2/14: Storage Infrastructure Flashcards
True or False? VMFS5 supports in place upgrades to VMFS6?
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!
What is the maximum single LUN or total of multiple extents supported with VMFS5 and VMFS6?
64TB
1 x 64TB LUN (1 extent)
or
2 x 32TB LUNs (2 extents)
What is the largest single virtual disk size supported on VMFS5 and VMFS6?
62TB
What is the maximum number of VMFS v6 datastores per host?
1,024
1,024 is ONLY supported with a cluster of 32 hosts or less
What is the maximum number of paths to a VMFS v6 datastore?
4,096
What is the recommended best practices for the maximum number of paths to a Datastore?
4
What happens when a VMFS v3 datastore is mounted within a vSphere 7 infrastructure?
VMFS3 datastores are upgraded to VMFS5
vSphere 7 (or v6.7) does NOT support VMFS3 datastores - only VMFS5 and VMFS6
What is the use case for the High-Performance Multipathing Plug-in (HPP)?
The HPP is designed and leveraged for use with NVMe storage devices
What are the filenames for snapshots leverages SEsparse and VMFSsparse?
SEsparse leverages “SEsparse” within the filename
VMFSsparse leverages “delta” within the filename
How is space efficiency achieved with the newer SEsparse (space efficient sparse) snapshot delta file type?
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
True or False?
VMFS6 leverages both the legacy VMFSsparse and newer SEsparse (space efficient) snapshot delta file types.
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
What are the size of the two allocation sizes leveraged with VMFS6 for small and large files?
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.
What are the two primary new feature capabilities with VMFS6?
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)
What are the three industry available storage device sector formats available today?
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
True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn on local SAS and SATA HDDs?
True
VMFS6 supports 4Kn HDDs, but does NOT support 4Kn SSDs, NVMe, or RDM devices
True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn with the Native Multipathing Plug-In (NMP) and the High-Performance Plug-In (HPP)?
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
True or False? VMFS6 supports 4Kn device support on devices accessed via a SAN?
False
VMFS6 only supports 4Kn on LOCAL HDDs
4Kn devices accessed via a SAN is NOT supported
True or False? VMFS6 support 4Kn against SSDs, NVMe, and RDM devices?
False
VMFS6 only supports 4Kn on local SAS or SATA HDDs
VMFS6 does NOT support 4Kn on SSDs, NVMe and RDM devices
What file system sector are implemented with VMFS6?
512n
512e
4Kn
NOTE: VMFS6 configured with 4Kn devices will present 512e to VM guest OSes
What is VAAI an abbreviation for?
vSphere APIs for Array Integration
What are the two major features enabled via VAAI?
Hardware assisted acceleratoin of operations that are best serviced by array hardware
Array based thin provisioning
What are the three (3) primitives VAAI hardware acceleration provides for block storage arrays?
Full copy - also called blocks, copy offload, or XCOPY
Block zeroing - also called write same
Hardware assisted locking - also called atomic set and test
What are the four (4) primitives VAAI hardware acceleration provides for NAS?
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
What are the four catagories of VAIO filter types?
Replication
Encryption
Caching
Storage IO Control
What is the order of operations of the four VAIO filter types?
1st - Replication
2nd - Encryption
3rd - Caching Filter
4th - Storage I/O Control
True or False?
Multiple VAIO filters of each type can be implemented togeather, but only one instance of each type can be enabled.
True
Only one instance of a filter type can be enabled, but each of the four types can be enabled togeather.
What are the two native VAIO filters included with vSphere versus third party vendors?
Encryption
Storage I/O Control
What does the acronym SPBM an abbreviation for?
Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM)
What are the two fundamental storage policy rule types defining where and how?
Catagory based placement rules - Aligning the VM to the appropriate underlying datastore
Data service rules - Enablement of the specific VM data services required
How is storage policy based management (SPBM) implemented against traditional storage that does NOT support VASA?
Leverage vSphere Tags
Describe the two elements that comprise a Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) policy component?
A SPBM component is simply a single predefined service (1) from a single provider (2).
What are the alternative terms leveraged by the vSphere Client (HTML5) for data and placement services?
Data Services = Host Based Services
Placement Services = Datastore Specific Rules
True or False?
SIOC policies are not applicable or leveraged with VSAN or virtual volume based datastores.
True
What is the maximum number of individual datastores that can be configured within a datastore cluster?
64
Storage DRS balance against capacity utilization and IO latency within a datastore cluster.
Which one of these two balancing measurements is optional?
IO latency is an optional load balancing feature of Storage DRS
What other feature is automaticaly enabled when you turn on Storage DRS IO latency load balancing?
SIOC
Are VSAN and virtual volumes supported with Datastore clusters?
No
True or False?
Datastore clusters can be configured with replicated and non-replicated datastores.
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.
True or False
VAAI enabled datastores can be mixed with non-VAAI enabled datastores within the same Datastore Cluster?
False
All datastores within a Datastore Cluster should should or should not be hardware accelerated via VAAI.
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?
5% or greater - this can be altered
What VMs or file datasets are NOT migrated by Storage DRS when placing a datastore into maintenance mode?
Templates
Unregistered VMs
ISO Images
Non-virtual machine files
What VMs or files are MOVED by Storage DRS when a datastore is placed in maintenance mode?
Registered VMs - Powered On
Registered VMs - Powereed Off
