VVOL Demonstration

VVOLs are a new feature of vSphere 6. It is simply a new way to approach storage and supports different protocols such as fiber, iscsi and nfs. It also allows you to bypass the 256 lun maximum per host. Here is a demo using one of the many choices available.

Step 1:  Once the storage is configured by the storage administrator, register the VASA provider. The VASA provider notifies the vSphere environment of the capabilities of that storage.  Start by selecting the vcenter server and selecting Manage and Storage Providers. Click on the "+" sign to add/register the vendor's VASA provider.

Step 2: vSphere 6 introduces a new set of commands. Type esxcli storage vvol without any arguments to view them. After configuring the vvol datastores, examples will be shown.

Step 3: Create a NFS based vvol by right-clicking on your esxi host and selecting Storage and New Datastore. Select vvols; the new choice in vSphere 6.

Step 4: Name the datastore and click on next.

Step 5. Click on Finish.

Step 6: Take a look at additional information such as the P.E. (Protocol Endpoint). In the case of NFS, it is nothing more than a mount point.

Step 7: Utilize some of the new commands to gather information.

Note: As mentioned before, vvols also works with other protocols such as iSCSI. What follows is an example on how to use this. Start by enabling the iSCSI initiator and pointing to your vvol iscsi server.

Step 8: Create a VM Storage Policy and then create a vm using that policy. Here are some captures.