Vcap-Dca, Objective 1.1 - Commands And Steps

Front 1

Configure DirectPath I/O on Host

Back 1

Networking Guide, pages 41-42

1. Select host.
2. Click on Configuration tab.
3. Click Advanced Settings.
4. Click Configure Passthrough
5. Select an available passthrough device that is green from the list (orange indicates that the device state has changes and the host must be rebooted).
6. Click OK.
7. Reboot the host.

Front 2

Configure PCI passthrough device on a Virtual Machine

Back 2

Virtual Machine Administration, pages 79, 109, 144-145

1. Select virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
2. On the Hardware tab, click Add.
3. Select PCI Device and click Next.
4. Select the passthrough device to use and click Next.
5. Click Finish.

Front 3

Configure NPIV

Back 3

Storage Guide, pages 43-44

1. Select virtual machine you want to add NPIV to (VM must be powered off, and must have an RDM).
2. Click the Options tab.
3. Select Fibre Channel NPIV.
4. Uncheck "Temporarily Disable NPIV"
5. Select "Generate new WWNs"
6. Select the number of WWNNs (number of WWPNs will change to match).
NOTE: Two WWN pairs required for NPIV redundancy.
7. Click OK

Front 4

Disable Host Registration: GUI

Back 4

Storage Guide, page 60

From Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters

1. Select Host
2. Click on Configuration tab
3, Under Software, click on Advanced Settings
4. Click on Disk in the left-hand pane.
5. In the right-hand pane, scroll down to find Disk.EnableNaviReg
6. Set this value to 0

Front 5

Disable Host Registration: CLI

Back 5

esxcli system settings advanced set -i=0 -o"/Disk/EnableNaviReg"

Front 6

Increase Max NFS Volumes: GUI

Back 6

From Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters

1, Select Host.
2. Click on Configuration tab.
3. Under Software, click on Advanced Settings
4. Click on NFS in the left-hand pane.
5. In the right-hand pane, scroll down to find NFS.MaxVolumes
6. Set a value
7. Next, in the left-hand pane, click on Net
8. In the right-hand pane, scroll down to find Net.TcpipHeapSize.
9. Set a value.
10. Click OK

Increase heap size to 30 MB for up to 32 mount points. Any higher than that, increase the heap size to 32 and the "TcpipHeapMax" to 128.

Front 7

Increase Max NFS Volumes: CLI

Back 7

esxcli system settings advanced set -i=32 -o"/NFS/MaxVolumes"

esxcli system settings advanced set -i=30 -o"/Net/TcpipHeapSize"

Increase heap size (TcpipHeapSize) to 30 MB for up to 32 mount points. Any higher than that, increase the heap size to 32 and the "TcpipHeapMax" to 128.

Front 8

Configure vCenter Server Storage Filters

Back 8

Storage Guide, pages 125 - 126

1. Click on Administration -> vCenter Server Settings.
2. Click on Advanced Settings
3. At the bottom of the window add in the Filter key you wish to modify and set to "false" to disable.

Front 9

Storage Filters: vmfsFilter

Back 9

Storage Guide, pages 125 - 126

Advanced Settings Key:
config.vpxd.filter.vmfsFilter

Filters out storage devices, or LUNs that are already used by VMFS datastores on any host managed by vCenter Server.

The LUNs do not show up as candidates to be formatted with another VMFS datastore, or to be used as an RDM.

Front 10

Storage Filters: rdmFilter

Back 10

Storage Guide, pages 125 - 126

Advanced Settings Key:
config.vpxd.filter.rdmFilter

Filters out LUNs that are already referenced by an RDM on any host managed by vCenter server.

The LUNs do not show up as candidates to be formatted with VMFS or to be used by a different RDM.

Front 11

Storage Filters: SameHostAndTransportsFilter

Back 11

Storage Guide, pages 125-126

Advanced Settings Key:
config.vpxd.filter.SameHostAndTransportsFilter

Filters out LUNs ineligible for use as VMFS datastore extents because of host or storage type incompatibility.

Prevents you from adding the following LUN types as extents:
-LUNs not exposed to all hosts that share the original VMFS datastore.
-LUNs that use a storage type different from the one the original VMFS datastore uses (you cannot add a Fibre Channel extent to a VMFS datastore on a local storage device, for instance).

Front 12

Storage Filters: hostRescanFilter

Back 12

Storage Guide, pages 125 - 126

Advanced Settings Key:
config.vpxd.filter.hostRescanFilter

Automatically rescans and updates VMFS datastores after you perform datastore management operations.

NOTE: If you present a new LUN to a host or cluster, the hosts automatically perform a rescan no matter whether you have the Host Rescan Filter on or off.

