168.0.204

Lab 10: Accessing NFS Storage
Configure access to an NFS datastore
1. Configure Access to NFS Datastores
2. View NFS Storage Information

• Describe NFS components
• Describe the differences between NFS v3 and NFS v4.1
• Configure and manage NFS datastores

Lesson 4:
VMFS Datastores
6-44
Learner Objectives
objectives:
• Create a VMFS datastore
• Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
• Delete a VMFS datastore

Using VMFS Datastores with ESXi Hosts
Use VMFS datastores whenever possible:
• VMFS is optimized for storing and accessing large files.
• A VMFS datastore can have a maximum volume size of 64 TB.
Use RDMs if the following conditions are true of your virtual machine:
• It is taking storage array-level snapshots.
• It is clustered to a physical machine.
• It has large amounts of data that you do not want to convert into a virtual disk.

Creating and Viewing VMFS Datastores
Using the New Datastore wizard, you can create VMFS datastores on
any SCSI-based storage devices that the host discovers, including Fibre
Channel, iSCSI, and local storage devices. VMFS datastores serve as
repositories for virtual machines.

Browsing Datastore Contents

Managing Overcommitted Datastores
A datastore becomes overcommitted when the total provisioned space of
thin-provisioned disks is greater than the size of the datastore.
Actively monitor your datastore capacity:
• Alarms assist through notifications:
– Datastore disk overallocation
– Virtual machine disk usage
• Use reporting to view space usage.
Actively manage your datastore capacity:

• Increase the datastore capacity when necessary.
• Use VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion® to mitigate space usage problems
on a particular datastore.

Increasing the Size of a VMFS Datastore
Increase a VMFS
datastore’s size to give it
more space or possibly to
improve performance.
Ways to dynamically
increase the size of a VMFS
datastore:
• Add an extent (LUN).
• Expand the datastore within
its extent.

Before Increasing the Size of a VMFS Datastore
In general, before making any changes to your storage allocation:
• Perform a rescan to ensure that all hosts see the most current storage.
• Quiesce I/O on all disks involved.
• Record the unique identifier, for example, the NAA ID of the volume that you
want to expand.

Deleting or Unmounting a VMFS Datastore

Multipathing Algorithms
Arrays provide various
features. Some offer active- Storage
active storage processors. Array
Others offer active-passive Storage
SP A SP B
storage processors. Processors
0 1 0 1
vSphere 6 offers native path
selection, load-balancing, and
failover mechanisms.
Third-party vendors can Switches
create their own software to
be installed ESXi hosts. The
third-party software enables
hosts to properly interact with
the storage arrays.
ESXi
Hosts

Configuring Storage Load Balancing
Path selection policies exist for:
• Scalability:
– Round Robin:
A multipathing
policy that performs
load balancing
across paths
• Availability:
– Most Recently Used
(MRU)
– Fixed

Lab 11: Managing VMFS Datastores
Create and manage VMFS datastores
1. Change the Name of a VMFS Datastore
2. Create VMFS Datastores for the ESXi Host
3. Expand a VMFS Datastore to Consume Unused Space on a LUN
4. Remove a VMFS Datastore
5. Extend a VMFS Datastore

• Create a VMFS datastore
• Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
• Delete a VMFS datastore

Lesson 5:
Virtual SAN Datastores
6-57
Learner Objectives
objectives:
• Explain the purpose of a VMware Virtual SAN™ datastore
• Describe the architecture and requirements of Virtual SAN configuration
• Describe the steps in configuring Virtual SAN
• Explain how Virtual SAN storage policies are created and used

About Virtual SAN
Virtual SAN
vSphere
3-64
SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD
Virtual SAN Aggregated Datastore
A single Virtual SAN datastore is created, using storage from multiple

hosts and multiple disks in the cluster.

Virtual SAN Requirements
1 Gb or 10 Gb NIC
Network
Server on
vSphere HCL SAS/SATA: RAID
Controller controller must work in
passthrough or HBA mode.
Cache PCI/SAS/SATA SSD

At least 1
of each
Data PCI/SAS/SATA HD/SSD
• Not every node in a Virtual SAN cluster needs local storage.

• Hosts with no local storage can still use distributed datastore.

