Storage
Module 6
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vSphere Environment
Operations
Introduction to VMware Virtualization
Access Control
VMware ESX and ESXi
Resource Monitoring
VMware vCenter Server
Data Protection
Networking
Scalability
Storage
High Availability
Virtual Machines
Patch Management
Installing VMware ESX and ESXi
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Importance

Storage options give you the flexibility to set up your storage
based on your cost, performance, and manageability
requirements. Shared storage is useful for disaster recovery, high
availability, and moving virtual machines between hosts.
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Module Lessons
Lesson 1:
Storage Concepts
Lesson 2:
IP Storage: iSCSI and NAS/NFS
Lesson 3:
Fibre Channel SAN Storage
Lesson 4:
VMFS Datastores
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Lesson 1:
Storage Concepts
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Lesson Objectives


Describe VMware vSphere™ storage technologies and
datastores
Describe the storage device naming convention
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Storage Overview
VMware®
vStorage
VMFS
datastore
types
storage
technology
Locally
Attached
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Fibre
Channel
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NFS
iSCSI
NAS
Storage Technology Overview
Locally attached storage – Internal or external storage disks or
arrays attached to the host through a direct connection
Fibre Channel – A high-speed SCSI transport protocol used for
storage area networking (SAN):
 Fibre Channel switches interconnect multiple nodes to form the
“fabric” in a Fibre Channel SAN.
iSCSI – A SCSI transport protocol, enabling access to storage
devices over standard TCP/IP networks:
 iSCSI maps SCSI block-oriented storage over TCP/IP.
Network-attached storage (NAS) – Storage shared over the
network at the file system level
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Datastores
A datastore is a logical storage
unit that can use disk space on
one physical device or one disk
partition, or span several
physical devices.
Types of datastores:
 VMFS
 Network File System (NFS)
Datastores are used to hold
virtual machines, templates, and
ISO images.
A VMFS datastore can also hold
a raw device mapping (RDM),
which is used to access raw
data.
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VMFS
VMFS:
 Allows concurrent access
to shared storage
 Can be dynamically
expanded
 Can use an 8MB block
size, good for storing large
virtual disk files
 Uses subblock addressing,
good for storing small files
 Provides on-disk, blocklevel locking
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NFS
NFS:
 Is storage shared over
the network at the file
system level
 Supports NFS version 3
over TCP/IP
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RDM
An RDM is a mapping file
in a VMFS volume that
acts as a proxy for a raw
physical device.
A raw disk can be used
for existing data, virtual
machine clustering, and
storage array snapshots.
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vStorage Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning
Virtual machine disks consume only
the amount of capacity needed.
A virtual machine sees the full
allocated disk size at all times.
You can mix thick and thin formats.
Full reporting and alerts help manage
allocations and capacity.
More efficient storage utilization:
 Virtual disk allocation
140GB
 Available datastore capacity 100GB
 Used storage capacity
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80GB
Uses of Local and Shared Storage
Uses of local storage:
 Location for installing VMware ESX™ and ESXi Installable
 Ideal for small environments
Uses of shared storage:
 Central repository, accessible from multiple hosts
 Scalable and recoverable implementations
 Clustering of virtual machines across physical hosts
 Using VMware vMotion™ to migrate virtual machines
 Data replication
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Storage Device Naming Conventions
Storage devices are identified in several ways:
 SCSI ID – Unique SCSI identifier
 Canonical name – The Network Address Authority (NAA) ID is a
unique LUN identifier, guaranteed to be unique across reboots.
•

In addition to NAA IDs, devices can also be identified with mpx or t10
identifiers.
Runtime name – Uses the convention vmhbaN:C:T:L. This name
is not persistent through reboots.
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Physical Storage Considerations
Discuss vSphere storage needs with your storage
administration team, such as:
 LUN sizes
 I/O bandwidth
 Disk cache parameters
 Zoning and masking
 Identical LUN presentation to each ESX/ESXi host
 Active-active or active-passive arrays
 Export properties for NFS datastores
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Lesson Summary


Describe vSphere storage technologies and datastores
Describe the storage device naming convention
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Lesson 2:
IP Storage: iSCSI and NAS/NFS
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Lesson Objectives





Describe uses of IP storage with ESX/ESXi
Describe iSCSI components and addressing
Configure iSCSI initiators
Describe NFS components and addressing
Create an NFS datastore
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Using IP Storage with ESX/ESXi
ESX/ESXi supports two types of IP storage:


iSCSI – Used to hold one or more VMFS datastores
NAS – Used to hold one or more NFS datastores
iSCSI and NFS datastores:


Are used to hold virtual machines, ISO images, and templates
Support vSphere features like vMotion, VMware High Availability, and
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
ESX/ESXi supports:



