vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
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Requirements<br />
To use the thin provision reporting feature, your host and storage array must meet the following requirements:<br />
n <strong>ESXi</strong> version 5.0 or later.<br />
n <strong>Storage</strong> array has appropriate firmware that supports T10-based <strong>Storage</strong> APIs - Array Integration (Thin<br />
Provisioning). For information, contact your storage provider and check the HCL.<br />
Space Usage Monitoring<br />
The thin provision integration functionality helps you to monitor the space usage on thin-provisioned LUNs<br />
and to avoid running out of space.<br />
The following sample flow demonstrates how the <strong>ESXi</strong> host and the storage array interact to generate breach<br />
of space and out-of-space warnings for a datastore with underlying thin-provisioned LUN. The same<br />
mechanism applies when you use <strong>Storage</strong> vMotion to migrate virtual machines to the thin-provisioned LUN.<br />
1 Using storage-specific tools, your storage administrator provisions a thin LUN and sets a soft threshold<br />
limit that, when reached, triggers an alert. This step is vendor-specific.<br />
2 Using the <strong>vSphere</strong> Client or the <strong>vSphere</strong> Web Client, you create a VMFS datastore on the thin-provisioned<br />
LUN. The datastore spans the entire logical size that the LUN reports.<br />
3 As the space used by the datastore increases and reaches the specified soft threshold, the following actions<br />
take place:<br />
a The storage array reports the breach to your host.<br />
b Your host triggers a warning alarm for the datastore.<br />
You can contact the storage administrator to request more physical space or use <strong>Storage</strong> vMotion to<br />
evacuate your virtual machines before the LUN runs out of capacity.<br />
4 If no space is left to allocate to the thin-provisioned LUN, the following actions take place:<br />
a The storage array reports out-of-space condition to your host.<br />
CAUTION In certain cases, when a LUN becomes full, it might go offline or get unmapped from the<br />
host.<br />
b The host pauses virtual machines and generates an out-of-space alarm.<br />
You can resolve the permanent out-of-space condition by requesting more physical space from the<br />
storage administrator.<br />
Identify Thin-Provisioned <strong>Storage</strong> Devices<br />
Use the esxcli command to verify whether a particular storage device is thin-provisioned.<br />
In the procedure, --server=server_name specifies the target server. The specified target server prompts you<br />
for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are<br />
supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with <strong>vSphere</strong> Command-Line Interfaces.<br />
Prerequisites<br />
Install vCLI or deploy the <strong>vSphere</strong> Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine. See Getting Started with<br />
<strong>vSphere</strong> Command-Line Interfaces. For troubleshooting , run esxcli commands in the <strong>ESXi</strong> Shell.<br />
Procedure<br />
Chapter 22 <strong>Storage</strong> Thin Provisioning<br />
u Run the esxcli --server=server_name storage core device list -d=device_ID command.<br />
<strong>VMware</strong>, Inc. 231