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ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.2

Prerequisites for deploying ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere

Contributors netapp-jani
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Before deploying ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere, you should be familiar with the space requirements for the deployment package and some basic host system requirements.

You can use ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere with VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA). You should deploy ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere on a supported vSphere client that includes ESXi system.

System requirements

  • Installation package space requirements per node

    • 10 GB for thin provisioned installations

    • 248 GB for thick provisioned installations

  • Host system sizing requirements per node Recommended memory as per the size of deployment and per node is as shown in the table below:

Type of deployment

CPUs

Memory (GB)

Small (S)

8

16

Medium (M)

12

24

Large (L)

16

32

Refer to Configuration limits to deploy ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere section below for more details.

Minimum storage and application requirements

Storage, host, and applications Minimum version requirements

ONTAP

Latest patch release of ONTAP 9.12.1, 9.13.1, 9.14.1, and 9.15.1.

ESXi hosts

ESXi 7.0.3

vCenter server

vCenter 7.0U3

VASA provider

3.0

OVA Application

10.2

The Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) contains the latest information about the supported versions of ONTAP, vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and plug-in applications.

Interoperability Matrix Tool

Configuration limits to deploy ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere

You can use the following table as a guide to configure ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere.

Deployment

Type

Number of vVols

Number of hosts

Protocol type

Easy Deployment

Small (S)

~12K

32

NFS, iSCSI

Easy Deployment

Medium (M)

~24K

64

NFS, iSCSI

High-Availability

Small (S)

~24K

64

NFS, iSCSI

High-Availability

Medium (M)

~50k

128

NFS, iSCSI

High-Availability

Large (L)

~100k

256 [NOTE] The number of hosts in the table shows the total number of host from multiple vCenters.

NFS, iSCSI

For details on host system sizing requirements per node, refer to Prerequisites for deploying ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere.

ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere - Storage Replication Adapter (SRA)

The following table shows the numbers supported per VMware Live Site Recovery instance using ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere.

vCenter Deployment size Small Medium

Total number of virtual machines configured for protection using array-based replication

2000

5000

Total number of array-based replication protection groups

250

250

Total number of protection groups per recovery plan

50

50

Number of replicated datastores

255

255

Number of VMs

4000

7000

The following table shows the number of VMware Live Site Recovery and the corresponding ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere deployment size.

Number of VMware Live Site Recovery instances

ONTAP tools deployment Size

Upto 4

Small

4 to 8

Medium

More than 8

Large

For more information, refer to Operational Limits of VMware Live Site Recovery.

Pre-deployment checks

Ensure the following items are in place before you proceed with the deployment:

  • vCenter Server environment is set up and configured.

  • (Optional) For automation user - NetApp provided Postman collections JSON file is gathered.

  • Parent vCenter Server Credentials to deploy the OVA are in place.

    Note Parent vCenter Server password should not contain these special characters($, ', ").

  • You have the login credentials for your vCenter Server instance to which the ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere will connect to post deployment, for registration.

  • Browser cache is deleted.

  • Ensure that you have three free IP addresses available for non-HA deployment - one free IP address for load balancer and one free IP address for the Kubernetes control plane and one IP address for node. For HA deployment, along with these three IP addresses you'll need two more IP addresses for second and third nodes. Host names should be mapped to the free IP addresses on the DNS before assigning for both HA and non-HA deployments. All the five IP addresses in HA deployment and the three IP addresses in non-HA deployment should be on the same VLAN that is selected for deployment.

  • Ensure that domain Name on which the certificate is issued is mapped to the Virtual IP address in a multi-vCenter deployment where Custom CA certificates are mandatory. nslookup check on the domain name is performed to check whether the domain is getting resolved to the intended IP address. The certificates should be created with domain name and IP address of the load balancer IP address.

  • Before installing the ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.2 in non-HA advanced and HA configuration, check the KB article: Pre-requisites for non-HA advanced and HA configuration