Registering Spectrum Connect as a storage provider on vCenter server

To use the IBM® Storage Provider for VMware VASA solution component, you need to register Spectrum Connect as a storage provider on VMware vCenter server.

Before you begin

When the IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA and the IBM Spectrum Control storage provider, formerly known as IBM Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center (TPC), are registered on the same VMware vCenter server, while the same storage system is configured for both, vCenter uses IBM Spectrum Control provider as the only source of information for that system's storage views on vSphere Web Client.
In such a case, determine whether the IBM Spectrum Control capabilities are sufficient for replacing the IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA. If the IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA is still needed, IBM TPC 5.2.x provides a method of excluding storage systems from a specific storage provider, allowing you to remove the system association with the IBM TPC provider.
The date and time that are defined on both the vCenter server and on Spectrum Connect must be identical. To accurately synchronize the date and time between the two servers, you can connect both to a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server.

Note:

VMware VASA 2.0 is required for implementing virtual volume functionality.
For Spectrum Virtualize Family storage systems, pools used for VVol must have vdisk protection disabled, which it is by default.

About this task

The following procedure describes how to register Spectrum Connect on a single vCenter server by using vSphere Web Client.

Procedure

To register Spectrum Connect on VMware vCenter server, complete the following steps.

In vSphere Web Client, click vCenter > vCenter Servers, and click the vCenter server, on which you want to register the IBM storage provider.
On the Configure tab, click Storage Providers.
Click the plus sign to add a new storage provider.
Figure 1. vSphere Web Client – Storage Providers list

The New Storage Provider dialog box is displayed.

Enter the name, URL, and pre-configured username and password (VASA Secret) for accessing Spectrum Connect (the VASA Secret is predefined as explained in Setting the VASA credentials).

The URL should be entered in the ip:port format, specifying the relevant IP address and port number of Spectrum Connect:

https://[Spectrum Connect IP address]:8440/services/vasa1 for VASA 1.0
https://[Spectrum Connect IP address]:8440/services/vasa for VASA 2.0 and VASA 3.0

Note:

The hostname/IP address in the URL must match the common name, which is used, when generating an SSL certificate for the Spectrum Connect server. See Managing server certificates.
In this example, "Spectrum Connect IP address" stands for the IP address or domain namespace of Spectrum Connect.
You can change the default TCP port (8440) at any time by running a script, as explained in Changing the Spectrum Connect communication port.

This screen capture shows the vCenter New Storage Provider dialog box — Figure 2. New Storage Provider dialog box for VASA 2.0 / VASA 3.0

Click OK. A security alert dialog box is displayed.
Figure 3. vCenter certificate thumbprint dialog box
Click Yes to accept the certificate. Spectrum Connect is added to vCenter Server.

Note: The certificate provides improved security by adding server authentication.

If, during the registration process, you have an active Spectrum Connect instance, restart your web browser or refresh the Spectrum Connect GUI window to ensure the successful acquisition of the new server certificate.

Figure 4. Storage Providers list displaying Spectrum Connect

You can ensure continuous storage management by combining multiple Spectrum Connect instances, registered as storage providers, into high-availability groups. This process is described in Defining a high-availability group.

Note: Storage spaces and services defined on an active storage provider do not appear on the standby Spectrum Connect. The spaces and services become visible on the Spaces/Services pane of the Spectrum Connect GUI, when it becomes active after system failover.

What to do next

After Spectrum Connect is registered as a storage provider on vCenter server, you can start managing VMware storage resources on IBM storage systems via vSphere Web Client. Complete the following tasks, referring to the relevant VMware documentation for details.

Create a new VM storage policy to set requirements for the storage resources.

Note: During a VM storage policy creation, a VVol-enabled storage service is exposed as a capability value of the IBM Storage Service entry. This information is displayed in the storage container:storage system format.

Add a new datastore.

Note: A VVol container is created for a single storage system on a storage space. 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.

Create a new virtual machine on the datastore.