Administrator Guide

vSphere recognizes them as protocol endpoints after the VASA provider is registered and a Storage Container is created using
Unisphere Central.
• 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.
You must use Unisphere Central (connected toData Collector) a to create storage containers.
Setting Up VVols Operations on Unisphere Central
To set up and run operations for virtual volumes (VVols) in Unisphere Central, you must:
• Register VMware vCenter Server in Unisphere Central.
• Register VMware vCenter Server in Storage Center either by using Auto manage Storage Center option in Unisphere Central or by
manually adding vCenter server in Storage Center.
• Register the VASA provider on a vCenter server
• Create storage containers that are used to store the VVols objects created by the vCenter administrator
• Use Unisphere Central to create datastores of type VVOL, which are mapped to the storage containers on the array using Unisphere
Central
• Use vCenter to create VVol-backed VMs
Unisphere Central provides Summary and Storage views that provide information about storage containers, datastores, VVols, and
protocol endpoints. These objects are managed using Storage Manager. Protocol endpoints are created automatically by Storage Manager
and cannot be modified in any way.
Virtual Volumes Restrictions
Volume operations on virtual volumes (VVols) are restricted to specific operations.
Storage administrators use Unisphere Central to create storage container backed vSphere datastores, also known as datastores of type
VVOL. From within the vSphere web client these VVol datastores look no different from VMFS or NFS datastores. However, virtual
machines stored within or on these VVol datastores are stored as virtual volumes on the array, organized within the storage container.
Many of the same operations that can be performed again traditional volumes can be performed against virtual volumes.
These volume operations are supported for VVols:
• Show
• Create Snapshot
• Set Snapshot Profiles
• Set Threshold Definitions
These volume operations are not supported for VVols:
• Edit Name
• Edit Properties
• Map Volume to Server
• Expand Volume
• Delete
• Migrate
• Copy
• Mirror
• Replicate
Thick provisioning is not supported for operations such as creating or cloning a VVol VM. Only thin provisioning is supported.
VASA Provider
The VASA provider enables support for VMware VVols operations.
A VASA provider is a software interface between the vSphere vCenter server and vendor storage arrays. Dell provides its own VASA
provider that enables vCenter to work with Dell storage. This VASA provider supports the VMware VASA 2.0 API specifications.
When the VASA provider is registered, vCenter can be used to create and manage VVols on the Storage Center.
You must configure the VASA provider if you intend to use VVols in your environment.
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Storage Center Administration