HP Integrity Virtual Machines 4.2: Installation, Configuration, and Administration

7 Creating Virtual Storage Devices
This chapter describes what Integrity VM storage is, how to configure it, and how to use it. The
topics included in this chapter are:
• “Introduction to Integrity VM Storage”
• “Configuring Integrity VM Storage”
• “Using Integrity VM Storage”
7.1 Introduction to Integrity VM Storage
The way you configure and manage Integrity VM storage affects the way virtual machines
perform. To get the most benefit from using virtual machines, learn how Integrity VM makes
storage devices available to virtual machines. The following sections describe:
• “Integrity VM Storage Goals”
• “Integrity VM Storage Architectures”
• “Integrity VM Storage Implementations”
7.1.1 Integrity VM Storage Goals
To successfully configure and manage virtual storage, it is helpful to understand the basic goals
of the Integrity VM storage subsystem, including:
• “Storage Utilization”
• “Storage Availability”
• “Storage Performance”
• “Storage Security”
• “Storage Configurability”
7.1.1.1 Storage Utilization
The main purpose of Integrity VM is to increase system resource utilization on Integrity servers.
The Integrity VM storage subsystem meets this goal by permitting multiple virtual machines to
share a variety of physical storage adapters and devices that are available on an Integrity server.
Furthermore, the Integrity VM storage subsystem allows for a single storage LUN on the VM
Host to be carved up into smaller entities that can be used as separate individual disks or DVDs
on the virtual platform.
7.1.1.2 Storage Availability
Like HP Integrity servers, it is expected that virtual machines will have several different storage
device types available for use. The Integrity VM storage subsystem provides for disks, DVDs,
tapes and media changers to be used by a guest OS. Additionally, the way that virtualization
abstracts the physical hardware provides a common supportable interface for a guest OS to
interact with. Because a guest OS only accesses Integrity VM virtual hardware, the guest OS can
use physical hardware that it does not support on an Integrity server.
7.1.1.3 Storage Performance
Each release of the Integrity VM storage subsystem strives to improve performance. Performance
is improved in each release by lowering costs of virtualization, exploiting new features in the
VM Host, and tuning operating systems for the virtual platform. At the same time, Integrity VM
provides more virtualization choices to VM Host administrators, so that they can find the best
balance between virtualization and performance to meet their needs.
7.1 Introduction to Integrity VM Storage 93