Home > Workload Solutions > Oracle > White Papers > Oracle Database 19c Best Practices on Dell PowerEdge Servers and PowerStore T Model Arrays > VMware vSphere: Use vVols for ASM Disk Groups
Virtual Volumes (vVols) is a new VMware technology that is supported starting in vSphere 6.0. This best practice validates that using VMware vVols for ASM disk groups optimizes database performance and management.
Category | VMware vSphere |
Product | VMware vSphere 7.3 |
Type of best practice | Performance Optimization |
Day and value | Day 1, Highly recommended |
Overview
vVols are VMDK granular storage entities exported by storage arrays. vVols are exported to the ESXi host through a small set of protocol endpoints (PE). Protocol endpoints are part of the physical storage fabric, and they establish a data path from virtual machines to their respective vVols on demand. Storage systems enable data services on vVols.
A key feature of vVols is that it allows administrators to use storage policy-based management (SPBM) for their environment. This enables you to align application requirements with the appropriate storage resources in an automated manner.
Recommendation
vVols for simplifies storage management by automating storage provisioning and space reclamation. vVols performance should be on par with VMFS. However, vVols provides better performance compared to VMFS when it comes to snapshotting because it uses the array snapshot functionality. In an Oracle environment, snapshot is used frequently so vVols should be considered over VMFS. Based on our results, this practice is considered a Day 1, Highly Recommended best practice.
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