Not content to simply describe the Virtual Volume (VVOL) framework, this session instead examines practical use cases: How different configurations and workloads benefit from VVOLs. Learn how Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) couples with VVOLs to provide VM configuration options not previously available. We demonstrate a handful of real-life scenarios, specifically covering how VVOLs benefits oversubscribed systems, disaster recovery preparation and multi-tenant requirements for customers. Specific configuration options and constraints are covered in detail, including how they work with underlying storage.
1. Explaining Advanced Virtual Volumes Configurations
Ken Werneburg, VMware, Inc
Andy Banta, SolidFire
STO5074
#STO5074
2. • This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.
• This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these
features in any generally available product.
• Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or
sales agreements of any kind.
• Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.
• Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not
been determined.
Disclaimer
CONFIDENTIAL 2
3. vSphere Virtual Volumes
3
Management & Integration Framework for External Storage
vSphere
Virtual
Volumes
The Basics
• Virtualizes SAN and NAS devices
• Virtual disks are natively represented on arrays
• Enables VM granular storage operations using
array-based data services
• Storage Policy-Based Management enables
automated consumption at scale
• Supports existing storage I/O protocols (FC, iSCSI,
NFS)
• Industry-wide initiative supported by major storage
vendors
• Included with vSphere
CONFIDENTIAL
4. CONFIDENTIAL 4
vSphere
Virtual Volumes
SAN / NAS
Vendor Provider
(VASA)
Control
Path
Control
Path
Storage Policies
Access
Capacity
Published Capabilities
Snapshot
Replication
Deduplication
QoS
Virtual Datastore
Storage
Admin
vSphere
Admin
VVOLs
Data
PathProtocol Endpoint PE
vSphere Virtual Volumes Architecture
6. • Virtual Volumes
– Virtual machine objects stored natively on the
array
– No file system on-disk formatting required
• There are five different types of recognized
Virtual Volumes:
– CONFIG – vmx, logs, NVRAM, log files, etc
– DATA – VMDKs
– MEM – Snapshots
– SWAP – Swap files
– Other – Vendor solution specific
CONFIDENTIAL 6
vSphere Web Client View
vvol
vSphere Virtual Volumes
11. Overview
• VVols motivations
– Separation of VMware and storage management
– Better use of storage capacity and network bandwidth
– The upshot: better scalability and control
• Configuration examples
– Memory overprovisioning
– Multi-tenant use of VVols
– Disaster Recovery configurations
CONFIDENTIAL 11
12. Motivations
• Ease of management
• Built on top of existing protocols
• Datastore scalability
– Less wasted storage space
– No file system contention
– Logical Storage Container concept as a replacement
• Scalability through less SAN bandwidth
– No vSphere data mover for normal operations
– Less Storage vMotion
– Less need for SDRS and SIOC
CONFIDENTIAL 12
13. Different Management Perspectives
• What do the Admins see?
• How are the storage
containers set up?
• What does the vSphere
Admins see?
• Why are datastores still
required?
CONFIDENTIAL 13
vSphere Web
Client
Storage Management UI
Datastore
Storage Container
14. Ease of Management
• What do the Admins see?
• How are the storage
containers set up?
• What does the vSphere
Admins see?
• Why are datastores still
required?
CONFIDENTIAL 14
Storage policies
vSphere Web
Client
Storage Management UI
Datastore
Storage
Container
Storage Capabilities
virtual volumes
virtual machines
15. Virtual Volumes
CONFIDENTIAL 15
VM objects view from a storage container on an arrayVM objects view from a datastore
vSphere Web Client Storage Management UI
vSphere Admin View Storage Admin View
VVol Storage UI
16. Multi-Protocol Support
Protocol Endpoints
• Access points that enable communication
between ESXi hosts and storage array systems
– Part of the physical storage fabric
– Created by Storage administrators
Scope of Protocol Endpoints
• Compatible with all SAN and NAS Protocols:
- iSCSI
- NFS v3
- FC
- FCoE
• A Protocol Endpoint can support any one of
the protocols at a given time
• Existing multi-path policies and NFS topology
requirements can be applied to the PE
Why Protocol Endpoints?
