Datastores in SDRS (Storage DRS) clusters not supported as cannot be listed

[Hedda]

VIC Version: VIC (vSphere Integrated Containers) v0.6.0 alpha release.

Bug in govmomi means finder.DatastoreList is broken for Datastore Clusters / Storage Pods, see:

https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/issues/540

I can confirm that listing datastores in SDRS (Storage DRS) clusters still do not work and affects VIC.

Had to remove datastore from the SDRS (Storage DRS) cluster before govmomi or govc can list it.

Tested this with govc packaged with VIC (vSphere Integrated Containers) v0.6.0 alpha release.

This issue means that VIC (vSphere Integrated Containers) currently do not support SDRS clusters.

We are using vCenter Server version 6.0.0.20000

User statement: As a user of VIC, I want to be able to install VIC into a storage pod, so that I can gain the benefits of dynamic placement for my VCH appliance.

Acceptance criteria:

1. Design doc
2. Implemented support for installing into a storage pod
3. The existing SDRS test case passes or is re-written to make sense bug2112153

[mdubya66]

@hickeng and/or @dougm please triage for GA

[hickeng]

@mdubya66 my reaction is fix this - we might not support deploying to them, but we should tolerate their presence. @mhagen-vmware we're going to need to add richer VC topologies into the nightlies and preferably a basic go/no-go deployment check into a complex env as part of the PR regression.

[Hedda]

@hickeng Why is VIC/VCH deploying to SDRS (Storage DRS) clusters not supported by the way?

OK that VIC is still only Alpha now, but IMHO it needs to support SDRS before it hits 1.0 final.

SDRS is really a must in an enterprise enviroment where datastore maintenence/lifecycle is needed.

Until it is will you just add comment stating that SDRS is not support and suggestion not use it?

[hickeng]

@Hedda SDRS was out-of-scope in the interests of delivering anything in a timely fashion. Without explicit customer feedback it's hard to estimate how critical a given function is in various environments - particularly hard when it comes to container adoption which is still early phase for most customers.

@karthik-narayan has the un-enviable task of making these calls

We will do our best to detect configurations that we don't support and provide alternative recommendations.

[marcohelmerich]

We are betatesting vSphere Integrated Containers at the moment in my company. We are also looking into Docker swarm and kubernetes, but vic will be very convenient as it integrates great in NSX. A big suprise for us was that SDRS is not supported, as we are using StoragePool everywhere in our environment (60 ESX Hosts). I would like to second @Hedda there, this is a must for us too...

[mdubya66]

Removing it from v0.8.0. we need to document what does and does not work with SDRS.

[stuclem]

We currently state the following about SDRS in the topic about Interop with other VMware software:

---

vSphere Storage DRS™: You cannot configure virtual container hosts to use datastores that are in Storage DRS clusters.

---

As you can see, we state that SDRS is completely unsupported. If there are circumstances in which it does work and is supported, please list them here and I'll create a corresponding doc issue to update the docs.

Removing kind/note, as this is for core doc rather than release notes.

[dougm]

Note that while we don't yet support datastore cluster placement, you should be able to specify the path to a specific datastore within the cluster, for example:

/dc1/datastore/my-storage-pod/datastore1

As part of #3620 we can suggest the datastores within a cluster. When we add support for placement, the datastore cluster itself will be an option.

[stuclem]

@mdubya66 we list the features that VIC does not support in https://vmware.github.io/vic-product/assets/files/html/0.8/vic_admin/interop.html. I don't think that we need to repeat the list (or parts of it) in the release notes.

Should we just link to the interop topic above from somewhere in the release notes?

[stuclem]

Removing kind/note

[mdubya66]

@pdaigle and i have prioritized this for 1.3

[Hedda]

Any updates on VIC support for SDRS (Storage DRS) clusters and Datastores in a SDRS cluster?

[malikkal]

Our VIC environment is growing; would be great to have SDRS support. Thanks.

[Hedda]

@mdubya66 @pdaigle any updates on support for SDRS (Storage DRS) clusters?

https://vmware.github.io/vic-product/assets/files/html/1.4/vic_vsphere_admin/interop.html

You still cannot configure VCHs to use Storage DRS datastore clusters in VIC 1.4

[zjs]

Received an additional request for support for SDRS clusters from a customer at VMworld 2018 Europe.

[renmaosheng]

feature request to put it in Michael's queue first.

[Hedda]

@michmike is this feature something that could be prioritized as an important function to simplify implementations in the enterprise installations?