VMware vCenter Integration

In this topic:

About VMware vCenter Integration

Getting started

Registering VMware vCenters

Unregistering VMware vCenters

Serving virtual disks

Changing VMware vCenter credentials

Replacing VMware vCenter IP address

Changing virtual machine settings

Management and monitoring

Connection States

Viewing details

Also see:

Virtual Machine Settings

Hyperconverged Virtual SAN

About VMware vCenter Integration

The VMware vCenter Integration feature integrates SANsymphony storage services and management with the VMware® vSphere™ datacenter platform and vCenter™ management. (VMware vCenter versions 4.1 and higher are supported.) The VMware vCenter Integration feature effectively manages and monitors the vCenter and virtual disks from the SANsymphony Management Console. VMware vCenter Integration automates the process of discovering and adding VMware vCenters as hosts to the local server group. Once added, virtual disks can be served to VMware hosts (ESX servers) and virtual machines. Common storage tasks such as creating datastores, rescanning the host ports and setting the storage path policy can be performed from the console.

Virtual disks can be utilized as storage resources in various ways:

  • Virtual disks can be served to VMware hosts:
    • Virtual disks can be added to existing Datastores and then delivered to virtual machines as Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) storage.
    • Virtual disks can be served as new Datastores to VMware hosts and used as VMFS storage.

      When a virtual disk is served to a VMware host, a special option will be available in the wizard to optionally create a VMFS datastore on the virtual disk. When a datastore is created, the served virtual disk will be initialized and formatted with a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) on it. The datastore will span the entire virtual disk.

    • Virtual disks can be utilized as raw device mappings (RDMs) for virtual machines.
  • Virtual disks can be served to virtual machines:
    • Virtual disks can be served directly to virtual machines and discovered as physical disks in Windows Disk Management.

      In order to serve virtual disks directly to the virtual machine, a port must be manually assigned to the virtual machine.

Getting Started

Follow the instructions below. Click on the links for additional instructions.

Steps Procedures

1

Ensure network connectivity between the DataCore Servers and the ESX hosts.

If serving virtual disks directly to virtual machines, discover the DataCore Server iSCSI target ports on virtual machines.

2

In the SANsymphony Management Console, register the VMware vCenter.

3

Verify VMware host ports can see the target ports of the DataCore Servers. Ports should be logged in. (This can be done from the Remote Ports tab of the detail pages of the VMware host ports.)

If serving virtual disks directly to virtual machines, manually assign the ports of the virtual machine.

4

Create virtual disks to use as storage resources.

5

Serve virtual disks to VMware hosts or virtual machines.

When virtual disks are served using the Serve Virtual Disk wizard, a special option is available to create a datastore on the virtual disk and set the path policy.

Registering VMware vCenters

In order to auto-discover the VMware hosts or virtual machines and benefit from the options offered by this feature, the VMware vCenter must be registered.

When a VMware vCenter is registered:

  • VMware hosts and virtual machines in the vCenter are automatically registered as hosts in the server group. By default, VMware hosts are multipath and ALUA enabled.
    • VMware hosts are registered automatically within the vCenter when a vCenter is registered. Do not register the hosts individually outside of the vCenter. If a host was previously registered outside of a vCenter, that host will be automatically added to the registered vCenter to which it is a member.
    • The Host Group feature is not supported for hosts and virtual machines in a registered vCenter. Management of hosts and virtual machines is performed at the vCenter level; therefore, any "grouping" should be done at the vCenter level using DataCenters, clusters, or folders.
  • Fibre Channel and iSCSI ports for VMware hosts are automatically discovered and displayed under Host Ports. Adding and removing VMware host ports is prohibited from SANsymphony Management Console. Ports must be configured from the VMware software.
  • Server ports in Front-end mode are added as targets to VMware host ports and are logged into automatically. After ports are logged in, the VMware host ports are rescanned to discover virtual disks. After the initial vCenter connection, target ports are no longer automatically added or logged into; therefore, host and target ports added after the initial connection must have targets manually added and logged into. (An alternative is to unregister and re-register the vCenter.)
  • vCenters, ESX Hosts, virtual machines, and hypervisor host ports that have been added in VMware vCenter Integration cannot be renamed in the SANsymphony Management Console.

To register a VMware vCenter:

  1. Right-click in the Hosts Panel and select Register VMware vCenter.

  2. The Register VMware vCenter dialog box will open. Enter the vCenter host name or IP address used to connect.
  3. In the vCenter Credentials area, enter the user name and password for the vCenter.

    Credentials must have, at a minimum, storage partition configuration privileges on all hosts in the vCenter to which storage will be served.

