Module 6. Configuring VSphere Storage

Configuring vSphere
Storage
© 2022 VMware, Inc.

Importance
Understanding the available storage options helps you set up your storage according to your
cost, performance, and manageability requirements.
You can use shared storage for disaster recovery, high availability, and moving virtual
machines between hosts.
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Module Lessons
1. Storage Concepts
2. Fibre Channel Storage
3. iSCSI Storage
4. VMFS Datastores
5. NFS Datastores

Storage Concepts
© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
• Recognize vSphere storage technologies
• Identify types of datastores
• Recognize storage device naming conventions

About Datastores
A datastore is a logical storage unit that can
use space on one or more physical storage
devices.
Datastores are used to hold data such as VMs,
VM templates, and ISO images.
vSphere supports the following types of
datastores:
• VMFS
• NFS
• vSAN
• vSphere Virtual Volumes

Datastore Access Methods
vSphere datastores store and access data as blocks or files:
Block-backed storage:
• Stores data as blocks (a sequence of bytes)
• Used on local storage
• Used on Storage Area Networks (SANs) and accessed through either iSCSI or Fibre Channel
• Used by VMFS, vSAN, and vSphere Virtual Volumes datastores
File-backed storage:
• Stores data hierarchically in files and folders
• Used on network-attached storage (NAS)
• Used by NFS and vSphere Virtual Volumes datastores

Datastore Contents
Depending on the datastore type, contents
can be stored in the form of files or objects.
File-based datastores:
• A VM consists of a set of files.
• Each VM has its own directory.
• VMFS and NFS datastores hold files.
Object-based datastores:
• A VM consists of a set of data containers
called objects.
• vSAN and vSphere Virtual Volumes
datastores hold objects.

Datastore Summary
To summarize, vSphere datastores can be categorized by its access method and its contents.
Datastore Type Datastore Access Method Datastore Contents

VMFS Block access Files
NFS File access Files
vSAN Block access Objects
vSphere Virtual Volumes Block or file access Objects

Storage Overview
ESXi hosts should be configured with shared access to datastores.
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Storage Device Naming Conventions
Storage devices are identified
in several ways:
• Runtime name: Uses the
vmhbaN:C:T:L convention.
This name is not persistent
through reboots.
• Target: Identifies the target
address and port.
• LUN: A unique identifier
designated to individual or
collections of storage
devices.

Storage Protocol Overview
Each datastore uses a protocol with varying support features.
Datastore Storage Protocol Boot vSphere vSpher vSpher

Type from vMotion e HA e DRS
SAN Support Suppor Suppor
Support t t
VMFS Fibre Channel Yes Yes Yes Yes
FCoE Yes Yes Yes Yes
iSCSI Yes Yes Yes Yes
iSER/NVMe-oF (RDMA) No Yes Yes Yes
DAS (SAS, SATA, NVMe) N/A Yes* No No
NFS NFS No Yes Yes Yes
vSphere Virtual FC/Ethernet (iSCSI, NFS) No Yes Yes Yes
Volumes
vSAN vSAN No Yes Yes Yes
Datastore

About vSphere Virtual Machine File System
ESXi hosts support vSphere Virtual Machine
File System (VMFS) VMFS5 and VMFS6:
• Features supported by both VMFS5 and
VMFS6:
– Concurrent access to shared storage
– Dynamic expansion
– On-disk locking
• Features supported by VMFS6:
– 4K native storage devices
– Automatic space reclamation
– 128 hosts per datastore

About NFS
A Network File System (NFS) is
a file-sharing protocol that
ESXi hosts use to
communicate with a network-
attached storage (NAS) device.
NFS supports NFS 3 and 4.1
over TCP/IP.

About vSAN
vSAN is a hypervisor-converged, software-
defined storage solution for virtual
environments that does not use traditional
external storage.
By clustering host-attached solid-state drives
(SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs), vSAN
creates an aggregated datastore that is
accessible to all the ESXi hosts in the vSAN
cluster.

About vSphere Virtual Volumes
vSphere Virtual Volumes provides several
functionalities:
• Native representation of VMDKs on
SAN/NAS: No LUNs or volume management
• Works with existing SAN/NAS systems
• A new control path for data operations at
the VM and VMDK level
• Snapshots, replications, and other
operations at the VM level on external
storage
• Automates control of per-VM service levels
by using storage policies
• Standard access to storage with the
vSphere API for Storage Awareness protocol
endpoint
• Storage containers that span an entire array

About Raw Device Mapping
Although not a datastore, raw
device mapping (RDM) gives a
VM direct access to a physical
LUN.
The mapping file (-rdm.vmdk)
that points a VM to a LUN must
be stored on a VMFS datastore.

