Chapter 5. Datastores

A storage location is considered a device where digital information resides and is connected to a resource. CloudForms Management Engine detects, analyzes, and collects capacity and utilization data for both VMFS and NFS datastores. Datastores connected to a provider are automatically created on discovery. On creation of a repository, a datastore is automatically created.

datastores

After detecting datastores, you might want to examine them more closely to see virtual machines, hosts, and available space.

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  1. Top left quadrant: File system type
  2. Bottom left quadrant: Number of hosts
  3. Top right quadrant: Number of virtual machines
  4. Bottom right quadrant: Available space

5.1. Performing SmartState Analysis on Datastores

Analyze a datastore to collect information on the types of files on a datastore, and to see the number of managed/registered, managed/unregistered, and unmanaged virtual machines. To perform a SmartState analysis, the datastore is accessible from a running host and valid security credentials are supplied for that host.

Note

Be aware that executing a SmartState Analysis on a datastore from the console takes a while to return data on the content. If Capacity and Utilization roles are enabled, CloudForms Management Engine performs the analysis automatically on a scheduled basis approximately every 24 hours.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Datastores.
  2. Select the datastores to analyze.
  3. Click Configuration (Configuration), and then Perform SmartState Analysis (Perform SmartState Analysis).
  4. Click OK.

5.2. Viewing a Datastore

You can click on a specific Datastore to view its details. The screen provides you with a Datastore Taskbar, Virtual Thumbnail, Accordion, and Summary.

Figure 5.1. Datastore Management Screen

view datastore new
  1. Datastore Taskbar: Choose between Configuration, Policy and Monitoring options for the selected Datastore.
  2. Datastore Summary: See summary such as datastore properties, storage, VM information.
  3. Datastore PDF: Generates datastore summary in PDF format.
  4. Datastore Accordion: See details about Properties, Relationships, Storage Relationships and Content for the chosen datastore.
Note

To view Content section details, run a SmartState Analysis on the datastore. For information on how to perform SmartState Analysis, see Performing SmartState Analysis on Datastores.

5.3. Tagging a Datastore

Use tags to categorize a datastore. Before assigning tags, create them using instructions in the General Configuration guide.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Datastores.
  2. Click the datastore to tag.
  3. Click Policy (Policy), and then Edit Tags (Edit Tags).

  4. Select a customer tag from the first list, and then a value for the tag from the second list.

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  5. Select more tags as required; click (Save).

5.4. Viewing Capacity and Utilization Charts for a Datastore

You can view capacity and utilization data for a datastore.

Note

CloudForms Management Engine requires network visibility to your provider assigned the server role of Capacity & Utilization Collector to enable this feature.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Datastores, then click the Datastore that you want to view Capacity and Utilization data for.
  2. Click Monitoring (Monitoring), and then Utilization (Utilization) or from the Datastore Accordion, click Properties → Capacity & Utilization.

  3. From Interval, select to view hourly or daily data points and the dates to view data. Use VM Types to Include to include only managed/registered, managed/unregistered, or unmanaged virtual machines. The following definitions will be helpful.

    • Managed/Registered VM - A virtual machine connected to a host and exists in the VMDB. Also, a template connected to a management system and exists in the VMDB.

      Note

      Templates cannot be connected to a Host.

    • Managed/Unregistered VM - A virtual machine or template that resides on a repository or is no longer connected to a management system or host and exists in the VMDB. A virtual machine previously considered registered might become unregistered if the virtual machine is removed from management system inventory.
    • Not Managed - Files discovered on a datastore that do not have a virtual machine associated with them in the VMDB. These files might be registered to a management system that CloudForms Management Engine does not have configuration information. Possible causes might be the management system has not been discovered or the management system has been discovered but no security credentials are provided.

Use Time Profiles to select a time range for the data.

Note

Daily charts only include full days of data. If a day does not include all the 24 data points for a day, the data does not show for that day.

5.5. Removing a Datastore

If a datastore no longer contains any files associated with the virtual environment, remove it from the VMDB. This button is enabled only if a datastore is completely empty.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Datastores.
  2. Click on the Datastore to remove.
  3. Click Configuration (Configuration), and then Remove Datastore from the VMDB (Remove Datastore from the VMDB).
  4. Click OK.