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VMware

The S1 system allows you to manage and provision block-level storage for ESXi hypervisors’ by connecting to VMware’s vSphere software development kits (SDKs). This allows you to create file-systems for VMs that are hosted in ESXi hypervisors that were provisioned with block-level storage.

It can also provision file-based storage for ESXi hypervisors, enabling shared storage between their VMs.

To manage and provision storage for ESXi hypervisors, select VMware admin.

Before you begin

Please ensure that you have the following items accessible:

  1. vSphere IP address.
  2. vSphere password.
  3. Valid vSphere user credentials (username and password).

Connecting to vSphere

Provisioning storage for ESXi hypervisor VMs through S1 requires connection between vSphere and S1. To check connectivity status between S1 and vSphere, select State from the top menu and Submmit.

Connecting to vSphere

To connect S1 to vSphere, select Login from the top menu.

  • IP: To enter vSphere IP address.
  • Session Token: To enter vSphere password.
  • User: To enter a user name already exists in vSphere.
  • Password: To enter the user’s password.

Disconnect from vSphere

To disconnect vSphere, select Logout from the top menu and Submit.

Connecting to VMware hypervisors

Virtual machines are executed on the ESXi type-1 hypervisor. When provisioning storage for a virtual machine, it is necessary to establish connectivity with the ESXi hypervisor that hosts it. To list and manage connection with the ESXi hypervisor hosts, select ESX admin from the side menu.

List connected ESXi hypervisors

To display a table list of all connected (targeted) ESXi hypervisors, select List from the top menu.

  • Iqn: When checked, the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) of the ESXi hypervisor will be displayed.
  • Datastore: To display data store for each of the VM in the ESXi host.
  • VMs: To display virtual machines in the ESXi host.
  • Submit: To display the table using the settings.

Targeting ESXi hypervisors

When the S1 system is connected to a vSphere suite, the S1 system can target (connect to) any ESXi host in this vSphere. To target a specific ESXi host, select ESX admin > Target admin from the side menu.

  • ESXi: To select the IP address of the ESXi host.
  • Port: To select a port number for the IP address of the ESXi host.
  • S1: To add the S1 IP address (IP address of S1 node servers).
  • Submit: To target the ESXi host using the settings.

Provisioning storage for VMs

After connecting the S1 system to a vSphere suite and targeting an EXSi hypervisor host in the vSphere, the next step is to provision storage for virtual machines (VMs) that are hosted in the EXSi hypervisor.

To manage and create storage for VMs, select Datastore admin from the side menu.

List available data stores

To display a table listing all available data stores for the connected vSphere, select List from the top menu.

  • Details: Detailed display of the data stores.
  • VMs: To display the data stores of each of the virtual machines.
  • ESXs: To display the ESX hypervisor host.
  • Submit: To display the table with the settings.

The table of data stores also supports on-the-fly filtering operations.

File-based storage

To list and provision file-based storage through the Network File System (NFS), select NFS admin from the side menu.

List available file-based storage

To display a table list of file-based storage, provisioned to ESXi hosts through the NFS protocol, select List from the top menu.

  • Datastore: To filter the table by a data store name.
  • NAS: To filter the table by network-attached servers, select the IP addresses of the network-attached servers.
  • Share: To filter the table by the name of the share.
  • Details: Detailed display of the data stores.
  • VMs: To display the data stores of each of the virtual machines.
  • ESXs: To display the ESX hypervisor host.
  • Submit: To display the table of NFS data stores using the settings.

The table of ESXi hosts file-based provisioned storage also supports on-the-fly filtering operations.

Provision file storage for ESXi host

To provision file-based through NFS protocol, select Create from the top menu.

  • Name: To select a name for the newly created data store.
  • ESXi: To choose the IP address of the ESXi host through which the NFS data store will be accessible.
  • NAS: To select the IP address of the network-attached server.
  • Path: To select the share directory path.
  • Read: To grant Read access for the data store share.
  • Write: To grant Write access for the data store share.
  • Submit: To provision the data store for the ESXi host using the provided settings.

Block level storage

To manage and create Virtual Machine File System (VMFS), select VMFS admin from the side menu.

Listing block-level storage of ESXi hosts

To display a table list of VMFS block-level storage, provisioned to the ESXi hosts by the virtual machine file storage (VMFS), select List from the top menu.

  • Datastore: To filter the table by a data store name.
  • Application: To filter the table by application instance names.
  • Volume8: To filter the table by a logical volume name.
  • Details: Detailed display of the data stores.
  • VMs: To display the data stores of each of the virtual machines.
  • ESXs: To display the ESX hypervisor hosts.
  • Submit: To display the table using the settings.

The table of VMFS block-level storage also supports on-the-fly filtering operations.

Provision block-level storage for an ESXi host

To create VMFS data store, select Create from the top menu.

  • Name: To select a name for the newly created VMFS data store.
  • ESXi: To choose the IP address of the ESXi host through which the NFS data store will be accessible.
  • NAA: To specify the Networking Addressing Authority (NAA) identifier code of the volume.
  • Application: To select the application instance that contains the logical volume.
  • Volume: To choose logical volumes from the previously selected application instance to provision storage from.
  • Submit: To provision the data store for the ESXi host using the provided settings.

List available virtual machines

To display a table list of block-level file systems that were created for VMs, select VMs admin from the side menu.

  • Datastore: To filter the table by a data store name.
  • Application: To filter the table by application instance names.
  • Volume8: To filter the table by a logical volume name.
  • Details: To provide a detailed display of the data stores.
  • VMs: To display the data stores of each of the virtual machines.
  • ESXs: To display the ESX hypervisor hosts.
  • Submit: To display the table of NFS data stores using the settings.

The table of VMs block-level file systems also supports on-the-fly filtering operations.

Last updated on 29 May 2023
Published on 6 Mar 2023