VCSA and VVOL

[tedlwer]

Hi all,

I`m making a test lab with VCSA and Unity VSA to test vvol prior to move our actual servers to a new infraestructure using VVOL.

I had to poweroff all the lab and after power on again i cant see the vvol from the esxi hosts, the datastore is marked as OB and virtual machines marked as no valid. Due to that i canot start VCSA that is stored in that vvol.

With this problem i have 2 quetions:

1. Is this normal?, vvol will be offline until vcsa and vasa providers starts nor i'm facing a problem?

2. Can vcsa be stored in a vvol when the vvol is the only storage presented to the esxi hosts and vcenter? I`m loking for some best practices guide or documentation about where to store vcsa but i dont find anithing.

Regards, Ted

[depping]

You need the VASA Provider online to be able to poweron a VM, the power on event creates a virtual volume (swap file), and a virtual volume can only be created when the VASA Provider is up and running.

[tedlwer]

Hi,

Ok, i know that i need vasa provider online to poweron a vm, but as i understand, this i the storage side of vasa provider not vcenter side. Let me explain why i ask that.....

I'm testing vvol with unity VSA because i'm going to install in near future a new infraestructura in the office with 4 hosts and 1 storage system (phisycal, not vsa) with fiber channel connections.

The idea on new servers is to use VCSA and VVOL and regarding that i have some questions:

1 Can VCSA be stored inside a vvol?

2 If i need to poweroff all the servers, when i start esxi hosts they will be able to see the vvol and start de VCSA or VCSA must be started before?

3 What are people doing in production environments with vcsa and vvol? i`dont believe i'm the first to ask this....

4 My idea is to present only one vvol to the cluster, is a good idea or is better to present a classical lun for vcsa and vvol for the rest of vm?

I´where tring to find some oficial documentation regarding this but nothing...i'm a bit lost

Thanks for your reply

[depping]

no you are not the first to ask this, various folks have asked on this forum as well, google or the search bar would probably provide you with some links.

1. yes

2. ESXi maintains the connection to the VASA Provider and does not require access to VCSA to power on ANY of the VMs

3. Some people run vCenter on vVols, others do not as it could make troubleshooting a bit more challenging. It typically depends on the size of the environment

4. I can't comment on this

Most storage vendors will have their own best practices documents, I would recommend to look for the Dell specific recommendations. Some generic best practices are documented here:

Best Practices for Working with vSphere Virtual Volumes