Administrator Guide

10. On the Confirmation page, review the selected space reclamation actions.
To perform the actions, select the I have reviewed all of the actions checkbox and click Next.
11. On the Summary page, view the status of the space reclamation actions and click Finish when the actions are complete.
Managing Virtual Volumes With Unisphere Central
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.
Configuring VVols in Unisphere Central
VMware vSphere 6 or later is required to run VVols in a storage environment with Unisphere Central.
Requirements and Recommendations for Configuring VVols in Unisphere Central
The following requirements and recommendations apply to setting up Unisphere Central to use VVols:
● Unisphere Central must be used on a clustered hypervisor of choice with high-availability (HA) enabled.
● Fault Tolerance is recommended.
● 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.
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.
Storage Center Administration
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