Additionally, there is a new hardware acceleration column, which can be seen on the properties of a vmfs volume. Dead space reclamation does only work if your iscsi extent is a zvol created as sparse volume. Virtualization storage planning and management is complex, and its been almost impossible to find authoritative guidance until now. Vaai was introduced in flare30 for cx4 which is 64bit hardware software. Vaai stands for vsphere apis for array integration. According to the hp msa 2040 storage configuration and best practices for vmware vsphere whitepaper the msa 2040 supports vaai nativly without an additional plugin. If a vaai storage array is not used for these tasks,the data mover of the esxi hostmust perform these operations. It allows for offloading virtual disk copyingmigration operations away from the network and servers and to keep it. Jul, 2011 prior to this release, vmware only supported hardware acceleration on block storage devices. I found out that nexentastor advertises that it works with vmware vaai, so i. Introduced in vsphere 4 with support for blockbased fibre channel or iscsi storage systems, vaai consisted of a number of primitives, or parts. Vaai functionality, vaai differences between block and nfs so i will not go into details. Vaai is short for vstorage apis for array integration.
This approach seemed to work as i was able to create an iscsi lun and present it to my hosts, but when i validated the datastore for vaai support, the vcenter reported that its hardware acceleration status was unknown which indeed means that some but not all of the four vaai primitives where supported. No, i have iscsi and i can choose to use thin prov or not, therefore the question. Vaai support on qnap turbo nas includes block copy, block zeroing, and vaai hardware accelerated locking. Being a powerful, fullfeatured and software only iscsi target, istorage server is an ip san solution that can quickly convert existing windows computer into ip san. To confirm this use the following commands on the esxi host. Vmware vsphere apis array integration vaai an overview of how vaai provides hardware assistance to storage vendors on how they can speed up vmware io operations that are more efficiently accomplished in the storage hardware. Vmware vsphere storage apis array integration vaai enabling and disabling vaaito disable some of the vaai primitivesfor troubleshooting purposes, for examplesee the following clicommands, which detail how to enable and disable vaai primitives. Qnap enterprise storage allflash solution for 500 vdi. Solved vmware vaai xcopy primitive performance spiceworks. Vmware vsphere storage apis array integration vaai. Qnap plugin for vmware vstorage api for array integration vaai.
Vaai vstorage api for array integration and vasa vstorage. Vmware vaai pros and cons and the hidden fourth primitive. Quadstor delivers storage virtualization and vaai for free. The complete vaai support offloads tasks from esxi to the storage array, realizing significant gains in performance and efficiency in storage utilization. The extended copy command works only within the same lun. Currently, the vstorage apis for array integration provide benefits only for blockbased storage arrays fibre channel or iscsi and do not support nfs storage. The guide describes how to check vaai proper functioning and its productivity. With vaai, the data mover can use the api primitives to offload operations to the.
If a vdisk is exported as an iscsi or fc target that is used by vmware esxi hosts then quadstor also implements vaai support. For block level storage fciscsi vaai is enabled by default on the esxi hosts. Im assuming this is expected behaviour but is there any way to leverage the iscsi primitives specifically xcopy in the guest os via the esxi io stack or would i have to ditch my vmfs datastores and expose the luns directly to the windows os. Use port binding for esxi software iscsi adapters when possible. How to set up vmware esxi, a synology nfs nas, and failover storage networking this week, ive been working on a lightweight virtualization infrastructure for a customer and i thought youd like to see a little of how i put it together. I found out that nexentastor advertises that it works with vmware vaai, so i tested it with their trial version.
Vaai is a complex of technologies, designed to offload certain vm disk operations to the storage. Enable the vmware vaai provider to use hpe nimble storage. Vaai functionality, vaai differences between block and nfs so i. Vaai primitives define storage tasks that can be offloaded. These primitives applied only to block fibre channel, iscsi, fcoe storage. Atsto check the status of the ats primitive and to turn it on and off at the command line. Storage, vaai, vsphere, hardware, emc, netapp, hp, enterprise, iscsi, fc, vmdk. In this case write same was mentioned and the comment was about how it would not be used when expanding a thin disk or lazy zero thick disk. Three primitives are shown when actually there is a hidden fourth primitive.