Up to 64 NFS volumes
iSCSI or NFS over a 10GbE interface
iSCSI or NFS in an IPv6 environment (experimental only)
ESX/ESXi supports booting from an iSCSI SAN:


ESX hosts: From independent hardware iSCSI
ESXi hosts: From software iSCSI and dependent hardware iSCSI
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iSCSI Components
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iSCSI Addressing
iSCSI target name:
iqn.1992-08.com.mycompany:stor147cf3c25
or eui.fedcba9876543210
iSCSI alias: stor1
IP address: 192.168.36.101
iSCSI initiator name:
iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:train1-64ad4c29
or eui.1234567890abcdef
iSCSI alias: train1
IP address: 192.168.36.88
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iSCSI Initiators
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Configuring Software iSCSI
To configure the iSCSI software initiator:
1. Configure a VMkernel port for accessing IP storage.
2. Enable the iSCSI software adapter.
3. Configure iSCSI target addresses.
4. Configure iSCSI security (Challenge Handshake Authentication
Protocol).
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ESX/ESXi Network Configuration for IP Storage
A VMkernel port must be created for ESX/ESXi to access
software iSCSI.
 The same port can be used to access NAS/NFS storage.
To optimize your vSphere networking setup:
 Separate iSCSI networks from NAS/NFS networks.
•
•
Physical separation is preferred.
If that is not possible, use VLANs.
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iSCSI Target-Discovery Methods
Two discovery methods are
supported:
 Static
 Dynamic (also known as
SendTargets)
192.168.36.101:3260
SendTargets response returns
iSCSI qualified name and all
available IP addresses.
SendTargets
request
iSCSI target
192.168.36.101:3260
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SendTargets
response
iSCSI Security: CHAP
Software iSCSI properties > General tab
iSCSI initiators use CHAP
for authentication purposes.
 By default, CHAP is not
configured.
ESX/ESXi supports two
types of CHAP
authentication:
Target
authenticates
 Unidirectional
host.
 Bidirectional
•
Software iSCSI only
ESX/ESXi also supports pertarget CHAP authentication.
 Software iSCSI only
 Different credentials for
each target
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Host
authenticates
target.
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Configuring Hardware iSCSI
To configure the iSCSI hardware initiator:
1. Install the iSCSI hardware adapter.
2. Modify the iSCSI name and configure the iSCSI alias.
3. Configure iSCSI target addresses.
4. Configure iSCSI security (CHAP).
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NFS Components
NAS device or a
server with
storage
directory to share
with the ESX/ESXi
host over the
network
ESX/ESXi host
with NIC mapped
to virtual switch
VMkernel port
defined on virtual
switch
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Addressing and Access Control with NFS
192.168.81.33
192.168.81.72
VMkernel port
configured with
IP address
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Configuring an NFS Datastore
Create a VMkernel port:
 For better performance and security, separate it from the
iSCSI network.
Provide the following information:
 NFS server name (or IP address)
 Folder on the NFS server, for example,
/nfs4/Classes/vSICM41A


Whether to mount the NFS file system read-only:
•
•
If holding an ISO image library, mount read-only.
If holding virtual machines, mount read/write (default).
NFS datastore name
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Viewing IP Storage Information
Hosts and Clusters view > Configuration tab > Storage link
Datastores view > Storage Views tab
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Unmounting an NFS Datastore
Click the Storage link in the Configuration tab to unmount an NFS
datastore.
Unmounting an NFS datastore makes the files in the shared
folder inaccessible to the host.
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Lab 6
In this lab, you will configure access to an iSCSI and NFS
datastore.
1. Create a VMkernel port on a standard virtual switch.
2. Configure the iSCSI software adapter.
3. Configure access to an NFS datastore.
4. View iSCSI and NFS storage information.
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Lesson Summary





Describe uses of IP storage with ESX/ESXi
Describe iSCSI components and addressing
Configure iSCSI initiators
Describe NFS components and addressing
Create an NFS datastore
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Lesson 3:
Fibre Channel SAN Storage
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Lesson Objectives



Describe uses of Fibre Channel with ESX/ESXi
Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing
Access Fibre Channel storage
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Using Fibre Channel with ESX/ESXi
Fibre Channel SAN LUNs:
 Are used for VMFS datastores to hold virtual machines, ISO
images, and templates
 Are used for holding RDMs, which point to a virtual machine’s
raw data
 Are used for remote booting of ESX/ESXi
 Support vSphere features like vMotion, VMware HA, and DRS
ESX/ESXi supports:
 8Gb Fibre Channel
 Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
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Fibre Channel SAN Components
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Fibre Channel Addressing and Access Control
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Accessing Fibre Channel Storage


