Administrator Guide

The external database is expected to be deployed in a highly available manner including redundant switching connectivity.
Lab Experimentation Use of VVols
In a preproduction lab environment, a user could experiment with VVols and choose to purge all data on the array and restart with the
intention of redeploying another VVols lab environment for experimentation purposes.
The proper steps for purging data in a LAB environment only are:
1. Using VMware vCenter — Delete all respective VVols VMs
2. Using Storage Center—Perform Purge
In the event the order is reversed, VVols metadata remains in the database even if the Data Collector is uninstalled. This metadata must be
deleted to ensure a robust operating environment if a new lab environment is to be set up to use VVols. Failure to do so results in failures
to some VVols VM operations to reference incorrect metadata.
If the order is reversed, contact technical support to work through the purge process.
VMware Virtual Volume Concepts
The following figure shows the virtual volumes (VVols) model defined by VMware.
The VVol framework introduces these components:
• VASA provider — A VASA provider (VP) is a software component that acts as a storage awareness service for vSphere. Storage
vendors develop VASA providers to work with their specific storage arrays.
• Protocol endpoint (PE) — A protocol endpoint is the connection used for VVol storage, and the means by which you can access VVol
storage containers. The protocol endpoint is also where access controls are placed and initiators are queried to ensure that they are
permitted access to the storage containers and virtual volumes. Protocol endpoints are created and presented by Storage Manager
when a VMware ESXi 6.0 server type is created in Storage Manager.
vSphere recognizes them as protocol endpoints after the VASA provider is registered and a Storage Container is created using
Storage Manager.
• Storage container — A storage container is a quantity of storage made available for the placement of virtual volumes-based VMs.
Each array has at least one storage container. Each storage container has one or more protocol endpoints associated with it.
NOTE: Storage containers are not supported outside of the virtual volumes context.
170 Managing Virtual Volumes With Storage Manager