PowerStore supports the VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) framework through the VASA 3.0 and VASA 4.0 protocols. This feature enables VM-granular data services and Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM). In traditional storage environments, volumes or file systems are formatted as VMFS or NFS datastores for VMs. Data services are applied at the volume or file-system level, which means all VMs that reside on that datastore are also affected.
With vVols, VM data is stored on dedicated storage objects that are called storage containers, which become vVol datastores in vSphere. A VM consists of multiple vVols depending on its configuration and status. PowerStore works with vSphere to track which vVols belong to which VM.
For data services, such as VM snapshots and clones, you can apply them at a VM-level of granularity because they are only applied to the relevant vVols. These data services are offloaded to PowerStore to maximize efficiency. Policies and profiles can be used to ensure that VMs are provisioned with the required storage capabilities.
