Data Stores Settings
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:
- Traditional logical volume data stores based on a centralized SAN.
- ESXi datastores used under VMware (refer to vCenter Implementation Guide for details )
- Integrated storage data stores (the core Integrated Storage functionality). See Integrated Storage chapter for details.
- SolidFire data stores.
- StorPool data stores. See StorPool chapter for details.
The basic management tools are the same for all data store types, but the creation process differs.
Data stores have types which 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 |
|---|---|
| LVM | Virtual/Smart |
| Integrated Storage | Virtual/Smart |
| SolidFire | Virtual/Smart |
| vCloud Director | VPC |
| VMware | Virtual |
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 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 LUN division, SAN is configured in such a way to match LUNs to proper virtual servers.
Use of LUN mapping allows improving security by setting a storage access limitations so that only LUNs authorized to access a particular virtual server can access the specific port.