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Provisioning datastores

Provisioning a datastore creates a logical container for your virtual machines and their virtual machine disks (VMDKs). You can provision a datastore, and then attach the datastore to a single host, to all of the hosts in a cluster, or to all of the hosts in a datacenter.

  • To provision a datastore on an SVM that is directly connected to Virtual Storage Console (VSC), you must have added the SVM to VSC by using a user account that has the appropriate privileges, not the default vsadmin user account or vsadmin role.

    You can also provision a datastore by adding a cluster.

  • 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.

  • If you use NFS or iSCSI, and the subnet is different between your ESXi hosts and your storage system, then the NFS or iSCSI settings in the kaminoprefs preferences file must include ESXi host subnet masks.

    This preference file is also applicable to VVol datastore creation. Virtual Storage Console, VASA Provider, and Storage Replication Adapter Deployment and Setup Guide for 9.7 release has more information on preferences file and enabling datastore mounting across different subnets.

  • If you have enabled VASA Provider and you want to specify storage capability profiles for your NFS datastores or VMFS datastores, then you must have created one or more storage capability profiles.
  • To create an NFSv4.1 datastore, you must have enabled NFSv4.1 at the SVM level.

The Provision Datastore option enables you to specify a storage capability profile for the datastore. Storage capability profiles help in specifying consistent service level objectives (SLOs) and simplify the provisioning process. You can specify a storage capability profile only if you have enabled VASA Provider. The virtual appliance for VSC, VASA Provider, and SRA supports the following protocols:

  • NFSv3 and NFSv4.1
  • VMFS5 and VMFS6

VSC can create a datastore on either an NFS volume or a LUN:

  • For an NFS datastore, VSC creates an NFS volume on the storage system, and then updates the export policies.
  • For a VMFS datastore, VSC creates a new volume (or uses an existing volume, if you selected that option), and then creates a LUN and an igroup.
Note
VMware does not support NFSv4.1 with datastore clusters.

If a storage capability profile is not specified during provisioning, you can later use the Storage Mapping page to map a datastore to a storage capability profile.

  1. You can access the datastore provisioning wizard using one of the following:
    If you select from ...Perform the following...
    vSphere Client Home page
    1. Click Hosts and Clusters.
    2. In the navigation pane, select the datacenter on which you want to provision the datastore.
    3. To specify the hosts to mount the datastore, see the next step.
    Virtual Storage Console Home page
    1. Click Overview.
    2. Click Getting Started tab.
    3. Click Provision button.
    4. Click Browse to select the destination to provision the datastore as per the next step.
  2. 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 host cluster, and then select Virtual Storage Console > Provision Datastore.
    A single hostRight-click a host, and select Virtual Storage Console > Provision Datastore.
  3. 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 provisioning dialog box provides options to enter the destination, name, size, type, and protocol for the new datastore. You can select NFS or VMFS protocol to configure a traditional datastore. The VVol datastore type is used to configure a VVol datastore. If VASA Provider is enabled, then you can also decide whether to use storage capability profiles. The Datastore cluster option is available only for traditional datastores. You should use the Advanced option to specify VMFS5 or VMFS6 file system.
    Storage systemYou can select one of the listed storage capability profiles if you have selected the option in the General section. The system-recommended values for the storage system and storage virtual machine are populated for ease. But you can modify the values if required.
    Storage attributesBy default, VSC populates the recommended values for Aggregates and Volumes options. You can customize the values based on your requirements. The Space reserve option available under Advanced menu is also populated to give optimum results.
    SummaryYou can review the summary of the parameters you specified for the new datastore.
  4. In the Summary section, click Finish.