Very Slow VMware Creation Times

Question

Just purchased a Unity 600F and have it connected to our local vCenter. Under Storage | VMware | Datastores, we launch the wizard and then follow the steps to creating a 5TB volume. Once it is completed, it takes almost 1 hour to create the Datastore and then one by one rescan each host. We changed the name in Unity and it once again took almost an hour to change the name and rescan all 18 hosts.

Under VNX and CX4, you would create the LUN, slap it in a Storage Group and then rescan in VMware which took all of about 10 minutes, maybe.

With the inability to create multiple LUNs at once and the slow serial rescan of hosts, it has taken 5 hours to create 5 LUNs and rename one.

Is this normal?

Victor Wu · Answer

Did you check the host compatibility with Unity systems, eg host HBA driver/firmware etc ?

driberdy · Answer

Yes.  It turns out that the Unity box performs a few extra rescans and discover per host and it does them serially and not in parallel.  I can rescan all 21 hosts in VMware for a new LUN but when using the Unity to provision, it just takes a hour.  Support has been made aware; hopefully we will see a code bump in the near future

Victor Wu · Answer

Did you check the zoning on each SAN Switch ? It is single initiator zoning ? Suggest that two members on each zone.

driberdy · Answer

The zones connecting to the Unity are single host initiator to single SPA / B target i.e. HOST1_HBA1 + Unity SPA0 - one Zone HOST1_HBA1 + Unity SPB1 - one Zone and so on

Victor Wu · Answer

The speed of HBA, Unity FE port and SAN Switch port is fixed ?

odonovan_kevin · Answer

Any luck with this one?  I seem to have a similar issue, taking a long time creatng a VMware datastore on Unity, and seeing delays between the hosts which have access to it in the cemtracer_hosts.log file.

jmaguileramontero · Answer

Hello, I have the same problem, create datastore from unity takes much times? When I rescan LUN has the same problem.

SebasLag · Answer

Did you find the solution? I have the same problem.

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello SebasLag,

Here is a link to Dell EMC Unity: VMware vSphere Best Practices guide, where we have our best practices for Unity deployment & configuration. https://dell.to/38nrIyQ

Here is also the link to Configuring Hosts to Access VMware Datastores. https://dell.to/2HknBYf

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Unity

Very Slow VMware Creation Times

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