Explain the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layout

From this VMware KB :

Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA)

To manage storage multipathing, ESX/ESXi uses a special VMkernel layer, Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA). The PSA is an open modular framework that coordinates the simultaneous operation of multiple multipathing plugins (MPPs). PSA is a collection of VMkernel APIs that allow third party hardware vendors to insert code directly into the ESX storage I/O path. This allows 3rd party software developers to design their own load balancing techniques and failover mechanisms for particular storage array. The PSA coordinates the operation of the NMP and any additional 3rd party MPP

From the :

The PSA is made up of many other technologies, like SATP,NMP, PSP, and MPP. Actually from the same guide, here is good picture:

And more information from the same guide:

Managing Multiple Paths

To manage storage multipathing, ESXi uses a collection of Storage APIs, also called the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA). The PSA is an open, modular framework that coordinates the simultaneous operation of multiple multipathing plug-ins (MPPs). The PSA allows 3rd party software developers to design their own load balancing techniques and failover mechanisms for particular storage array, and insert their code directly into the ESXi storage I/O path.

Topics discussing path management use the following acronyms

The VMkernel multipathing plug-in that ESXi provides by default is the VMware Native Multipathing PlugIn (NMP). The NMP is an extensible module that manages sub plug-ins. There are two types of NMP sub plugins, Storage Array Type Plug-Ins (SATPs), and Path Selection Plug-Ins (PSPs). SATPs and PSPs can be built-in and provided by VMware, or can be provided by a third party.

If more multipathing functionality is required, a third party can also provide an MPP to run in addition to, or as a replacement for, the default NMP.

When coordinating the VMware NMP and any installed third-party MPPs, the PSA performs the following tasks:

• Loads and unloads multipathing plug-ins.
• Hides virtual machine specifics from a particular plug-in.
• Routes I/O requests for a specific logical device to the MPP managing that device.
• Handles I/O queueing to the logical devices.
• Implements logical device bandwidth sharing between virtual machines.
• Handles I/O queueing to the physical storage HBAs.
• Handles physical path discovery and removal.
• Provides logical device and physical path I/O statistics.

As the Pluggable Storage Architecture illustration shows, multiple third-party MPPs can run in parallel with the VMware NMP. When installed, the third-party MPPs replace the behavior of the NMP and take complete control of the path failover and the load-balancing operations for specified storage devices.

There is also an excellent blog written by Cormac Hogan on how IO is handled by PSP, check it out in “”

Install and Configure PSA plug-ins

From :

To list VMware SATPs, run the following command:

~ # esxcli storage nmp satp list

Name                 Default PSP    Description

-------------------  -------------  -------------------------------------------------------

VMW_SATP_ALUA        VMW_PSP_MRU    Supports non-specific arrays that use the ALUA protocol

VMW_SATP_MSA         VMW_PSP_MRU    Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AP  VMW_PSP_MRU    Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_SVC         VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_EQL         VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_INV         VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_EVA         VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_ALUA_CX     VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_SYMM        VMW_PSP_FIXED  Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_CX          VMW_PSP_MRU    Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_LSI         VMW_PSP_MRU    Placeholder (plugin not loaded)

VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA  VMW_PSP_FIXED  Supports non-specific active/active arrays

VMW_SATP_LOCAL       VMW_PSP_FIXED  Supports direct attached devices

To list multipathing modules, run the following command:

~ # esxcli storage core plugin list

Plugin name  Plugin class

-----------  ------------

NMP          MP

Example: Defining an NMP SATP Rule

The following sample command assigns the VMW_SATP_INV plug-in to manage storage arrays with vendor string NewVend and model string NewMod.

# esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -V NewVend -M NewMod -s VMW_SATP_INV

From “”

Add a new SATP

esxcli  storage nmp satp rule add --satp VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA --vendor="ABC" --model="^120*

Change the SATP for a device/LUN:

esxcli storage nmp satp generic deviceconfig set -c VMW_SATP_ALUA_CX -d naa.xxx

Change the default PSP for an SATP:

# esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp VMW_PSP_FIXED --satp VMW_SATP_ALUA_CX

List all the plugins:

~ # esxcli storage core plugin registration list

Module Name          Plugin Name          Plugin Class  Dependencies                   Full Path

-------------------  -------------------  ------------  -----------------------------  ---------

mask_path_plugin     MASK_PATH            MP

nmp                  NMP                  MP

vmw_satp_symm        VMW_SATP_SYMM        SATP

vmw_satp_svc         VMW_SATP_SVC         SATP

vmw_satp_msa         VMW_SATP_MSA         SATP

vmw_satp_lsi         VMW_SATP_LSI         SATP

vmw_satp_inv         VMW_SATP_INV         SATP          vmw_satp_lib_cx

vmw_satp_eva         VMW_SATP_EVA         SATP

vmw_satp_eql         VMW_SATP_EQL         SATP

vmw_satp_cx          VMW_SATP_CX          SATP          vmw_satp_lib_cx

vmw_satp_alua_cx     VMW_SATP_ALUA_CX     SATP          vmw_satp_alua,vmw_satp_lib_cx

vmw_satp_lib_cx      None                 SATP

vmw_satp_alua        VMW_SATP_ALUA        SATP

vmw_satp_default_ap  VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AP  SATP

vmw_satp_default_aa  VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA  SATP

vmw_satp_local       VMW_SATP_LOCAL       SATP

vmw_psp_lib          None                 PSP

vmw_psp_mru          VMW_PSP_MRU          PSP           vmw_psp_lib

vmw_psp_rr           VMW_PSP_RR           PSP           vmw_psp_lib

vmw_psp_fixed        VMW_PSP_FIXED        PSP           vmw_psp_lib

vmw_vaaip_emc        None                 VAAI

vmw_vaaip_mask       VMW_VAAIP_MASK       VAAI

vmw_vaaip_symm       VMW_VAAIP_SYMM       VAAI          vmw_vaaip_emc

vmw_vaaip_netapp     VMW_VAAIP_NETAPP     VAAI

vmw_vaaip_lhn        VMW_VAAIP_LHN        VAAI

vmw_vaaip_hds        VMW_VAAIP_HDS        VAAI

vmw_vaaip_eql        VMW_VAAIP_EQL        VAAI

vmw_vaaip_cx         VMW_VAAIP_CX         VAAI          vmw_vaaip_emc,vmw_satp_lib_cx

vaai_filter          VAAI_FILTER          Filter

List all the devices claimed by NMP:

~ # esxcli storage nmp device list

naa.600144f0928c010000004fc511ec0001

   Device Display Name: OI iSCSI Disk (naa.600144f0928c010000004fc511ec0001)

   Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_ALUA

   Storage Array Type Device Config: {implicit_support=on;explicit_support=off; explicit_allow=on;alua_followover=on;{TPG_id=0,TPG_state=AO}}

   Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_MRU

   Path Selection Policy Device Config: Current Path=vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

   Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:

   Working Paths: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

List all the PSPs:

~ # esxcli storage nmp psp list

Name           Description

-------------  ---------------------------------

VMW_PSP_MRU    Most Recently Used Path Selection

VMW_PSP_RR     Round Robin Path Selection

VMW_PSP_FIXED  Fixed Path Selection

Change PSP for device/LUN:

esxcli storage nmp device set -d naa.xx -P VMW_PSP_MRU

Understand different multipathing policy functionalities

From the  :

By default, the VMware NMP supports the following PSPs:

VMW_PSP_MRU The host selects the path that it used most recently. When the path becomes unavailable, the host selects an alternative path. The host does not revert back

to the original path when that path becomes available again. There is no preferred path setting with the MRU policy. MRU is the default policy for most active-passive storage devices.

Displayed in the vSphere Client as the Most Recently Used (VMware) path selection policy.

