Integration
For optimal integration, you must familiarize yourself with the Windows and VMware environments. Both Microsoft and VMware provide conceptual and practical information in the form of knowledge base articles, online manuals, and printed books.
About Storage Windows Integration
The HPE Storage Toolkit for Windows contains the necessary components to use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to provide the backup infrastructure for Microsoft Exchange and SQL servers. It also enables you to initialize and configure a array from your Windows host.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| HPE Storage Protection Manager | Provides the HPE VSS requester and the HPE VSS hardware provider. These features enable you to use the Microsoft VSS to take application-consistent snapshots on an array. |
| Connection Manager | Sets up the optimum number of iSCSI sessions and finds the best data connection to use under MPIO. |
| HPE Storage Setup Manager | Identifies uninitialized arrays and initializes them. Then it takes you to the array GUI to finalize the configuration. |
About Array Integration with VMware
Many array integration features with VMware are preinstalled in the array OS. There are some features, such as Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) and HPE Storage Connection Manager for VMware, that you must install.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| HPE Storage Connection Manager for VMware | Manages connections from the host to volumes on HPE systems. The Connection Manager optimizes the number of iSCSI sessions and finds the best data connection to use under MPIO. It includes an HPE DSM that claims and aggregates data paths for the array volumes. |
| vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) | Provides hardware acceleration by enabling the WRITE SAME, UNMAP, ATS,Thin Provisioning Stun, and XCOPY features. |
| vCenter Plugin | Allows you to create and manage datastores on the array as well as use the vCenter Server to create vCenter roles and edit protection schedules. You must register the HPE vCenter Plugin that is provided with the array OS with the vCenter Server |
| VMware Synchronized Snapshots | Enables application-consistent snapshots within VMware environments. |
| Storage Replication Adapter | Allows a array to support VMware Site Recovery (SRM) to perform array-based disaster recovery. You must install the HPE SRA on the Windows server that runs SRM. |
| VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) | Enables you to use VMware virtual disks mapped to volumes on the array without requiring that you know the implementation details of the underlying storage. You must have vSphere 6.0 or later, ESXi 6.0 or later and VASA Provider to use vVols. The array eOS provides VASA Provider as part of the vCenter plugin. |