ESXi - 6.7 storage

VMKernel system properties and commands for configuring properties of the kernel core system and related system services.

core

adapter

• list

List all the SCSI Host Bus Adapters on the system.

• esxcli storage core adapter list

• rescan

Rescan SCSI HBAs to search for new Devices, remove DEAD paths and update path state. This operation will also run an claim operation equivalent to the claimrule run command and a filesystem rescan.

• esxcli storage core adapter rescan OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -A|--adapter=<str>    Select the adapter to use when rescanning SCSI
                       adapters. This must be a SCSI HBA name as shown in the
                       adapter list command. This cannot be used with the
                       --all option
 -a|--all              Indicate the rescan should rescan all adapters instead
                       of a specific one.
 -S|--skip-claim       By default after an add operation a claiming session
                       is run to find new devices and have them be claimed by
                       the appropriate Multipath Plugin. Passing this flag
                       will skip that claiming session.
 -F|--skip-fs-scan     This option is deprecated as no filesystem scan is
                       performed by default
 -t|--type=<str>       Specify the type of rescan to perform. Available types
                       are
                           add: Perform rescan and only add new devices if
                       any.
                           all: Perform rescan and do all opertaions (this is
                       the default action.)
                           delete: Perform rescan and only delete DEAD
                       devices.
                           update: Rescan existing paths only and update path
                       states.

capabilities

• list

List the capabilities of the SCSI HBAs in the system.

• esxcli storage core adapter capabilities list

device

• list

List the devices associated with HBAs.

• esxcli storage core adapter device list

stats

• get

List the SCSI stats for the SCSI Host Bus Adapters in the system.

• esxcli storage core adapter stats get

claiming

• autoclaim

Control the automatic PSA (path/device) claiming code allowing the disabling of the automatic claiming process or re-enabling of the claiming process if it was previously disabled. By default the automatic PSA claiming process is on and should not be disabled by users unless specifically instructed to do so.

• esxcli storage core claiming autoclaim OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -c|--claimrule-class=<str>
                       Indicate the claim rule class to use in this operation
                       [MP, Filter, VAAI, all].
 --enabled=<bool>      Set the autoclaiming enabled state for a givenPSA plugin
                       type in the VMkernel. Default is to have this process
                       enabled. This should not be changed by users unless
                       specifically instructed to do so. (required)
 -w|--wait             If the --wait flag is provided then the autoclaim enable
                       will wait for paths to 'settle' before running the claim
                       operation.  This means that the system is reasonably sure
                       that all paths on the system have appeared before enabling
                       autoclaim.

• reclaim

Attempt to unclaim all paths to a device and then run the loaded claimrules on each of the paths unclaimed to attempt to reclaim them.

• esxcli storage core claiming reclaim OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -d|--device=<str>     Reclaim requires the name of a device on which all paths
                       will be unclaimed and then reclaimed. (required)

• unclaim

1) Unclaim a path or set of paths, disassociating them from a PSA plugin. NOTES: It is normal for path claiming to fail especially when unclaiming by plugin or adapter. Only inactive paths with no I/O will be able to be unclaimed. Typically the ESXi USB partition and devices with VMFS volumes on them will not be unclaimable. Also NOTE unclaiming will not persist and periodic path claiming will reclaim these paths in the near future unless claim rules are configured to mask the path.

2) Detach a (set of) filter(s) from one or more devices.

