Add FlashArray VASA Provider in SDDC Manager

A cornerstone for building vVols-based Workload Domains is registering a Storage Provider to the Workload Domain vCenter instance during the deployment process. Storage Providers leverage VASA (VMware API for Storage Awareness) as the key that enables vCenter to deploy vVols and the numerous benefits that they provide with a FlashArray. As of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1, VASA Storage Providers can be added and managed in SDDC Manager by going to the Administration > Storage Settings menu.

1. Provide a descriptive name for the VASA provider. It is recommended to use the FlashArray name and append it with -ct0 or -ct1 to denote which controller the entry is associated with.
2. Provide the URL for the VASA provider. This cannot be the management VIP of the array. Instead this field needs to be the management IP address associated with one of the controllers. The URL also is required to have the VASA port and version.xml appended to it. The format for the URL is: https://<IP of FlashArrayController>:8084/version.xml
3. Give a FlashArray user name with the arrayadmin role. The procedure for how to create such a user can be found Web Guide: Implementing vSphere Virtual Volumes with FlashArray. While the pureuser account can be used, we recommend creating and using a separate FlashArray local user for VASA operations.
4. Provide the password for the FlashArray username to be used.
5. Container Name must be vVol container. Note that this value is case-sensitive. This is the default container, customized names will come in a future release.
6. For Container Type, select FC from the drop-down menu to use Fibre Channel.
7. Once all entries are completed, click Save.

   This completes the SDDC Manager VASA Registration component of the process and we can now proceed to the next step.

   Note:

   Note there is a current bug in SDDC manager where updates to this information do not go through unless you manually edit the JSON configuration files. To avoid having to do that, it is important to verify the above for typos before proceeding. The issue and workaround are documented in this VMware KB article.

   Note that each FlashArray has two VASA providers--one on each controller. SDDC manager only offers the ability to register a single VASA provider when deploying a new workload domain. So register one VASA provider with SDDC manager per FlashArray (which VASA provider is up to you--consistency is good, so always choose CT0 for instance), and ensure that post-deployment the second VASA provider is registered. Instructions on that process are below.