[BETA] Using VVOLs with NetApp & VMware

[datacenterdude]

UPDATE [Apr 9 2015]: The official versions of both VSC 6.0 and VASA Provider 6.0 are available as of today.

VSC 6.0 - CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

VP 6.0 - CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

FEEDBACK!

We want to hear your feedback!  We would love to consolidate everything centrally here in this thread, but if you have something that you don't want to say in the communities, you can always send VSC feedback to xdl-vsc-feedback@netapp.com.

-NetApp VSC/VASA team-

[KRISHNAKANT_GUPTA]

Thanks Peter, Graham.

So, the replication still happens at the flexvol level as opposed to per VVOL?

[peterl]

That’s correct.  The idea is that one or more volumes would be configured with SnapMirror relationships.  VVol datastores on those volumes would match the “Replication” capability (Specifically replication=asynchronous).  When creating a VM with a VM Storage Profile requiring replication, datastores with that capability would match (be compliant), and the VM would be placed in one of those datastores.  Since all VMs requiring the replication capability are placed in such datastores, only one SnapMirror relationship is really needed, and they all get replicated together.

[KRISHNAKANT_GUPTA]

Thanks Peter. That helps.

[forgosh]

My VASA appliance got corrupted but now VSC won't let me unregister it so I can register the new deployment. How do I manually clear the VASA registration from VSC?

[peterl]

Seth

Can you get to the VP web CLI on the old VP (https://<VP>:9083) and run "vcenter unregister -vcenter_ip=<VC_IP> -username=<something> -password=<pw>"?  Or is it totally hosed?

You might try that from the web CLI on the new VP, or just register it.

vcenter register -vcenter_ip=<VC_IP> -username=<user> -password=<pw> -vsc_ip=<VSC_IP>

Peter

[forgosh]

No. The old VP won't boot at all.

Sent from my iPhone

[nsrushi46]

Hi

My VASA appliance got corrupted but now VSC won't let me unregister it so I can't register the new deployment. How do I manually clear the VASA registration from VSC?

BR,

Rushi.

[grahams]

Hello

Thank you for your interest in NetApp's Beta software for VASA and VSC that we released to support VMware's VVol Beta. We are working in close partnership with VMware and we are very interested in your feedback.

We would like to know your progress in deploying the Beta and any challenges and areas of improvement you can suggest.

1. Were you able to install ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0?
   • Any issues?
2. Were you able to install NetApp VASA VP and VSC and register the VASA VP to vCenter?
   • Any issues?
3. Were you able to provision a VVol Datastore using the NetApp workflow?
   • Any issues?
4. Were you able to create VM Storage Profiles that match the capabilities of the VVol Datastore?
   • Any issues?
5. Were you able to provision Virtual Machines into the VVol Datastore?
   • Any issues?
6. Have you taken SnapShots of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Was it successful?
7. Have you made a clone of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Was it successful?
8. What additional feedback do you have for NetApp or VMware to improve VVols?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Graham

[nsrushi46]

hi

Here are my answers.

We would like to know your progress in deploying the Beta and any challenges and areas of improvement you can suggest.

1. Were you able to install ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0?
   • there were some issues with VCENTER 6.0 but it appear to DNS related which was in our infrastructure.
2. Were you able to install NetApp VASA VP and VSC and register the VASA VP to vCenter?
   • NetAPP VASA VP registration with VSC is ok first time but when it corrupts due to some issues it is imperative to fix (unregister and register again).
3. Were you able to provision a VVol Datastore using the NetApp workflow?
   • VVOL provision never worked for me but i was able to see the VVOL option when i choose new datastore however after selecting option nothing shows up from NetApp Cluster Dataontap 8.21 system.
4. Were you able to create VM Storage Profiles that match the capabilities of the VVol Datastore?
   • Yes .
5. Were you able to provision Virtual Machines into the VVol Datastore?
   • VVOL never show up to crate volumes so i wasn't able to proceed.
6. Have you taken SnapShots of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • VVOL never show up to crate volumes so i wasn't able to proceed.
7. Have you made a clone of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Was it successful?
8. What additional feedback do you have for NetApp or VMware to improve VVols?

Needed a straight forward POC document like this one available for Virtual SAN from VMWARE similar to VVOL/ESX6.beta. I was able to do everything as per the POC document and have no issues Th..http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_POC_Guide.pdf

BR,
Dr.Rushi.