• esxcli storage core claiming unclaim OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -A|--adapter=<str>    If the --type paramter is 'location' this value indicates
                       the name of the host bus adapter for the paths you wish to
                       unclaim. This parameter can be omitted to indicate
                       unclaiming should be run on paths from all adapters.
 -C|--channel=<long>   If the --type parameter is 'location' this value indicates
                       the value of the SCSI channel number for the paths you
                       wish to unclaim. This parameter can be omitted to indicate
                       unclaiming should be run on paths with any channel number.
 -c|--claimrule-class=<str>
                       Indicate the claim rule class to use in this operation
                       [MP, Filter].
 -d|--device=<str>     If the --type parameter is 'device' attempt to unclaim all
                       paths to a specific device (for multipathing plugins) or
                       unclaim the device itself (for filter plugins). NOTE. For
                       paths, if there are any active I/O operations on this
                       device, at least 1 path will fail to unclaim.
 -D|--driver=<str>     If the --type parameter is 'driver' attempt to unclaim all
                       paths provided by a specific HBA driver.
 -L|--lun=<long>       If the --type parameter is 'location' this value indicates
                       the value of the SCSI Logical Unit Number (LUN) for the
                       paths you wish to unclaim. This parameter can be omitted
                       to indicate unclaiming should be run on paths with any
                       Logical Unit Number. If passed, this value must not be
                       higher than the value of the advanced config option
                       /Disk/MaxLUN
 -m|--model=<str>      If the --type parameter is 'vendor' attempt to unclaim all
                       paths to devices with specific model info (for
                       multipathing plugins) or unclaim the device itself (for
                       filter plugins). NOTE. For paths, if there are any active
                       I/O operations on this device, at least 1 path will fail
                       to unclaim.
 -p|--path=<str>       If the --type parameter is 'path' attempt to unclaim a
                       specific path given its path UID or runtime name.
 -P|--plugin=<str>     If the --type parameter is 'plugin' attempt to unclaim all
                       paths on for a given multipath plugin OR all devices
                       attached to a filter plugin.
 -T|--target=<long>    If the --type paramter is 'location' this value indicates
                       the value of the SCSI target number for the paths you wish
                       to unclaim. This parameter can be omitted to indicate
                       unclaiming should be run on paths with any target number.
 -t|--type=<str>       Indicate the type of unclaim you wish to perform. Valid
                       values for this paramter are  [location, path, driver,
                       device, plugin, vendor] (required)
 -v|--vendor=<str>     If the --type parameter is 'vendor' attempt to unclaim all
                       paths to devices with specific vendor info (for
                       multipathing plugins) or unclaim the device itself (for
                       filter plugins). NOTE. For paths, if there are any active
                       I/O operations on this device, at least 1 path will fail
                       to unclaim.

claimrule

• list

List all the claimrules on the system.

• esxcli storage core claimrule list

• add

Add a claimrule to the set of claimrules on the system.

• esxcli storage core claimrule add OPTIONS

OPTIONS
See: esxcli storage core claimrule add

• convert

Convert ESX 3.x style /adv/Disk/MaskLUNs LUN masks to Claim Rule format.
WARNING: This conversion will not work for all input MaskLUNs variations! Please inspect the list of generated claim rules carefuly, then if the suggested LUN mask claim rules are correct use the --commit parameter to write the list to the config file.

• esxcli storage core claimrule convert OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -C|--commit           Force LUN mask config changes to be saved. If this
                       parameter is omitted, config file changes will not be
                       saved.

• load

Load path claiming rules from config file into the VMkernel.

• esxcli storage core claimrule load

• move

Move a claimrule from one rule id to another

• esxcli storage core claimrule move OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -c|--claimrule-class=<str>
                       Indicate the claim rule class to use in this operation
                       [MP, Filter, VAAI].
 --force-reserved      Override protection of reserved rule id ranges.
 -n|--new-rule=<long>  Indicate the new rule id you wish to apply to the rule
                       given by the --rule parameter. (required)
 -r|--rule=<long>      Indicate the rule ID to use for this operation. (required)

• remove

Delete a claimrule to the set of claimrules on the system.

• esxcli storage core claimrule remove OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -c|--claimrule-class=<str>
                       Indicate the claim rule class to use in this operation
                       [MP, Filter, VAAI].
 -P|--plugin=<str>     Indicate the plugin to use for this operation.
 -r|--rule=<long>      Indicate the rule ID to use for this operation.

• run

Execute path claiming rules.

