2/14: Storage Infrastructure Flashcards

1
Q

True or False? VMFS5 supports in place upgrades to VMFS6?

A

False - VMFS5 cannot be upgraded to VMFS6 - you must complete a storage migration.

NOTE: VMFS3 can be upgraded to VMFS5, but VMFS5 cannot be upgraded to VMFS6

VMFS6 implementation of 4Kn vs the legacy 512n makes upgrades impossible!

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2
Q

What is the maximum single LUN or total of multiple extents supported with VMFS5 and VMFS6?

A

64TB

1 x 64TB LUN (1 extent)

or

2 x 32TB LUNs (2 extents)

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3
Q

What is the largest single virtual disk size supported on VMFS5 and VMFS6?

A

62TB

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4
Q

What is the maximum number of VMFS v6 datastores per host?

A

1,024

1,024 is ONLY supported with a cluster of 32 hosts or less

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5
Q

What is the maximum number of paths to a VMFS v6 datastore?

A

4,096

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6
Q

What is the recommended best practices for the maximum number of paths to a Datastore?

A

4

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7
Q

What happens when a VMFS v3 datastore is mounted within a vSphere 7 infrastructure?

A

VMFS3 datastores are upgraded to VMFS5

vSphere 7 (or v6.7) does NOT support VMFS3 datastores - only VMFS5 and VMFS6

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8
Q

What is the use case for the High-Performance Multipathing Plug-in (HPP)?

A

The HPP is designed and leveraged for use with NVMe storage devices

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9
Q

What are the filenames for snapshots leverages SEsparse and VMFSsparse?

A

SEsparse leverages “SEsparse” within the filename

VMFSsparse leverages “delta” within the filename

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10
Q

How is space efficiency achieved with the newer SEsparse (space efficient sparse) snapshot delta file type?

A

Space reclamation enables the delta file to shrink in size when write changes are deleted or purged

SEsparse is the default snapshot delta file type with VMFS6 - VMFSsparse is NO longer leveraged

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11
Q

True or False?

VMFS6 leverages both the legacy VMFSsparse and newer SEsparse (space efficient) snapshot delta file types.

A

False

VMFS6 only leverages the newer SEsparse (space efficient) snapshot delta file type

VMFS5 leverages SEsparse for virtual disks >2TB

VMFS5 leverages VMFSsparse for virtual disks <2TB

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12
Q

What are the size of the two allocation sizes leveraged with VMFS6 for small and large files?

A

Small File Blocks - 1MB

Large File Blocks - 512MB

Small file blocks are leveaged with thin provisioning and large file blocks are leveraged with thick provisioning.

These are VMFS allocation algorithms - not actual file system blocks.

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13
Q

What are the two primary new feature capabilities with VMFS6?

A

Faster file creation time

(via leveraging the new small and big file blocks)

Parallel disk operations and concurrent transactions

(via improvements with atomic lock handling)

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14
Q

What are the three industry available storage device sector formats available today?

A

Sector Format - Logical Sector Size - Physical Sector Size

512n (native) - 512 bytes - 512 bytes

512e (emulated) - 512 bytes - 4,096 bytes

4Kn (native) - 4,096 bytes - 4,096 bytes

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15
Q

True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn on local SAS and SATA HDDs?

A

True

VMFS6 supports 4Kn HDDs, but does NOT support 4Kn SSDs, NVMe, or RDM devices

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16
Q

True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn with the Native Multipathing Plug-In (NMP) and the High-Performance Plug-In (HPP)?

A

False

VMFS6 only supports 4Kn with the Native Multipathing Plug-In (NMP)

VMFS6 does NOT support 4Kn with the High-Performance Plug-In (HPP)

VMFS6 does NOT support 4Kn with third-party multipathing plug-ins

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17
Q

True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn device support on devices accessed via a SAN?

A

False

VMFS6 only supports 4Kn on LOCAL HDDs

4Kn devices accessed via a SAN is NOT supported

18
Q

True or False? VMFS6 support 4Kn against SSDs, NVMe, and RDM devices?

