Data stores provide disk space for your virtual servers and operating systems. Data stores are attached to Compute resources. There are several types of data stores in OnApp:

  1. Traditional logical volume data stores based on a centralized SAN. 
  2. ESXi datastores used under VMware (refer to vCenter Implementation Guide for details )
  3. Integrated storage data stores (the core Integrated Storage functionality). See Integrated Storage chapter for details.
  4. SolidFire data stores.

The basic management tools are the same for all data store types, but the creation process differs.


Data stores have types that they inherit from the zone to which they belong. Later data stores can be attached to a compute resource/compute zone of the same type. Data stores can be moved from one data store zone to another, but the zones should be of the same type. For more information refer to Zone Types. The table below demonstrates the available data store zone types for different data stores:

Data Store Type

Data Store Zone Type

LVMVirtual/Smart
Integrated StorageVirtual/Smart
SolidFireVirtual/Smart
vCloud DirectorVPC
VMwareVirtual

Use caution when changing data store settings.


OnApp is integrated with the SolidFire storage management system. It is now possible to perform the following options with the SolidFire:

  • Allocate dedicated LUN from SF cluster per virtual server disk, when creating a VS (LUN is created per each VS disk, with a separate LUN per swap disk).
  • Create virtual servers without the swap disk.
  • Implement backups/snapshots using the SF CloneVolume method

Logical unit number (LUN) is a unique identifier assigned to one or several virtual server disks, addressed by SCSI protocol. In the SolidFire SAN environment, a RAID controller provides multiple LUN support, presenting storage as multiple devices. In this case, a LUN is used to present a view of the disk storage to the virtual server. When a LUN is assigned to a virtual server, it acts as its physical disk drive. Regardless of the use, each logical unit is treated as a single device.

LUN allows differentiating up to eight logical units. In the LUN division, SAN is configured in such a way as to match LUNs to proper virtual servers.

Use of LUN mapping allows improving security by setting storage access limitations so that only LUNs authorized to access a particular virtual server can access the specific port.

Data stores provide disk space for your virtual servers and operating systems. Data stores are attached to Compute resources. The basic management tools are the same for all data store types, but the creation process differs. This section provides information on how you can create, edit and delete data stores. 

To use the data store, you have to add it to a data store zone and assign it either to a compute resource or a compute zone.

Create LVM Data Store

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Stores icon.
  3. Click the Create Data Store link at the bottom of the screen.

  4. Follow the steps in the creation wizard:
    Step 1. Properties

    • Label - choose a name for the data store
    • IP address - enter an IP address for your data store
    • Data store type - select the lvm data store type
    • Enabled - move the slider to the right to enable the data store. When disabled, OnApp will not allow new disks to be created automatically on that data store. This is useful to prevent an established data store from becoming too full. It also lets you prevent the automatic creation of root disks on 'special' data stores (high speed, etc).

    Click Next.

    Step 2.     Resources

    • Disk Capacity - set disk capacity in GB
    • Local Compute resource - if required, you can also bind the data store with a local Compute resource. This is helpful if you wish that the data store and a Compute resource were located on the same physical server thus decreasing the time needed for a Compute resource-data store connection.

    • Data Store Zone - assign the data store to a data store zone. The drop-down menu lists all data store zones set up in the cloud (to add or edit data store zones, see Data Store Zones Settings). Unless you assign a data store to a data store zone and compute resource or zone, you won't be able to use this data store for storage. When you add a data store to a data store zone, the data store inherits the zone's type. It will be possible to move such a data store only to a data store zone of the same type. For more information refer to Zone Types.


  5. When you've finished configuring the store, click the Create Data Store button.

OnApp doesn’t support the 4 K block size for local  LVM data stores.

To view LVM details, use the following commands:

  • pvdisplay - shows the current state of your physical volumes
  • vgdisplay - shows all volume groups
  • lvdisplay - shows all logical volumes
  • lvscan - shows all active volumes (disks)
  • lvs - shows the same information as lvscan does but with less details
  • pvscan - scans all disks for physical volumes and shows disk space

Create SolidFire Data Store

You can create one SolidFire data store per cloud that will represent the space available at the SolidFire side.

To create a SolidFire data store:

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Stores icon.
  3. Click the Create Data Store link at the bottom of the screen.
  4. Follow the steps in the creation wizard:

    Step 1 of 3. Properties

    • Label - enter a data store label
    • IP address - specify an IP address to be used for managing the data store via CP (Inasmuch SolidFire data stores have two interfaces, you'll have to specify the IP address for the cluster admin later)
    • Data store type - select a solidfire data store type
    • Enabled - move the slider to the right to enable a data store. When disabled, OnApp will not allow new disks to be created automatically on that data store. This is useful to prevent an established data store from becoming too full. It also lets you prevent the automatic creation of root disks on 'special' data stores (high speed, etc).
    • Click Next.

    Step 2 of 3. Resources

    • Disk Capacity - set disk capacity in GB.
    • Local Compute resource - if required, you can also bind the data store with a local Compute resource. This is helpful if you wish that the data store and a Compute resource were located on the same physical server thus decreasing the time needed for a Compute resource-data store connection.

