Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive

STO1965

Rawlinson Rivera, VMware, Inc Suzy Visvanathan, VMware, Inc

CONFIDENTIAL 2

Disclaimer •  This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development. •  This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these

features in any generally available product. •  Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or

sales agreements of any kind.

•  Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery. •  Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not

been determined.

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Agenda

1 Virtual Volumes: Introduction

2 High level Architecture

3 Data path

4 Managing Storage Capacity

5 Ensuring SLOs through policies

6 VM Objects – Virtual Volumes

7 Data Services

8 Making the transition to Virtual Volumes

9 Learn more

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The Software-Defined Data Center

Transform storage by aligning it with app demands

Management tools give way to automation

Expand virtual compute to all applications

Virtualize the network for speed and efficiency

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The Software-Defined Data Center

Transform storage by aligning it with app demands

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VMware Software-Defined Storage and Virtual Volumes

Policy-driven Control Plane

Virtual Data Plane

Virtual Datastores

Performance Mobility Data Protection

Virtual Data Services

Cloud Object Storage SAN / NAS

x86 Servers

6

•  Interface between apps and storage services •  Interprets VM-policies and composes service

•  Initial placement and on-going optimization

•  Abstraction and pooling = Storage container •  HW capabilities expressed to control plane

•  New storage tiers for data persistency

•  Applied to individual VMs •  Dynamically invoked by control plane

•  Array-based, 3rd party VA

Virtual Volumes

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Today’s Challenges in External Storage Architectures

Today

1. Create fixed-size, uniform LUNs

2. Lack of granular control

3. Complex Provisioning cycles

4. LUN centric storage configurations

û  Extensive manual bookkeeping to match VMs to LUNs

û  LUN-granularity hinders per-VM SLAs

û  Overprovisioning (better safe than sorry!)

û  Wasted resources, wasted time, high costs

û  Frequent Data Migrations

External Storage

vSphere

Array-a Array-b

LUN

LUN LUN

LUN LUN

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Goals of Virtual Volumes

•  Ability to express application (VM/VMDK) granular data services

•  Provide easy on-demand Capacity provisioning

•  Compliance Monitoring •  Ability to get most out of the

storage system

•  Easy Capacity management •  Meet VM SLOs •  Access Control and Security

VI admin

Storage admin

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Replication Snapshots Caching Encryption De-duplication

vSphere

External Storage Architectures with Virtual Volumes

External Storage without VVols External Storage with VVols

Policy based Management

Offloaded Data Services

Eliminates LUN Management

Provides Per-VM Granularity

datastore a

vSphere

Array-a Array-b

LUN

LUN LUN

LUN LUN

AND

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High Level Architecture

Published Capabilities

Snapshot

Replication

Deduplication

Encryption

Overview

•  No FileSystem

•  ESX manages Array through VASA (vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness) APIs.

•  Arrays are logically partitioned into containers, called Storage Containers

•  VM disks, called Virtual Volumes, stored natively on the Storage Containers.

•  IO from ESX to array is addressed through an access point called, Protocol Endpoint (PE)

•  Data Services are offloaded to the array

•  Managed through storage policy-based management framework

vSphere Storage Policy-Based Mgmt.

Virtual Volumes

Storage Policy

Capacity

Availability

Performance

Data Protection

Security

PE VASA Provider

PE

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VASA Provider (VP)

•  Software component developed by Storage Array Vendors

•  ESX and vCenter Server connect to VASA Provider

•  Provides Storage awareness services

•  Single VASA Provider can manager multiple arrays

•  Supports VASA APIs exported by ESX

•  VASA Provider can be implemented within the array’s management server or firmware

•  Responsible for creating Virtual Volumes

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider

Characteristics

Data Path

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Protocol Endpoints (PE) Why Protocol Endpoints? •  Separate the access points from the storage

itself

•  Can have fewer access points

What are Protocol Endpoints? •  Access points that enables communication

between ESXi hosts and storage array systems.

•  Part of the physical storage fabric

•  Created by Storage administrators

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider PE

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Protocol Endpoints (PE) Scope of Protocol Endpoints •  Compatible with all SAN and NAS Protocols:

-  iSCSI -  NFS v3 -  FC -  FCoE

•  A Protocol Endpoint can support any one of the protocols at a given time

•  Existing multi-path policies and NFS topology requirements can be applied to the PE

VASA Provider iSCSI/NFS PE

Virtual Volumes

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Protocol Endpoints (PE) Protocol Endpoint discovery process •  SCSI PEs are discovered during an ESX

rescan

•  NFS PEs are maintained as IP addresses or file paths

•  ESX will identify PE and maintain all discovered PEs in a database.