Physical Storage Considerations
Before implementing your vSphere environment, discuss the storage needs with your storage
administration team. Consider the following factors:
• LUN sizes
• I/O bandwidth required by your applications
• I/O requests per second that a LUN is capable of
• Disk cache parameters
• Zoning and masking
• Multipathing setting for your storage arrays (active-active or active-passive)
• Export properties for NFS datastores

Review of Learner Objectives
• Recognize vSphere storage technologies
• Identify types of datastores
• Recognize storage device naming conventions

Fibre Channel Storage

Learner Objectives
• Describe uses of Fibre Channel with ESXi
• Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing
• Explain how multipathing with Fibre Channel works

About Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is a protocol used for accessing
storage devices across a network.
A Fibre Channel SAN is a specialized high-
speed network that connects your hosts to
high-performance storage devices.
The network uses the Fibre Channel protocol
to transport SCSI traffic from VMs to the Fibre
Channel SAN devices.
ESXi supports:
• 32 Gbps Fibre Channel
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

Fibre Channel SAN Components
A Fibre Channel SAN consists of one or more servers that are attached to a storage array using
one or more Fibre Channel switches.

Fibre Channel Addressing and Access Control

Multipathing with Fibre Channel
Multipathing is having more than one path
from a host to a LUN. Multipathing provides
the following functions:
• Continued access to SAN LUNs if hardware
fails
• Load balancing

• Describe uses of Fibre Channel with ESXi
• Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing
• Explain how multipathing with Fibre Channel works

iSCSI Storage

Learner Objectives
• Describe iSCSI components and addressing
• Configure iSCSI initiators

iSCSI Components
An iSCSI SAN consists of an iSCSI storage system, which contains LUNs and storage processors.
Communication between the host and storage array occurs over an Ethernet network.

iSCSI Addressing

iSCSI Adapters
You must set up software or hardware iSCSI adapters before an ESXi host can work with iSCSI
storage. To access iSCSI targets, your host uses iSCSI initiators.

ESXi Network Configuration for Software iSCSI
A VMkernel port must be
created before enabling the
software iSCSI initiator.
To optimize your vSphere
networking setup, you
separate iSCSI networks from
NAS and NFS networks:
• Physical separation is
preferred
• If physical separation is not
possible, use VLANs

Activating the Software iSCSI Adapter
To add the software iSCSI adapter:
1. Select the host and click the Configure tab.
2. Select Storage Adapters and click ADD SOFTWARE ADAPTER > Add iSCSI adapter.
The software iSCSI adapter (vmhba65) appears in the list.

Discovering iSCSI Targets
The iSCSI adapter discovers
storage resources on the
network and determines which
resources are available for
access.
An ESXi host supports the
following discovery methods:
• Static
• Dynamic or SendTargets
The SendTargets response
returns the IQN and all
available IP addresses.

iSCSI Security: CHAP
iSCSI initiators use CHAP for authentication
purposes.
By default, CHAP is not configured.
ESXi supports two types of CHAP
authentication:
• Unidirectional
• Bidirectional
ESXi also supports per-target CHAP
authentication.

Multipathing with Software iSCSI
Software iSCSI uses multiple NICs:
• Each NIC is connected to a separate
VMkernel port.
• Each VMkernel port binds with the iSCSI
initiator.

Multipathing with Dependent Hardware iSCSI
Dependent hardware iSCSI uses multiple NICs
and iSCSI HBAs:
• Each NIC is connected to a separate
VMkernel port.
• Each VMkernel port binds with the iSCSI
initiator.

Multipathing with Independent Hardware iSCSI
Independent hardware iSCSI uses two or more hardware iSCSI adapters.

Binding VMkernel Ports with the iSCSI Initiator
With port binding, each VMkernel port that is connected to a separate NIC becomes a different
path that the iSCSI storage stack can use.

Lab 1: Accessing iSCSI Storage
Configure access to an iSCSI datastore:
1. View an Existing ESXi Host iSCSI Configuration
2. Add a VMkernel Port for IP Storage
3. Add a Second VMkernel Port for IP Storage
4. Add the iSCSI Software Adapter to an ESXi Host
5. Discover LUNs on the iSCSI Target Server

• Describe iSCSI components and addressing
• Configure iSCSI initiators

VMFS Datastores

Learner Objectives
• Create a VMFS datastore
• Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
• Delete a VMFS datastore

About VMFS Datastores
VMFS is a high-performance, cluster file system that serves as a repository for files such as VM
files, VM templates and ISO images.
A VMFS datastore is optimized for storing and accessing large files, such as virtual disks and
memory images of suspended VMs.
A VMFS datastore can have a maximum volume size of 64 TB.

Creating a VMFS Datastore
You can create VMFS datastores on any SCSI-based storage devices that the host discovers,
including Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and local storage devices.

Browsing Datastore Contents
You use the datastore file browser to manage the contents of your datastores.

Increasing the Size of VMFS Datastores
Increase a VMFS datastore’s size to give it
more space or to possibly improve
performance.
In general, before changing your storage
allocation:
• Perform a rescan to ensure that all hosts
see the most current storage.
• Record the unique identifier of the volume
that you want to expand.
To dynamically increase the size of a VMFS
datastore, use one of the following methods:
• Add an extent (LUN).
• Expand the datastore within its extent.

Datastore Maintenance Mode
Before taking a datastore out of service, place the datastore in maintenance mode.
Before placing a datastore in maintenance mode, you must first move all VMs (powered on and
powered off) and templates to a different datastore.
The datastore enters maintenance mode after all VMs and templates are moved off the
datastore.

