Users Guide

● The ESXi hosts may be placed in a user-created host group.
● User-created VMs may be placed in a user-created VM group.
Block access for LUNs
VMs running on internal PowerStore X model nodes can only use vVol based storage. VMFS-based storage is not supported for
VMs running on internal PowerStore X model nodes.
However, PowerStore X model appliances can also be used as external block storage using iSCSI or Fibre Channel. The block
storage can be formatted as VMFS datastores and be presented to external servers and VMs running outside of the internal
PowerStore X model nodes.
NOTE: While user VMs can use guest operating system iSCSI initiators to access LUNs, this method is not recommended.
The best practice is to use the VASA provider link or run VMs locally using vVols.
Service and recovery
The PowerStore virtualization configuration affects some of the troubleshooting processes that an experienced virtualization
administrator may be familiar with.
Some administrator operations on the PowerStore X model VM or ESXi host can harm the system or cause service issues.
vSphere limitations
PowerStore X model appliances inherit some limitations that are inherent to vSphere.
Number of supported objects
vSphere has a limit to the number of VMs, and other objects it can support. For information, see the VMware vSphere
documentation.
NOTE:
Use individual hosts instead of host groups in large scale vVol based vSphere environments with more than 4096
vVols.
CPU and memory usage
PowerStore X model controller VMs always report high CPU and memory usage in vSphere. The high CPU and memory usage is
normal because PowerStore X model appliances reserve 50% of the CPU and memory resources to run controller VMs.
PowerStore X model controller VMs might trigger a memory usage alarm in ESXi 6.x.
VMware snapshot limitations
vSphere allows a maximum snapshot tree depth of 31 for a VM. Scheduled and manual snapshots interact with this limit in
different ways.
Scheduled snapshots
When you create a VM snapshot schedule as a part of a protection policy, you can set a retention policy specifying how long
to keep snapshots. Snapshots older than the age that the retention policy specifies are deleted. This policy helps keep the total
number of snapshots below the limit.
If the maximum number of snapshots is reached, the oldest snapshot is automatically deleted when the protection policy
creates the next snapshot. Although manual snapshots count towards this limit, they are never deleted automatically unless the
expiration date is reached.
Best practices and limitations
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