vSphere Storage DRS or vSphere Storage I/O Control support in a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster environment

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes supported configurations for vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) environments relating to vSphere Storage DRS (SDRS) and vSphere Storage I/O Control (SIOC).

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

In a vMSC configuration, volumes are distributed across locations or sites. VMware supports Storage DRS in uniform and non-uniform configurations with restrictions, these restrictions apply:

• SIOC is not supported.
• SDRS is only supported when the IO Metric function is disabled.
• To control what point in time the migrations occur, run SDRS in Manual Mode.
• Each location or site needs a datastore cluster formed from stretched datastores and with site bias to that particular location or site.
   
  • For example:
    
    Site A has Datastore Cluster A, which contains all stretched datastores with bias to Site A.

Additional Information

For more information on vMSC solutions, see:

• vSphere 5.x support with NetApp MetroCluster (2031038)
• Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (2032346)
• Implementing VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) using EMC VPLEX (2007545)
• Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using HP LeftHand Multi-Site (2020097)