[grahams]

Thanks for the quick reply and for trying the Beta. I'm asking our

experts to reach out and see if they can unblock your progress.

Best regards

Graham Smith

Senior Solutions Manager

www.NetApp.com

(408) 796 1257

[grahams]

Hi Dr.Rushi

To get around the issues in step 2, you may need to restart some of the services in vCenter.
First ensure you have port 9443 in the URL when logging into vCenter i.e. https://192.168.2.100:9443/vsphere-client/. If not we have a bug that impacts the VASA UI. This bug will be addressed before GA.

The following steps may help:

• log out of the vCenter client
• ssh into your vCenter server
• invoke the bash shell (follow VMware's text on login)
• restart the services - below I'm showing all they may need restarting. This may be overkill, but should solve most vCenter client issues.

service vsphere-client stop

service vmware-vpxd stop

service vmware-sps stop

service vmware-cm stop

service vmware-cm start

service vmware-sps start

service vmware-vpxd start

service vsphere-client start

• Wait a few minutes for the vCenter client and then log back in (using port 9443 in the URL)

For the issue at step 3. Can you confirm you are using the NetApp provision VVOL Datastore and not the generic VMware workflow.

[LIFEMIKEY]

Hi,

We would like to know your progress in deploying the Beta and any challenges and areas of improvement you can suggest.

1. Were you able to install ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0?
   • Yes.  No issues.
2. Were you able to install NetApp VASA VP and VSC and register the VASA VP to vCenter?
   • Yes.  Registration of VSC to vCenter said it was successful but I don't see any VSC information show up in vCenter except I see some VSC roles.
3. Were you able to provision a VVol Datastore using the NetApp workflow?
   • Blocked on step 2
4. Were you able to create VM Storage Profiles that match the capabilities of the VVol Datastore?
   • Blocked on step 2
5. Were you able to provision Virtual Machines into the VVol Datastore?
   • Blocked on step 2
6. Have you taken SnapShots of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Blocked on step 2
7. Have you made a clone of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Blocked on step 2
8. What additional feedback do you have for NetApp or VMware to improve VVols?

I also agree that a straightforward document is needed.  I had to refer to several documents just to get to step 2.  I'm using the Netapp simulator.

I posted an entry for the step 2 problem I'm having   LIFEMIKEY Aug 11, 2014 3:45 PM (in response to SCHLEGELM

Is there a beta support process or I just need to wait for an answer on this forum?

Also how can I attach files to a forum entry?

Thanks,

Mike

[grahams]

Thanks for your reply Mike

On step 2, can you confirm that you logged out and back in to vCenter. This is need for VASA UI to appear.

Also please ensure you have port 9443 in the URL when logging into vCenter i.e. https://192.168.2.100:9443/vsphere-client/

If this does not bring the VASA UI, please try the steps I suggested to Dr.Rushi and restart vCenter services.

[KRISHNAKANT_GUPTA]

Hi Graham,

Answers inline:

1. Were you able to install ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0?
   • No issues.
2. Were you able to install NetApp VASA VP and VSC and register the VASA VP to vCenter?
   • No issues after following  Netapp Readme for VASA provider and VSC admin guide.
3. Were you able to provision a VVol Datastore using the NetApp workflow?
   • Yes
4. Were you able to create VM Storage Profiles that match the capabilities of the VVol Datastore?
   • Yes,
5. Were you able to provision Virtual Machines into the VVol Datastore?
   • Yes.
6. Have you taken SnapShots of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Yes,
7. Have you made a clone of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Yes, worked without any issues.
8. What additional feedback do you have for NetApp or VMware to improve VVols?

• Few observations (and not sure if that's how it is designed or i am doing something wrong)
  • If we add a flexvol to an existing VVOL datastore and try to create a big VVOL that requires more space than that can fit on single flexvol - operation fails.
  • Even though snapshot itself takes negligible space, taking snapshot seems to require atleast the same amount of storage available on the datastore as the VVOL size itself otherwise snapshot operation fails.
  • While creating storage Policies - i do not see all the user created storage profiles listed under netapp vasa provider. I only see Bronze, Silver and Gold.
• Snapshot deletions are really fast and most of the operations are working as expected, so overall a positive beta experience.

