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ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10

Configure ESXi host settings

Contributors netapp-jani
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Configuring ESXi server multipath and timeout settings helps maintain data availability and integrity. It enables automatic failover to a backup storage path if the primary path becomes unavailable.

Configure ESXi server multipath and timeout settings

ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere checks and sets the ESXi host multipath settings and HBA timeout settings that work best with NetApp storage systems.

About this task

This process might take time, depending on your setup and system load. You can view the progress in the Recent Tasks panel.

Steps

  1. From the VMware vSphere Web client home page, select Hosts and Clusters.

  2. On the shortcuts page of the VMware vSphere Web client, select NetApp ONTAP tools under the plug-ins section.

  3. Go to the ESXi Host compliance card in the overview (dashboard) of the ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere plug-in.

  4. Select Apply Recommended Settings link.

  5. In the Apply recommended host settings window, select the hosts you want to update to use NetApp recommended settings and select Next.

    Note You can expand the ESXi host to see the current values.

  6. In the settings page, select the recommended values as required.

  7. In the summary pane, check the values and select Finish. You can track the progress in the recent task panel.

Set ESXi host values

Use ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere to set timeouts and other values on ESXi hosts for optimal performance and failover. It sets these values based on NetApp testing.

You can set the following values on an ESXi host:

HBA/CNA Adapter Settings

Sets the following parameters to default values:

  • Disk.QFullSampleSize

  • Disk.QFullThreshold

  • Emulex FC HBA timeouts

  • QLogic FC HBA timeouts

MPIO Settings

MPIO settings pick the best paths for NetApp storage systems. MPIO settings select the best path and use it.

For high-performance environments or when testing with a single LUN datastore, adjust the load balance setting of the round-robin (VMW_PSP_RR) path selection policy (PSP) to improve performance. Set the default IOPS value from 1000 to 1.

Note The MPIO settings don't apply to NVMe, NVMe/FC, and NVMe/TCP protocols.

NFS settings

Parameter

Set this value to…​

Net.TcpipHeapSize

32

Net.TcpipHeapMax

1024MB

NFS.MaxVolumes

256

NFS41.MaxVolumes

256

NFS.MaxQueueDepth

128 or higher

NFS.HeartbeatMaxFailures

10

NFS.HeartbeatFrequency

12

NFS.HeartbeatTimeout

5