HP Solutions for vSphere Software E-Media Kit About 3PAR Vaai Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere

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3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 Users Guide

are typically implemented in-band from ESX to a disk array. ESX extensions to make use of these primitives are collectively referred to as vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI).

2.2 About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1

To keep up with new advances in cloud computing, enhanced capabilities are required by the SCSI layer stack so that SCSI can meet the demands of emerging virtualized infrastructures. There are currently a number of shortcomings that need to be solved:

VMs competing for the same resources. In cloud computing environments, competition for system resources can limit scalability and performance. While this resource contention is rarely an issue in smaller environments, large ESX or vSphere servers that can host tens if not hundreds of VMs may run up against these system scalability limits.

In these situations, the SCSI reservation bit locks a LUN when, for example, VMDK clones are made. This precludes large environments from putting large numbers of VMDKs on a single large LUN since other VMDKS on that LUN are negatively impacted waiting for a SCSI reservation to complete while a clone is made of that VMDK file.

Expediting the creation of VMware initiated VMDK clones. VMware also has the ability to create its own clones. However, this adds extra overhead to the ESX or vSphere underlying physical server's CPU, memory and network resources since the clone has to traverse the storage array, the host and then go back out to the storage array again.

Host overhead associated with zeroing out previously allocated space. vSphere includes the ability to zero out blocks of data when storage is allocated to a VM. By first zeroing out these blocks of data, it prevents the new VM from accidently accessing any of the data that may have been stored on that disk by a deleted VM that previously had access to it. However the new problem that results is that the newly created VM has to generate excessive amounts of write I/O and overhead on the physical host and network in order to zero out newly allocated blocks.

It is these storage specific issues that the vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) for vSphere

4.1and the latest release of 3PAR's InForm OS resolve. By adding three new SCSI commands to the standard SCSI command set, VMware and 3PAR provide virtualized data centers a more granular control for scaling virtualized infrastructures. Following are descriptions for these new commands.

2.2

About 3PAR VAAI Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1

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Contents 3PAR Vaai Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere 4.1 User’s Guide Reader Comments and Suggestions Table of Contents Troubleshooting Introduction This chapterOverview AudienceRelated Documentation For information about… Read the…Organization Typographical Conventions AdvisoriesTypeface Meaning Example ABCDabcd Advisories Overview and Features About VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration VaaiAbout 3PAR Vaai Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere Hardware Assisted Locking ATS Package Contents System RequirementsSupported 3PAR Inform OS Versions and Features 1 MU2 Yes BeyondSpecial Considerations Installation and Deinstallation Installing 3PAR Vaai Plug-in for VMware vSphereBefore You Begin Import the 3PAR Vaai Plug-in Package Click the Baselines and Groups tabClick the Update Manager tab Click Attach… From the Patches and Extensions section, click NextVar/log/vmware/esxupdate.log /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log Vicfg-hostops.pl --server servername -o enter Verifying the Installation Deinstalling 3PAR Vaai Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere Using the ESX Service Console for ESX hostEsxupdate remove -b 3PARvaaipInServ-110 --maintenancemode Deinstalling 3PAR Vaai Plug-in 1.1.0 for VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Installation Error Messages DescriptionMessage Message 3parvaai ERR Can not load 3PARvaaipInServ module Run Time Error Messages Message Message Message 3parvaaiINFO Device naa.50002ac0006500e8 3PARdataVV 3parvaaiINFO Device %s %.*s%.*s not supported Message 3parvaaiERR tpdclaimdeviceOut of memory claiming device %s 3parvaaiERR tpdclaimdeviceInquiry to device %s failed 3parvaaiERR initmoduleFailed to register vaaip plugin %s None Revision History Release level Revision summaryRH.2