Virtual Disk Templates

In this topic:

About templates

Creating templates

Editing templates

Deleting templates

Viewing template details and list

Also see:

Creating Virtual Disks for instructions on creating virtual disks from templates.

About Templates

A virtual disk template is used to duplicate properties and settings in order to create virtual disks in a standardized fashion. The template contains all basic properties of a virtual disk, including storage sources to use, as well as settings for features and System Health thresholds. Templates can be used to create virtual disks that uniformly fulfill the requirements of applications they are intended to support.

Virtual disk templates are also used by the DataCore VASA Provider and DataCore Storage Management Provider in provisioning DataCore SANsymphony storage resources for virtual machines.

Creating Templates

Virtual disks created from a template will adopt all properties and settings in that template.

Templates are created with default values for virtual disk System Health thresholds. After templates are created, the thresholds, as well as other properties and settings, may be changed in the Virtual Disk Template Details page.

To create a virtual disk template:

1. In the Home tab of the ribbon, click Virtual Disk Templates.
2. In the Virtual Disk Template list, click Create Virtual Disk Template.

3. In the Create Virtual Disk Template dialog box, enter or select the following:
   1. Name of the template.
   2. Virtual disk prefix - enter the base name of the virtual disks.

      When creating multiple virtual disks; default names will be assigned beginning with the prefix entered and subsequent virtual disks will have a number appended to make the name unique in the server group. Numbers will be incremented by 1, skipping any names that already exist in the configuration. For instance, if the prefix entered is MirrorVdisk, names will be Mirror

   3. Description of the virtual disks. This field is optional.
   4. A custom tag for the virtual disk template. This field is optional.
   5. Write through enabled - select the check box to put virtual disks in write-through mode. (Write operations are written directly to the back-end storage and then acknowledged.)
   6. Redundant mirror paths - select the check box to create redundant mirror paths for mirrored virtual disks. Two mirror paths going in each direction between DataCore Servers will be created. Port paths are automatically selected.

      This setting requires each server to have two available FC or iSCSI ports with the mirror role enabled. (This setting is not available when system managed mirroring is enabled.)

   7. Select the Encryption check box to encrypt the virtual disk. See Encryption.
   8. Storage profile - the default setting is Normal, select a different storage profile, if required. (See Storage Profiles for more information.)
   9. Sector size - select either 512 B or 4 KB for Advanced Format. (See 4 KB Sector Support for more information.)
   10. Virtual disk size - enter the size of the virtual disks.
   11. Reserved space - the optional Reserved space field can be used to reserve space in the pool to be used exclusively for the virtual disks. The value entered is a percentage of the total disk size.

       For example if the virtual disk size is 100 GB and the reserved space is 50%, then 50 GB will be reserved in the pool for each virtual disk created from the template. Sufficient amounts of reserved space must be free (not in reclamation) in the pool in order to create the virtual disks. (See Disk Pools for more information on reserved space.)

   12. Under Capacity Optimization, select the Inline Deduplication and/or Inline Compression check boxes. See Inline Deduplication and Compression.
   13.  Storage sources
       1. For single virtual disks, select the first DataCore Server and first disk pool.
       2. For mirrored virtual disks, select the first and second DataCore Servers and the first and second disk pools. Mirrored virtual disks require two different storage sources from two DataCore Servers.
       3. For dual virtual disks, select the first and second DataCore Servers. These servers must share the same pool. Select the same shared pool for the first and second disk pool. Dual virtual disks require one storage source shared by two DataCore Servers.
   14. Expand Advanced Options to include settings for additional virtual disk features, if required.
       1. Preferred Snapshot Pool - select the DataCore Server and disk pool to use as the preferred pool when creating snapshots. (See Snapshot Operations for more information.)
       2. Sequential Storage (Random Write Accelerator) - select the check box to enable this feature. (See Sequential Storage for more information.)
       3. Continuous Data Protection - select the check box to enable this feature. (See Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for more information.)
          1. In DataCore Server, select the server on which the history log should reside.
          2. In Disk Pool, select the pool to use to create the history log.
          3. In Desired maximum history log size, set a desired value.
4. Click Create to complete the operation.

Editing Templates

Editing a template does not change the properties of existing virtual disks created from the template.

To edit a template:

1. In the Home tab of the ribbon, click Virtual Disk Templates.
2. In the list, double-click the template to edit.

   Alternatively, right-click on the template and select View Details.

3. In the Virtual Disk Template Details, click Edit in the upper-right corner.
4. Make changes to the template.
5. Click Apply.

Deleting Templates

Deleting a template removes the template from the configuration, but does not delete the virtual disks created from the template.

Templates in use by the DataCore VASA Provider are automatically set to read-only, prohibiting any changes to the template. Contact DataCore Technical Support for assistance in deleting a template associated with a VVOL.

To delete a template:

1. In the Home tab of the ribbon, click Virtual Disk Templates.
2. In the list, right-click the template to delete and select Delete from the context menu.

Viewing Template Details and List

To view a list of all templates in the configuration:

• In the Home tab of the ribbon, click Virtual Disk Templates to open the Virtual Disk Template list.

To view details of a virtual disk template:

• Double-click a template in the Virtual Disk Template list to open the Virtual Disk Template Details page.