  4. Click Register.

After the vCenter is registered:

  • The configuration of the vCenter (Datacenters, VMware clusters, ESX servers, and virtual machines) is displayed in the Hosts Panel.

  • Information is collected and displayed in detail pages. A detail page is created for each vCenter, Datacenter, VMware cluster, VMware host, virtual machine, and host port. See Viewing Details below.

Unregistering VMware vCenters

When a VMware vCenter is unregistered, the vCenter is deleted from the configuration, but virtual disk paths to hosts remain in place. When a vCenter is unregistered, any VMware host that has virtual disks served to it will remain in the server group configuration and appear as a host in the Hosts Panel until all virtual disks are unserved from it, at which time that host will be unregistered.

To unregister a VMware vCenter:

  • In the Hosts Panel, right-click on the VMware vCenter and select Unregister VMware vCenter.

Serving Virtual Disks

Virtual disks are served to VMware hosts and virtual machines in the usual manner. When using the Serve Virtual Disk wizard, a special option will be available to create a Datastore on the virtual disk and choose the VMware path selection policy. When a datastore is created, the served virtual disk will be initialized and formatted with a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) on it. The datastore will span the entire virtual disk. The default path selection policy is Round Robin. If the virtual disk is served by the drag and drop method, Round Robin will be used. (See VMware documentation for information about path selection policies.) For ESX versions prior to 5.1, VMFS-3 (with 256 GB block size) is used, for 5.1 and later, VMFS-5 is used. Default values have been used for any other parameters. Creating a Datastore is only available when the host is managed by a registered VMware vCenter in the VMware vCenter Integration feature.

When a virtual disk is served to a VMware host, host ports are rescanned and the discovered LUN is renamed to match the virtual disk name. Also, if the virtual disk is renamed in the SANsymphony Management Console, the LUN will also be renamed on the VMware host and the name change will be reflected in the VMware vCenter Configuration tab.

Expected behaviors:

  • While virtual disks are served from a VMware host, that host will remain in the SANsymphony configuration, even if the VMware host is removed from the vCenter configuration. After all virtual disks are unserved from the VMware host, it will then be unregistered from the SANsymphony configuration. Hypervisor host settings for a DataCore Server are also saved in the configuration while virtual disks are served.
  • While virtual disks are served through a VMware host port, that port will remain attached to the host and displayed under Host Ports, even if the port is physically removed from the machine. After all virtual disks using that port are unserved, the removed port will be unassigned from the VMware host.
  • When a virtual disk is served to an ESX host, host ports are rescanned and the discovered LUN is renamed on the ESX host to match the virtual disk name. Note: Whenever a served virtual disk is renamed in the SANsymphony Management Console, the LUN will also be renamed on the ESX host and the name change will be reflected in the VMware vCenter Configuration tab. These actions, including setting path selection policy or creating datastores on newly served virtual disks, may take several minutes. Progress can be monitored in the Recent Tasks section of vCenter.
  • Virtual machine templates will be displayed in the Hosts Panel if a virtual machine with assigned ports is converted to a template.

Creating a Datastore

When a virtual disk is served to a VMware host using the Serve Virtual Disk wizard, a special option will be available to create a VMFS datastore on the virtual disk. When a datastore is created, the virtual disk will be initialized and formatted with a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) on it. The datastore will span the entire virtual disk. See the topic Serving Virtual Disks for complete instructions.

The Datastore is displayed per virtual disk in the Virtual Disks tab on the details page for the hosts and virtual machines (see the Datastore column). Datastore information is also provided per host or virtual machine in the Datastore tab on the details page.

Changing VMware vCenter Credentials

  1. In the VMware vCenter Details page, select the Settings tab.
  2. Enter the new user name and password and click Apply.

Replacing VMware vCenter IP Address

  1. Unregister the existing vCenter (virtual disks remain served to hosts).
  2. Register the vCenter with the new IP address

Changing Virtual Machine Settings

The multipath and ALUA support, and preferred server settings can be changed for the virtual machine. The multipath setting is enabled by default if sufficient ports exist.

  1. In the Virtual Machine Details page, at the top of the page, click Edit.
  2. Make the changes and click Done.

Management and Monitoring

VMware hosts, virtual machines, and host ports can be monitored in the SANsymphony Management Console in the usual manner. Messages and status is provided in the System Health tool, alerts, event log, and detail pages. Icons in the Hosts Panel for vCenters, ESX servers (VMware Hosts), VMware VMs, and host ports will indicate informational, warning and critical states.

Connection States

Connection states are provided for the vCenter, VMware host and virtual machine. States are reported in the details page under the icon.

If possible, states for VMware hosts and virtual machines are retrieved from the vCenter and displayed in the management console. Consult VMware documentation for more information on states.

