Where Does VMware Integration Occur?

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© Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Where Does VMware
Integration Occur?
vCenter Plugins, VAAI, and other
VMware Integration Points from EMC
Scott Lowe, VCDX #39
vSpecialist, EMC Corporation
Author, Mastering VMware vSphere 4
Blogger, http://blog.scottlowe.org

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Three Areas of Integration to Discuss
• vCenter integration
• Unisphere integration
• vStorage APIs for Array Integration

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vCenter Integration

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VMware-Storage Integration Points
FC/FCoE &
iSCSI
Array APIs/Mgmt
vCenter
VAAI SCSI cmds
ESX Storage Stack
Datamover
Vendor-specific Plug-In
e.g. EMC Virtual Storage
Integrator
View VMware-to-Storage relationships
Provision datastores more easily
Leverage array features (compress/dedupe,
file/filesystem/LUN snapshots
VI Client VM
Storage Array
VMFS NFS
NFS
client
Network
Stack
VMware LVM
HBA Drivers
VSS via VMware Tools
Snap request
SvMotion request
VM provisioning cmd
Turn thin prov on/off
Vendor-specific VAAI SCSI
command support
vStorage
API for
Multi-
pathing
NMP
Future NFS
offloads
NFS
NIC Drivers
vStorage API for Data
Protection (VDDK)
Vendor Specific
vStorage API for
SRM
SRM
VM-Aware
Unisphere
Co-op
Co
-
op

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vCenter Integration
• Effective vCenter integration needs to accomplish
two things:
– Bring storage information into the context of the VMware
administrator
– Help automate common storage tasks from within the
vSphere Client
• Current generation of plugins are separate for our
storage products
• Next generation of plugins will utilize a unified
framework for all storage products

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Demonstration:
vCenter Integration

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Unisphere Integration

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FC/FCoE &
iSCSI
Array APIs/Mgmt
vCenter
VAAI SCSI cmds
ESX Storage Stack
Datamover
Integrator
VI Client VM
Storage Array
VMFS NFS
NFS
client
Network
Stack
VMware LVM
HBA Drivers
Snap request
SvMotion request
VM provisioning cmd
command support
vStorage
API for
Multi-
pathing
NMP
Future NFS
offloads
NFS
NIC Drivers
Protection (VDDK)
Vendor Specific
vStorage API for
SRM
SRM
VM-Aware
Unisphere
Co-op
Co
-
op

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• Unisphere integration brings VMware information
into the context of the storage administrator
• Enables storage administrators to easily:
– Determine which datastore is hosted on a particular LUN
– See which hosts are associated to a LUN
– See which VMs are located on a LUN
– Examine the relationships between VM disks and LUNs
• Unisphere also enables “horizontal” (across EMC
products) integration, such as integration with
RecoverPoint

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Demonstration:

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vStorage APIs

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FC/FCoE &
iSCSI
Array APIs/Mgmt
vCenter
VAAI SCSI cmds
ESX Storage Stack
Datamover
Integrator
VI Client VM
Storage Array
VMFS NFS
NFS
client
Network
Stack
VMware LVM
HBA Drivers
Snap request
SvMotion request
VM provisioning cmd
command support
vStorage
API for
Multi-
pathing
NMP
Future NFS
offloads
NFS
NIC Drivers
Protection (VDDK)
Vendor Specific
vStorage API for
SRM
SRM
VM-Aware
Unisphere
Co-op
Co
-
op

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vStorage APIs
• The vStorage APIs are a group of related APIs
dealing with storage integration into VMware:
– vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP)
– vStorage APIs for Site Recovery Manager
– vStorage APIs for Multipathing
• New to vSphere 4.1 are the vStorage APIs for Array
Integration (VAAI), which enable new types of
storage integration

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vStorage APIs for Array Integration
• These APIs enable three new hardware offloads:
– Hardware-accelerated locking, also referred to as Atomic
Test and Set (ATS)
– Hardware-accelerated copy
– Hardware-accelerated zero
• Currently for block storage only (no NAS support)
• VAAI requires compliant storage array firmware
– FLARE 30 for Unified storage arrays
– Enginuity 5875 for Symmetrix VMAX arrays

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Hardware-Accelerated Locking
• Without API
– Reserves the complete LUN so that it
could obtain a lock
– Required several SCSI commands
– LUN level locks affect adjacent hosts
• With API
– Locks occur at a block level
One efficient SCSI command - SCSI
Compare and Swap (CAS)
– Block level locks have no effect on
adjacent hosts.
• Use cases
– Bigger clusters with more VMs
– View, Lab Manager, vCloud Director
– More & faster VM snapshotting

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Hardware-Accelerated Copy
• Without API
– SCSI Read (Data moved from array to host)
– SCSI Write (Data moved from host to array)
– Repeat
– Huge periods of large VMFS level IO, done
via millions of small block operations
• With API
– SCSI Extended Copy (Data moved within
array)
– Repeat
– Order of magnitude reduction in IO
operations
– Order of magnitude reduction in array IOps
• Use cases
– Storage vMotion
– VM creation from template
SCSI READ
SCSI READ
SCSI READ
..MANY times…
SCSI
EXTENDED
COPY
SCSI WRITE
SCSI WRITE
SCSI WRITE
..MANY times…
“let’s Storage
VMotion”
“let’s Storage
VMotion”
“Give me a VM
clone/deploy
from template”

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Hardware-Accelerated Zero
• Without API
– SCSI Write - Many identical small blocks of
zeroes moved from host to array for MANY
VMware IO operations
– Extra zeros can be removed by EMC arrays after
the fact by “zero reclaim”
– New Guest IO to VMDK is “pre-zeroed”
• With API
– SCSI Write Same - One giant block of zeroes
moved from host to array and repeatedly written
– Thin provisioned array skips zero completely (pre
“zero reclaim”)
• Use cases
– Reduced IO when writing to new blocks in the
VMDK for any VM
– Time to create VMs (particularly FT-enabled
VMs)
VMDK
SCSI WRITE (0000…..)
SCSI WRITE (data)
SCSI WRITE (0000….)
SCSI WRITE (data)
Repeat MANY times…
SCSI WRITE SAME (0 * times)
SCSI WRITE (data)

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Q&A

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THANK YOU

Where Does VMware Integration Occur?

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