11.0 HP StoreVirtual Storage VSA Installation and Configuration Guide (TA688-96141, September 2013)

2 Installing the HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere
The StoreVirtual VSA is pre-formatted for use with HP StoreVirtual VSA for VMware vSphere. If you
are using an evaluation copy, and want to continue using the fully-featured StoreVirtual VSA after
the trial period has ended, you must purchase a license key. After you apply the license key, your
configuration can be used as is in a production environment, or reconfigured if necessary.
Supported versions of VMware
VMware vSphere 5 for LeftHand OS 9.5 or later.
Configuration requirements for the VSA for vSphere
• A qualified server for VMware. For a list of qualified servers, see the VMware compatibility
guide, located at:
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.
• Virtual disk(s) with up to 2 TB (2047 GB for vSphere 5.0 and vSphere 5.1) or up to 64 TB
(for vSphere 5.5) of space per disk located on internal disk storage, or any block storage that
is on the VMware HCL: internal, external and shared. (Note that the LeftHand OS software
consumes a small amount of the available space.)
• VSA for vSphere virtual disks must be configured as independent and persistent to prevent
VM snapshots from affecting them.
• The VMFS datastores for the StoreVirtual VSA must not be shared with any other VMs.
• Microsoft .Net 3.5 on the installer client.
• vCenter servers properly licensed before connecting to them using the HP StoreVirtual VSA
for VMware vSphere installer.
• When installing VSAs that use more than 8 TB of datastores, increase the VMFS heap size.
According to VMware, the VMFS heap size must be increased to access more than 8 TB of
VMDKs in a VM. This means that a StoreVirtual VSA that uses more than 8 TB of datastores
should have the heap size increased. See the following article for more information:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004424
The default heap size has been increased in vSphere 5.x to 80 MB, which allows for 8 TB of
open virtual disk capacity on a single vSphere host.
NOTE: In vSphere 5.x the maximum heap size is 256 MB. This allows for a maximum of
25 TB of open storage.
Table 3 (page 11) outlines the minimum and maximum heap sizes that can be set for the
various builds of vSphere:
Table 3 Minimum and maximum heap sizes
Maximum open VMDK
storage per hostMaximum heap valueMinimum heap valueVersion/build
32 TB128 MBN/AESXi/ESX 4.x
25 TB256 MBN/AESXi 5.0 Build 914586
and earlier
60 TB640 MB256 MBESXi 5.0 Build 1024429
and later
Supported versions of VMware 11