Configuring SQL-dedicated datastores in vCenter Server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Datastores and underlying hardware can be configured in ways that are optimal for certain types of VM's to run on them. This can increase performance, availability, or other desirable capabilities.

In this spirit, datastores can be reserved for specific VM's using tags, categories, and storage policies.

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

Use tags, categories and storage policies to ensure certain datastores are only used by certain VM's.

In example, to configure a group of datastores to only be usable by VM's that are running SQL:

1) Create a new category named "VM Type"

   - for Cardinality, select "One tag per object"

   - for Associable Object Types, select "Datastore", "Datastore Cluster", and "Virtual Machine"

2) Create a new tag with key "VM TYPE" and a value of "SQL".

3) Tag the desired datastores and VM's with the VM TYPE SQL tag.

4) Create a new Storage Policy

   - in the Policy Structure, select "Enable tag based placement rules" under Datastore specfic rules

   - in Tag based placement, under Rule 1, select "VM Type" as the tag category, and "SQL" as the tag value

   - the tagged datastore(s) should be viewable in the Compatible Datastores view. Select one of the datastores listed.

   - Save the Storage Policy

5) Edit the VM's tagged earlier so that their virtual disks use the new Storage Policy.