FAQ: VASA Provider version in VVOL

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

In a VVOL setup, although VASA Provider Version 3 is setup the vCenter side, the storage array sees these requests in VASA version 4

Environment

ESXi 7.0.x
VVOL

Cause

In ESXi 7.0.x, when a VASA Provider supporting VASA version greater than 3.5 has datastores mounted on this ESXi, the version is getting set as 4.0 by the host. This is because of current design by which the default maximum VASA version supported for the ESXi host is getting set to 4.0, which is causing the version in cookie to be 4.0.

vasa.log of the storage array is registering the following:
{Cookie=$Version=1;VASAVERSION=4.0;$Path="/";$Version=0;VASASESSIONID=#####-###_######_##_####_CT1_L;$Path="/vasa", SOAPAction="urn:spaceStatsForVirtualVolume", hostname=####-##-#####-ct1, User-Agent=gSOAP/2.8, client_verify=true, connection=close, content-type=application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8; action="urn:spaceStatsForVirtualVolume", Host=127.0.0.1:#####, remote_address=###.##.###.###, Content-Length=1629, accept-encoding=gzip,deflate}
Headers: {Cookie=$Version=1;VASAVERSION=4.0;$Path="/";$Version=0;VASASESSIONID=#####-###_######_##_####_CT1_L;$Path="/vasa", SOAPAction="urn:bindVirtualVolume", hostname=####-##-#####-ct1, User-Agent=gSOAP/2.8, client_verify=true, connection=close, content-type=application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8; action="urn:bindVirtualVolume", Host=127.0.0.1:#####, remote_address=###.##.###.##, Content-Length=1789, accept-encoding=gzip,deflate}

Resolution

This is a non-issue as ESXi will not invoke any NVMe related APIs, only the version would get registered as being 4.0.

Additional Information

VASA version history:

Vasa Version\vsphere version	vsphere 6.5	vsphere 7.0	vsphere 7.0u3	vsphere 8.0	vsphere 8.0u1	vsphere 8.0u3
VASA 6.0	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	Supported
VASA 5.0	NA	NA	NA	NA	Supported	Supported
VASA 4.0	NA	NA	NA	Supported	Supported	Supported
VASA 3.5	NA	NA	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported
VASA 3.0	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported
VASA 2.0	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported