Although the vSphere 7.0 U1 update didn’t have any major core storage features added, there are some enhancements and additional interoperability in the release.
VMware continues to enhance many of the prominent storage protocols to ensure performance and efficiency. We work closely with customers and partners to determine the most relevant and beneficial features or enhancements needed.
VMFS Enhancements
- We have optimized the SESparse snapshot process reducing bloat. When using thin VMDKs, there can be an increase in disk usage when consolidating snapshots and unmapping the deleted data. This optimizes the consolidation process.
- We have optimized the snapshot process reducing the stun time during snapshot creation and deletion. By updating the way the Affinity Manager updates Resource Clusters (RC), we have reduced snapshot creation and deletion stun times. We have also enhanced the reporting of the snapshot consolidation progress.
vVols 
Regarding interop, the most significant announcement was the support for vVols as principal storage in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). You can read more in the blog I wrote: vSphere 7 U1 Core Storage: vVols and VCF. Another interop with vVols is support has been added to Tanzu as well as CNS.
Regarding vVols itself, there have been a few enhancements.
- We have optimized VM migrations, SvMotion, for thin disks. This helps reduce the time required to migrate a VM to/from vVols datastores.
- Optimization of bind operations for vVols. When a VM using vVols is powered on, a bind operation occurs connecting the VM to its disks. If numerous VMs are powered on simultaneously, we convert the individual bind operations into batched operations. This reduces the number of API calls required, thus reducing the number of VASA calls freeing connections for other calls.
- We have also added VASA support for conveying CHAP secrets for authentication of iSCSI vVols.
NFS Enhancements
- For NAS VAAI, we enabled the ability to install VAAI NAS plugins without requiring a reboot.
- NVDK cloning of LZT disk would fail with unsupported disk type. We have updated the code to support all disk types.
pRDM extension with Microsoft WSFC
- We have validated the support for online disk/LUN expansion for pass-through RDM used with Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC).
NVMeoF
There are numerous customers using clustered applications; Oracle RAC for example. As NVMeoF continues to gain support, especially for database instances, we want to ensure we validate the various deployments.
- With vSphere 7 U1, we have extended support for Oracle RAC using NVMeoF targets.
Resources
- vSphere 7 U1 Storage
- VMware NVMe Concepts
- Requirements and Limitations of VMware NVMe Storage
- Raw Device Mapping
- Understanding VMFS Datastores
- vVols Resources