VMW_PSP_FIXED The host uses the designated preferred path, if it has been configured. Otherwise, it selects the first working path discovered at system boot time. If you want the host to use a particular preferred path, specify it manually. Fixed is the default policy for most active-active storage devices.

NOTE If the host uses a default preferred path and the path’s status turns to Dead, a new path is selected as preferred. However, if you explicitly designate the preferred path, it will remain preferred even when it becomes inaccessible.

Displayed in the vSphere Client as the Fixed (VMware) path selection policy.

VMW_PSP_RR The host uses an automatic path selection algorithm rotating through all active paths when connecting to active-passive arrays, or through all available paths when connecting to active-active arrays. RR is the default for a number of arrays and can be used with both active-active and active-passive arrays to implement load balancing across paths for different LUNs.

Displayed in the vSphere Client as the Round Robin (VMware) path selection policy

Perform command line configuration of multipathing options

From  :

List all devices with their corresponding paths, state of the path, adapter type, and other information:

esxcli storage core path list

Limit the display to only a specified path or device:

esxcli storage core path list --path vmhba32:C0:T1:L0

esxcli storage core path list --device naa.xxx

List detailed information for the paths for the device specified with –device:

esxcli storage core path list -d naa.xxx

Set the state of a LUN path to off:

esxcli storage core path set --state off --path vmhba32:C0:T1:L0

Set the path state to active again:

esxcli storage core path set --state active --path vmhba32:C0:T1:L0

Set the path policy using esxcli:

esxcli storage nmp device set --device naa.xxx --psp VMW_PSP_RR

If you specified the VMW_PSP_FIXED policy, you must make sure the preferred path is set

correctly. Check which path is the preferred path for a device:

esxcli storage nmp psp fixed deviceconfig get --device naa.xxx

Change the preferred path:

esxcli storage nmp psp fixed deviceconfig set --device naa.xxx --path vmhba3:C0:T5:L3

To view and manipulate round robin path selection settings with ESXCLI

Retrieve path selection settings for a device that is using the roundrobin PSP

esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig get --device naa.xxx

Set the path selection. You can specify when the path should change, and whether unoptimized paths should be included.

Use –bytes or –iops to specify when the path should change, as in the following examples:

Set the device specified by –device to switch to the next path each time 12345 bytes have been sent along the current path.

esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set --type "bytes" -B 12345 --device naa.xxx

Set the device specified by –device to switch after 4200 I/O operations have been performed on a path.

esxcli  storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set --type=iops --iops 4200 --device naa.xxx

Change a multipath policy

From above:

Set the path policy using esxcli:

esxcli storage nmp device set --device naa.xxx --psp VMW_PSP_RR

Configure Software iSCSI port binding

From :

Create a virtual Switch and enable jumbo frames on it:

~ # esxcli network vswitch standard add -v vSwitch1

~ # esxcli network vswitch standard set -m 9000 -v vSwitch1

Create a PortGroup that will be used for iSCSI:

~ # esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add -p iSCSI1 -v vSwitch1

Add a vmkernel interface to our iSCSI PortGroup

esxcli network ip interface add -i vmk4 -p iSCSI1

esxcli network ip interface ipv4 set -i vmk4 -I 1.1.1.2 -N 255.255.255.0 -t static

Enable software iSCSI

esxcli iscsi software set --enabled=true

Check the status:

esxcli iscsi software get

Check whether a network portal, that is, a bound port, exists for iSCSI traffic.

esxcli iscsi adapter list

Bind the vmkernel interface to the sw-iSCSI vmhba:

esxcli iscsi networkportal add -n vmk4 -A vmhba3#

With dynamic discovery, all storage targets associated with a host name orIP address are discovered.You run the following command.

esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget add --address='ip/dns[:port]' --adapter=vmhba3#

After setup is complete, perform rediscovery and rescan all storage devices

esxcli iscsi adapter discovery rediscover

esxcli storage core adapter rescan --adapter=vmhba36