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NetApp ONTAP Tools th
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for VMware
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Senthilkumar Muthusamy

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ONTAP tools Overview

The ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere provides end-to-end life cycle
management for virtual machines in VMware environments that use
NetApp storage systems. It enables the administrators to manage the
storage within the vCenter Server directly and hence simplifies the
storage and data management for VMware environments.

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The ONTAP tools integrates with vSphere Client and enables you to

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use single sign-on (SSO) services. In an environment with multiple

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vCenter Server instances, each vCenter Server instance that you want
to manage must have its own registered instance of ONTAP tools.
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Each component in ONTAP tools provides capabilities to help manage
your storage more efficiently.
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The VMware vSphere Client remote plug-in tool is designed to

integrate plug-in functionality into the vSphere Client without the
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need to run inside vCenter Server. This provides plug-in isolation and
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enables scale-out of plug-ins that operate in large vSphere

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environments.
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ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere is a single vCenter Server plug-in

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that includes VSC, VASA Provider and Storage Replication Adapter

(SRA) extensions. VSC is recommended for all ONTAP vSphere
environments as it configures ESXi host settings and provisions ONTAP
storage using best practices. The VASA Provider is required for virtual
volumes (vVols) support, and SRA works together with VMware Site
Recovery Manager.

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Virtual Storage Console (VSC)

VSC enables you to perform the following tasks:

 Add storage controllers, assign credentials, and set up

permissions for storage controllers of VSC, that both SRA and VASA
Provider can leverage

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 Provision datastores

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 Monitor the performance of the datastores and virtual machines

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in your vCenter Server environment
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Control administrator access to the vCenter Server objects by
using role-based access control (RBAC) at two levels:
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o vSphere objects, such as virtual machines and datastores
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These objects are managed by using the vCenter Server RBAC.

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o ONTAP storage
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The storage systems are managed by using ONTAP RBAC.

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 View and update the host settings of the ESXi hosts that are
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connected to NetApp storage

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VSC provisioning operations benefit from using the NFS Plug-in for
VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). The NFS Plug-in
for VAAI is a software library that integrates the VMware Virtual Disk
Libraries that are installed on the ESXi host. The VMware VAAI package
enables the offloading of certain tasks from the physical hosts to the
storage array. You can perform tasks such as thin provisioning and
hardware acceleration at the array level to reduce the workload on
the ESXi hosts. The copy offload feature and space reservation feature
improve the performance of VSC operations.

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VASA Provider
VASA Provider for ONTAP uses VMware vSphere APIs for Storage
Awareness (VASA) to send information about storage used by VMware
vSphere to the vCenter Server. ONTAP tools has VASA Provider
integrated with VSC. VASA Provider enables you to perform the
following tasks:

 Provision VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) datastores

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 Create and use storage capability profiles that define different

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storage service level objectives (SLOs) for your environment

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 Verify for compliance between the datastores and the storage
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 Set alarms to warn you when volumes and aggregates are
approaching the threshold limits
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 Monitor the performance of virtual machine disks (VMDKs) and

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the virtual machines that are created on vVols datastores

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Storage Replication Adapter (SRA)

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When SRA is enabled and used in conjunction with VMware Site

Recovery Manager (SRM), you can recover the vCenter Server
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datastores and virtual machines in the event of a failure. SRA enables

you to use array based replication (ABR) for protected sites and
recovery sites for disaster recovery in the event of a failure.

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VASA Provider configurations for vVols

You can use VASA Provider for ONTAP to create and manage VMware
Virtual Volumes (vVols). You can provision, edit, mount, and delete a
vVols datastore. You can also add storage to the vVols datastore or
remove storage from the vVols datastore. to provide greater
flexibility. You can provision and manage every virtual machine and
the related VMDK.

A vVols datastore consists of one or more FlexVol volumes within a

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storage container (also called backing storage). A virtual machine can
be spread across one vVols datastore or multiple vVols datastores.

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While you can create a vVols datastore that has multiple FlexVol
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volumes, all of the FlexVol volumes within the storage container must
use the same protocol (NFS, iSCSI, FCP, or NVMe/FC) and the same
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storage virtual machines (SVMs).
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You do not require detailed knowledge of the underlying storage. For

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example, you do not have to identify a specific FlexVol volume to

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contain the storage. After you add FlexVol volumes to the vVols
datastore, the storage container manages the storage requirements
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and prevents any situations during VM provisioning where VMware

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provisioned to a backing volume with no capacity.

