upgrading to nimble OS 3.x vvol

[vmw9]

we will be upgrading to nimble OS 3x which supports vvol.

after the upgrade, what do I need to do on my esxi hosts and datastores? I am on vmfs5. how do i use vvol?

[jcates98 · Accepted solution]

Hi Tony,

You'll need to make sure you are running vSphere 6 and also that you have upgraded to the Nimble Connection Manager for vSphere 6.

Register the Nimble VASA VP with vSphere. (Do this in the Nimble UI, same place you register the vCenter Plugin)

Create a VVol-enabled folder and associate it with the vCenter you just registered. This will automatically create and maps a protocol endpoint for you.

On vCenter, create a new VVol datastore, and choose the folder you just created.  (Will show up as a "storage container" in vSphere)

Create one or more VM Storage Policies

Create VMs and apply the storge policies you just created.  Or, use storage vMotion to move existing VMs and assign storage policies.

I suggest you take a look at the following video to get an idea of what you'll be going through:

Product Demo: VMware Virtual Volumes on Nimble Storage - YouTube

Cheers!

Julian

[rshekar42]

Also see: Doing more with less – VVols and Simplified Storage Management

[vmw9]

Hello

Thank you. What happens to existing vmfs 5 volumes with vms running?

Do I setup new vvol volumes and svmotion them?

Sent from my iPhone

[jcates98]

Nothing has to happen to them.  You can continue to use VMFS datatores alongside your VVol datastores.  If you'd like to move existing VMs to your VVol datastore then yes, you can use Storage vMotion.  As part of the SVM, you will be prompted for which VM Storage Policy you would like to use.

[rshekar42]

> Do I setup new vvol volumes and svmotion them?

Adding to what Julian mentioned: One of the benefits of VVols is that you never create them and manage them yourself (in the storage UI). A VVol is created as an effect of an action you take in vCenter - like creating a VM, a VM snapshot, clone, Storage vMotion etc. You can think of VVols as VMDKs.

[scole7626]

You will also need to make sure you are running hosts on supported hardware.  The HBA adapters need to support SLLID to run vvols.  Which Cisco UCS still doesn't support with their VIC cards .  This is the problem I personally ran into with attempting to use vvols.  Good luck and let us know how it all goes.

[vmw9]

we just upgraded to 3.7 OS. What do you mean by UCS VIC card do not support vvol?

what problem were you having?

[scole7626]

I meant that at the time and I believe still to this day there is no support for the VIC 1240s and 1340s (even though some documentation states compatibility).  If someone wants to tell me I am wrong, I would gladly be wrong in this.  The thing I didn't know in my first attempt with VVOLs is that whatever FC card you use on your hosts has to support SLLID.  So in UCS the VIC card is what is responsible for the vHBA and it needs to support SLLID.  You can create the folders and present the volumes to VMware, but they will never be able to see the PEs and won't be able to do anything with the folders presented to VMware.  I recently spoke with a local Cisco engineer and he said it was on the list and should be done end of Q1, but who knows.

Again, if someone has new or differing information please follow up.  I really want to use VVOLs, but being 100% UCS it isn't a reality right now.