How to set up vmware esxi, a synology iscsi nas, and. Vaai primitives define storage tasksthat can be offloaded to a storage array. Vaai for iscsi vaai iscsi block copy block copy enables the qnap storage to make full copies of data within the nas without needing to have the esxi host read and write the data. We can test if vaai is actually recognized and working by issuing the following commands, each command will test one the primitives, int value 1 means a primitive is enabled. Allflash solution for 500 vdi seats with vmware horizon view 2016 qnap systems, inc. Youave probably heard vmware virtualization and storage talk about vaai vstorage api for array integration. This document is intended for experienced starwind users and vmware administrators, who want to decrease the workload by using vstorage api for array integration vaai. Dec 30, 2014 ixsystems worked with freebsd developers to add additional vmware vaai primitives to the iscsi protocol in freebsd. It is extremely unlikely you will see vaai support in ax4. If youave listened to episode 4 of virtumania or watched the recent video from the vexpert panel session at the carolina vmug summit then youave heard me talk about it with some of those most in the know on the topic. Is vaai beneficial with virtual storage appliance vsa. The fourth primitive, thin provisioning stun, made it to the vsphere 4. When these operations are offloaded to the storage array,they become much more efficientand they happen much more quickly.
For block level storage fc iscsi vaai is enabled by default on the esxi hosts. Secondly, in its current guise, vaai is only supported with blocklevel storage fiberchannel or iscsi. Please note that with quadstor the xcopy primitive is only supported for esxi 5. Welcome instructor in this video, ill explain vaai primitives and how they can be used to make certain storage tasks more efficient. Following is a quick guide for setting up the quadstor software and configuring it as an iscsi target for vmware esxi hosts. Vmware introduced the vstorage apis for array integration vaai in vsphere 4.
Once you have confirmed that the vaai primitives are supported by the esxi and storage array ontap version you have to ensure that vaai is enabled. How to set up vmware esxi, a synology iscsi nas, and active. Vmware vaai integration with storage arrays in this blog post we would look at some of the benefits of integrating storage array based offload solution with vmware storage api for array integration vaai for block storage protocols fibre channel fc fcoe iscsi. Vmware vsphere storage apis array integration vaai, the paper which contains 19 pages details the current vsphere storage apis array integration vaai available today. To discover the starwind device on esxi host, navigate to configurationstorage adapters and click on the iscsi software adapter.
I have looked at the hcl lists though could someone comment whether the ax45i is able to support some of the vaai primitives for esx 4. There were no vaai primitives for nas storage in this initial release. I analyzed the traffic with wireshark and noticed that the extended copy is executed when virtual machine is cloned within one datastore. Theres many different operationsthat can actually be offloaded to a storage arrayfrom an esxi host. Prior to this release, vmware only supported hardware acceleration on block storage devices. How to install synology nfs vaai vib on vsphere esxi. Kernel iscsi ctl has completely replaced the old iscsi code, adding support for vmware vaai all 7 primitives, ms odx and windows 2012 clustering as well as much higher performance and space efficiency zerod blocks can now be reclaimed. Copy offload enables the storage system to make full copies of data within the array, offloading that chore from the esx server. With vaai, the data mover can use the api primitives to offload operations to the array if possible. But, contrary to the hp msa 2040, you have to install the software plugin for vmware vaai if you use the p2000 g3.
Ats atomic test and set for hardware assisted locking. Without the use of vaai, cloning or migration of virtual machines by the vsphere vmkernel data mover involves software data movement. Duncan epping dec 20, 2012 yesterday a comment was made around a vaai primitive on my article about virtual disk types and performance. It is also referred as hardware acceleration and gives the vmware hosts the option to delegate virtual machines and storage management operations to compatible storage hardware able to process the vaai primitives. I was trying to set up vmware with scst iscsi target running on ubuntu linux but i couldnt get extended copy command working between luns.
