Administrator Guide

Managing Virtual Volumes With Storage
Manager
VVols is VMware’s storage management and integration framework, which is designed to deliver a more efficient operational model for
attached storage. This framework encapsulates the files that make up a virtual machine (VM) and natively stores them as objects on an
array.
The VVols architecture enables granular storage capabilities to be advertised by the underlying storage. Storage containers, which define
the available storage capabilities, can be created for vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management.
Topics:
• Configuring VVols in Storage Manager
• VMware Virtual Volume Concepts
• Setting Up VVols Operations on Storage Manager
• VASA Provider
• Managing Storage Containers
• Creating VVol Datastores
• Create a Datastore and Map it to VMware ESX Server
• View VVol and Datastore Information
• Protocol Endpoint Monitoring
Configuring VVols in Storage Manager
VMware vSphere 6 or later is required to run VVols in a storage environment with Storage Manager.
Requirements and Recommendations for Configuring
VVols in Storage Manager
The following requirements and recommendations apply to setting up Storage Manager to use VVols:
• Storage Manager must be installed on a clustered hypervisor of choice with high-availability (HA) enabled.
• Fault Tolerance is recommended.
• Storage Manager must not be deployed or moved to a VVol datastore on the managed Storage Center. Storage Manager must be
installed and remain on a traditional SAN volume
• Storage Manager must be installed on a separate management cluster.
• VVols is supported with the iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces only. FCoE and front end SAS are not supported for VVols.
• The network card must support the Secondary LUNID feature. For more information, search for I/O Devices with the Secondary
LUNID in the VMware Compatibility Guide, available from http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.
Safeguarding VVols Data
A critical component of the total VVols solution is the VM metadata.VMware's ESXi reads and writes this metadata to each VVol during
control plane operations, such as power-on, power-off, and snapshots.
The Data Collector stores the VVols metadata written by the VASA provider in a database.
During Data Collector deployment (installation or migration) and during VASA provider registration, the production user is reminded to use
an external database.
Use of the internal database is a consideration for lab deployments only. Depending upon the protection model used in deployment, failure
to use the external database could result in the loss of some or all VVols metadata when the Data Collector is uninstalled or deleted. Use of
the external database negates this risk during uninstall or delete.
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