Administrator Guide
Creating and Managing VMFS Datastores and Raw
Device Mappings on Storage Centers
The vSphere Web Client Plugin allows you to create and manage Dell volumes that are mapped as VMFS datastores to ESXi hosts or
clusters on a Storage Center and volumes that are mapped as Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) to virtual machines.
NOTE: The options that appear when creating and managing datastores and RDMs change depending on the Storage Center
user preferences of the Storage Manager user dened in the vSphere Web Client Plugin.
Adding a VMFS Datastore
Use the Add Datastore wizard to add Dell storage as a VMFS datastore.
When you add a VMFS datastore, you create and/or map a Dell volume on the Storage Center. See Introduction to Dell Storage for details
about Dell volumes.
To add a VMFS datastore, use these options:
• Create New Dell Volume – Create and map a new Dell volume as a VMFS datastore.
• Map Existing Dell Volume – Select an existing Dell volume to map as a datastore.
NOTE: The existing volume must be a formatted VMFS datastore.
Adding a Datastore Using a New Dell Volume
A datastore can be created from a new Dell volume using the vSphere Web Client Plugin.
Prerequisites
• The active controller option is not available if the Storage Center user in Storage Manager has only volume manager privileges.
• The SAS mapping protocol selection is only available on Storage Centers that support Front-end SAS: SCv2000 Series and SC4020
Storage Centers.
• The options for selecting the VMFS versions depend on the version of ESXi that is running on the host. If the host is running ESXi 5.5
or ESXi 6.5, the VMFS version selection is available. The VMFS version selection does not appear when only ESXi 6.0 hosts are
available in the inventory. ESXi 6.0 supports only VMFS 5. ESXi 5.5 supports VMFS 3 and VMFS 5. ESXi 6.5 supports VMFS 5 and
VMFS 6.
• On the Volumes page, the values for Storage Prole and Disk Folder can be modied only if the preferences for the Storage Center
have been set to Allow. For information about managing the preferences, see the Dell Storage Manager Administrator’s Guide
Steps
1 Select an object in inventory that can be a parent of a datastore:
• Datacenter
• Host
• Cluster
2 Select Actions > All Dell Storage Actions > Add Datastore.
The Add Datastore wizard opens.
3 Select the VMFS datastore type and click Next.
The vSphere Web Client Plugin loads the Storage Center information.
4 If necessary, select one or more hosts to which to map the new volume.
5 Select the Storage Center and/or active controller for volume creation. Click Next.
6 Select Create New Dell Volume, and click Next.
7 Select from the following steps that pertain to your environment. The steps that apply depend on the user-preferences settings of the
Storage Center user in Storage Manager.
a Type the name and size for the new volume, select the volume folder, and click Next.
Working With Dell Storage
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