Hardware acceleration for nas will enable faster provisioning and the use of thick virtual disks through newly introduced vaai primitives. Write same zero repetitive write operations are performed by freenas. How do i install synology nfs vaai plugin on an esxi host. Linux scsi target vstorage apis for array integration. The vaai primitives are not the same for block and nfs and apart from the technical perspective there is also an operational difference between the two which i will focus on in this blog post. Vmware vsphere storage apis array integration vaai pages. This feature was then brought over to freenas and as a result, freenas 9. And most of the time what that means isdata is unnecessarily copiedfrom the storage array to the esxi hostand then right back down to another datastoreout of the same storage array.
The vmware api for array integration vaai primitives offer a way to. For more information on vaai please read the vstorage apis for array integration faq article in the vmware kb. Using esxtop to check vaai primitive stats yellow bricks. How to create a vaai enabled iscsi datastore on a synology. Jul 11, 2014 this approach seemed to work as i was able to create an iscsi lun and present it to my hosts, but when i validated the datastore for vaai support, the vcenter reported that its hardware acceleration status was unknown which indeed means that some but not all of the four vaai primitives where supported. Rick crisci explains how atomic test and set ats uses the vsphere api for array integration vaai to reduce the impact of scsi reservations. Vaai significantly enhances the integration of storage and servers by enabling seamless offload of locking and block operations onto the storage array. Vendor support for vaai has been varied, with some vendors, such as emc, embracing it right away and other vendors taking longer to integrate it into all their storage array models. Jul 16, 2010 there are three vaai primitives in vsphere 4. For the purpose of this post, i will be discussing vaai with nutanix whos software defined storage solution runs in a vm on every esxi host in a nutanix cluster. Instructor in this video, ill explain vaai primitivesand how they can be used to make certain storage tasksmore efficient.
Vmware vaai integration with storage arrays in depth. In this article we are covering the steps on how to create a synology lun compatible with vmware vaai framework. Vaai primitives full copy, block zeroing and hardware assisted locking are. What is vaai and what does it mean for virtualization. When an esxi host copies data without vaai, it will have to read the data from the nas, and write back the data to the nas to copy the data. During the whole production cycle of vdi, the vaai primitives support operations such as. Jun 15, 2015 vmware vaai integration with storage arrays. Introduction to vaai vmware vsphere apis array integration. The requirements for this to work, as well as the determination of what engine is used can be confusing due to the number of options available.
Starwind virtual san vaai vstorage api for array integration. However xcopy is only one of the many primitives of vaai, and vaai does alot more than just offload storage vmotions. Vaai vstorage api for array integration configuration and performance tuning guide introduction this document is intended for experienced starwind users and vmware administrators, who want to decrease the workload by using vstorage api for array integration vaai. Vaai vstorage api for array integration and vasa vstorage apis for storage awareness. I used the esxi software iscsi initiator to access the quadstor target.
Full copy iscsi block zeroing iscsi hardwareassisted locking iscsi thin provisioning and space reclamation iscsi full file clone nas reserve. However i had doubt if there is any difference of xcopy performance when the lun exposed is through fibre channel fabric then iscsi. Firstly, just to rule it out and apologies for stating the obvious possibly, with esxesxi 4. The vmware api for array integration vaai primitives offer a way to offload and accelerate certain operations in a vmware environment. Software licensing a limiting factor on cloud workload mobility. How to troubleshoot vaai cloning issues in clustered data. Qnap plugin for vmware vstorage api for array integration. The p2000 g3 is vaai capable since firmware version t230. I have a query regarding vmware vaai xcopy primitive, i read it that when a storage supports hardware acceleration, it meant that vaai primitives works on that storage lun. Jun 28, 2012 for more information on vaai please read the vstorage apis for array integration faq article in the vmware kb. Ax45i 1 esx 5 support and 2 vaai capabilities dell. Identifying vaai primitives supported by a device 574. There will also be limitations on how well the vaai primitives are implemented. Everything necessary to enable the vaai writesame feature with hpe nimble storage volumes is included with the nimbleos.
623 1100 970 978 16 984 458 1536 209 372 1188 695 591 1478 176 1244 61 1322 1287 582 310 309 1372 170 320 202 462 424 1260 1640 984 63 510 1107 745 1338 880 916 387 33