Understanding Storage vMotion

[Federico Spadaro]

Hi to all,

I need to be sure for the behavior of storage vmotion in the following case:

Source: Host01 - local datastore

Target: Host01 - FC san datastore

Does the traffic go through the LAN or through the FC?

Thanks 

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Federico
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[a_p_]

Since it's basically a local copy, network is not involved.

André

[Duncan Epping]

and if you open up esxtop you can immediately see what happens :)

[Federico Spadaro]

Hi Duncan,

great, but how I can see using esxtop what happens?

[Mike Gill]

vMotion traffic occurs on the port it is configured to use. You can see this by Host, Configure, Networking, VMKernel Adapters. Look under 'Enabled Services'. The one that says vMotion is the VMKernel that has been assigned to it. For example, lets say it is "vmk1"

To find the physical port associated with the VMKernel adapter, go to Host, Configure, Networking, Virtual Switches. Find the Virtual Switches that have VMKernel ports, expand the arrow next to it, and find the VMKernel Adapter you found in the previous step (the example I used was "vmk1")

Hope this helps

[Trevor Jones]

The discussion is about Storage vMotion though. 

[Tian Peng Yap]

Looks like a tough one.. let's see.. hdd presented to host via fc... Vsan
uses disk and comms via network.... Answer.
Both!. Correct me if I'm wrong

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[Trevor Jones]

Hmm, it isn't made clear in the OP if vSAN is in use, he just says 'local disk'. Agreed, if it's copying to/from a vSAN then the vSAN VMK will be in use. If it's just a local disk then I'd guess there'd be no network involvement.

[Vlad_AUS01]

Federico,

Host01 can do storage vmotion from local storage to FC SAN attached storage without vmotion networking configured.

Storage vmotion is using Provisioning vmkernel for data transfer or Management vmkernel if Provisioning vmkernel not enabled, however it will use vmotion vmkernel, if you have configured one. But, in your case traffic will never leave host networking, and move between FC network and your local disk(SAS or NVMe).

I would advise you to enable Provisioning service on your vMotion vmkernel interface. It will enable Unified Data Transport.

You can read about it here: https://www.vmware.com/docs/vsphere-vmotion-unified-data-transport

[Trevor Jones]

I'm assuming this will work on a hot, storage vMotion only move?

[Federico Spadaro]

Yes Trevor, I only be sure that the traffic flow not pass through network.

thanks to all