A vVol datastore should be mounted to an ESXi host with access to a PE on the array that hosts the vVol datastore. Mounting a vVol datastore to a host requires:
The latter requires that (a) an array administrator connect the PE to the host or host group, and (b) a VMware administrator rescan the ESXi host’s I/O interconnects.
An array administrator can use the FlashArray GUI, CLI, or REST API to connect a PE and a host or host group; the FlashArray User Guide contains instructions for connecting a host or host group and a volume.
With Everpure's vSphere Plugin, a VMware administrator can connect a PE to an ESXi Cluster and mount its vVol datastore without array administrator involvement.
Using the Plugin to Mount vVol Datastore
Creating multiple containers through Pure's vSphere plugin is not currently supported but will be in an upcoming release of the plugin.
Mounting vVol Datastores Manually: FlashArray Actions
Alternatively, vVol datastores can be provisioned by connecting the PE to the hosts or host group, rescanning each host’s I/O interconnects, and mounting the vVol datastore to each host. These operations require both FlashArray and VMware involvement, however. Array administrators can use the CLI, REST, or REST interfaces, or tools such as PowerShell. VMware administrators can use the Web Client, the VMware CLI, or the VMware SDK and SDK-based tools like PowerCLI.
Everpure recommends using the Plugin to provision PEs to hosts. Keep in mind that the FlashArray UI does not allow creation of Protocol Endpoints. The FlashArray UI does allow finding the Protocol Endpoint and connecting them to Hosts and Host Groups.
Mounting vVol Datastores Manually: Web Client Actions
Navigate to the vCenter UI once the PE is connected to the FlashArray Host Group that corresponds to the vSphere ESXi Cluster.
Although the PE volumes are connected to the ESXi hosts from a FlashArray standpoint, ESXi does not recognize them until an I/O rescan occurs. (This is partially correct. If you are on a recent version of Purity and ESXi, a Unit Attention will be issued to the ESXi hosts when the PE is connected to the hosts. At this time, the ESXi host will dynamically update the devices that are presented via the SAN). In the event that the FlashArray is not on a recent release of Purity (Purity 5.1.15+, 5.3.6+ or 6.0.0+), a storage rescan from the ESXi hosts will be required for the PE to show up in the ESXi hosts connected devices.
To display a provisioned PE, select the host in the inventory pane, select the Configure tab, and click Storage Devices. The PE appears as a 1 megabyte device.
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The screen is useful to find the PEs that have been successfully connected via a SAN transport method. Multipathing can be configured on the PE from this view as well.
Note that in this example there are three PEs from three different arrays. When navigating to the Storage -> Protocol Endpoints Screen the PEs that are used as a vVol Datastore mount are displayed. In this example we only have two that show, as there are currently only two vVol Datastores (from two different arrays) created.
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The expected behavior is that the ESXi host will only display connected PEs that are currently being used as mounts for a vVol Datastore.
To mount a vVol datastore, right-click the target host or cluster, select Storage from the dropdown menu, and select New Datastore from the secondary dropdown to launch the New Datastore wizard.
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Best Practice is to create and mount the vVol Datastore against the ESXi Cluster which would be mapped to a FlashArray Host Group.
Click the vVol Type
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Enter in a friendly name for the datastore and select the vVol container in the Backing Storage Container list.
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This is how the storage container list looks on Purity//FA 6.4.1 and higher. The default container will show up as the default_storage_container (red box) and all others will show up with the pod name as the storage container name (orange box).
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This is how the storage container list looks in Purity//FA 6.4.0 or earlier. The default container for an array will only be shown as Vvol container.
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Clicking a container displays the array that hosts it in the lower Backing Storage Container panel.
No Backing Storage listing typically indicates either that the array’s VASA providers have not been registered or that vCenter cannot communicate with them.
Select the host(s) on which to mount the vVol datastore. Best Practice would be to connect the vVol Datastore to all hosts in that ESXi Cluster.
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Review the configuration details and then click Finish.
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Once a vVol datastore is mounted, the Configure tab for any ESXi host to which it is mounted lists the PEs available from the array that the host is connected via SAN transport. Note now that the PE LUN 253 is now listed as a PE for the ESXi host.
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Mounting a vVol Datastore to Additional Hosts
In the event that an ESXi host has been added to a Cluster or the vVol Datastore was only mounted to some hosts in the cluster there is a workflow to mount additional hosts to the vVol Datastore.
To mount the vVol datastore to additional hosts, right-click on the vVol Datastore and select Mount Datastore to Additional Hosts from the dropdown menu to launch the Mount Datastore to Additional Hosts wizard.
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Select the hosts to which to mount the vVol datastore by checking their boxes and click Finish.
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