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Provisioning vVol datastores

You can provision a vVol datastore using the Provision Datastore wizard only if VASA Provider is enabled in your virtual appliance for VSC, VASA Provider, and SRA.

You must ensure that the subnet details of all the networks to which the ESXi hosted is connected is entered in the Kaminoprefs.xml.

See Enabling datastore mounting across different subnets section in VSC 9.7 Deployment and Setup Guide.

The Provision datastore menu enables you to specify a storage capability profile for the datastore, which helps in specifying consistent service level objectives (SLOs) and simplifies the provisioning process. You can specify a storage capability profile only if you have enabled VASA Provider.

FlexVol volumes that are used as backing storage are displayed on the vVol dashboard only if they are running ONTAP 9.4 or later. You should not use the vCenter ServerNew Datastore wizard to provision vVols datastores.
  • You must use cluster credentials to create vVol datastores.

    You cannot use SVM credentials to create vVols datastores.

  • VASA Provider does not support the cloning of a virtual machine that is hosted on the vVols datastore of one protocol to another datastore with a different protocol.
  1. From the vSphere Client home page, click Hosts and Clusters.
  2. In the navigation pane, select the datacenter on which you want to provision the datastore.
  3. Specify the hosts on which you want to mount the datastore.
    To make the datastore available to...Do this...
    All of the hosts in a datacenterRight-click a datacenter, and then select Virtual Storage Console > Provision Datastore.
    All of the hosts in a clusterRight-click a cluster, and then select Virtual Storage Console > Provision Datastore.
    A single hostRight-click a host, and then select Virtual Storage Console > Provision Datastore.
  4. Complete the fields in the New Datastore dialog box to create the datastore.
    Most of the fields in the dialog box are self-explanatory. The following table describes some of the fields for which you might require guidance.
    SectionDescription
    GeneralThe General section of the New Datastore dialog box provides options to enter the destination, name, description, type, and protocol for the new datastore. The vVol datastore type is used to configure a vVol datastore.
    Storage systemYou can select one or more storage capability profiles listed. The system recommended values for the Storage system and Storage VM are populated based on your selection of storage capability profile. You can modify these values if required.
    Storage attributesYou can either select existing volumes or create new volumes to configure FlexVol volumes.
    • When you select the option to create new volumes, the Create new volumes section is enabled. You can specify the name and size for the FlexVol volume, and then select from the available list of storage capability profiles and aggregates. Your selection decides the Space reserve option. You can select the Auto Grow checkbox and a value that is 120% of the specified FlexVol volume size is displayed. Use the radio buttons to select either Grow or Grow/Shrink behavior, which will grow or shrink the volume as space used changes.Add the FlexVol volume to the list of volumes using the ADD button. You can select the default storage capability profile to be used for creating vVols using the Default storage capability profileoption.
    • When you choose to select existing volumes, the available volumes are listed. You should select the required volume and modify the storage capability profile if required for each volume. You can later select the default storage capability profile to be used for creating vVols using the Default storage capability profile option.
  5. In the Summary section, click Finish.
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