Your Virtual Volumes environment must include storage providers, also called VASA providers. Typically, third-party vendors develop storage providers through the VMware APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA). Storage providers facilitate communication between vSphere and the storage side. You must register the storage provider in vCenter Server to be able to work with Virtual Volumes.

After registration, the Virtual Volumes provider communicates with vCenter Server. The provider reports characteristics of underlying storage and data services, such as replication, that the storage system provides. The characteristics appear in the VM Storage Policies interface and can be used to create a VM storage policy compatible with the Virtual Volumes datastore. After you apply this storage policy to a virtual machine, the policy is pushed to Virtual Volumes storage. The policy enforces optimal placement of the virtual machine within Virtual Volumes storage and guarantees that storage can satisfy virtual machine requirements. If your storage provides extra services, such as caching or replication, the policy enables these services for the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that an appropriate version of the Virtual Volumes storage provider is installed on the storage side. Obtain credentials of the storage provider.

Procedure

  1. Browse to vCenter Server in the vSphere Web Client navigator.
  2. Click the Configure tab, and click Storage Providers.
  3. Click the Register a new storage provider icon ().
  4. Enter connection information for the storage provider, including the name, URL, and credentials.
  5. Specify the security method.
    Action Description
    Direct vCenter Server to the storage provider certificate Select the Use storage provider certificate option and specify the certificate's location.
    Use a thumbprint of the storage provider certificate If you do not guide vCenter Server to the provider certificate, the certificate thumbprint is displayed. You can check the thumbprint and approve it. vCenter Server adds the certificate to the truststore and proceeds with the connection.
    The storage provider adds the vCenter Server certificate to its truststore when vCenter Server first connects to the provider.
  6. To complete the registration, click OK.

Results

vCenter Server discovers and registers the Virtual Volumes storage provider.