Virtual volumes

The system supports VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes, sometimes referred to as VVols, which allow VMware vCenter to automate the management of system objects like volumes and pools.

The system administrator can assign ownership of Virtual Volumes to IBM® Spectrum Control Base Edition by creating a user with the VASA Provider security role. IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition provides communication between the VMware vSphere infrastructure and the system. Although the system administrator can complete certain actions on volumes and pools that are owned by the VASA Provider security role, IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition retains management responsibility for Virtual Volumes. For information about IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition, refer to the IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition documentation.

When Virtual Volumes are enabled on the system, a utility volume is created to store metadata for the VMware vCenter applications. The system administrator selects a pool to provide capacity for the utility volume. With each new volume created by the VASA provider, VMware vCenter defines a few kilobytes of metadata that are stored on the utility volume. The utility volume can be mirrored to a second storage pool to ensure that the failure of a storage pool does not result in loss of access to the metadata. Utility volumes are exclusively used by the VASA provider and cannot be deleted or mapped to other host objects.