IBM FlashSystem and VMware Implementation and Best Practices Guide

IBM FlashSystem and VMware Implementation and Best Practices Guide

by Vasfi Gucer, Duane Bolland, Nezih Boyacioglu, Jordan Fincher, David Green, Warren Hawkins, Ibrahim Alade Rufai, Leandro Torolho
Released February 2024
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738460864

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Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication details the configuration and best practices for using the IBM FlashSystem® family of storage products within a VMware environment. The first version of this book was published in 2021 and specifically addressed IBM Spectrum® Virtualize Version 8.4 with VMware vSphere 7.0. This second version of this book includes all the enhancements that are available with IBM Spectrum Virtualize 8.5.

Topics illustrate planning, configuring, operations, and preferred practices that include integration of IBM FlashSystem storage systems with the VMware vCloud suite of applications:


  • VMware vSphere Web Client (vWC)
  • vSphere Storage APIs - Storage Awareness (VASA)
  • vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI)
  • VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
  • VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC)
  • Embedded VASA Provider for VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols)

This book is intended for presales consulting engineers, sales engineers, and IBM clients who want to deploy IBM FlashSystem storage systems in virtualized data centers that are based on VMware vSphere.

Note: There is a newer version of this book: "IBM Storage Virtualize and VMware: Integrations, Implementation and Best Practices, SG24-8549". This book addresses IBM Storage Virtualize Version 8.6 with VMware vSphere 8. The new IBM Storage plugin for vSphere is covered in this book.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Figures
  3. Tables
  4. Examples
  5. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  6. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  7. Summary of changes
    1. October 2022, Second Edition
  8. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1 IBM and VMware
    2. 1.2 Overview of IBM Spectrum Virtualize and IBM FlashSystem
      1. 1.2.1 IBM Spectrum Virtualize
      2. 1.2.2 IBM FlashSystem
      3. 1.2.3 Key IBM Spectrum Virtualize terminology
      4. 1.2.4 Key VMware terminology
    3. 1.3 Overview of IBM FlashSystem with VMware
  9. Chapter 2. Host and storage connectivity
    1. 2.1 Test environment implementation
      1. 2.1.1 IBM FlashSystem host clusters
      2. 2.1.2 Use cases for implementing throttles
      3. 2.1.3 Data reduction pools
    2. 2.2 Host connectivity protocols
      1. 2.2.1 iSCSI
      2. 2.2.2 iSER
      3. 2.2.3 FC-NVMe
      4. 2.2.4 SCSI Fibre Channel
      5. 2.2.5 NVMe over Remote Direct Memory Access
    3. 2.3 Multi-path considerations
      1. 2.3.1 Native multipathing path-selection policies
      2. 2.3.2 High-performance plug-in and path selection policies
    4. 2.4 Zoning considerations
    5. 2.5 Recommendations for tuning ESXi hosts
  10. Chapter 3. Storage consumption
    1. 3.1 Data store types
      1. 3.1.1 vSphere Virtual Machine File System
      2. 3.1.2 Raw Device Mappings
      3. 3.1.3 VMware vSphere Virtual Volume
    2. 3.2 VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration
      1. 3.2.1 Atomic Test and Set / SCSI Compare and Write
      2. 3.2.2 Extended copy
      3. 3.2.3 WRITE_SAME
      4. 3.2.4 SCSI UNMAP command
  11. Chapter 4. Integrating with VMware by using IBM Spectrum Connect
    1. 4.1 Overview of IBM Spectrum Connect
      1. 4.1.1 Supported cloud interfaces
      2. 4.1.2 Installation considerations
      3. 4.1.3 Downloading and installing IBM Spectrum Connect
      4. 4.1.4 Initial configuration
      5. 4.1.5 Registering a Storage System into IBM Spectrum Connect
    2. 4.2 Understanding Storage Spaces and Storage Services
      1. 4.2.1 Creating Storage Services
      2. 4.2.2 Allocating capacity to Storage Services
      3. 4.2.3 Delegating Storage Services to vCenter
    3. 4.3 VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes
      1. 4.3.1 VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes overview
      2. 4.3.2 Configuring IBM Spectrum Virtualize to support vVols
      3. 4.3.3 Configuring IBM Spectrum Connect
      4. 4.3.4 Configuring VMware vSphere vCenter
      5. 4.3.5 Creating a vVol data store
    4. 4.4 Best-practice considerations and troubleshooting
      1. 4.4.1 Protecting the IBM Spectrum Connect server