VASA Provider iSCSI/NFS PE

Virtual Volumes

Managing Storage Capacity

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Storage Container (SC) What are Storage Containers?

•  Logical storage constructs for grouping of virtual volumes.

•  Setup by Storage administrators

•  Capacity is based on physical storage capacity

•  Logically partition or isolate VMs with diverse storage needs and requirement

•  Minimum one storage container per array

•  Maximum depends on the array

•  A single Storage Container can be simultaneously accessed via multiple Protocol Endpoints

Virtual Volumes

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Storage Containers (SC)

Virtual Volumes

Snapshot Replication

vCenter

VASA Provider

Storage Container Discovery Process

•  Storage admin sets up Storage Container with desired capacity

•  Desired Capabilities are applied to the Storage Containers

•  VASA Provider discovers Storage Container and reports to vCenter

•  Any new VMs that are created will subsequently be provisioned in the Storage Container

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Differences between Storage Containers and LUNs •  Size based on array capacity •  Max number of SCs depend only on the array

ability •  Size of SC can be extended •  Can distinguish heterogeneous capabilities

for different VMs (Virtual Volumes) provisioned in that SC

•  Managed by VASA APIs

•  Fixed size •  Fixed size mandates more number of LUNs •  Needs a FileSystem •  Can only apply homogeneous capability on

all VMs (VMDKs) provisioned in that LUN. •  Managed by In-band FileSystem commands

Storage Containers

LUN

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Storage Container (SC)

Do I still need to create Datastores?

Storage Container vSphere Datastore

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Storage Container (SC)

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Storage Container (SC)

Storage capabilities

Storage policies

vSphere Web Client

Storage Management UI

Datastore

Storage Container What do the Admins see?

Ensuring SLOs through Policies

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Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) – Array Capabilities

Virtual Volumes APIs

Storage Policy-Based Mgmt.

CV

CV

CV

Storage admin

Publish Capabilities

•  Array based features and data services

•  Defines what an Array can offer

•  Advertised to ESX through VASA APIs

Sample Default Profile for (6090a058-cd89-ffe3-87763007db37] - capabilities

Disk Types

Disk Encryption

Dedupe

Replication

Snapshot

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Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) – VM Policies

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Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM)

VM Objects - Virtual Volumes

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Virtual Volumes – An Introduction •  Virtual Volumes

–  Virtual machine objects stored natively on the array storage containers.

–  No Filesystem on-disk formatting required

•  There are five different types of recognized Virtual Volumes: –  Config-VVol – Metadata –  Data-VVol – VMDKs –  Mem-VVol – Snapshots –  Swap-VVol – Swap files –  Other-VVol – Vendor solution specific

vSphere Web Client View

vvol

CONFIG

DATA

SWAP

MEM

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Virtual Volumes

Storage capabilities

Storage policies

vSphere Web Client

Storage Management UI

Virtual Machines Datastores

Virtual Volumes

Storage Container What do the admins need to get familiar with?

VVol VVol VVol

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Virtual Volumes

VM objects view from a storage container on an array VM objects view from a datastore

vSphere Web Client Storage Management UI vSphere Admin View Storage Admin View

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Virtual Volumes – Bind requests

•  IO path is established through a VASA Bind request

•  VASA Provider does two things upon receiving a Bind request

•  Returns a PE ID to which the VVol is bound •  A unique secondary ID to be used for IO

between the bound VVol and PE

•  For SCSI, the secondary ID is the secondary LUN ID

•  For NAS, the secondary ID is the file path

•  M:M Relationship between VVol and PE

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider

VVol

PE

VVol

Bind

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Virtual Volumes – Other Bind Scenarios

UNBIND

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider

VVol

PE

VVol

UNBIND

•  Delete binding of a VVol to the PE

•  VASA Provider may choose to delete a binding for several reasons

REBIND

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider

VVol

PE

VVol

PE

REBIND

•  Move VVols across different PE

•  VASA Provider may choose to issue a rebind for several reasons Eg., Load balancing

Data Services

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Snapshots •  Offloaded to Array •  Copy on write image of a Virtual Volume

•  Two type of snapshots supported: –  Managed Snapshot – Managed by ESX.

•  A maximum of 32 snapshot are supported for fast clones

–  Unmanaged Snapshot – Managed by the storage array.