Deleting or Unmounting a VMFS Datastore
An unmounted datastore remains intact, but
cannot be seen from the hosts that you
specify.
It continues to appear on other hosts, where it
remains mounted.
A deleted datastore is destroyed and
disappears from all hosts that have access to
it.
The deleted datastore permanently removes
all files on the datastore.

Multipathing Algorithms
Arrays provide active-active and active-passive storage processors. Multipathing algorithms
interact with these storage arrays:
• vSphere offers native path selection, load-

balancing, and failover mechanisms.
• Third-party vendors can create software for
ESXi hosts to properly interact with the
storage arrays.

Configuring Storage Load Balancing
Path selection policies provide:
• Scalability:
— Round Robin
• Availability:
— Most Recently Used
— Fixed

Lab 2: Managing VMFS Datastores
Create VMFS datastores, increase the size of these datastores, and share datastores between
ESXi hosts:
1. Create VMFS Datastores for the ESXi Hosts
2. Expand a VMFS Datastore to Consume Unused Space on a LUN
3. Remove a VMFS Datastore
4. Extend a VMFS Datastore by Adding a LUN

• Create a VMFS datastore
• Increase the size of a VMFS datastore
• Delete a VMFS datastore

NFS Datastores

Learner Objectives
• Identify NFS components
• Recognize the differences between NFS 3 and NFS 4.1
• Configure and manage NFS datastores

NFS Components
An NFS file system is on a NAS device that is called the NFS server.

NFS v3 and NFS v4.1
An NFS datastore can be created as either NFS 3 or NFS 4.1.
NFS 3 NFS 4.1

ESXi managed multipathing Native multipathing and session trunking
AUTH_SYS (root) authentication Optional Kerberos authentication
VMware proprietary client-side file locking Server-side file locking
Client-side error tracking Server-side error tracking

NFS Version Compatibility with Other vSphere Technologies
vSphere supports NFS 4.1 to overcome many limitations when using NFS 3. Both NFS 3 and
NFS 4.1 shares can be used, but you must consider important constraints when designing a
vSphere environment in which both versions are used.
vSphere Technology NFS 3 NFS 4.1

vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion Yes Yes
vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance Yes Yes
vSphere DRS and vSphere DPM Yes Yes
Stateless ESXi and Host Profiles Yes Yes
vSphere Storage DRS and Storage I/O Control Yes No
Site Recovery Manager Yes Partial*
vSphere Virtual Volumes and vSphere Replication Yes Yes
vRealize Operations Manager Yes Yes
Host Profiles Yes Yes
Configuring NFS Datastores
To configure an NFS datastore:
1. Create a VMkernel port:
• For better performance and security, separate your NFS network from the iSCSI network.
2. Create the NFS datastore by providing the following information:
• NFS version: 3 or 4.1
• Datastore name
• NFS server names or IP addresses
• Folder on the NFS server, for example, /templates or /nfs_share
• Whether to mount the NFS file system as read only
• Hosts that mount the datastore
• Authentication parameters

Configuring ESXi Host Authentication and NFS Kerberos Credentials
As a requirement of Kerberos authentication, you must add each ESXi host to the Active
Directory domain. Then you configure NFS Kerberos credentials.

Configuring the NFS Datastore to Use Kerberos
When creating each NFS 4.1
datastore, you activate
Kerberos authentication by
selecting one of the security
modes:
• Kerberos5 authentication
• Kerberos5i authentication
and data integrity

Unmounting an NFS Datastore
Unmounting an NFS datastore causes the files
on the datastore to become inaccessible to the
selected ESXi hosts.
Before unmounting an NFS datastore, you
must power off all VMs whose disks reside on
the datastore.

Multipathing and NFS Storage
For a highly available NAS architecture, configure NFS multipathing to avoid single points of
failure.
Example of a multipathing configuration:

• Configure one VMkernel port.
• Attach NICs to the same physical switch to
configure NIC teaming.
• Configure the NFS server with multiple IP
addresses (same subnet is OK).
• To better use multiple links, configure NIC
teams with the IP hash load-balancing
policy.

Configuring Multipathing for NFS 4.1
NFS 4.1 supports native
multipathing and session
trunking.
To configure multipathing,
enter multiple server IP
addresses when configuring
the datastore.

Lab 3: Accessing NFS Storage
Create an NFS datastore and record its storage information:
1. Configure Access to an NFS Datastore
2. View NFS Storage Information

• Identify NFS components
• Recognize the differences between NFS 3 and NFS 4.1
• Configure and manage NFS datastores

Key Points
• ESXi hosts support various storage technologies: Direct-attached storage, Fibre Channel,
FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS.
• VMFS and NFS datastores hold VM files.
• vSAN and vSphere Virtual Volumes hold VM objects.
• With port binding, each VMkernel port that is connected to a separate NIC becomes a
different path that the iSCSI storage can use.
• Shared storage is integral to vSphere features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere HA, and
vSphere DRS.
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Configuring vSphere

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Datastore Type Datastore Access Method Datastore Contents

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Datastore Storage Protocol Boot vSphere vSpher vSpher

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• vSphere offers native path selection, load-

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