Front 13

Add a MASK_PATH claimrule

Back 13

Storage Guide, pages 169-170

1. Check what the next available rule ID is:

esxcli storage core claimrule list

2. Find the volume label and UUID for the LUN you want to mask:

esxcli storage vmfs extent list

3. Find and record the path information for the UUID obtained in Step 2:

vicfg-mpath -L | grep 'UUID'

(for this example, we'll say it's vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)

4. Unmount the VMFS datastore volume

esxcli storage filesystem unmount -l <volume label>

5. Add a claimrule, using the next available claimrule number obtained in Step 1 (we'll use 110) and the path information obtained in Step 3 (vmhba33:C0:T0:L0):

esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 110 -t location -A vmhba33 -C 0 -T 0 -L 0 -P MASK_PATH

6. Verify that the claimrule (110) is in the list:

esxcli storage core claimrule list

7. If the rule is in the list, load the claimrule

esxcli storage core claimrule load

8. Disassociated the path from the existing plugin and associate it with the new MASK_PATH plugin

esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t location -A vmhba33 -C 0 -T 0 -L 0

9. Run the claimrule

esxcli storage core claimrule run

10. Perform a rescan

esxcli storage core adapter rescan -A vmhba33

Front 14

Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements

Back 14

Use vscsiStats

1. List VMs (World) and disks (Handle IDs)

vscsiStats -l

2. Start stats collection (runs for 30 minutes by default):

vscsiStats -s -w <World ID> -i <Handle ID>

or, for all disks:

vscsiStats -s -w <World ID>

3. Export histogram to be analyzed

vscsiStats -p <histogram type> -w <World ID> -c > out.csv

NOTE: histogram types are:
- all
- ioLength
- seekDistance
- outstandingIOs
- latency
- interarrival

4. Stop collection and purge output data

vscsiStats -x

Front 15

Identify and tag SSD devices

Back 15

Storage Guide, pages 144-148

1. Identify and record device UUID and SATP

esxcli storage nmp device list

2. Add PSA rule using UUID and SATP

esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA -d "UUID" -o enable_ssd

3. Load claimrule

esxcli storage core claimrule load

4. Run unclaim

esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t device -d "UUID"

5. Run claimrule

esxcli storage core claimrule run

Front 16

Administer hardware acceleration for VAAI

Back 16

Storage Guide, pages 174-181

1. Determine the volume label and UUID of the device you want to configure hardware acceleration on:

esxcli storage vmfs extent list

2. Display hardware acceleration plug-ins and filter
esxcli storage core plugin list -N VAAI
esxcli storage core plugin list -N Filter

3. Verify hardware acceleration support status on device:

esxcli storage core device list -d "UUID"
(ensure the line "VAAI Status" shows "supported")

4. Verify Hardware Acceleration support details:

esxcli storage core device vaai status get -d "UUID"

5. Add Hardware Acceleration claim rules

Filter Claimrule:
esxcli storage core claimrule add -c Filter -P VAAI_FILTER -t vendor -V <vendor name> -u

VAAI Claimrule:
esxcli storage core claimrule add -c VAAI -P <VAAI plugin name> -t vendor -V <vendor name> -u

6. Load the claimrules
esxcli storage core claimrule load -c Filter
esxcli storage core claimrule load -c VAAI

7. Run the claimrules
esxcli storage core claimrule run -c Filter
esxcli storage core claimrule run -c VAAI

Front 17

Configure profile-based storage: Enable VM Storage Profiles

Back 17

Storage Guide, pages 197-203

From the Home menu in vCenter:

1. Click on VM Storage Profiles
2. Click on Enable VM Storage Profiles
3. Enable Licensed Hosts/Clusters

Front 18

Configure profile-based storage: Manage Storage Capabilities

Back 18

Storage Guide, pages 197-203

From the Home menu in vCenter:

1. Click on VM Storage Profiles.
2. Click on Manage Storage Capabilities
3. Click on the Add button
4. On the Add Storage Capability screen, define a storage capability.

Front 19

Configure profile-based storage: Create VM Storage Profile

Back 19

Storage Guide, pages 197-203

From the Home menu in vCenter:

1. Click on VM Storage Profiles.
2. Click on Create New VM Storage Profile
3. Give the VM Storage Profile a name and click Next.
4. On the next page, associate the VM Storage Profile with a defined storage capability.
5. Click Next and click Finish.

Front 20

Configure profile-based storage: Associate Storage Capability with Datastore

Back 20

Storage Guide, pages 197-203

From Inventory -> Datastores and Datastore Clusters

1. Select a datastore.
2. Right-click on the datastore and select "Assign User-Defined Storage Capability"
3. Select the storage capability from the drop-down list and click OK.

Front 21

Configure profile-based storage: Apply storage profile to VM

Back 21

Storage Guide, pages 197-203

From Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters

1, Select the VM you want to apply the storage profile to.
2. Right-click and select Edit Settings on the VM.
3. Click on the Profiles tab.
4. Set the VM storage profile for home and propagate to disks, or set the VM storage profile for each disk.
5. Click OK.

Front 22

Prepare storage for maintenance (unmounting): GUI

Back 22

Storage Guide, page 128

From Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters

1. Select a host.
2. Click on the Configuration tab.
3. Under Hardware, click on Storage.
4. Select the datastore you want to unmount.
5. Right click and select unmount.
6. Validate all checks pass and hit OK.

Front 23

Prepare storage for maintenance (unmounting): CLI

Back 23

esxcli storage filesystem unmount -l <volume label>

Front 24

Upgrade VMware Storage Infrastructure: GUI

Back 24

Storage Guide, pages 120-122

From Inventory -> Hosts and Clusters
1. Select Host.
2. Click on Configuration tab.
3. Click on Storage.
4. Find and click on VMFS 3 datastore.
5. Below datastores, click on "Upgrade to VMFS-5"
6. Once completed, rescan all hosts

Front 25

Upgrade VMware Storage Infrastructure: CLI

Back 25

esxcli storage vmfs upgrade <volume label>