Overview
vVols are a technology from VMware that offers a better way of provisioning, managing, and accessing virtual disks. The access and management of vVols is enabled through a software component called the vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) provider, also known as a vendor provider. VASA providers are developed by storage vendors such as Dell. The vendor provider enables the creation of protocol end points which act as access points for hosts and storage systems. vVols offer multiple benefits such as:
• Storage policy-based management (SPBM) which allows the creation and application of policies based on storage tiers.
• Improved datastore management.
• Enhanced fine-grained storage operations and services.
For more information about the benefit of vVols, visit vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) and vVols Getting Started Guide.
Creating a new storage provider for PowerStore in VMware vCenter
Figure 17. Creating a new storage provider for PowerStore in VMware vCenter
To use vVols, the VASA provider must be registered with vCenter. The storage capabilities are exported and presented to VMware based virtual infrastructure through the protocol end points enabled by VASA.
Storage Provider Registration procedure
- Login to vSphere client.
- Go to vCenter Server in the vSphere Web Client navigator.
- Click the Configure tab and click Storage Providers.
- Click the + Add icon to register a storage provider.
- Enter the connection details for the new storage provider, including the name, URL, and credentials.
- Click OK to complete the registration.
Figure 18. Storage provider registration summary
- The storage provider VASA has been successfully registered with the vCenter as shown in the above screenshot.
- Once the VASA is registered, create a vVol based datastore to use vVol based services.
Virtual Datastore Creation Procedure
- Log in to the vSphere Web Client.
- Select the host in the vSphere inventory.
- Right-click the host and select the storage menu.
Click New Datastore.
Figure 19. Creating a VMware vSphere datastore
Creating a VMware vSphere datastore
- Enter a unique datastore name.
- Select vVol as the virtual datastore type.
- Select the appropriate storage container referring to the previously registered VASA. This backing container will be used to host the virtual volumes.
- Click next to review the selections and click Finish.
- At the end of the procedure, the newly created datastore can be viewed on the host.
- To access the datastore on additional hosts, the datastore must be explicitly mounted on the required hosts based on system requirements.
- Once the datastore is present on the VMware vCenter, virtual disks can be carved out from the datastore and mapped to a given virtual machine.