Skip to main content
ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 9.8
A newer release of this product is available.

ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere Quick Start

Contributors netapp-revathid
PDFs

ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere is a single vCenter Server plug-in that includes VSC, VASA Provider and Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) extensions. VSC is recommended for all ONTAP vSphere environments as it configures ESXi host settings and provisions ONTAP storage using best practices. The VASA Provider is required for virtual volumes (vVols) support, and SRA works together with VMware Site Recovery Manager.

Preparing for installation

You deploy the plug-in as a virtual appliance, which reduces your effort of installing and registering each product separately with the vCenter Server.

Deployment requirements

ONTAP tools can be used with either a Windows vCenter Server or with a VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA). You must be deploy the ONTAP tools on a supported vSphere that includes ESXi system.

The minimum space and host sizing requirements are:

System Minimum requirements

Space

2.1 GB for thin provisioned installations, 54.0 GB for thick provisioned installations

Host sizing

Recommended memory: 12 GB, Recommended CPUs: 2

You should be aware of the following licenses:

License Description

SnapMirror

(optional) Required for performing failover operations for SRA and VASA Provider if u using vVols replication.

FlexClone

(optional) Required for performing test failover operations for SRA and for vVols operations of VASA Provider.

ONTAP tools uses the following default bidirectional TCP ports:

Additional requirements Description column

9083

When enabled, both VASA Provider and SRA use this port to communicate with the vCenter Server. This port is also required for obtaining the TCP/IP settings.

443

Depending on how you have configured your credentials, the VMware vCenter Server and the storage systems listen for secure communications on this port.

8143

VSC listens for secure communications on this port.

7

VSC sends an echo request to ONTAP to verify reachability and is required only when adding storage system and can be disabled later.

Minimum storage and application requirements:

Storage, host, and applications Version requirements

ONTAP

ONTAP 9.1, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8P1 or later.

VMware vSphere, vCenter server, ESXi hosts, Site Recovery Manager (SRM), plug-in applications, and databases column 1

See the Interoperability Matrix Tool

ONTAP tools requirements

  • Configure and set up your vCenter Server environment.

  • Download the .ova file.

  • The login credentials for your vCenter Server instance.

  • Delete the browser cache to avoid any browser cache issue during the deployment of the ONTAP tools.

  • Configure the default gateway to be used by the virtual appliance to respond to ICMP pings.

  • A valid DNS hostname for the virtual appliance.

  • Download and install OnCommand API Services for ONTAP 9.6 or earlier if you want to view the vVols dashboard.
    You do not need to register OnCommand API Services with VASA Provider if you are using ONTAP 9.7 or later.

Optional requirements for SRA

If you are deploying the virtual appliance for use with VMware Site Recovery Manager, then you must have:
* Downloaded the .msi file for the SRA plug-in only if you want to configure the Site Recovery Manager (SRM) disaster recovery solution. column 1
* Downloaded the .tar.gz file for SRA if you are using the SRM appliance.

Deploying ONTAP tools

Steps

  1. Download the .ova file from the NetApp Support Site to a vSphere Client system to deploy the ONTAP tools.

    You must deploy the .ova file on both the source and destination sites if you are deploying SRA.

  2. Log in to the vSphere Web Client, select Home > Host & Clusters.

  3. Right-click the required datacenter, and then click Deploy OVF template.

  4. You can either enter the URL for the .ova file or browse to the folder where the .ova file is saved, and then click Next.

  5. Enter the required details to complete the deployment.

    You can view the progress of the deployment from the Tasks tab, and wait for deployment to complete.

Deploying SRA on SRM

You can deploy SRA either on Windows SRM server or on 8.2 SRM Appliance.

Installing SRA on Windows SRM server

Steps

  1. Download the .msi installer for the SRA plug-in from the NetApp Support Site.

  2. Double-click the downloaded .msi installer for the SRA plug-in and follow the on-screen instructions.

  3. Enter the IP address and password of your deployed virtual appliance to complete the installation of the SRA plug-in on the SRM server.

Uploading and configuring SRA on SRM Appliance

Steps

  1. Download the .tar.gz file from the NetApp Support Site.

  2. On the SRM Appliance screen, click Storage Replication Adapter > New Adapter.

  3. Upload the .tar.gz file to SRM.

  4. Rescan the adapters to verify that the details are updated in the SRM Storage Replication Adapters page.

  5. Log in using administrator account to the SRM Appliance using the putty.

  6. Switch to the root user: su root

  7. At the log location enter command to get the docker ID used by SRA docker: docker ps -l

  8. Login to the container ID: docker exec -it -u srm <container id> sh

  9. Configure SRM with the ONTAP tools IP address and password: perl command.pl -I <va-IP> administrator <va-password>
    A success message confirming that the storage credentials are stored is displayed.

Updating SRA credentials

Steps

  1. Delete the contents of the /srm/sra/conf directory using:

    1. cd /srm/sra/conf

    2. rm -rf *

  2. Execute the perl command to configure SRA with the new credentials:

    1. cd /srm/sra/

    2. perl command.pl -I <va-IP> administrator <va-password>

Enabling VASA Provider and SRA

Steps

  1. Log in to the vSphere web client by using the IP address that you specified during deployment.

  2. Click the OTV icon, and enter the username and password specified during deployment, click Sign In.

  3. In the left pane of OTV, Settings > Administrative Settings > Manage Capabilities, and enable the required capabilities.

    Note VASA Provider is enabled by default. If you want to use replication capability for vVols datastores, then use the Enable vVols replication toggle button.

  4. Enter the IP address of the ONTAP tools and the administrator password, and then click Apply.