Virtual volumes

IBM® Spectrum Control Base Edition delivers comprehensive storage virtualization support that use VMware vSphere Virtual Volume (VVol) technology.

The VVol architecture, introduced in VMware VASA 2.0, preserves the concept of a traditional datastore, maintaining familiarity and compatibility with previous data storage implementations. However, the virtual disks in a VVol datastore can use different storage attributes (services), which includes thin/thick provisioning, snapshot support, encryption, and so on. Moreover, each VVol can be managed independently. VVol usage improves system scalability, ensures granular management, leverages hardware features and performance of storage systems at the VM level, providing complete end-to-end cloud solution. An additional entity, a storage space, includes one or more services, and can be assigned to different storage customers.

The IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA implements the VMware Virtual Volume API, providing an out-of-band management bridge between vSphere and the storage system. Out-of-band link separates the management path from the data path, which connects the ESXi servers to the virtual disks in a VVol datastore through a Protocol Endpoint (PE). Instead of presenting a LUN to the hypervisor and allowing an ESXi host to perform data operations, a storage system takes on itself a bulk of storage-related functions.

For instructions about how to configure a VVol-enabled storage service, see Creating a VVol-enabled service.