Assumptions

• DNS-Based VIP Distribution is configured
• vSphere hosts have DNS servers configured 

Implementation

    1. Add a Dedicated VIP (Virtual IP) Pool

• Sizing the IP Range List with 2 IP Addresses for Every CNode in the cluster
  NOTE: There are 4 CNodes in 1 CBox. i.e.: if there are two 2 CBoxes, the VIP Pool should use a range of 16 IP addresses.
• Define the Subnet CIDR
• Define the Domain name 
• Define the Gateway IP address (if applicable)
• Define the VLAN (if applicable)

    2. Add a Dedicated View Policy

• Select Security Flavor of NFS
• Select Group Membership Source of Clients
• Select Path Length Limit of Native Protocol Limit
• Select Allowed Characters of Native Protocol Limit
• OPTIONAL: Select only the VIP Pool created in the first step to limit data access

• In the Host-Based Access tab, define specific vSphere host IP addresses or vSphere host subnets in both the Read/Write and No Squash entries

    3. Add a Dedicated View

• Protocols of NFS
• Policy name of what was created in the second step
• Enable Create Directory
• OPTIONAL: Define anNFS Alias as needed

    4. Create a New Datastore on any vSphere Host

• In Type, Select NFS 

• In NFS version, Select NFS 3

• In Name and configuration:
  • Define the Name
  • Define the Folder to the path or alias of the View starting with a forward slash "/"
  • Define the Server as the Fully Qualified Domain Name

• In Ready to complete, Click Finish

• Right Click on the new Datastore and click Mount Datastore to Additional Hosts...

• Select one host at time and repeat this process for every vSphere Host
• NOTE: Selecting more than one or all hosts during this process may inadvertently connect to a single CNode and not properly align resources for best performance

Recommendations

• Use a dedicated VIP Pool for the vSphere mounts
  • This will assist with segmentation of control between workloads
• Using VIP Policies will restrict View access and visibility from non-vSphere client
• Add a Hard Quota on the vSphere datastore directory to limit the usable capacity
  • This can be increased on demand at any time
• Be aware of the maximum file size of 128TB
• Use Capacity Estimations to determine the data reduction rate of the vSphere datastore

• Configure Storage I/O Control on the datastore
  • Select Disable Storage I/O Control but enable statistics collection
    • Check Include I/O statistics for SDRS