Dell PowerStore 3000X EMC PowerStore Virtualization Infrastructure Guide - Page 6

2 Overview Topics: • PowerStore virtualization terminology • Virtualization architecture and configuration • Working with virtual resources PowerStore virtualization terminology PowerStore clusters use a specific implementation of virtualization concepts that are based in a VMware vSphere framework. PowerStore T model and PowerStore X model appliances are both designed to be integrated with VMware vSphere. These integrations include: ● vCenter Server ● Virtual machines ● Virtual volumes ● Protocol Endpoints ● VASA provider ● Storage containers ● Storage Policy Based Management vCenter Server A vCenter Server must be registered in PowerStore Manager to enable virtual machine (VM) discovery, monitoring, and snapshot management. When a vCenter Server is connected to a PowerStore cluster, PowerStore Manager can be used to monitor VM attributes, capacity, storage and compute performance, and virtual volumes. ● On a PowerStore X model cluster, a connection to an existing vCenter Server is required and it is part of the initial system configuration. ● On a PowerStore T model cluster, a connection to a vCenter Server is optional. To connect an existing vCenter Server to a PowerStore T model cluster, use vCenter Server to register the PowerStore T model appliance as a VASA provider. Then, set up the connection to the vCenter Server in PowerStore Manager Virtual machines VMs that are stored on vVol datastores in a PowerStore cluster are automatically discovered and displayed in PowerStore OS. The VMs that are displayed include VMs using internal compute resources on a PowerStore X model appliance and external compute resources on ESXi hosts. PowerStore clusters support both VMFS and vVols. PowerStore clusters also support serving storage externally using Fibre Channel or iSCSI protocols. The support for Fibre Channel or iSCSI protocols enables VMs on external ESXi hosts to use the VMFS and vVols storage on PowerStore clusters. PowerStore X model appliances include two native ESXi host instances. One ESXi host is installed on the physical hardware of each node. The ESXi host for each node is also provisioned with an internal controller VM that runs the PowerStore OS. The PowerStore X model appliance allocates some of its CPU and memory resources to the controller VMs and user VMs. Virtual Volumes Virtual Volumes (vVols) are an object type that corresponds to VM disks. vVols are supported on a PowerStore cluster using the VASA protocol. vVols reside in vVols datastores that are known as storage containers. 6 Overview