• esxcli storage core claimrule run

device

• list

List the devices currently registered with the PSA.

• esxcli storage core device list

• purge

Removes storage devices which have not been seen in some time interval.

• esxcli storage core device purge

• set

Provide control to allow a user to modify a SCSI device's state.

• esxcli storage core device set OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -I|--data-integrity-enabled=<bool>
                       Enable / Disable device data integrity 0 -> Protection
                       disabled 1 -> Protection enabled.Please refer to ESX
                       release notes for more Information
 -D|--default-name     Set the default display name for the device. If there is
                       an existing user defined name it will be changed.
 -d|--device=<str>     The device upon which to operate. This can be any of the
                       UIDs that a device reports. (required)
 -f|--force            Force the device state to be set.
 -L|--led-duration=<long>
                       Set the duration of LED in seconds. If not specified, use
                       maximum duration that hardware can support.
 -l|--led-state=<str>  Set the disk LED state. Valid values are:
                           error: Turn on error LED.
                           locator: Turn on locator LED.
                           off: Turn off LED.
 -m|--max-queue-depth=<long>
                       Set device's max queue depth.
 -n|--name=<str>       The new name to assign the given device.
 -N|--no-persist       Set device state non-peristently; state is lost after
                       reboot.
 -s|--queue-full-sample-size=<long>
                       Set device's queue full sample size. IO samples to monitor
                       for detecting non-transient queue full condition. Should
                       be non zero to enable queue depth throttling.
 -q|--queue-full-threshold=<long>
                       Set device's queue full threshold. BUSY or QFULL
                       threshold,upon which LUN queue depth will be throttled.
                       Should be <= queue-full-sample-size if throttling is
                       enabled.
 -O|--sched-num-req-outstanding=<long>
                       Set number of outstanding IOs with competing worlds.
 --state=<str>         Set the SCSI device state for the specific device given.
                       Valid values are :
                           off: Set the device's state to OFF.
                           on: Set the device's state to ON.
 -w|--write-cache-enabled=<bool>
                       Set device's write cache state.

• setconfig

Set device configuration

• esxcli storage core device setconfig OPTIONS

OPTIONS
See: esxcli storage core device setconfig

capacity

• list

List capacity information for the known storage devices.

• esxcli storage core device capacity list

detached

• list

Lists all devices that were detached manually by changing their state on the system.

• esxcli storage core device detached list

• remove

Provide control to allow a user to remove Detached devices from the persistent detached device list.

• esxcli storage core device detached remove OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -a|--all              If set, all devices will be removed from the Detached
                       Device List.
 -d|--device=<str>     Select the detached device to remove from the Detached
                       Device List.

inquirycache

• list

List inquiry cache information for the known storage devices.

• esxcli storage core device inquirycache list

• set

Manipulate inquiry cache settings of storage devices.

• esxcli storage core device inquirycache set OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 --apply-all           Operate on all existing devices.
 -d|--device=<str>     NAA ID of the device upon which to operate.
 --ignore=<bool>       Ignore device inquiry cache. (required)

Examples:

Ignore the inquiry cache for the device mpx.vmhba0.

• esxcli storage core device inquirycache set --ignore true --device=mpx.vmhba0

Ignore the inquiry cache for all the devices.

• esxcli storage core device inquirycache set --ignore true --apply-all

latencythreshold

• list

List latency sensitive threshold for the known storage devices.

• esxcli storage core device latencythreshold list

• set

Set device's latency sensitive threshold (in milliseconds). If IO latency exceeds the threshold, new IOs will use default IO scheduler.