Install one or more Fibre Channel adapters on the ESX/ESXi host.
The Fibre Channel adapters are recognized by the host during the
boot sequence.
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Viewing Fibre Channel Storage Information
The Storage Views tab provides
information about all SCSI adapters
and NAS mounts.
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Viewing Fibre Channel Storage Maps
HBA
target
LUN
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Lesson Summary



Describe uses of Fibre Channel with ESX/ESXi
Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing
Access Fibre Channel storage
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Lesson 4:
VMFS Datastores
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Lesson Objectives



Create a VMFS datastore
Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
Delete a VMFS datastore
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Using a VMFS Datastore with ESX/ESXi
Use VMFS datastores whenever possible:
 VMFS is optimized for storing and accessing large files.
 A VMFS can have a maximum volume size of 64TB.
 NFS datastores are great for storing virtual machines. But some
functions are not supported.
 Use RDMs if your virtual machine:
•
•
•
Is performing SAN snapshotting
Is clustered to a physical machine using Microsoft Cluster Service
(MSCS)
Has large amounts of data that you do not want to convert into a
virtual disk
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Creating a VMFS Datastore
To create a VMFS datastore, use the Add Storage wizard:
 Select the storage type, Disk/LUN.
 Select an available LUN.


Specify a datastore name.
Specify the datastore size: use full or partial LUN.
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Viewing VMFS Datastores
Storage link in the Configuration tab
Storage Views tab
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Browsing Datastore Contents
Right-click the datastore in the host’s Summary tab or click the
Storage link in the Configuration tab.
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Managing Overcommitted Datastores
An overcommitted datastore occurs when there are many
thin-provisioned virtual disks that use close to their maximum
allotted disk space.
Actively monitor your datastore capacity:
 Alarms assist through notifications:

•
•
Datastore disk overallocation
Virtual machine disk usage
Use reporting to view space usage.
Actively manage your datastore capacity:
 Increase datastore capacity when necessary.
 Use VMware Storage vMotion to mitigate space usage issues
on a particular datastore.
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Increasing the Size of a VMFS Datastore
Increase a VMFS datastore’s
size to give it more space or
possibly to improve
performance.
Two ways to dynamically
increase the size of a VMFS
datastore:
 Add an extent (LUN).
 Expand the datastore
within its extent.
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Comparing Methods for Increasing VMFS Datastore Size
Add an extent to the
datastore
Expand the datastore
within the extent
Virtual machine power state
On
On
Newly provisioned LUN
Yes
No
SAN administrator tasks
Add one or more LUNs
(extents).
Increase the size of the
LUN.
Limits
A datastore can have up to
32 LUNs (extents), each up
to 2TB.
A LUN can be expanded
any number of times, up to
2TB.
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Before Increasing the Size of a VMFS Datastore
In general, before making any changes to your storage
allocation:
 Perform a rescan to ensure that your host sees the most
current storage.
 Quiesce I/O on all disks involved.
 Note the unique identifier (for example, the NAA ID) of the
volume that you want to expand.
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Deleting a VMFS Datastore
Deleting a VMFS datastore permanently deletes the pointers to the
files on the datastore, so the files cannot be retrieved.
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Multipathing with Fibre Channel
Multipathing allows
continued access to SAN
LUNs in the event of
hardware failure. It also
provides load balancing.
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Multipathing with iSCSI Storage
Hardware iSCSI:
 Use two or more hardware
iSCSI adapters.
Software or dependent
hardware iSCSI:
 Use multiple NICs.
 Connect each NIC to a
separate VMkernel port.
 Associate VMkernel ports
with iSCSI initiator.
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Managing Multiple Storage Paths
Multiple paths can exist to a datastore on the host.
To modify storage path information, click the datastore’s
Properties link.
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Configuring Storage Load Balancing
Path selection policies exist for:
 Scalability:
•

Round Robin – A multipathing policy that performs load balancing
across paths.
Availability:
•
MRU and Fixed
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Pluggable Storage Architecture
For unique
performance and
fault-tolerant
behavior
To accommodate
specific storage
arrays
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For more complex
I/O load-balancing
algorithms
Lab 7
In this lab, you will work with VMFS datastores.
1. Review your shared storage configuration.
2. View VMFS datastore information.
3. Change the name of a VMFS datastore.
4. Create a VMFS datastore.
5. Expand a VMFS datastore to consume unused space on a LUN.
6. Remove a VMFS datastore.
7. Extend a VMFS datastore.
Ask your instructor which LUNs contain VMFS datastores that
should not be removed or reformatted.
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Lesson Summary



Create a VMFS datastore
Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
Delete a VMFS datastore
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Key Points



Use VMFS datastores to hold virtual machine files.
NFS datastores are useful as a repository for ISO images.
Shared storage is integral to vSphere features like vMotion,
VMware HA, and DRS.
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