Dell PowerVault MD3860f - Manual (Page 5)

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Overview
VMware vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) is a set of application program interfaces (APIs) that support Dell
PowerVault MD-Series iSCSI and Fibre Channel storage arrays. VASA enables vSphere vCenter to recognize MD
storage array features and corresponding datastores, which allows storage administrators to more easily set
virtualization and maintenance policies.
Using the VASA provider on an MD storage array also allows a vCenter-based storage administrator to:
• See information about MD-attached expansion storage.
• Discover and characterize an attached datastore’s static capabilities, which helps in selecting the appropriate
disk for virtual machine (VM) placement.
• Receive alert and event notifications from the MD storage arrays managed in vCenter.
The following figure shows the high-level VASA provider architecture and how it integrates with the vCenter
management environment.
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