VSC 4 missing VAAI and getting no VMs for aligned/not aligned

[fletch2007]

When will VAAI plugin be available ? The release notes say "coming soon"

And the alignment detection is returning no VMs found although my datastores are full of 95% aligned VMs

[crocker]

is this something your team handles or should this be asked in the NetApp Support Community?

Mike

[crocker]

Looks like you were not able to help on this issue here.  We have external and internal subject matter experts in the NetApp Support Community answering questions about SnapX products and software.  If you have a NOW login, this link enables you to engage them about this

[fletch2007]

No help - I'm kind of surprised since the promise of no downtime realignment is a killer feature - but its not available/functioning

Information on the NFS VAAI Plugin

The NFS VAAI Plugin does not ship with VSC for VMware vSphere. You must download the plugin from  the NetApp Support Site and manually install it.

Details on installing the plug-in are in Knowledge base article 3013414 How to install the NFS VAAI plugin for VSC 4.0 for VMware vSphere, which is online at kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=3013414.

Parent topic: Known issues with Monitoring and Host Configuration

What are the steps to integrate the NFS VAAI Plug-in with VSC for VMware 4.0 vSphere to use the 'Install to Host' feature?

KB ID: 3013414 Version: 3.0   Published date: 03/28/2012 
                        Categories: Setup Configuration, Virtual Storage Console for VMware 4.0     

Answer

The NFS VAAI Plug-in is in the final stage of the VMware Certification process. It is expected to be released within a few weeks. Please check back then.

As the plug-in is not shipped with Virtual Storage Console (VSC) for VMware 4.0 vSphere, download the plug-in software from the NetApp Support Site to a specific VSC for VMware vSphere directory. After downloading, use the 'Install to Host' feature on the Tools panel of the Monitoring and Host Configuration capability to install the NFS VAAI Plug-in.

When the plug-in is available, this article will be updated with the NetApp Support Site location of the plug-in, the correct download directory for the plug-in, and the steps for installing the plug-in.

[forgette]

Hello,

I'm sorry you're having trouble with this.  Would you please open a support case?  This way we can get a look at the logs and see whats going on.

Thanks,

Eric

[PAYDIANTUSER]

Fresh install of 4.0.

Getting the same issue with no VMs showing up.

I'm also getting "No controllers found" in the Provisioning and Cloning tab:

Even though the controllers are clearly defined and present:

I've tried rebooting the host where VSC is installed with no luck.

[forgette]

Hello,

I'm sorry you're having trouble with this as well.  Would you please open a support case?  This way we can get a look at the logs and see whats going on.

Thanks,

Eric

[ericw]

A couple of things to note on this thread.

First, I'd like to make sure that folks understand there is no relationship between the Online Alignment feature in VSC 4.0 and the VAAI plugin for NAS. We are expecting to post the NFS VAAI plugin soon. Note that the first release supports requires Data ONTAP 8.1 running in cluster mode; NFS VAAI support for 7-mode is expected to be available in Data ONTAP 8.1.1.

The online alignment feature in VSC 4.0 supports VMFS datastores only, because the underlying mechanism used is to create LUNs that have specific alignment characteristics and migrating the matching VMDKs to those LUNs via vSphere's Storage VMotion feature. With vSphere 5.0 and higher, the Storage VMotion should invoke the SAN VAAI primitives if you're running the appropriate Data ONTAP release and have copy offload enabled. The SAN VAAI copy offload feature does not require a separate ESX plugin, and therefore you should be able to use this now. We expect to provide support for on-line alignment for NFS datastores in future releases of Data ONTAP and the VSC.

Finally, the VSC is a supported NetApp product. If you're not seeing VMs in the optimization & migration tab, or not seeing controllers in the RCU tab, please reach out to our support organization and open a case. They will assist you with collecting the diagnostic information needed to triage the problem, and work with engineering if there is a bug. Not only will this help you get VSC working in your environment, it will help us identify and track where customers are encountering problems, and where the product and/or the documentation could be improved.

Thanks,

-Eric Wittle

Engineering Director, VMware Ecosystem Organization

[fletch2007]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply - no need for NFS customers to open a case

"NFS VAAI support for 7-mode is expected to be available in Data ONTAP 8.1.1."

"We expect to provide support for on-line alignment for NFS datastores in future releases of Data ONTAP and the VSC."

We keep hearing NFS adoption is out pacing other protocols - why are NFS customers relegated to second class citizens when it comes to support?

When will NFS customers get a fair deal ?

Netapp, please set the trend and start supporting NFS first since its the leading protocol in new deployments, overtaking the others

thanks

[forgette]

One point of clarification: You should be able to scan NFS datastores today (VSC 4.0).  You should also be able to migrate groups of VMs to and from NFS datastores.  The only limitation with regard to NFS datastores is that we can't yet create  an optimized NFS datastore.  Note that the optimized datastore is one that automatically corrects VM misalignment.

I hope this helps,

Eric

[berndi]

What is with space reclamation for NFS datastores?

We have DataOntap 8.1 RC3, vSphere 5.0, VSC4.0, SnapManager for SQL 5.1.0.699 and SnapDrive 6.4.0.5262.

Is space reclamation for NFS datastores possible and if yes which of the above products starts the reclamation?

In every KB, White Paper, blog, forum I read something different.

Regards,

bernd

[WIEN_TOURISMUS]

"NFS VAAI support for 7-mode is expected to be available in Data ONTAP 8.1.1"

Does that mean there will be no NFS VAAI support in Data ONTAP 8.0.x 7-mode at all? Do we have to upgrade to 8.1.x?

[ericw]

There are no plans to add NFS VAAI support to 8.0.x.

[ericw]

The NFS VAAI plugin is now available on the NOW site.

[BREDEMANN]

Is this version of the plugin only supported by Cluster mode?  What version of ONTAP is required?  It does not look like 8.1.1, 7-mode is out.

[ericw]

This version supports Cluster mode. It is also expected to support 7-mode when the 7-mode support is available in 8.1.1.

[RICCO4400]

Hi everyboby

Anton, may I ask you, if your problem was solved?

I'm facing the same problem ""No controllers found" in the Provisioning and Cloning tab"

Monitoriing et host tab is correct

I see my FAS2040

But error message as you get

Optimization and mogration tab works well (I can see my VM and align vmdk

But Protection tab not working, I see my vCenter datacenter en cluster, but NO entities (datastore or VM) are NOT shown

Config is: vCenter where VSC 4.0 is installed = Windows 2008R2 SP1

FAS2040 HA Ontap 8.1

Thanks for your input

Cheers

Isa

[D_BEREZENKO]

Does NFS VAAI Plugin supporting VMWare ESXi 5.0 and ONTAP 7-Mode?

In the knowledge base there is steps only for 4.0. Pay attention to the right apper corner "Incompatible ESX/ESXi hosts are not selectable".

[JANDREWARTHA]

Are your filers running 8.1.1 7-Mode? Until you upgrade them, the VM hosts will be greyed out, but once you do they become enabled (or at least they did for me).

[D_BEREZENKO]

Yes, I notice. It did the work when I updated my Filers to 8.1.1

After reboot  Hardware Acceleration shows Supported

[fletch2007]

I upgraded to 8.1.1 and I've got my NFS datastore showing Hardware Acceleration Supported

So which operations can I now expect to be offloaded to the Netapp controller?

thanks

PS: and when can we get the NFS non-disruptive alignment supported?