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Virtual Storage Console

The Virtual Storage Console is the connection between vCenter and NetApp. It gives VMware administrators an insight in the storage provided by NetApps.
This article is based on the installation edition “Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 win 64 bits”.
Update: this article is now also based on the installation of “Virtual Storage Console 2.1 win 64 bits”.

Installation

NOTE: START THE INSTALLER THROUGH 'RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR' otherwise it won't work. If you didn't, remove the software through the installer, remove the software again through Control Panel → Programs and than install through 'run as administrator'.

Start the installation on the vCenter server and by running the wizard (run as administrator):

  • In the 'Select capabilities' window select:
    • Virtual Storage Console (already selected and can't be unselected)
    • Provisioning and Cloning


After the installation is finished you'll need to register the new plugins with vCenter. You do that by visiting this url:

https://localhost:8143/Register.html
Note: The Rapid Cloning Utility and the SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure applications have been renamed and integrated into Virtual Storage Console as the Provisioning and Cloning and Backup and Recovery capabilities in order to provide a single vSphere Client plug-in that provides end-to-end virtual machine lifecycle management for VMware environments running NetApp storage.

Before you can add controllers you'll need these options configured:

options httpd.admin.enable on

options httpd.admin.access host=x.x.x.x (if you have multiple hosts accessing the filer over http you can separate the IP addresses with a comma)

About Virtual Storage Console

The Virtual Storage Console capability enables you to manage ESX and ESXi servers connected to NetApp storage systems. You can set host timeout, NAS, and multipathing values, view storage details, and collect diagnostic data. You can use this capability to: * View the status of storage controllers from a SAN (FC, FCoE, and iSCSI) perspective * View the status of storage controllers from a NAS (NFS) perspective * View SAN and NAS datastore capacity utilization * View the status of VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) support in the storage controller * View the status of ESX hosts, including ESX version and overall status * Check at a glance whether the following are configured correctly, and if not, automatically set the correct values * Storage adapter timeouts * Multipathing settings * NFS settings * Set credentials to access storage controllers * Launch the FilerView GUI to create LUNs and manage storage controllers * Collect diagnostic information from the ESX hosts, storage controllers, and Fibre Channel switches * Access tools to set guest operating system timeouts and to identify and correct misaligned disk partitions

About Provisioning and Cloning

The Provisioning and Cloning capability of Virtual Storage Console helps you to provision datastores and quickly create multiple clones of virtual machines in the VMware environment. Using FlexClone® technology, the Provisioning and Cloning capability allows you to efficiently create, deploy and manage the lifecycle of virtual machines from an easy-to-use interface integrated into the VMware environment. It is ideal for virtual server, desktop, and cloud environments. You can use this capability to: * Clone individual virtual machines and place in new or existing datastores * Create, resize, or delete datastores * Apply guest customization specifications and power up new virtual machines * Run deduplication operations * Monitor storage savings * Redeploy virtual machines from a baseline image * Import virtual machines into virtual desktop infrastructure connection brokers and management tools

Start Using VSC

After installing Virtual Storage Console and registering the plugin with vCenter open the vSphere client and point it to your vCenter server. Notice that on the datacenter, cluster and host level you'll have an additional tab called NetApp or IBM N-series, depending on where you got the installation software from. Host discovery almost always goes well and automatic but VSC needs authentication credentials for an successful discovery. The only place where you can change the credentials is at the datacenter level (or at your own top most level). To do so, select your datacenter and select the NetApp/IBM N-series tab. Then select the discovered controller, right-click and select “Modify Credentials”.
Notice that under the Discovery Status on the left you can enter default credentials:
vsccredentials.jpg

Troubleshooting

IP Address

How do I change the IP address VSC is using? .. and why is is choosing the e0m or e0P interfaces?

  • The short answer is you can't. VSC will use the first IP address reported by the storage controller (by the SCSI VPD Page 0x85 command). Unfortunately, if IP addresses used by the e0m or e0P controller interfaces are routable, VSC will try to use them. To prevent this from happening, ensure those IP address are not routable from the VSC server. Note: Once VSC has set the management IP addresses, the vsc.xml will either need to be manually edited and the incorrect IP addresses removed, or the the least error-prone is to delete the the vsc.xml although, and start a new discovery.


This is where you can find the vsc.xml file:

C:\Program Files\IBM\Virtual Storage Console\etc\vsc

Long Running Scripts

Sometimes you might get a message from the VSC stating that the script might run too long. This is a setting in Internet Explorer and can be prevented by changing the registry:

  • Go to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Styles
  • Create a new DWORD value called “MaxScriptStatements” under this key and set the value to the desired number of script statements. If you are unsure of what value you need to set this to, you can set it to a DWORD value of 0xFFFFFFFF to completely avoid the dialog
Note If the Styles key is not present, create a new key that is called Styles.


Because the Internet Explorer 4.0, 5.0, 6, 7, and 8 time-out is based on the number of script statements executed, the time-out dialog box will not display during ActiveX control or database-access delays. Endless loops in script will still be detected.

Resources

vsc.txt · Last modified: 2021/09/24 00:25 by 127.0.0.1