Release Notes

Virtual Volume operations
24 Dell EMC SC Series and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes Best Practices | 3161-BP-SC
6 Virtual Volume operations
Virtual Volumes differ from traditional SC Series volumes in that certain operations available with traditional
volumes are not available with vVols. Dell Storage Manager will not permit the following operations on a vVol:
• Edit or Delete
• Copy/Mirror/Migrate
• Map to Server
In the context of Virtual Volumes, creation, snapshot, reverting to snapshot, and deleting Virtual Volumes are
generally transparent storage operations invoked by the vSphere Web Client.
Note: Block VAAI primitives are supported with Virtual Volumes. For more information changes with Virtual
Volumes and the Thin Provision UNMAP primitive, please see VMware KB 2112333.
6.1 Creation
The creation of various Virtual Volumes occurs as a result of actions performed through vSphere. One
example would be the creation of a new virtual machine, deploy from template, or cloning process. In these
examples, Config and Data vVols will automatically be created to support the new virtual machine. Another
example would be power-on operations of a virtual machine at which time a Swap vVol is created. A third
example would be the addition of a virtual disk to an existing virtual machine hardware inventory which would
create an additional Data vVol. Data-vVols are created in a Thin Provision virtual disk format on SC Series
arrays.
Note: The Thick Provision virtual disk format of Data-vVols on SC Series arrays is not supported. When
presented with the option during virtual machine operations, choose Thin Provision or the operation will fail.
Be aware of operations where the default or native value selected is Thick Provision. The Thin Provision
virtual disk format must be forced.