msa 2052 and vmware vasa

[borokabokor]

Dear All,

I found this doc (HPE MSA Storage Configuration and Best Practices for VMware vSphere) on the hpe site (from the hpe site), which claims the following:

-page 5: Msa has vSphere support VAAI, VASA, SRM
-page 12: Virtual Volumes

However when I try to search on the vmware hal:  vmware vvol

"What are you looking for: vShere APIs for Virtual Volumes (VVOL)" ; select hpe in the partner name it does not show me the msa 2052 in the array model.

When I changed the "What are you looking for: vShere APIs for storage awarness (VASA), for non-VVOLs then the array models window shows me the msa 1040 and 2040.

From vmware:
"Virtual Volumes constitutes five major components namely VVol Device, Protocol End Point, Storage Container, VASA Provider and Array and......"

So what does the "vasa for non-vvol" and what does the first selection means? What is the difference between those?

Thank you very much

[Shawn_K]

Hello,

First, be aware that the MSA array does not support VMware's VVols. Don't confuse vvols with virtual volumes on the MSA array as they are two separate concepts.

vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) is an API mechanism that allows communication between vCenter, the storage array, and the ESXi hosts. The VASA for non-vvol will be the APIs that allow the ESXi hosts and vCenter to communicate with the storage (aka MSA array).

The APIs for non-vvol communication will be different than the APIs used for vvols. Remember that vvols provisions storage differently than the way external storage does with LUNs attached to a SAN.

Cheers,
Shawn

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

[Benjamin_Smith]

Hi,

We are in the process of updating the technical paper you have referred to as it mixes Gen4 and Gen5 at numerous points; in this case, the support for VASA. As Shawn says, the MSA does not support vVols, but Gen5 also lost the support for VASA, which is fine as it does not need it.

Gen4 supported rudimentary VASA using OV4VC as a provider, and for linear storage only.

Regards,

Ben

[borokabokor]

Dear Shawn_K and Benjamin,

Thank you for your answers. I'm interested in offload snapshots, to get rid of as many network traffic as possible. As I read:
"Through VASA, vSphere and the underlying storage system establishes a two-way out-of-band communication to perform data services and offload certain virtual machine operations to the storage system. For example, operations such as snapshots and clones can be offloaded."

However other documentation shows that offload operations rather based on VAAI. As I can see in vmware HAL the VAAI supported on msa 2552. Unfortunately I'm little confused with VAAI and VASA in case of msa.

What I would like to use with device is logical grouping of storage controllers, and keep snapshot/clone operations at storage level (and as many functions as I can). 

Could you please help me to clarify this?

Thank you very much

[Benjamin_Smith]

I understand, it's a confusing landscape. To answer the basic question about snapshots, no that's not possible.

The MSA supports the following through VAAI:

* Full Copy or Hardware Assisted Move
* Block Zeroing or Hardware Assisted Zeroing
* Hardware Assisted Locking or Atomic Test and Set (ATS)

However, OneView for VMware vCenter (OV4VC), does provide additional features, including creating, expanding, and deleting a datastore. 

The QuickSpecs has a summary and includes some links, here: http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/redirect.aspx?/products/quickspecs/15935_div/15935_div.PDF

[borokabokor]

Thank you very much for your answer. So in case of msa making snapshots will use the the FC network between storage and host, but I can clone a VM, and in this case the action remains at storage level not using any network. And I only can use the three mentioned VAAI primitives on LUNs (because of lack of vVol). Am I right?

Thank you very much