Dell Storage, PowerStore, PowerFlex PowerMax & PowerScale, Virtualization & Containers Technologies
Dell EMC Virtual Storage Integrator is a plug-in that extends the VMware vSphere Client, allowing users of the vSphere Client to perform Dell EMC storage management tasks within the same […]
Dell EMC Virtual Storage Integrator is a plug-in that extends the VMware vSphere Client, allowing users of the vSphere Client to perform Dell EMC storage management tasks within the same tool they use to manage their VMware virtualized environment.
VSI 8.0 was the first release to support the new vSphere HTML 5 Client
VSI Administration Included:
√ Registering/Unregistering vCenter Servers in a linked mode group
√ Registering/Unregistering Dell EMC Storage
√ Granting/Revoking Storage Access to vCenter users/Groups (New user model)
Storage Management Included:
√ Managing VMFS 6 datastores
Host Management Included:
√ Host Best Practices for XtremIO
8.1 Recap
Unity NAS Server Administration
Unity NFS Datastore Support
Increasing Datastore Capacity (Unity, XtremIO)
RDM Support
Host Best Practices for VMAX and Unity
Changes in PowerMax Storage Group
Administration and VMFS datastore Provisioning
What’s new in 8.2
PowerMax
– Usage Limits
– Increase datastore size
You can see a more in-depth review of the Powermax features here https://drewtonnesen.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/vsi-8-2/
XtremIO
– DRR Savings (Refresh)
– Enable/Disable IO Alerts
Unity
– Setting Host IO Size during NFS Datastore Create
– Advanced Deduplication Support for VMFS datastore provisioning
▪ Note: Advanced Deduplication was supported for NFS and RDM in 8.1 release
– Edit NFS and VMFS Datastore (additional storage settings)
If it’s a new installation, you can download the plugin by clicking the screenshot below
If you want to upgrade your current VSI 8.0 or 8.1, you have two options
Upgrade VSI Plug-in using DockerHub
Use the procedure in this topic to upgrade the VSI plug-in using DockerHub.
Before you begin
Log out of the vCenter before upgrading the plug-in.
Procedure
1. Log in to the IAPI VM through SSH.
2. Stop the current IAPI container. Use the following command:
docker stop iapi
3. Pull the latest IAPI/VSI image from DockerHub:
docker pull dellemc/vsi
4. You can also perform the following optional steps:
a. Back up the previous IAPI container. Use the following commands:
a.
docker rename iapi iapi-before-upgrade
b.
docker update –restart=no iapi-before-upgrade
Deploying and Unregistering VSI Plug-in
12 Dell EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere Client Product Guide
b. Back up the IAPI database. Use the following command:
docker cp vsidb:/data/appendonly.aof <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>
c. Backup the existing VSI plug-in. Use the following command:
cp /opt/files/vsi-plugin.zip <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>
d. Backup existing SSL certificates. Use the following command:
docker cp iapi:/etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts <OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>
e. All the back up files in the previous steps can be restored after the container upgrade by
copying the files to the new container. For example, docker cp
<OUTPUT_DIRECTORY>
5. Upgrade the VSI plug-in.
l To register the VSI plug-in without SSL verification, use the following command:
python3 /opt/scripts/register_extension.py -ignoressl true
l To see other options for using SSL certificate verification during registration, use the
following command:
python3 register_extension.py -h
Note: After upgrade, the SSL is not enabled by default. To enable SSL, see Change
settings in application.conf of the IAPI container.
6. Refresh the VSI plug-in:
l If you have a current vCenter already open, logout and log back in to refresh the plug-in.
Or
l If you do not have a vCenter open, log in to the vSphere Client, log out, and log back in
to refresh the plug-in.
Use the procedure in this topic to upgrade VSI 8.0 to VSI 8.1 version.
Before you begin
You must log out of the vCenter before upgrading the plug-in.
Procedure
1. Download the VSI 8.1 upgrade.tar package from Dell EMC Support Site or DockerHub.
2. Copy the upgrade package to /tmp folder of the IAPI server.
To copy the upgrade file, use the following command:
scp iapi-vsi-upgrade.tar root@<IAPI server>:/tmp
Deploying and Unregistering VSI Plug-in
Dell EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere Client Product Guide 13
Note: If SSH is enabled, the default password is root.
3. Change the directory to /tmp folder.
4. Extract the upgrade package. Use the following command:
tar -xf/tmp/<iapi-vsi-upgrade.tar>
Note: The upgrade package contains the .tar file, the upgrade script, and the docker
image.
5. Run the upgrade script. Use the following command:
./upgrade_iapi.sh –upgrade <iapi-vsi-upgrade.tar.gz>
The upgrade script backs up and renames the VSI 8.0 docker image, lay down the new
docker image. The script also restores the necessary files to a backup folder. An example for
the folder name, <iapi-before-upgrade-20190412194829>
Note: You can also restore the application.conf and SSL certificates after the
completion of upgrade. Use the restore command with the .tar file that resides in the
backup folder:
./upgrade_iapi.sh –restore ./<20190412194829.tar>
6. To upgrade the VSI plug-in, use the following command:
python3 /opt/scripts/register_extension.py -ignoressl true
Note: After upgrade, the SSL is not enabled by default. To enable SSL, see Change
settings in application.conf of the IAPI container.
7. Refresh the VSI plug-in:
l If you have a current vCenter already open, logout and log back in to refresh the plug-in.
Or
l If you do not have a vCenter open, log in to the vSphere Client, log out, and log back in
to refresh the plug-in.
