Creating a VVol-enabled service on XIV storage systems

The IBM Spectrum Connect features a comprehensive storage virtualization support, using VMware Virtual Volume (VVol) technology.

1. Launch the XIV management GUI and log in as a storage administrator.
2. Create a domain with required soft and hard capacity. Make sure that the soft capacity is four times larger than the hard capacity.
3. For XIV and Spectrum Accelerate storage systems, define a user with category storageintegrationadmin.
4. Associate the storageintegrationadmin user with the domain.
5. Associate all ESXi hosts with the domain.

   Important: The managed domain that you created cannot be used for traditional volumes without virtualization. You must create a separate regular domain for them. This domain must have the same user and the ESXi hosts that you intend to manage. However, you need to create a separate storage resource and a new service on the regular domain via Spectrum Connect for subsequent use by the VMware vWC.

6. Launch the XIV XCLI tool.
7. Enable the metadata service for the XIV, using the metadata_service_enable command.
8. Close the he XIV XCLI tool and return to the XIV management GUI.
9. Change the storage administrator user to storageintegrationadmin user and re-launch the XIV XCLI tool
10. Create a new Administrative Logical Unit (ALU) per each ESXi host. Use the following XCLI format:
    alu_create alu=<alu-name> host=<host-name> lun=logical-unit-number.
    Make sure that the LUN is in the 512–755 range.
11. Launch Spectrum Connect.
12. Configure a fully qualified domain name for the Spectrum Connect server and define a high-availability group. See Defining a high-availability group.
13. Generate a self-signed Spectrum Connect server certificate. See Managing server certificates.
14. Set up VASA credentials. See Setting the VASA credentials.
15. Enable the storageintegrationadmin to access the XIV storage resources. See Entering the storage system credentials.
16. Add the XIV storage system to the Spectrum Connect. See Adding a storage system.
17. Add a new storage space. See Adding a storage space.
18. Add a VVol-enabled service to the storage space. See Adding a storage service.
19. Define a storage resource and attach it to the VVol-enabled service. See Defining and attaching storage resources.
20. Register Spectrum Connect as a storage provider on VMware vCenter server. See Registering Spectrum Connect as a storage provider on vCenter server.
21. Launch the vWC and create a VVol-enabled datastore. Select the storage space that you defined as an underlying storage resource for the datastore.

    Note: The storage space is presented as a combination of a VVol container and a storage system. For example, storage space A and storage system A are visible as container 1; storage space A and storage system B are visible as container 2. This information is displayed in the storage container:storage system format.