I/O Filter Guidelines and Best Practices

When you use I/O filters in your environment, follow specific guidelines and best practices.

• Because I/O filters are datastore-agnostic, all types of datastores, including VMFS, NFS, Virtual Volumes, and vSAN, are compatible with I/O filters.
• I/O filters support RDMs in virtual compatibility mode. No support is provided to RDMs in physical compatibility mode.
• You cannot change or assign the I/O filter policy while migrating or cloning a virtual machine. You can change the policy after you complete the migration or cloning.
• When you clone or migrate a virtual machine with I/O filter policy from one host to another, make sure that the destination host has a compatible filter installed. This requirement applies to migrations initiated by an administrator or by such functionalities as HA or DRS.
• When you convert a template to a virtual machine, and the template is configured with I/O filter policy, the destination host must have the compatible I/O filter installed.
• If you use vCenter Site Recovery Manager to replicate virtual disks, the resulting disks on the recovery site do not have the I/O filter policies. You must create the I/O filter policies in the recovery site and reattach them to the replicated disks.
• If your virtual machine has a snapshot tree associated with it, you cannot add, change, or remove the I/O filter policy for the virtual machine.