Configuring a Virtual SAN Datastore
A Virtual SAN datastore is configured in a few steps.
Create disk
Enable Virtual
Set up Virtual groups
SAN on the
SAN network. (manual or
cluster.
automatic)

Disk Groups
Disk groups are Virtual SAN Disk Groups
management constructs composed of
flash-based devices and magnetic
disks:
• Requires one flash device:
– Maximum of one flash device per disk
group
• Requires one HD/SSD:
– Supports up to seven devices per disk
group
• Maximum of five disk groups per host

Cluster Summary Tab
In the VMware vSphere® Web Client, the Summary tab of the Virtual
SAN cluster displays the general Virtual SAN configuration information.

Using Virtual SAN
Capabilities define the capacity, performance, and availability
characteristics of the underlying physical storage. The Virtual SAN
cluster presents these capabilities to vCenter Server, where they can be
consumed by virtual machines.
Requirements outline the needs of a virtual machine.
Virtual machine storage policies specify the virtual machine requirements
so that the virtual machine can be placed appropriately on the Virtual
SAN datastore.
Capabilities VM
Create policies
presented requirements
that contain VM
from Virtual based on
requirements.
SAN. capabilities.

Objects in Virtual SAN Datastores
In a Virtual SAN datastore, files are grouped into four types of objects:
• Namespaces
• Virtual disks
• Snapshots
• Swap files
VMDK
Snapshot VSWP

Virtual Machine Storage Policies
VM Storage Policy • Virtual machine storage
policies are built before VM
Capacity
Availability
deployment to reflect the
Performance requirements of the
application running in the
virtual machine.
• The policy is based on the
Virtual SAN capabilities.
• Select the appropriate
vSphere
policy for the virtual
Virtual SAN Cluster machine based on its
Virtual SAN Datastore requirements.
• Storage objects for the
… virtual machine are then
created that meet the policy
SSD
Hard disks
SSD Hard disks
SSD
Hard disks
requirements.

Configuring Virtual Machine Storage Policies
Mirroring
Storage
Object
Striping

Viewing a Virtual Machine’s Virtual SAN Datastore
The consumption of Virtual SAN storage is based on the virtual
machine’s storage policy.
The virtual machine’s hard
disk view:
• Summarizes the total storage
size and used storage space
• Displays the virtual machine
storage policy
• Shows the location of disk files
on a Virtual SAN datastore

Disk Management
Disk management in vSphere Web Client:
• Easily map the location of magnetic disks and flash-based devices.
• Mark disks and control disk LEDs.

Adding Disks to a Disk Group
Disk groups can be expanded by adding data disks to a node and adding
these disks to a particular disk group.
The vSphere Web Client shows any unclaimed disk in the disk
maintenance window.

Removing Disks from a Disk Group
Individual disks can be removed from a disk group.
Data is evacuated before removing the disk. Or the host must be placed
in maintenance mode.

Virtual SAN Cluster Member Maintenance Mode Options
Before you shut down, reboot, or disconnect a host that is a member of a
Virtual SAN cluster, you must place the host in maintenance mode.
When you place a host in maintenance mode, you can select a specific
evacuation mechanism.
When any member node of a Virtual SAN cluster enters maintenance
mode, the cluster capacity is automatically reduced because the member
node no longer contributes storage to the cluster.
Option Action
Moves enough components to ensure operational

Ensure Accessibility
integrity of objects.
Full Data Migration All components are evacuated from the host.
No action is taken, which can result in degraded

No Data Migration
objects.

Removing a Host from a Virtual SAN Cluster
To remove a host that is participating in a Virtual SAN cluster:
1. Place the host in maintenance mode.
2. Delete the disk groups associated with the host.
3. Remove the host from the cluster.

• Explain the purpose of a VMware Virtual SAN™ datastore
• Describe the architecture and requirements of Virtual SAN configuration
• Describe the steps in configuring Virtual SAN
• Explain how Virtual SAN storage policies are created and used

Lesson 6:
Virtual Volumes
6-75
Learner Objectives
objectives:
• Describe the benefits of software-defined storage
• Describe per-virtual machine, policy-based policy management
• Describe how VMDK data operations are offloaded to storage arrays through
the use of VMware vSphere® API for Storage Awareness™

Next-Generation Storage
Next-generation storage is required to meet certain criteria.
Lower cost of storage.
Reduce manual processes

Compute around storage management.
Management Storage/Availability
Network/Security
Handle explosive data growth.
Respond to new data access and

analysis requirements.