Managed Snapshot - vSphere

Unmanaged Snapshot - Array

Piecing It All Together

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Virtual Volumes – The New De-facto Storage Paradigm

Capabilities

vSphere Storage Policy-Based Mgmt.

Virtual Volumes

VASA Provider PE PE

Making the Transition to Virtual Volumes

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Support by Broad Ecosystem Makes Transition Smooth

More than 20 VVOL

Partners

Partners Announcing

GA

Virtual Volumes in

Beta

And Many More…

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Migration Scenario: VAAI vs Virtual Volumes

VAAI & VASA API Compatible Array

vmkernel data mover use VAAI APIs

XCOPY /WRITE_SAME primitive for cloning

operation

2

vSphere

VMFS VVol

1

vSphere Admins

clone VM from VMFS to VVol container

Learn More…..

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Nimble Storage Array Group

vCenter

ESXi ESXi

VVols and SPBM in Nimble – Architecture Overview

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Learn More…….

STO1963 – Virtual Volumes Business Overview

STO 3163 – Virtual Volumes and Scalable Data Protection in a Software Defined Enterprise

STO3162 – Satisfy requirements of your application at the granularity of VVols (Nimble)

STO3246 – Scalable Virtual Volumes Storage Management with IBM XIV storage

STO3161 – What can Virtual Volumes do for you? (EMC)

STO2142 – Hypervisor & Storage QOS; Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together (SolidFire)

STO3247 – VVol Technical Preview with DELL storage

STO2554 – How Virtual Volumes will provide Shared Storage with X-ray vision (HP)

STO2752 – Deploying VVol with Hitachi Data Systems

VMware HP Netapp Dell EMC IBM HDS Nimble Tintri SolidFire Atlantis Computing SANBlaze

HOL-SPL-1429 VVol Tech Preview

Breakout Sessions Demos at Booth

Participate in Virtual Volumes Beta

Misc

Focused Sessions Engage with VMware

Engage with Vendors

Attend NDA sessions

Q&A

Thank You

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Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive

STO1965

Rawlinson Rivera, VMware, Inc Suzy Visvanathan, VMware, Inc

BACKUP

CONFIDENTIAL 50

Snapshots •  Snapshots are a point in time copy on write

image of a Virtual Volume with a different ID from the original

•  Virtual Volumes snapshots are useful in the contexts of creating: –  a quiesced copy for backup or archival purposes,

creating a test and rollback environment for applications, instantly provisioning application images, and so on

•  Two type of snapshots supported: –  Managed Snapshot – Managed by ESX

•  A maximum of 32 snapshot are supported for fast clones

–  Unmanaged Snapshot – Manage by the storage array •  Maximum snapshot dictated by the storage array

Managed Snapshot - vSphere

Unmanaged Snapshot - Array

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Fast Clone •  Fast‐clones are an out‐of‐band space

efficient cloning operations, performed exclusively on VMDKs –  performed on the same storage container using

the storage profile of the original virtual volume, or the profile specified

•  ESXi hosts guarantee not to issue any I/O to the source or destination virtual volumes during fast clone operations

•  Fast‐clones are similar to the snapshot operation with a few differences: –  There are no revert operations –  Space-efficient

vasa vendor provider

prepared for snap

progress update 1

progress update N

ready

create

acknowledge

vvol

DATA

Fast clone Snapshot Workflow

Read only to based VVol allowed

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Storage Policy Based Management – Array Capabilities Name Description Sample_Default_Profile for (6090a058-cd.. Default capability profile for storage

container

General Capability sets

Default Profiles Connectivity with Hosts

Protocol Endpoints

Sample Default Profile for (6090a058-cd89-ffe3-87763007db37] - capabilities

Disk Types

Disk Encryption

Dedupe

Replication

vmwareR vSphere Web Client

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clone VM from VVol container to different VVol container

vSphere Admins

vSphere

1

2

offload to array

3

Fully VAAI & VASA APIs Compatible Array

SC-A SC-B

always attempt default operation with VASA API primitives

If default operations fails VAAI API primitives are used

clone VM from VVol container to different VVol container

vSphere Admins

vmkernel data mover uses

VAAI primitives for cloning operation

vSphere

1

2

offload to array

3

Fully VAAI & VASA APIs Compatible Array

SC-A SC-B

default 1 fail back 2

vendor native clone utilized with VASA primitives

cloning operation

VAAI vs VVol

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