Add External Storage to a Cluster

Use the Storage tab of your SDDC to add external storage to a cluster.

VMware Cloud on AWS supports external storage starting with SDDC version 1.20. To request an upgrade to an existing SDDC, please contact VMware support or notify your Customer Success Manager.

Supported external datastores include:

• Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP For information about how to use FSx for ONTAP as an external datastore, see Configure Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as External Storage.
• VMware Cloud Flex Storage. For information about how to create a VMware Cloud Flex Storage datastore, see Create a Datastore in the VMware Cloud Flex Storage Product Documentation.

Note:

External storage cannot be attached to stretched clusters.

Procedure

1. Log in to the VMware Cloud Console at https://vmc.vmware.com.
2. In the VMware Cloud Console, open the Storage tab of your SDDC.
3. Click CLUSTERS to attach an external datastore to a cluster in this SDDC
   The External Storage card displays a table with a row for each cluster in the SDDC. If the SDDC has only one cluster, you can just click ADD DATASTORE and fill in the required values. If the SDDC has more than one cluster, expand the row for a cluster to view its attached datastores, or click ADD DATASTORE in the cluster row to attach a new one.
4. Add a datastore.
   • Click Add third-party datastore to add an NFS datastore. Fill in the required information, then click ATTACH DATASTORE to attach the NFS datastore to the cluster.

     Cluster	Select a cluster. Cluster-1 is preselected if there are no other clusters.
     NFS server address Mount Point Storage Vendor	NFS datastores only. See Configure Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as External Storage
     Datastore Name	Give the datastore a name. Datastore names must be unique within an SDDC.

   • Click Attach existing datastore to add an existing datastore to a different cluster. If you have already attached a datastore for this SDDC, select it from the drop-down control and click ATTACH DATASTORE. If you have already attached a datastore for this SDDC, select it from the drop-down control and click ATTACH DATASTORE.