Using the Hypervisor to Transform Storage
Automate service-level
agreements through virtual
machine-centric policies.
Replication Snapshots (Policy-Based Control Plane)
Virtual Machine-Level Data

Services
Hypervisor SAN/NAS Object-Based (Virtual Data Services)
Converged Pool Pool Pool
Abstract and Pool

(Virtualized Data Plane)
vSphere
x86 Servers Cloud Object

SAN/NAS
Storage

Why Virtual Volumes
Customers have major concerns about storage.
Storage  “Setting up storage requires too much time.”

management is  “Data operations are LUN-centric. We want virtual
too complex. machine-focused operations.”
Cost of  “We overprovision storage.”

Cost of ownership
ownership
is too high  “Our storage budget keeps going up.”
is too high.
SLAs are too  “SLAs cannot ensure predictable performance.”

difficult to
 “Troubleshooting is very hard.”
ensure.

Storage Array Requirements
Virtual volumes require that the following criteria be met to function
properly:
• A storage array compatible with vSphere API for Storage Awareness 2.0.
• Must implement vSphere API for Storage Awareness to create the storage
provider for virtual volumes:
– Firmware
– Virtual appliance
– Physical appliance
• Use APIs to handle offloaded data services on the virtual volumes.

• Enable fine capabilities.
• Publish a VASA provider that runs on the array through a URL.

Storage Administration
No need to configure LUNs

vSphere or NFS shares.
Set up a single I/O access called

a protocol endpoint, to set up
a data path from virtual machines
to virtual volumes.
PE
Set up a logical entity, called

storage container, to group virtual
volumes for easy management.

Using Virtual Volumes
A vendor provider is a storage provider based on vSphere API for
Storage Awareness that allows the array to export its capabilities and
present them to vSphere.
A protocol endpoint is a replacement for the traditional LUN and can be
accessed with typical NFS or SCSI methods.
Virtual Volumes datastores are created on the protocol endpoint:
• Virtual volumes are objects created on the datastore.
Discover protocol
Register a storage endpoints Create Virtual
provider in Volumes
vCenter Server. (iSCSI, NFS, and datastores.
so on).

• Describe the benefits of software-defined storage
• Describe per-virtual machine, policy-based policy management
• Describe how VMDK data operations are offloaded to storage arrays through
the use of VMware vSphere® API for Storage Awareness™

Key Points
• You use VMFS datastores to hold virtual machine files.
• Shared storage is integral to vSphere features such as vSphere vMotion,
vSphere HA, and vSphere DRS.
• Virtual SAN enables low-end configurations to use vSphere HA, vSphere
vMotion, and vSphere Storage vMotion without requiring external shared
storage.
• Virtual SAN clusters direct-attached server disks to create shared storage
designed for virtual machines.
• Virtual Volumes is a storage management approach that enables
administrators to differentiate virtual machine services per application.
• Key components of the Virtual Volumes functionality include virtual volumes,
VASA providers, storage containers, protocol endpoints, and virtual datastores.
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Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage

© 2015 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Course Introduction 7. Virtual Machine Management

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-2

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-3

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-4

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-6

Datastor VMFS NFS

Storage Direct Fibre

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-7

Boot from vSphere vSphere Raw Device

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-8

Datastores are used to hold virtual

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-9

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-10

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-11

SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD SSD HD/SSD

Virtual SAN Aggregated Datastore

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-12

Virtual Volumes SAN/NAS: No LUNs or volume management.

• Works with existing SAN/NAS systems.

• Snapshots, replications, and other operations

Replication Snapshots Caching • Automates control of per-VM service levels.

• Protocol endpoint provides standard protocol

• Storage containers can span an entire array.

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-13

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-14

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-15

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-16

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-18

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-19

iSCSI target name:

iSCSI initiator name:

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-20

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-21

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-22

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-23

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-24

ESXi also supports per-

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-25

Configure port binding in the Adapter

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-26

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-27

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-28

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-30

NAS Device or a Directory to Share

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-31

Provide the following information:

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-32

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-33

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-34

• Configure NFS servers to use

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-35

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-36

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-37

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-38

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-39

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 6-40