Monitoring VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration using esxtop and maintaining the status as enabled

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on determining the status of VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI) and monitoring VAAI operations statics using esxtop command.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Resolution

For more information on VAAI and to determine the status of the VAAI on a particular storage array, see Frequently Asked Questions for vStorage APIs for Array Integration (1021976) and vSphere Storage APIs - Storage Awareness FAQ (2004098).

The VAAI provides counters for these commands:

• ATS - Atomic Test & Set - HardwareAcceleratedLocking on Single Extent Datastore or on Multi Extent Datastore (SCSI code 0x89)
• Extended copy - HadwareAcceleratedMove (SCSI code 0x83)
• Write Same - HadwareAcceleratedInit or Zeroed out blocks (SCSI code 0x93 or 0x41)
• Block Delete - UNMAP (SCSI code 0x42)

For more information on ESXi 5.5, see Using esxcli in vSphere 5.5 to reclaim VMFS deleted blocks on thin-provisioned LUNs (2057513).

When using the esxtop command:

• press u to get the disk device view.
• press f, o & p to select VAAISTATS and VAAILATSTATS/cmd fields.

You see the different counters in the column heads which can be split into different categories:

• ATS - Atomic Test & Set
  
  ATS – The number of ATS commands successfully completed
  ATSF – The number of ATS commands failed
  AAVG/suc – The Average ATS latency per successful command
  AAVG/f – The Average ATS latency per failed command
  
  
• Extended Copy
  
  Clone_RD – The number of CLONE commands successfully completed where this device was a source.
  Clone_WR – The number of CLONE commands successfully completed where this device was a destination
  Clone_F – The number of failed CLONE commands
  MBC_RD/s – The megabytes of clone data read per second
  MBC_WR/s – The megabytes of clone data written per second
  AVAG/suc – The average clone latency per successful command
  AVAG/f – The average clone latency per failed command
  
  
• Write Same
  
  Zero – The number of ZERO commands successfully completed
  Zero_F – The number of ZERO commands failed
  MBZERO/s – The megabytes zeroed per second
  ZAVG/suc – The average zero latency per successful command
  ZAVG/f – The average zero latency per failed command
  
  
• UNMAP - Block Delete
  
  Delete – The number of successful DELETE commands
  Delete_F – The number of DELETE commands failed
  MBDEL/s – The rate at which the DELETE command getting processed which is measured in Megabytes per second

Additional Information

For more information on using VAAI, see VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP In Action.

For more information on esxtop 4.1 statistics, see Interpreting esxtop 4.1 Statistics.

Frequently Asked Questions for vStorage APIs for Array Integration
vSphere Storage APIs - Storage Awareness FAQ
Using the esxcli storage vmfs unmap command to reclaim VMFS deleted blocks on thin-provisioned LUNs
esxtop コマンドを使用して、 VAAI の監視および状態確認をする方法