Continuing a history of collaboration with VMware, Dell Technologies has qualified external storage solutions for VMware Cloud Foundation workload domains. Originally, the ability to use external NFSv3 as principal with FC storage as supplemental storage became available with VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5.1. Later, the use of VMFS on FC storage as principal storage in workload domains is available with VMware Cloud Foundation version 3.9, and vVols with VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1.

VMware Cloud Foundation supports four protocols for principal storage and seven protocols as supplemental storage for workload domains. The principal and supplemental storage terms merely describe when the storage is configured with the workload domain. The characteristics of these storage types have no relation to features or performance profiles, as both can be equally resilient and performant. Principal storage is used as the first datastore to initially deploy a workload domain, while supplemental storage is any subsequent storage added after the workload domain is deployed. Supplemental storage including PowerFlex, VMFS on iSCSI, NFSv4, and NVMe/FC are attached later using standard vCenter and array management tools.

Table 2.      Protocol configuration options