Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.26
h e Storage
Providers area is
where you go to
enable communica-
tion between the
VASA provider and
vCenter Server.
Once the storage provider has been added to vCenter Server, it will communicate storage
capabilities up to vCenter Server.
However, the presence of these storage capabilities is only half the picture. The other half of
the picture is what the vSphere administrator does with these capabilities: build policy-driven
VM storage policies, as we describe in the next section.
Examining Policy-Driven Storage
Working in conjunction with VASA, the principle behind policy-driven storage is simple: Allow
vSphere administrators to build VM storage policies that describe the specii c storage attributes
that a VM requires. Then, allow vSphere administrators to place VMs on datastores that are
compliant with that storage policy, thus ensuring that the needs of the VM are properly serviced
by the underlying storage. Once a VM is up and running, vCenter monitors and will send an
alert if a VM happens to be in breach of the assigned storage policy.
Working with policy-driven storage involves the following three steps:
1. Use VASA to populate system storage capabilities and/or create user-dei ned storage
capabilities. System capabilities are automatically propagated to datastores; user-dei ned
capabilities must be manually assigned.
2. Create VM storage policies that dei ne the specii c features a VM requires from the
underlying storage.
3. Assign a VM storage policy to a VM and then check its compliance (or noncompliance)
with the assigned VM storage policy.
We'll provide the details on how to accomplish step 2 and step 3 later in the section
“Creating and Assigning VM Storage Policy.” In the section “Assigning a Storage Capability to a
Datastore,” we'll show you how to assign a user-dei ned storage capability to a datastore.
In the section “Creating and Assigning VM Storage Policies,” we'll show you how to create a
VM storage policy and then determine the compliance or noncompliance of a VM with that stor-
age policy.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search