vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware

n Alarms indicate a change in storage system availability. For example, when you use profile-based storage
management, you can specify virtual machine storage requirements. When changes to underlying storage
occur that might violate the storage requirements of the virtual machine, an alarm gets triggered.
For more information about events and alarms, see the vSphere Monitoring and Performance documentation.
Thin-provisioned LUNs have special reporting requirements. For information about space monitoring on thinprovisioned
LUNs, see “Array Thin Provisioning and VMFS Datastores,” on page 230.
Register Vendor Providers in the vSphere Client
To establish a connection between the vCenter Server and a vendor provider, you must register the vendor
provider.
Prerequisites
Verify that the vendor provider component is installed on the storage side and obtain its credentials from your
storage administrator.
Use the vSphere Client to connect to the vCenter Server system.
Procedure
1 Select View > Administration > Storage Providers.
2 Click Add.
3 In the Add Vendor Provider dialog box, type connection information for the vendor provider, including
the name, URL, and credentials.
4 (Optional) To direct the vCenter Server to the vendor provider certificate, select the Use Vendor Provider
Certificate option and specify the certificate's location.
If you do not select this option, the vSphere Client displays a thumbprint of the certificate. You can check
the thumbprint and approve it.
5 Click OK to complete the registration.
The vCenter Server has registered the vendor provider and established a secure SSL connection with it.
Securing Communication with Vendor Providers
Chapter 23 Using Storage Vendor Providers
To communicate with a vendor provider, the vCenter Server uses a secure SSL connection. The SSL
authentication mechanism requires that both parties, the vCenter Server and the vendor provider, exchange
SSL certificates and add them to their truststores.
The vCenter Server can add the vendor provider certificate to its truststore as part of the vendor provider
installation. If the certificate is not added during the installation, use one of the following methods to add it
when registering the vendor provider:
n Direct the vCenter Server to the vendor provider certificate. In the Add Vendor Provider dialog box, select
the Use Vendor Provider Certificate option and specify the certificate's location.
n Use a thumbprint of the vendor provider certificate. If you do not direct the vCenter Server to use the
provider certificate, the certificate thumbprint is displayed. You can check the thumbprint and approve
it. The vCenter Server adds the certificate to the truststore and proceeds with the connection.
The vendor provider adds the vCenter Server certificate to its truststore when the vCenter Server first connects
to the provider.
VMware, Inc. 237