Thanks!

[grahams]

Great news, thanks for the reply

On your observations,

• The Flexvol will need to be bigger than the largest virtual disk, plus have space for the memory of your VM for Swap.
• Need to look into the 2nd on available space requirements for a snapshot. This may be because this is VMware's snapshot workflow which will support other storage vendors as well and they may require more space. Note. this is my guess
• To get the storage policies to show you may need to restart the sps service in vCenter
  • log out of the web client
  • ssh into your vCenter as root
  • invoke the bash shell (follow note in login message
  • service vmware-sps restart
  • login to the web client

[SCHLEGELM]

Hello Graham

1. Were you able to install ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0?
   • No Problems here
2. Were you able to install NetApp VASA VP and VSC and register the VASA VP to vCenter?
   • I had some Problems installing the VSC (see keystore-Problem above) and was unable to use VASA VP until I used :9443 as the Port - but that is documented (my fault)
3. Were you able to provision a VVol Datastore using the NetApp workflow?
   • Yes - the Plugin was a bit slow recognizing a new flexvol but it worked. I saw this Error after the creation:
   • 
4. Were you able to create VM Storage Profiles that match the capabilities of the VVol Datastore?
   • Yes - I also assigned a Storage Profile to a non-VVol Datastore - is there a way to remove this Storage Profile from the Datastore using the VSC? There seems to be no 'unmap'-Function
5. Were you able to provision Virtual Machines into the VVol Datastore?
   • Yes, worked on the first try
6. Have you taken SnapShots of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Yes - Creation and Deletion worked
7. Have you made a clone of the VVol Virtual Machine?
   • Yes - I created a Template and deployed a few VMs using it. RapidClones didn't work
8. What additional feedback do you have for NetApp or VMware to improve VVols?

           The integration could be better (Integration in the normal Datastore Creation Workflow of VMware)

[grahams]

Hi

Thank you for your reply. Great feedback.

Best regards

Graham Smith

Senior Solutions Manager

www.NetApp.com

(408) 796 1257

[SCHLEGELM]

Is there any support for 'low-level' operations on a VVOL-volume?

Like for example i've destroyed my vcenter-vmdk and i want to restore it on the console using snap restore.

I've mounted the nfs-volume this vvol uses as an endpoint and saw something like this:

# ll

total 18248980

drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nobody       4096 Aug 28 13:20 rfc4122.1249b69c-4585-4453-84af-f13dfded0655

drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nobody       4096 Aug 27 19:08 rfc4122.22ba6d91-c0a5-4401-a82a-03b4f1bfc72b

-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nobody  402653184 Aug 28 12:59 rfc4122.2de5b95c-436b-4d46-aadc-485cb70a3333.vmdk

-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nobody 4294967296 Aug 28 12:55 rfc4122.3a706c55-bb32-4fec-a5b9-cb5fa1d8d36d.vmdk

drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nobody       4096 Aug 28 13:23 rfc4122.3ddbc7c9-015c-47dc-a99d-53a427a99103

-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nobody 4294967296 Aug 28 13:23 rfc4122.469c3484-523d-4217-8fa1-a5a1ded19785.vmdk

-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nobody 4294967296 Aug 28 12:51 rfc4122.4eb96db6-e65d-430c-9a13-ca90474fba70.vmdk

...

how am i supposed to know which file is should restore using snap restore-file?

[KRISHNAKANT_GUPTA]

Is there a new version of VASA VP corresponding to vSphere 6 RC bits? 6.0X1 VP was working with Beta2 but doesn't seem to work with RC version of vSphere.

[andre_koch]

Have some problems with registring VASA

got this error

Error - StorageFault: VI SDK invoke exception:java.rmi.RemoteException: Exception in WSClient.invoke:; nested exception is:
    : ioFilterManager

Any Ideas?

[EE]

We are getting the same thing.

vcenter register -vcenter_ip=10.166.2.181 -username=administrator@xxx.local -password=password -vsc_ip=10.166.2.180

Error - StorageFault: VI SDK invoke exception:java.rmi.RemoteException: Exception in WSClient.invoke:; nested exception is:
 : ioFilterManager

Edit: Tried reinstalling VSC to the same server as vcenter and using only administrator@vsphere.local for everything. Still getting unreadable java errors.