Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

The Data Collector stores the VVols metadata written by the VASA provider in a database.

During Data Collector deployment (installation or migration) and during VASA provider registration, the production user is reminded to use an external database.

Use of the internal database is a consideration for lab deployments only. Depending upon the protection model used in deployment, failure to use the external database could result in the loss of some or all VVols metadata when the Data Collector is uninstalled or deleted. Use of the external database negates this risk during uninstall or delete.

The external database is expected to be deployed in a highly available manner including redundant switching connectivity.

Lab Experimentation Use of VVols

In a preproduction lab environment, a user could experiment with VVols and choose to purge all data on the array and restart with the intention of redeploying another VVols lab environment for experimentation purposes.

The proper steps for purging data in a LAB environment only are:

1. Using VMware vCenter — Delete all respective VVols VMs
2. Using Storage Center—Perform Purge

In the event the order is reversed, VVols metadata remains in the database even if the Data Collector is uninstalled. This metadata must be deleted to ensure a robust operating environment if a new lab environment is to be set up to use VVols. Failure to do so results in failures to some VVols VM operations to reference incorrect metadata.

If the order is reversed, contact technical support to work through the purge process.