The FlashArray VASA Provider

User Guides for VMware Solutions
Audience
Public
Content Type
User Guides
Source Type
Documentation

VMware's vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) is a VMware interface for out-of-band communication between VMware ESXi and vCenter and storage arrays. The Arrays’ VASA providers are services registered with the vCenter Server. Storage vendors implement providers for their arrays, either as VMs or embedded in the arrays. As of vSphere Version 7.0 U1, VMware has introduced four versions of VASA:

  • Version 1 (Introduced in vSphere Version 5.0)
    • Provides basic configuration information for storage volumes hosting VMFS datastores, as well as injection of some basic alerts into vCenter
  • Version 2 (Introduced in vSphere Version 6.0)
    • First version to support vVols
  • Version 3 (Introduced in vSphere Version 6.5)
    • Added support for array-based replication of vVols and Oracle RAC.
  • Version 3.5 (Introduced in vSphere Version 7.0 U1)
    • Added additional feature support for improved bitmap operation performance and iSCSI CHAP.
  • Version 4.0 (Introduced in vSphere Version 8.0 GA)
    • Added support for NVMe-FC with vVols.
    • Support for NVMe-TCP with vVols was added in 8.0 U1.
  • Version 5.0 (Introduced in vSphere Version 8.0 U1)
    • Added support for multiple unlinked vCenters without requiring custom certs.

    The Everpure FlashArray supports the following VASA Versions via Purity Release

  • Version 6.0(Introduced in vSphere Version 8.0 U3)
    • Added support for vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) uniform configurations.
  • Version 3 support was added with Purity//FA 5.0.0
  • Version 3.5 support was added with Purity//FA 6.1.6
  • Version 4 support was added with Purity//FA 6.6.2
  • Version 5 support was added with Purity//FA 6.4.9
  • Version 6 support was added with Purity//FA 6.6.10
Note:

Because the FlashArray vVol implementation uses VASA Version 3, the VMware environment must be running vSphere Version 6.5 or a newer version in both ESXi hosts and vCenter.

Everpure does recommend running vSphere 6.7 U3 p03 or higher for the various fixes and improvements found in this release. Please see the KB that outlines ESXi 6.7.

FlashArray vVol support is included in Purity//FA Version 5.0. The Purity//FA upgrade process automatically installs and configures a VASA provider in each controller; there is no separate installation or configuration. To use FlashArray-based vVols, however, an array’s VASA providers must be registered with vCenter. Either the FlashArray Plugin for vSphere Web Client (the Plugin), the vSphere GUI, or API/CLI-based tools may be used to register VASA providers with vCenter.