XCOPY is one of the VAAI primitives that is used for offloading tasks to the storage array. For example, you can use XCOPY to offload such operations as migration or cloning of virtual machines to the array instead of consuming vSphere resources to perform these tasks.

You can use the XCOPY mechanism with all storage arrays that support the SCSI T10 based VMW_VAAIP_T10 plug-in developed by VMware. To enable the XCOPY mechanism, create a claim rule of the VAAI class.

Prerequisites

Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine. See Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces. For troubleshooting, run esxcli commands in the ESXi Shell.

Procedure

  • ♦ Use the following command and enter the XCOPY options:
    esxcli storage core claimrule add --claimrule-class=VAAI

    For information about the options that the command takes, see Add Multipathing Claim Rules.

    Option Description
    -a|--xcopy-use-array-values Use array reported values for XCOPY commands.
    -s|--xcopy-use-multi-segs Use multiple segments for XCOPY commands. Valid only when --xcopy-use-array-values is specified.
    -m|--xcopy-max-transfer-size Maximum transfer size in MB for the XCOPY commands when you use a transfer size different than array reported. Valid only when --xcopy-use-array-values is specified.
    -k|--xcopy-max-transfer-size-kib Maximum transfer size in KiB for the XCOPY commands when you use a transfer size different than array reported. Valid only if --xcopy-use-array-values is specified.

Example: Configuring XCOPY

  • # esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 914 -t vendor -V XtremIO -M XtremApp -P VMW_VAAIP_T10 -c VAAI -a -s -k 64
  • # esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 65430 -t vendor -V EMC -M SYMMETRIX -P VMW_VAAIP_SYMM -c VAAI -a -s -m 200