CONFIDENTIAL 16
SAN / NAS
Virtual Datastore
Data
Path
Protocol Endpoint PE
vSphere
Virtual Volumes
Storage Container
17. Scalability by Separating Datastores and Protocol Endpoints
• Today, there are different types of logical
management constructs to store VMDKs/objects:
– NFS mount points
– IP or block based datastores
• Datastores serve two purposes today:
– Endpoints – receive SCSI or NFS reads,
write commands
– Storage Container – for large number of VMs
metadata and data files
• Differences between Protocol Endpoints
and Datastores:
– PEs no longer stores VMDKs but it only becomes
the access point
– Now you wont need as many datastores or mount
point as before
• Certain offloading operations will be done via
VASA and other will be done using the standard
protocol commands
CONFIDENTIAL 17
vSphere
storage fabric
PE
protocol endpoint
SCSI: proxy LUN
NFS: mount-point
datastore = protocol endpoint + storage container
storage system
1 VVol (storage container)
Per VMDK
One entity on the fabric
18. SAN Bandwidth Used Without VVols
CONFIDENTIAL 18
VASA API Compatible Array
2
vSphere
VMFS VVOLs
1
vSphere Admins
Migrate VM from VMFS to
VVOL datastore
software data mover
implementation
19. Operations Offloaded with VVols, Using Less SAN Resources
CONFIDENTIAL 19
vSphere
VMFS VVOLs
vSphere Admins
offload to arrayoffloadtoarray
Virtual Machine Operation Offloaded
• Virtual Machine provisioning
• Virtual Machine deletes
• Virtual Machine full clones
• Virtual Machine Linked Clones
• Virtual Machine Snapshots
• Storage vMotion
20. Advantages All Day Long with VVols
CONFIDENTIAL 20
Device-centric Silos
✖ Static classes of service
✖ Rigid provisioning
✖ Lack of granular control
✖ Frequent data migrations
✖ Time consuming processes
✖ Lack of automation
✖ Slow reaction to request
Complex Processes
✖ Not commodity
✖ Low utilization
✖ Overprovisioning
Specialized Costly HW
22. Using Storage Capabilities and VM Storage Policies
• Storage Capabilities – are array based features
and data services specifications that capture
storage requirements that can be satisfied by
a storage arrays advertised as capabilities
• Storage capabilities define what an array can
offer to storage containers as opposed to what
the VM requires
• Arrays Storage Capabilities are advertises
to vSphere through the Vendor Provider and
VASA APIs
• In vSphere Storage Capabilities are consumed
via VM Storage Policy constructs
• VM Storage Policies is a component of the
vSphere Storage Policy-based management
framework (SPBM)
CONFIDENTIAL 22
SPBM
object
manager
virtual disk
Datastore Profile
VM Storage Policy
vSphere VM Storage Policy Management Framework
Storage Capabilities for Storage Array
Access
Capacity
Published Capabilities
Snapshot
Replication
Deduplication
QoS
Virtual Datastore
23. Special Handling of Swap VVols
• If you’re running a memory over-provisioned system, prioritize swap VVols
• Swap volumes need the lowest latency and highest throughput priorities
– If your VM can’t use its memory, it can’t do much of anything useful
• If the swap volumes are being used heavily, it might be time to reconfigure vSphere
CONFIDENTIAL 23
24. Multi-tenant use of VVols
• Use Storage Containers as logical separation
• Use individual policies and capabilities as VMs require
– Different policies for different VMs
– Different policies for different requirements in the VM
• Desktop
• Database
• Log
CONFIDENTIAL 24
Storage Containers
Access
Capacity
Published Capabilities
Snapshot
Replication
Deduplication
QoS
25. Disaster Recovery
• Replication policies
• Failover techniques
CONFIDENTIAL 25
Published Capabilities
Snapshot
Replication
Deduplication
Encryption
vSphere
Storage Policy-Based Mgmt.
Virtual Volumes
Storage Policy
Capacity
Availability
Performance
Data
Protection
Security
PE
VASA Provider
PE
26. Snapshots
• Snapshots are a point-in-time, copy-on-write
image of a Virtual Volume with a different ID
from the original
• Virtual Volumes snapshots are useful when
creating:
– A quiesced copy for backup or archival purposes,
creating a test and rollback environment for
applications, instantly provisioning application
images, and so on
• Two type of snapshots supported:
– Managed Snapshot – Managed by ESX
• A maximum of 32 snapshot are supported for
fast clones
– Unmanaged Snapshot – Managed by the
storage array
• Maximum snapshot dictated by the storage array
CONFIDENTIAL 26
Managed Snapshot - vSphere
Unmanaged Snapshot - Array
28. The Benefits of vSphere Virtual Volumes
CONFIDENTIAL 28
A More Efficient Operational Model For External Storage
Improves Resource
Utilization
• Increase capacity utilization
• Eliminate overprovisioning
• Reduce management overhead
• Eliminate inefficient handoffs
between VI and Storage Admin
• Faster storage provisioning
through automation
• Simplified change management
through flexible consumption
• Self-service provisioning via cloud
automation tools
Simplifies Storage
Operations
• Leverage native array-based
capabilities
• Fine control at the VM level
• Dynamic configuration on the fly
• Ensure compliance through policy
enforcement using automation
Simplifies Delivery of
Service Levels
29. Wrap upVvols was motivated by manageability,
transparency and scalability.