• esxcli storage core device latencythreshold set OPTIONS

OPTIONS
 -d|--device=<str>     Select the device to set its latency sensitive threshold.
                       (required)
 -t|--latency-sensitive-threshold=<long>
                       Set device's latency sensitive threshold (in
                       milliseconds). (required)

partition

• list

For a given device list all of the partitions

• esxcli storage core device partition list

• showguid

For a given device list the GUID for GPT partitions

• esxcli storage core device partition showguid

physical

• get

Get information about a physical storage device.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

raid

• list

List the physical devices that compose a given logical device.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

smart

• get

List Smart device parameters.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

stats

• get

List the SCSI stats for SCSI Devices in the system.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

uidmap

• list

Get a mapping between a device's primary UID and the alternative UIDs for that device on the system.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

vaai

ats

• list

List the ATS VAAI attributes (as per SCSI standard) for the devices.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

clone

• list

List the Clone VAAI attributes (as per SCSI standard) for the devices.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

delete

• list

List the Delete VAAI attributes (as per SCSI standard) for the devices.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

status

• get

List VAAI properties for devices currently registered with the PSA.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

• set

Enable/Disable VAAI operations on local SCSI disks. (NOTE: A request to enable an operation will take effect only if the underlying device supports the VAAI operation.)

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

zero

• list

List the Zero VAAI attributes (as per SCSI standard) for the devices.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

world

• list

Get a list of the worlds that are currently using devices on the ESX host.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

path

• list

List all the SCSI paths on the system.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

• set

Provide control to allow a user to modify a single path's state. This efffectively allows a user to enable or disable SCSI paths. The user is not able to change the full range of path states, but can toggle between 'active' and 'off'. Please NOTE changing the Path state on any path that is the only path to a given device is likely to fail. The VMkernel will not change the path's state if changing the state would cause an 'All paths down' state or the device is currently in use.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

stats

• get

List the SCSI stats for the SCSI Paths in the system.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

plugin

• list

List loaded PSA plugins on the system.

• esxcli storage core device POOP NUGGIT

registration

• list

List modules currently registered with PSA.

• add

Register a plugin module with PSA.

• remove

UnRegister a plugin module with PSA.

filesystem

• list

List the volumes available to the host. This includes VMFS, NAS, VFAT and UFS partitions.

• automount

Request mounting of known datastores not explicitly unmounted.

• rescan

Scan storage devices for new mountable filesystems.

• mount

Connect to and mount an unmounted volume on the ESX host.

• unmount

Disconnect and unmount and existing VMFS or NAS volume. This will not delete the configuration for the volume, but will remove the volume from the list of mounted volumes.

hpp

device

• list

List the devices currently controlled by the VMware High Performance Plugin.

• set

Configure settings for an HPP device.

usermarkedssd

• list

List the devices that were marked as SSD by user.

path

• list

List the paths currently claimed by the VMware High Performance Plugin

iofilter

• list

List the iofilters installed on this host.

• enable

Enable an iofilter.

nfs

• list

List the NAS volumes currently known to the ESX host.

• add

Add a new NAS volume to the ESX Host and mount it with the given volume name.

• remove

Remove an existing NAS volume from the ESX host.

param

• get

Get the volume parameters of the NAS volumes.

• set

Set the volume parameters of the NAS volumes.

nfs41

• list

List the NFS v4.1 volumes currently known to the ESX host.

• add

Add a new NFS v4.1 volume to the ESX Host and mount it with the given volume name.

• remove

Remove an existing NFS v4.1 volume from the ESX host.

param

• get

Get the volume parameters of the NFS v4.1 volumes.

• set

Set the volume parameters of the NFS v4.1 volumes.

nmp

device

• list

List the devices currently controlled by the VMware NMP Multipath Plugin and show the SATP and PSP information associated with that device.

• set

Allow setting of the Path Selection Policy (PSP) for the given device to one of the loaded policies on the system.

path

• list

List the paths currently claimed by the VMware NMP Multipath Plugin and show the SATP and PSP information associated with that path.

psp

• list

List the Path Selection Plugins (PSP) that are currently loaded into the NMP system and display information about those PSPs

fixed

deviceconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of Fixed Path Selection Policy settings for a given device.

• set

Allow setting of the perferred path on a given device controlled by the Fixed Path Selection Policy.

generic

deviceconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of per device PSP configuration parameters.