A

False

VMFS6 only supports 4Kn on local SAS or SATA HDDs

VMFS6 does NOT support 4Kn on SSDs, NVMe and RDM devices

19
Q

What file system sector are implemented with VMFS6?

A

512n

512e

4Kn

NOTE: VMFS6 configured with 4Kn devices will present 512e to VM guest OSes

20
Q

What is VAAI an abbreviation for?

A

vSphere APIs for Array Integration

21
Q

What are the two major features enabled via VAAI?

A

Hardware assisted acceleratoin of operations that are best serviced by array hardware

Array based thin provisioning

22
Q

What are the three (3) primitives VAAI hardware acceleration provides for block storage arrays?

A

Full copy - also called blocks, copy offload, or XCOPY

Block zeroing - also called write same

Hardware assisted locking - also called atomic set and test

23
Q

What are the four (4) primitives VAAI hardware acceleration provides for NAS?

A

Full file clone - entire file, instead of file segments, is cloned

Reserve space - space for virtual disk allocated in thick format

Native snapshot support - VMware Horizon can offload the creation of linked clones

Extended file statistics

24
Q

What are the four catagories of VAIO filter types?

A

Replication

Encryption

Caching

Storage IO Control

25
Q

What is the order of operations of the four VAIO filter types?

A

1st - Replication

2nd - Encryption

3rd - Caching Filter

4th - Storage I/O Control

26
Q

True or False?

Multiple VAIO filters of each type can be implemented togeather, but only one instance of each type can be enabled.

A

True

Only one instance of a filter type can be enabled, but each of the four types can be enabled togeather.

27
Q

What are the two native VAIO filters included with vSphere versus third party vendors?

A

Encryption

Storage I/O Control

28
Q

What does the acronym SPBM an abbreviation for?

A

Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM)

29
Q

What are the two fundamental storage policy rule types defining where and how?

A

Catagory based placement rules - Aligning the VM to the appropriate underlying datastore

Data service rules - Enablement of the specific VM data services required

30
Q

How is storage policy based management (SPBM) implemented against traditional storage that does NOT support VASA?

A

Leverage vSphere Tags

31
Q

Describe the two elements that comprise a Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) policy component?

A

A SPBM component is simply a single predefined service (1) from a single provider (2).

32
Q

What are the alternative terms leveraged by the vSphere Client (HTML5) for data and placement services?

A

Data Services = Host Based Services

Placement Services = Datastore Specific Rules

33
Q

True or False?

SIOC policies are not applicable or leveraged with VSAN or virtual volume based datastores.

A

True

34
Q

What is the maximum number of individual datastores that can be configured within a datastore cluster?

A

64

35
Q

Storage DRS balance against capacity utilization and IO latency within a datastore cluster.

Which one of these two balancing measurements is optional?

A

IO latency is an optional load balancing feature of Storage DRS

36
Q

What other feature is automaticaly enabled when you turn on Storage DRS IO latency load balancing?

A

SIOC

37
Q

Are VSAN and virtual volumes supported with Datastore clusters?

A

No

38
Q

True or False?

Datastore clusters can be configured with replicated and non-replicated datastores.

A

False

All datastores within a DRS Datastore Cluster must be either replicated or not replicated. Mixing replicated and non-replicated datastores within the same Storage DRS Datastore Cluster is NOT supported.

39
Q

True or False

VAAI enabled datastores can be mixed with non-VAAI enabled datastores within the same Datastore Cluster?

A

False

All datastores within a Datastore Cluster should should or should not be hardware accelerated via VAAI.

40
Q

What is the minimal default delta difference, as expressed in a percentage, that must exist or be exceeded before a Storage vMotion operation will be performed in support of capacity load balancing?

A

5% or greater - this can be altered

41
Q

What VMs or file datasets are NOT migrated by Storage DRS when placing a datastore into maintenance mode?

A

Templates

Unregistered VMs

ISO Images

Non-virtual machine files

42
Q

What VMs or files are MOVED by Storage DRS when a datastore is placed in maintenance mode?

A

Registered VMs - Powered On

Registered VMs - Powereed Off