VMware vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA): First experience…

Recently I started to work with VMware vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) for the first time. It operates nicely, however using Eager Zeroed Thick disks can take quiet some time depending on the size. Lazy Zeroed Thick & Thin provisioned disks don’t have that much difference with a stand-alone ESXi server installed on the same hardware. This a quiet important thing to know when you start working with it: if it takes time, just sit back and relax.

Also when performing P2V operations, this is important. I did the P2V operations 1 server on each ESXi host to it’s proper datastore, this worked well in the setup.

Regarding the installation: that’s easy! I recommend the command-line installation as it will give you more detailed information if it fails. Also don’t configure too much yourself on the ESXi hosts, just perform a setup, complete the TCP/IP for the service console and stuff, but do not add any vSwitches or anything, the setup of VSA will handle it. Also make sure you have only 1 datastore on each ESXi host before running the installer. You can change checks during the installation, but it’s not supported by VMware though.

One thing I do recommend during the installation is to format disks immediately. This will improve your performance afterwards.

Uninstall is also so easy to to (in case your performing some testing): run a batch file with credentials and that’s it! 1 thing though, you probably need to execute the command "set JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\jre" before running the cleanup.bat script.

Install.exe command example: install.exe -u root -p password -ez -si 172.16.16.181 -ei 172.16.16.178 172.16.16.179 -nh -bs 192.168.201.1

Location cleanup.bat: %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\Infrastructure\tomcat\webapps\VSAManager\WEB-INF\test\tool\

Install.exe /? :

usage: java ScriptedInstaller [-bn <arg>] [-bs <arg>] [-bv <arg>] [-ei <arg>]

[-ez] [-fv <arg>] [-nh] [-o <arg>] -p <arg> [-po <arg>] [-si <arg>] -u

<arg> [-vn <arg>] [-vs <arg>] [-vv <arg>]

Arguments:

-bn,–backendNetmask <arg> the netmask for backend network, optional

-bs,–backendStartIP <arg> the start IP for baeckend network, optional

-bv,–backendVlanId <arg> the vlanId for VSA backend network, optional

-ei,–esxIPs <arg> the IP address of the hosts, array of 2 or 3,

optional

-ez,–eagerZero format disks immediately, optional

-fv,–frontendVlanId <arg> the vlanId for frontend network, optional

-nh,–notConfigHACluster not configurate HA cluster, optional

-o,–ovfUrl <arg> the URL of the ovf files

-p,–esxPass <arg> the password of the hosts

-po,–httpsPort <arg> the HTTPS port of the vCenter, optional

-si,–startIP <arg> the first IP in the range used by VSA cluster,

optional

-u,–esxUser <arg> the username of the hosts

-vn,–vmotionNetmask <arg> the netmask for vmotion network, optional

-vs,–vmotionStartIP <arg> the start IP for vmotion network, optional

-vv,–vmotionVlanId <arg> the vlanId for vmotion network, optional

 

Removing a vSphere Storage Appliance cluster
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004838

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance
http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/vsphere-storage-appliance/overview.html

VMware vSphere Blog – vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) ) Introduction
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/08/new-enhanced-vsphere-50-storage-features-part-4-vsphere-storage-appliance.html

RAID10 requirement for vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) relaxed!
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/01/raid10-requirement-for-vsphere-storage-appliance-vsa-relaxed.html

A closer look at VMware’s Virtual Storage Appliance 1.0 (VSA)
http://virtualeverything.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/a-closer-look-at-vmwares-virtual-storage-appliance-1-0-vsa-part-1/