The vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) is a methodology for offloading storage-related operations from the ESXi hosts to the storage array. VAAI requires appropriate support from storage vendors.
The storage offloads available in VAAI on vSphere 6.0 would be the following methods:
Hardware-Assisted Locking
This feature supports discrete VM locking without the use of LUN-level SCSI reservations. Hardware-assisted locking allows for disk locking per sector on the storage array instead of the ESXi host locking the entire LUN, which temporarily isolates VMs on other hosts from accessing the locked LUN. Although momentary, this dramatically assists performance when lots of metadata updates are necessary.
Hardware-Accelerated Full Copy
Support for hardware-accelerated full copy allows storage arrays to make full copies of data completely internal to the array instead of requiring the ESXi host to read and write the data. This significantly reduces the storage traffic between the host and the array and can reduce the time required to perform the operations like cloning VMs or deploying new VMs from templates.
Hardware-Accelerated Block Zeroing
This functionality allows storage arrays to zero out large numbers of blocks to provide newly allocated storage without any previously written data. This can speed up operations like creating VMs and formatting virtual disks.
Thin Provisioning
Ability to reclain dead space (space no longer used) through the T10 UNMAP command; this will help keep space utilization in thin-provisioned environments in check.
You can get information on which commands are supported or not supported by using the esxcli command as follows:
esxcli -s <vCenter> -h <Storage> storage core device vaai status get
Another extremely useful VAAI command would be:
esxcli -s <vCenter> -h <Storage> storage core claimrule list -c all
To view whether VAAI is enabled or disabled, run the following commands. If the value that is returned is 0, VAAI is disabled. If the value returned is 1, VAAI is enabled.
esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -g /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
To enable VAAI for a dedicated primitive, use the option -s 1:
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
To disable VAAI for a dedicated primitive, use the option -s 1:
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
Use this command to check on the VAAI status:
esxcli storage core device vaai status get
The storage offloads available in VAAI on vSphere 6.0 would be the following methods:
Hardware-Assisted Locking
This feature supports discrete VM locking without the use of LUN-level SCSI reservations. Hardware-assisted locking allows for disk locking per sector on the storage array instead of the ESXi host locking the entire LUN, which temporarily isolates VMs on other hosts from accessing the locked LUN. Although momentary, this dramatically assists performance when lots of metadata updates are necessary.
Hardware-Accelerated Full Copy
Support for hardware-accelerated full copy allows storage arrays to make full copies of data completely internal to the array instead of requiring the ESXi host to read and write the data. This significantly reduces the storage traffic between the host and the array and can reduce the time required to perform the operations like cloning VMs or deploying new VMs from templates.
Hardware-Accelerated Block Zeroing
This functionality allows storage arrays to zero out large numbers of blocks to provide newly allocated storage without any previously written data. This can speed up operations like creating VMs and formatting virtual disks.
Thin Provisioning
Ability to reclain dead space (space no longer used) through the T10 UNMAP command; this will help keep space utilization in thin-provisioned environments in check.
You can get information on which commands are supported or not supported by using the esxcli command as follows:
esxcli -s <vCenter> -h <Storage> storage core device vaai status get
Another extremely useful VAAI command would be:
esxcli -s <vCenter> -h <Storage> storage core claimrule list -c all
To view whether VAAI is enabled or disabled, run the following commands. If the value that is returned is 0, VAAI is disabled. If the value returned is 1, VAAI is enabled.
esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -g /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
To enable VAAI for a dedicated primitive, use the option -s 1:
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
To disable VAAI for a dedicated primitive, use the option -s 1:
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
Use this command to check on the VAAI status:
esxcli storage core device vaai status get
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