      2. 4.4.2 Viewing the relationships between vVol and VM
      3. 4.4.3 Mirroring the utility volume
      4. 4.4.4 Performing an upgrade on a storage system with vVols enabled
      5. 4.4.5 Understanding audit log entries
      6. 4.4.6 IBM Spectrum Virtualize GUI
      7. 4.4.7 Metadata VDisk
      8. 4.4.8 Enabling debugging in IBM Spectrum Connect
      9. 4.4.9 Certificates
      10. 4.4.10 Prerequisites, limitations, and restrictions
    5. 4.5 IBM Storage Enhancements for VMware vSphere Web Client
      1. 4.5.1 Installating the vSphere plug-in
      2. 4.5.2 Provisioning storage from within vCenter
      3. 4.5.3 Using the IBM Storage Enhancements vSphere plug-in
      4. 4.5.4 Viewing more storage information from within the vSphere Client
    6. 4.6 Performing more storage volume management tasks
      1. 4.6.1 Considerations
    7. 4.7 IBM Storage Plug-in for VMware vRealize Orchestrator
      1. 4.7.1 Configuring IBM Spectrum Connect for VMware vRealize Orchestrator
      2. 4.7.2 Using vRealize Automation and VMware vRealize Orchestrator
    8. 4.8 IBM Storage Management Pack for VMware vRealize Operations Manager
      1. 4.8.1 Configuring IBM Spectrum Connect for VMware vRealize Operations Manager
      2. 4.8.2 Installing Management Pack in VMware vRealize Operations Manager
  12. Chapter 5. VMware and IBM Spectrum Virtualize multi-site guidelines
    1. 5.1 Copy Services overview
      1. 5.1.1 FlashCopy
      2. 5.1.2 Metro Mirror
      3. 5.1.3 Global Mirror
      4. 5.1.4 Remote copy consistency groups
      5. 5.1.5 VMware Site Recovery Manager
      6. 5.1.6 Storage Replication Adapter
    2. 5.2 Storage Replication Adapter with VMware Site Recovery Manager
      1. 5.2.1 Storage replication adapter planning
      2. 5.2.2 Storage Replication Adapter for VMware installation
      3. 5.2.3 Storage Replication Adapter configuration and usage guide
    3. 5.3 IBM HyperSwap with VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster
      1. 5.3.1 IBM HyperSwap
      2. 5.3.2 VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster
      3. 5.3.3 IBM HyperSwap with VMware vSphere Metro Storage
  13. Chapter 6. Embedded VASA Provider for Virtual Volumes
    1. 6.1 Overview
      1. 6.1.1 Supported platforms for the Embedded VASA Provider
      2. 6.1.2 Feature comparison between the Embedded VASA Provider and IBM Spectrum Connect
    2. 6.2 System prerequisites
      1. 6.2.1 Preparing IBM Spectrum Virtualize for vVol
      2. 6.2.2 Configuring the NTP server
      3. 6.2.3 Configuring a storage system certificate
      4. 6.2.4 Preparing Elastic Sky X integrated hosts for vVol connectivity
    3. 6.3 Enabling vVols by using Embedded VASA Provider
      1. 6.3.1 Parent pool
      2. 6.3.2 Child pool (vVol-enabled Storage Container)
      3. 6.3.3 Provisioning policy
      4. 6.3.4 Storage credentials
      5. 6.3.5 Registering the Storage Provider in vSphere
      6. 6.3.6 Creating the vVol data store
      7. 6.3.7 Provisioning more vVol data stores
    4. 6.4 Migrating from existing IBM Spectrum Connect vVol configurations
      1. 6.4.1 Supported migration path
      2. 6.4.2 VM migrations by using Storage vMotion
      3. 6.4.3 Removing the vVol IBM Spectrum Connect configuration from vCenter
    5. 6.5 Decommissioning IBM Spectrum Connect
      1. 6.5.1 Identifying and removing the vVol child pools for IBM Spectrum Connect
      2. 6.5.2 Removing the user account that is used by IBM Spectrum Connect
      3. 6.5.3 Migrating virtual machines to the vVol data store
  14. Chapter 7. IBM Storage Insights
    1. 7.1 IBM Storage Insights editions
    2. 7.2 IBM Storage Insights architecture
    3. 7.3 IBM Storage Insights Monitoring
    4. 7.4 IBM Storage Insights VMware integration
  15. Chapter 8. Troubleshooting
    1. 8.1 Collecting data for support
      1. 8.1.1 Data collection guidelines for SAN Volume Controller and IBM FlashSystem
      2. 8.1.2 Data collection guidelines for VMware ESXi
      3. 8.1.3 Data collection guidelines for VMware Site Recovery Manager
      4. 8.1.4 Data collection guidelines for IBM Spectrum Connect (VASA or vVols)
    2. 8.2 Common support cases
      1. 8.2.1 Storage loss of access
      2. 8.2.2 VMware migration task failures
  16. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  17. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM FlashSystem and VMware Implementation and Best Practices Guide
  • Author(s): Vasfi Gucer, Duane Bolland, Nezih Boyacioglu, Jordan Fincher, David Green, Warren Hawkins, Ibrahim Alade Rufai, Leandro Torolho
  • Release date: February 2024
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738460864