Describing vVOLs

Introduced in vSphere 6.0, vVOLs are a new integration and management framework that abstracts and virtualizes existing storage (SAN or NAS) and provides an SDS approach based on vSphere SPBM.

With vVOLs, the storage can address individual VM objects. In this way, the storage gains complete control over virtual disk content, layout, and management, and can provide fine-grained features on each of them. The following diagram compares the traditional storage approach (based on VMFS or NFS datastores) with the vVOLs approach:

With the new vSphere 6.5, there are some improvements:

• Support for storage replication (vVOLs replication enablement)
• SPBM for Availability
• Support for Oracle RAC on vVOLs

For more information, see the vSphere 6.5 Storage guide (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-0F225B19-7C2B-4F33-BADE-766DA1E3B565.html) and VMware KB 2113013 (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2113013)—understanding VVOLs in VMware vSphere 6.0.