VVOL Binding Process - Rhyme and Reason

echolaughmk — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 23:05:15 GMT

Hello,

During some recent testing I am seeing varying results on when vvols are bound to the PE dpeending on how long the VM might have been accessed, if it is powered on or off, and during/after migrations.

For example, if the VM sits there long enough and I run the "vvol listbind" command, it only shows me the vsphere-HA config vvols as illustrated in this post (http://community.netapp.com/t5/VMware-Solutions-Discussions/Duplicate-VVOL-bindings/m-p/110916#M8331)

However, even though the VM is running, there are no vvol binds associated with its vvols (config/memory/disk). When I power off the VM and power it back on, I now see more vvols bound, but some have the same duplicate entry and others have no duplicate - why?

I can't find any information to decipher why this is happening or how to correlate. Please, if there is a document on this, send me the link and I will RTM....but as of now this is becoming very confusing and not indicative of producion-related usage so I am hoping someone might be able to shed some light on the subject.

thanks!

Note - during a migration to a new host, it goes to 9 bound vvols and then back down to 4 vvols bound (only the vsphere-HA ones) when it is done.....

During Migration:

After Migration:

The question is why? What is expected to be seen when a runnig VM is using vvols (I expected to see them all bound) and what is the nature of how it binds/rebinds during migrations??

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VVOL Binding Process - Rhyme and Reason