If you don’t care about those reasons,
they can help you manage configurations
that are otherwise difficult to manage
29
32. Explaining Advanced Virtual Volumes Configurations
Ken Werneburg, VMware, Inc
Andy Banta, SolidFire
STO5074
#STO5074
Notas del editor
vSphere Virtual Volumes is management & integration framework that delivers a more efficient operational model for external storage.
Virtual Volumes virtualizes SAN and NAS devices into logical pools of capacity, called Virtual Datastore.
Then, Virtual Volumes represents virtual disks natively on the underlying physical storage. This makes the virtual disk the primary unit of data management at the array level.
It becomes possible to execute storage operations with VM granularity and to provision native array-based data services to individual VMs.
To enable efficient storage operations at scale, Virtual Volumes uses vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management
Both Virtual Volumes and SPBM are offered as standard features of the vSphere platform, from a pricing and packaging standpoint.
Storage Admin Cares about
Capacity Management
Access Control
Admissible Data Services
Meeting Application SLA requirements
Data Security
VI admin cares about
On-demand storage provisioning for VMs
Application of appropriate VM-level data services
SLA compliance checks throughout VM lifecycle
Other-Vvol is a generic type of Vvol for solution specific objects i.e HBR side car file, CBRC files, etc
Why are datastores still utilized:
because vSphere and all of its platform features are aware of the concept of a datastore and in order to preserve the interoperability without requirement the adjacent feature modules to change.
What does the vsphere admin see?
They see the same vsphere datastore and information as normal in the vSphere Web Client. Screen shot
Products like vCAC, vCOPs, DRS,VC use the concept of a datastore natively.
Need at least 1 SC per array. You can have as many as the array can support.
An SC cannot span across array
Why are datastores are still utilized:
because vSphere and all of its platform features are aware of the concept of a datastore and in order to preserve the interoperability without requirement the adjacent feature modules to change.
What does the vsphere admin see?
They see the same vsphere datastore and information as normal in the vSphere Web Client. Screen shot
Products like vCAC, vCOPs, DRS,VC use the concept of a datastore natively.
Need at least 1 SC per array. You can have as many as the array can support.
An SC cannot span across array
Other-Vvol is a generic type of Vvol for solution specific objects i.e HBR side car file, CBRC files, etc
Why the concept of a PE?
In today’s LUN-Datastore world, the datastore has two purposes – It serves as the access point for ESXi to send IO to. It also serves as storage container to store many VM files (VMDKs). This dual-purpose nature of this entity poses several challenges – You do not need as many access points as you need the storage itself. Because of the rigid nature of the size of the datastore, and the fewer number of datastores, you have to combine several VMs together to be stored in the same datastore even if the VMs have different requirements.
So, how about we separate out the concept of the access point from the storage aspect? This way, we can fewer number of access points to several number of storage entities. And hence the introduction of PE.
Questions:
Equivalent to what in todays world?.
E.i if there are vasa API to communicate with the array what will the PE do? What do some of the command do? Show and example!
What is the discovery process?
During a rescan ESX will identify PE and maintain then in DBs.
Multi-pathing on the PE unsure high availability
Concept of queue depth in a PE?
Unmanaged snapshots VMware anticipates that early generations of VVol storage systems will support on the order of tens of thousands of snapshots.
This slide walks through the architecture of Vvols at a high level. Subsequent slides will dive into individual components in a bit more detail.
Now let’s discuss the value proposition of vSphere Virtual Volumes
Virtual Volumes simplifies storage operations by automating manual tasks and eliminating operational dependencies between the VI Admin and the Storage Admin. Provisioning becomes faster and change management simpler because of the policy-driven automation.
Virtual Volumes simplifies the delivery of storage service levels to applications by providing administrators with finer control of storage resources and data services at the VM level that can be dynamically adjusted in real time.
Virtual Volumes improves resource utilization by enabling more flexible consumption of storage resources, when needed and with greater granularity. The precise consumption of storage resources eliminates overprovisioning.