    • Data Store Zone - assign the data store to a data store zone. The drop-down menu lists all data store zones set up in the cloud (to add or edit data store zones, see Data Store Zones Settings).

    When you add a data store to a data store zone, the data store inherits the zone's type. It will be possible to move such a data store only to a data store zone of the same type. For more information refer to Zone Types.

    Step 3. Authentication Settings

    • Specify the cluster Admin settings:
      • iSCSI IP - iSCSI IP address
      • Username - specify a username for cluster authorization
      • Password - specify a password for cluster authorization
    • Specify the SolidFire Account settings:
      • Username - specify SolidFire account username
      • Initiator secret - specify iSCSI initiator secret (optional)
      • Target secret - specify iSCSI target secret (optional)

      Initator secret and target secret are optional parameters. They are created automatically for a newly created account. For the new account, they will be taken from the SolidFire database.
      If you specify target and initiator secrets for an existing user, they will be overwritten.

  5. When you've finished configuring the store, click the Create Data Store button.

Edit Data Store

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Stores icon. You'll see a list of the data stores on your system.
  3. Click the Actions button next to the store you want to change, then click Edit.
  4. On the following page the appropriate data store details:

        • Label - the name of the data store.
        • IP address - the IP address of the data store.
        • Iscsi IP - iSCSI IP address.
        • Disk Capacity - set disk capacity in GB.
        • Enabled - move the slider to the right to enable a data store. When disabled, OnApp will not allow new disks to be created automatically on that data store. This is useful to prevent an established data store from becoming too full. It also lets you prevent the automatic creation of root disks on 'special' data stores (high speed, etc).
        • Local Compute resource - if required, you can also bind the data store with a local Compute resource. This is helpful if you wish that the data store and a Compute resource were located on the same physical server thus decreasing the time needed for a Compute resource-data store connection.

        • Data Store Zone - you can re-assign the data store to another data store zone. The drop-down menu lists all data store zones set up in the cloud (to add or edit data store zones, see Data Store Zones Settings).

          It is possible to move data stores only between data store zones of the same type. For more information, refer to Zone Types.

        • Data Store Type - edit the data store type.
        • Trim - select the checkbox to enable Trim on your SSD. For more information about the option, see TRIM. 

    If you have an integrated data store, the following parameters will be additionally available:

    • Auto Healing - move the slider to the right to enable auto healing
    • Epoch - move the slider to the right to enable epochs
    • Integrated Storage Cache enabled - move the slider to the right to enable caching
  5. Click the Save Data Store button to finish.

Edit Data Store IO Limits

IOPS limiting functionality allows you to prioritize the load on a SAN for VSs. IOPS limiting can be set for data store or for separate disks.

  • Ensure that the IO Limiting permissions are on before managing IO limits. For more information refer to the OnApp Permissions section of this guide.
  • All IO limits are set to unlimited by default.
  • The IOPS limit, set for a data store, is automatically applied to all disks within this data store.

To edit a data store IO limits:

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Stores icon. You'll see a list of the data stores on your system.
  3. Click the Actions button next to the store you want to change, then click Edit IO Limits.
  4. On the following page edit the appropriate data store details:
      • Read IOPS - set the read IOPS amount
      • Write IOPS - set the write IOPS amount
      • Read throughput - specify the read throughput (in MB/s)
      • Write throughput - specify the write throughput (in MB/s)

  5. Click the Save button to finish.

Disable IOPS Limiting

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Stores icon. You'll see a list of the data stores on your system.
  3. Click the Actions button next to the store you want to change then click Edit IO Limits.
  4. On the following page set all parameters to Unlimited.

  5. Click the Save button to finish.

  6. Go to /onapp/interface/config/on_app.yml file and set the io_limiting_enabled parameter as 'false'. Disabling will only remove the feature from the UI, old vDisk limits will be used if not set to unlimited. 

Delete Data Store

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu.
  2. Click the Data Store icon. You'll see a list of the data stores in your system.
  3. Click the Actions icon next to the data store you want to delete, then click Delete. You'll be asked for confirmation before the store is deleted.

Configure Snapshot Size

During the backup process, we take a snapshot of the virtual disk to be backed up. Before OnApp 6.8, the snapshot occupied 10% of the virtual disk size in the data store. To make a backup, you should have had a free space of at least 10% of the virtual disk size at nodes where the virtual disk was allocated. Starting with OnApp 6.8, you can configure the size of a snapshot proportionally to the size of a virtual disk.

To configure the snapshot size per cloud basis, open the /onapp/interface/config/info_hub.yml file and change the following parameters:

  • snapshot_percentage_small_vdisk - the size of the vDisk is up to 10 GB; the default snapshot value is 100%
  • snapshot_percentage_medium_vdisk - the size of the vDisk is from 11 to 100 GB; the default snapshot value is 15%
  • snapshot_percentage_large_vdisk - the size of the vDisk is 101 GB and up; the default snapshot value is 5%


See also:

Leave feedback