If VMware hosts or virtual machines are not managed by a vCenter or the vCenter is disconnected, then the host connection state is reported by SANsymphony software.

vCenter Connection States

Reported by SANsymphony Software

Connecting - In the process of connecting to the vCenter.
Connected (synching) - This is a temporary transient state when the connection has been made to the vCenter, but vCenter data has not yet been received.

Connected - A successful connection has been made to the vCenter.

Not connected - The connection to the vCenter has been disconnected.

Viewing Details

After a vCenter is registered, information is collected and displayed in detail pages for the vCenter, clusters, Datacenters, ESX servers, virtual machines, and host ports (see Host Port Details for descriptions about host port information).

To open the detail pages:

  1. In the Hosts Panel, click on the object to open.
  2. Information is organized under tabs (described below).
VMware vCenter Details

Header

Displays full name of vCenter and product version.

The state is displayed under the icon.

The description of the object can be changed. To change, click Edit at the top of the page, make the changes and click Done. (The vCenter cannot be renamed.)

Settings tab

Credentials for the VMware vCenter can be changed.

Datacenters tab

Displays basic Datacenter information such as name, number of hosts, number of virtual machines and alarm actions setting as reported from the vCenter.

Virtual Machines tab

Displays basic virtual machine information such as name, state, provisioned storage space and used storage space.

Hosts tab

Displays basic host information for registered VMware hosts such as name, host state, number of virtual machines, and number of ports.
VMware Datacenter Details

Header

The description of the object can be changed. To change, click Edit at the top of the page, make the changes and click Done. (Datacenters cannot be renamed.)

Virtual Machines tab

Displays basic virtual machine information such as name, state, provisioned storage space and used storage space for virtual machines in the Datacenter.

Hosts tab

Displays basic host information for registered ESX hosts such as name, state, number of virtual machines, and number of ports for hosts in the Datacenter.

Datastores tab

Displays basic Datastore information such as name, total capacity, amount of free space for Datastores in the Datacenter.
VMware Cluster Details

Header

Displays vSphere High Availability (HA) status and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) settings from the cluster.

The description of the object can be changed. To change, click Edit at the top of the page, make the changes and click Done. (Clusters cannot be renamed.)

Virtual Machines tab

Displays basic virtual machine information such as name, state, provisioned storage space and allocated storage space for virtual machines in the cluster.

Hosts tab

Displays basic host information for registered ESX hosts such as name, state, number of virtual machines, and number of ports for hosts in the cluster.
VMware Host Details

Header

Displays basic information such as ESX software version, multipath and ALUA support settings.

The preferred server and description are displayed and can be changed. To change, click Edit at the top of the page, make the changes and click Done. (VMware hosts cannot be renamed.)

The state is displayed under the icon.

Virtual Disks tab

Lists all virtual disks that have been served to the host and associated information. Virtual disk information matches the information displayed in the Virtual Disks List, along with Datastore.

Right-click a virtual disk in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the virtual disk.

A link is provided to serve virtual disks to the host, see Serving Virtual Disks.

Ports tab

Lists all ports assigned to the host and general information: name, alias, status, mode (initiator, target, initiator/target, or unknown) and type (fibre channel or iSCSI).

Right-click a port in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the port.

Also see Host Port Details for information from the port perspective.

Virtual Machines tab

Displays basic virtual machine information such as name, state, provisioned storage space and used storage space for virtual machines on the host.

Datastores tab

Displays basic Datastore information such as name, total capacity, amount of free space for Datastores on the host.

Events tab

Lists events for the selected host. Click an event in the list to view details in the Message Text area at the bottom of the tab. See Event Log and Alerts.
Virtual Machine Details

Header

The name and operating system of the virtual machine is displayed.

The following settings are displayed and can be changed:

To change, click Edit at the top of the page, make the changes and click Done. (Virtual machines cannot be renamed in the console.)

The state is displayed under the icon.

Virtual Disks tab

Lists all virtual disks that have been served to the virtual machine and associated information. Virtual disk information matches the information displayed in the Virtual Disks List, along with Datastore.

Right-click a virtual disk in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the virtual disk.

A link is provided to serve virtual disks to the host, see Serving Virtual Disks.

Ports tab

Lists all ports assigned to the host and general information: name, alias, status, mode (initiator, target, initiator/target, or unknown) and type (fibre channel or iSCSI).

Right-click a port in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the port.

Also see Host Port Details for information from the port perspective.

Datastores tab

Displays basic Datastore information such as name, total capacity, amount of free space for Datastores that the virtual machine is using.

Events tab

Lists events for the selected host. Click an event in the list to view details in the Message Text area at the bottom of the tab. See Event Log and Alerts.