vVols VASA to vSphere Matrix

vVols VASA to vSphere Feature Mapping

We have created this matrix to provide customers details to show what VASA and vSphere versions has what vVols features.

vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness or VASA allows the storage array to be aware of the vVols and VM association. Through VASA Provider or VP, vSphere and the underlying storage system establish two-way, out-of-band communication to perform data services and offload certain virtual machine storage operations to the storage system. The VP allows storage operations to be handled directly by the array where it is the most efficient. Storage operations such as cloning, snapshots, replication, and space reclamation are dispatched to the storage array. 

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Matrix

With each vSphere release or update, this matrix will be updated with the latest information. This is specific to VASA for vVols and does not contain other non-vVols VASA functionality.

 

   

VASA

      
   

3.5

4.0

5.0

6.0

vSphere

6.7

 IPv6 support for management access to the VASA provider      
    SCSI-3 Persistent Group Reservations (PGRs) support for supported arrays      
    TLS 1.2 default VP security      
 

7.0 U1

 Enable support for CHAP authentication      
    Efficient storage vMotion from vVols Datastores for thin provisioned volumes.      
 

7.0 U2

 Vectored bind for vVols for vMotion workflows.      
    Fast and stable compute vMotion      
    Creating repository folders on vVols datastore      
    vVol stats support:      
    Tools to view near real time VASA Provider and control path performance.      
    Tools to perform analysis on past data and capture control path metrics from workflow perspective.      
 

7.0 U3

 Vectored snapshot Virtual Volume, faster snapshots, shorter stun times.      
    Faster memory snapshots for VMs on vVols (Up to 5X improvements)      
    Vectored bind for virtual volumes for VM Power-ON workflow.      
    Increased throughput support for backup applications.      
      NVMeoF vVols – spec for supporting NVMe protocols for vVols.    
      Spec adds provision for all transport protocols - FC, RDMA, TCP.    
      VM Power-On improvements    
 

8.0

   VM Power-OFF improvements    
      vVols Storage improvements, providing a stable and reliable datastore during flaky connectivity with VASA Provider.    
      Config vVols to remain bound on registered    
      Caching various vVols attributes size, name etc.    
      Faster UI datastore browser for large vVols data stores.    
        Container isolation - Allow per vCenter access control policy, even allowed to share containers in selected vCenter (Cross VC migration). Allow better isolation at the container level, VASA Provider can manage the access rights for a container per vCenter.   
        Uptime - Invalid/Expired Certificate causes downtime and there is the possibility of downtime when multiple vCenters try to register with the same VASA Provider. In a multi-VC setup, a certificate could be refreshed without any downtime.  
 

8.0 U1

     Better Security for Shared Environment - All operations could be authenticated in the context of a vCenter and each vCenter would be having its own ACL (Access Control List). No self-signed certificate in the trust store. VASA Provider could be shared in a cloud-like environment. VASA 5.0, access role to do that.  
        Backward Compatibility - VASA 5.0 remains backward compatible and gives control to upgrade as per security needs. VASA 5.0 can coexist with earlier releases if the vendor will support it.  
        Heterogeneous Certificate Configuration - Uses only VMCA signed certificate and no additional CA is needed. Isolate the trust domain of vSphere. VASA 5.0 allows different configurations for each vCenter (i.e., Self-Managed 3rd Party CA Signed Certificate and VMCA managed Certificate).  
        Zero User Intervention - Plug and Play with automated certificate provisioning without any additional user intervention, no manual steps to use the VASA Provider with any vCenter.  
        Workload Separation - Allow load balancing by redirecting the transport for vCenter-specific virtual hosts. Each vCenter can be running in separate transport layer configurations. This creates more flexibility to isolate the workflow for each vCenter.  
        Security Compliance - Non-CA certificates are no longer part of the vSphere Certificate Trust Store. VASA 5.0. This enforces the VASA Provider to use CA signed certificate for VASA communication.  

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