• set

Allow setting of per device PSP configuration parameters. This command will set the configuration for the given device with whichever PSP it is currently configurated with.

pathconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of per path PSP configuration parameters.

• set

Allow setting of per path PSP configuration parameters. This command will set the configuration for the given path with whichever PSP it is currently configurated with.

roundrobin

deviceconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of Round Robin Path Selection Policy settings for a given device.

• set

Allow setting of the Round Robin path options on a given device controlled by the Round Robin Selection Policy.

satp

• list

List the Storage Array Type Plugins (SATP) that are currently loaded into the NMP system and display information about those SATPs

• set

Set the default Path Selection Policy for a given Storage Array Type Plugin (SATP).

generic

deviceconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of per device SATP configuration parameters.

• set

Allow setting of per device SATP configuration parameters. This command will set the configuration for the given device with whichever SATP it is currently configurated with.

pathconfig

• get

Allow retrieving of per path SATP configuration parameters.

• set

Allow setting of per path SATP configuration parameters. This command will set the configuration for the given path with whichever SATP it is currently configurated with.

rule

• list

List the claiming rules for Storage Array Type Plugins (SATP)

• add

Add a rule to the list of claim rules for the given SATP.

• remove

Delete a rule from the list of claim rules for the given SATP.

san

fc

• list

List attributes of all FC adapters on the system.

• reset

Perform LIP (Loop Initiation Primitive) Reset to a given FC adapter on the system.

events

• clear

Clear events for a given FC adapter on the system.

• get

Get Events for FC Devices

stats

• get

Get statistics for a given FC adapter, or all FC adapters on the system.

fcoe

• list

List attributes of all FCoE adapters on the system.

• reset

Perform LIP (Loop Initiation Primitive) Reset to a given FCoE adapter on the system.

stats

• get

Get statistics for a given FCoE adapter, or all FCoE adapters on the system.

iscsi

• list

List attributes of all Software iSCSI adapters on the system.

stats

• get

Get statistics for Software iSCSI adapter.

sas

• list

List all SAS IO Device Management devices.

• reset

Perform SAS Reset

stats

• get

List Stats for given device, or all devices.

vflash

cache

• list

List individual vflash caches.

• get

Get individual vflash cache info.

stats

• get

Get vflash cache statistics.

• reset

Reset vflash cache statistics.

device

• list

List vflash SSD devices.

module

• list

List vflash modules.

• get

Get vflash module info.

stats

• get

Get vflash module statistics

vmfs

• unmap

Reclaim the space by unmapping free blocks from VMFS Volume

• upgrade

Upgrade a VMFS3 volume to VMFS5.

extent

• list

List the VMFS extents available on the host.

host

• list

List hosts accessing a particular VMFS Volume.

lockmode

• list

List the on-disk critical section locking mode for VMFS volumes available on this host.

• set

Update the on-disk critical section locking mode for a particular VMFS Volume.

pbcache

• get

Get VMFS Pointer Block cache statistics.

• reset

Reset the VMFS Pointer Block cache statistics.

reclaim

config

• get

Get space reclamation configuration parameters

• set

Set space reclamation configuration parameters

snapshot

• list

List unresolved snapshots/replicas of VMFS volume.

• mount

Mount a snapshot/replica of a VMFS volume.

• resignature

Resignature a snapshot/replica of a VMFS volume.

extent

• list

List extents of unresolved snapshots/replicas of VMFS volume.

vvol

daemon

• unbindall

Unbind all Virtual Volumes from all VASA Providers known to this host.

protocolendpoint

• list

List the VVol Protocol EndPoints currently known to this host.

storagecontainer

• list

List VVol storage containers known to this host.

abandonedvvol

• scan

Scans the specified storage container for abandoned VVols.

vasacontext

• get

Get the VVol VASA Context (vCenter UUID).

vasaprovider

• list

List the VASA Providers registered on this host.