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ONTAP tools requirements

 Configure and set up your vCenter Server environment.
 Download the .ova file.
 The login credentials for your vCenter Server instance.
 Delete the browser cache to avoid any browser cache issue
during the deployment of the ONTAP tools.

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 Configure the default gateway to be used by the virtual

appliance to respond to ICMP pings.
 A valid DNS hostname for the virtual appliance.

Deploy the ONTAP Tools for VMware

You can download the .zip file that contains binaries (.ova) and signed
certificates for the ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere from the NetApp
Support Site.

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The .ova file includes the ONTAP tools. When the deployment is

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complete, VSC, VASA, and SRA products are installed in your

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environment. By default, VSC starts working as soon as you decide on
the subsequent deployment model and choose whether to enable
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VASA Provider and SRA based on your requirements.
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 Once you deploy the ONTAP tools for VMware ova, In vSphere
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Client (vcenter) you can see the ONTAP tools plug-in.

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 If you click ONTAP tools, ONTAP tools settings page to add

storage system and Management.

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VASA Provider dashboard and OnCommand API services

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The VASA Provider includes a dashboard with performance and

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capacity information for individual vVol VMs. This information comes

directly from ONTAP for the vVol files and LUNs, including latency,
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IOPS, throughput, and uptime for the top five VMs and latency and
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IOPS for the top five datastores.

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It is enabled by default when using ONTAP 9.7 or later. For older

versions of ONTAP, you must install and register OnCommand API
Services 2.1 or later with the VASA Provider. Note that each VASA
Provider requires a dedicated installation of OnCommand API
Services, and it cannot be shared with multiple VASA Provider
instances.

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 ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere dashboard

 Traditional Dashboard
 vVols Dashboard

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 Add a NetApp ONTAP storage system, Click Storage System and

then add the storage system with the following details.
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 Cluster Name or IP Address

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 User Name
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 Password
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 Port
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 Once authenticated Storage system added to vCenter.

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 You can list the added NetApp ONTAP storage system.

 (Here Cluster1 and Cluster2 added successfully)
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 To list the datastores.

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 Register the OnCommand API-Services.
 Enable the VASA Provider
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 Enable the Storage Replication Adapter(SRA)
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vVols overview
NetApp began working with VMware to support vSphere APIs for
Storage Awareness (VASA) for vSphere 5. This early VASA Provider
allowed for the definition of storage capabilities in a profile that could
be used to filter datastores when provisioning.

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Over time this evolved to add new capabilities to enable more

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automation in provisioning, as well as the addition of Virtual Volumes

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or vVols, where individual storage objects (LUNs, files) are used for
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virtual machine (VM) files and virtual disks. NetApp worked closely
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with VMware as a reference partner for vVols released with vSphere
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capabilities in ONTAP.
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Policy-based management
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VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) make it easy for
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a storage administrator to configure datastores with well-defined

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capabilities, and they let the VM administrator use these datastores

whenever needed to provision VMs without having to interact with
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each other.
Prior to VASA, VM administrators could define VM storage policies,
but they then had to work with the storage administrator to identify
appropriate datastores, often by using documentation or naming
conventions. With VASA, the storage administrator can define a range
of storage capabilities that the VM administrator can then use to
provision VMs with a storage policy that identifies its requirements.
The mapping between a VM storage policy and a datastore storage
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capability profile allows vCenter to display a list of compatible

datastores for selection.

Configuring vVol DataStore:

 Login to vSphere Client, create new Datastore.

 Datastore Type
 NFS

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 VMFS
 vvols

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 Select vvols datastore type
 Select the Protocol (ex:iSCSI)
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 Select in which storage system you want to create a vvol

datastore.
 Specify the Storage Capability Profile
 Select the Data SVM

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 Create a new Flexvol or use existing volume to create vvols.

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 Specify the new volume name, aggregate and size
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 List the Storage Attributes and Summary.

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 Login to ONTAP CLI, list the LUN

 vVols LUN created and Mapped successfully.

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 In vSphere Client datastore page, you can see the new vvol type

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datastore.
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