Integrating VMware vVols (Virtual Volumes) and VLSR (VMware Live Site Recovery) with Pure Storage is essential for optimizing virtualized environments and enhancing disaster recovery capabilities. This blog post guides you through a Hands-on Lab experience that demonstrates how to achieve this integration, highlighting the key steps and benefits.
Exciting news! This lab will debut at VMware Explore Las Vegas from August 26 – 29, 2024, at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center. We encourage everyone to attend and experience it firsthand. For more details and to register, visit the VMware Explore registration page.
Additionally, the lab will be open to the public online here on September 3rd, 2024. Don’t miss this opportunity to get an early look and sign up here to be notified when they go live.
Lab Overview
Virtual Volumes (vVols) is an integration and management framework that virtualizes SAN/NAS arrays, enabling a more efficient operational model optimized for virtualized environments and centered on the application instead of the infrastructure. vVols simplifies operations through policy-driven automation that enables more agile storage consumption for virtual machines and dynamic adjustments in real-time. It simplifies the delivery of storage service levels to individual applications by providing finer control of hardware resources and native array-based data services at a granular level.
With Virtual Volumes (vVols), VMware by Broadcom offers a new paradigm in which an individual virtual machine and its disks, rather than a LUN, become a unit of storage management for a storage system. Virtual volumes encapsulate virtual disks and other virtual machine files and natively store the files on the storage system. This lab will guide you through the introduction, provisioning, and advanced features of vVols, focusing on their integration with VLSR and Pure Storage.
For more information about the Hands-on Labs Expert-led Workshop and Self-paced Labs, please visit the Hands-on Labs VMware Explore Catalog to explore the available sessions and register.
Module 1: Overview and Requirements – Higher Level Concepts
This module provides an overview of Virtual Volumes (vVols) and guides you through adding your first vVol to vCenter. You will also learn about the benefits of vVols and the requirements necessary to utilize VMware Virtual Volumes.
Key Takeaways:
- High-Level Concepts: Understanding the benefits and requirements of vVols and VLSR.
- Learning Outcomes: Foundational knowledge for implementing vVols and VLSR.
Module 2: Virtual Volumes Architecture – Exploring the Details
This module delves into the key components that enable Virtual Volumes.
Key Components:
- Virtual Volumes (vVols): Virtual machine objects created and stored natively on the storage array.
- Vendor Provider (VASA): Acts as a storage awareness service for vSphere.
- Storage Container: A pool of raw storage capacity and/or aggregation of storage capabilities.
- Virtual Datastore: Represents a storage container in a vCenter Server instance.
- Protocol Endpoints (PE): Logical I/O proxies used by ESXi hosts to communicate with virtual volumes.
Configuration Review: Setup and utilization of components in the lab environment, particularly with the Pure Storage FlashArray.
Module 3: Provisioning Virtual Volumes
Learn how Virtual Volumes are provisioned from end-to-end (Storage Array to vSphere) using the Pure FlashArray Simulator.
Steps:
- Storage Admin Steps: Configuring the Pure FlashArray, creating storage pods, and protocol endpoints.
- VI Admin Steps: Provisioning vVols in vCenter and connecting them to ESXi hosts.
This module ensures that your virtual machines have access to the storage resources they need, leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Pure Storage array. By following these steps, you can efficiently manage storage for your virtualized environments, ensuring high performance and scalability.
Module 4: Storage Policy-Based Management with Virtual Volumes
This module showcases the power of the Software-Defined Datacenter by creating and applying storage policies to a vVol-based virtual machine.
Array-Based Replication with Pure Flash Array:
- Replication Setup: Validate replication protection between two Pure Flash Arrays.
- SPBM Configuration: Create and utilize storage policies for managing replication schedules and other parameters.
This module demonstrates the effective use of Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) to automate and manage vVols. By applying storage policies to virtual machines, you can dynamically adjust storage characteristics without downtime, improving operational efficiency and responsiveness to changing application needs.
Module 5: Virtual Volumes Advanced – VLSR Integration and Failover
Integrating VMware Live Site Recovery (VLSR) with vVols using array-based replication.
VLSR and vVols Demo:
- Setup Steps: Create SPBM policies, validate replication, and configure VLSR.
- Failover Procedures: Demonstrate failover and recovery using VLSR with vVols.
This module focuses on configuring VMware Live Site Recovery (VLSR) with vVols, enabling granular protection and recovery of individual virtual machines. This ensures minimal data loss and quick recovery times in the event of a disaster, simplifying ongoing operations and maintenance.
Module 6: vVol Storage Vendor Partners
In this module, we discuss the role of storage vendor partners, specifically Pure Storage, in enhancing vVols capabilities.
Vendor Integration: Pure Storage plays a crucial role in the VMware vVol ecosystem by providing advanced storage solutions that seamlessly integrate with vVols. Their FlashArray offers high performance, reliability, and simplicity, making it an ideal storage solution for virtualized environments. By partnering with VMware by Broadcom, Pure Storage ensures that their storage arrays fully support vVols, providing the following benefits:
- Optimized Performance: Pure Storage arrays are designed to deliver high IOPS and low latency, ensuring that virtual machines perform optimally.
- Simplified Management: The integration with vVols allows for policy-driven automation, reducing the complexity of storage management.
- Enhanced Data Services: Pure Storage provides native array-based data services such as snapshots, clones, and replication, which can be applied at the VM level, offering more granular control and flexibility.
By leveraging the capabilities of Pure Storage, organizations can enhance their virtualized environments, ensuring that they are not only high-performing but also resilient and easy to manage.
Conclusion
This lab experience offers a comprehensive guide to integrating VMware vVols and VLSR with Pure Storage. By following the detailed steps provided in each module, you will gain hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of how to optimize your virtualized environments and enhance disaster recovery capabilities. Don’t miss the debut of this lab at VMware Explore Las Vegas from August 26 – 29, 2024, at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center. For more details and to register, visit the VMware Explore registration page.
The lab will be open to the public in mid-September, so seize the opportunity to get an early look and master the integration of VMware vVols and VLSR with Pure Storage. Additionally, the brand new labs will be available online here on September 3rd, 2024! Sign up here to be notified when they go live.
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