Dell PowerStore Virtualization Infrastructure Guide

PowerStore T and PowerStore Q clusters are integrated with the following VMware vSphere elements:

• vCenter Server
• Virtual machines (VMs)
• Virtual Volumes (vVols)
• VMFS datastores
• NFS datastores
• Protocol Endpoints
• VASA provider
• Storage containers
• Storage Policy Based Management

vCenter Server

A vCenter Server must be registered in PowerStore Manager to enable virtual machine (VM) discovery, monitoring, and snapshot management. When a vCenter Server is connected to a PowerStore cluster, PowerStore Manager can be used to monitor VM attributes, capacity, storage and compute performance, and virtual volumes.

On PowerStore T and PowerStore Q clusters, a connection to a vCenter Server is optional and can be set up during or after initial configuration.

Virtual machines

VMs that are stored on vVol datastores in a PowerStore cluster are automatically discovered and displayed in PowerStore Manager. The VMs displayed include VMs using external compute resources on ESXi hosts.

PowerStore clusters support NFS, VMFS, and vVol datastores. PowerStore clusters also support serving storage externally using Fibre Channel (FC), iSCSI, NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC), and NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP) protocols. Support for the NVMe, FC, and iSCSI protocols enables VMs on external ESXi hosts to use the VMFS and vVols storage on PowerStore clusters.

VMFS datastores

VMFS datastores are used as repositories for virtual machines that use block-based storage. VMFS is a special high-performance file system format that is optimized for storing virtual machines. You can store multiple virtual machines on the same VMFS datastore. Each virtual machine is encapsulated in a set of files and occupies a single directory. In addition to virtual machines, VMFS datastores store other files such as virtual machine templates and ISO images.

NFS datastores

NFS datastores are used as repositories for virtual machines that use file-based storage. NFS datastores use the same structure as a 64-bit PowerStore file system. An NFS-enabled NAS server must have an associated file system and NFS export in order to be used for NFS datastores. ESXi hosts can access this designated NFS export on the NAS server and mount the datastore for file storage. File services including file system shrink and extend, replication, and snapshots are supported for VMware NFS datastores. You can store multiple virtual machines on the same NFS datastore. NFS datastores are managed on the File Systems page in PowerStore Manager. See the PowerStore Configuring NFS Guide for more information about creating and managing NFS datastores.

Virtual Volumes

Virtual Volumes (vVols) are an object type that corresponds to VM disks and snapshots. vVols are supported on a PowerStore cluster using the VASA protocol.

vVols are stored in storage containers that are known as vVols datastores. vVols datastores allow vVols to be mapped directly to a PowerStore cluster. A VM can consist of multiple vVols depending on its configuration and status. The different types of vVol objects are Data vVol, Config vVol, Memory vVol, and Swap vVol.

For more information, see Virtual Volumes overview.

Protocol Endpoints

Protocol Endpoints (PEs) are used as I/O access points from ESXi hosts to a PowerStore cluster. These endpoints establish a data path on-demand for virtual machines and their respective vVol datastores.

For more information, see Protocol Endpoints and vVols.

VASA provider

The vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) provider is a software component that enables vSphere to determine the capabilities of a storage system. VASA enables the basic information about the storage system and storage resources on a PowerStore cluster to be made available to the vCenter Server. This information includes storage policies, properties, and health status.

A PowerStore cluster includes a native VASA Provider. The VASA Provider can be optionally registered in vSphere during the initial configuration of a PowerStore T or PowerStore Q cluster.

For more information about VASA provider registration and certificates, see the PowerStore Security Configuration Guide.

Storage containers

A storage container is used to present vVol storage from a PowerStore cluster to vSphere. vSphere mounts the storage container as a vVol datastore and makes it available for VM storage. When a PowerStore cluster is used to provide VM storage, user VMs should be provisioned on the vVol datastores. The default storage container is mounted automatically on the nodes of the cluster.

For more information, see Storage containers overview.

Storage Policy Based Management

vVols use Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) to ensure that VMs have the appropriate storage capabilities through their entire life cycle. Storage QoS policies can be created in vCenter after the storage provider is registered.

These policies are used to determine the storage capabilities when a VM is provisioned. For information about creating a VM storage policy, see the VMware vSphere documentation.