I was going through some VVol documentation and found this comparison between VVol limits and VMFS/NFS limits in vSphere 6.0:
VMFS/NFS Limits # VVol Limits #
VMDK size 64TB Data VVol size 64TB
Virtual Disks per host 2,048 VVols bound to a host 4,096*
LUNs/NAS mounts per host 256 Protocol Endpoints per host 256
Volume size 64TB Storage Container size 2 ^ 64**
Volumes per host 256 Storage Containers per host 256
Adapter Queue depth 32 Adapter Queue depth 32
Configured VASA Providers per host 128
Configured VVol‐managed
storage arrays per ESXi host64
* A host can see more than 4096 VVols, but can have only 4096 VVols bound at any given point in time (binding occurs when a VM is powered on)
** ridiculously large number
Some additional notes:
- While multiple VVol Storage Containers are supported, it’s up to each vendor to decide what they want to support. Today many vendors only support a single Storage Container which encompasses an entire storage array.
- While multiple VVol Protocol Endpoints are supported, it’s up to each vendor to decide what they want to support. Today most vendors only support a single Protocol Endpoint for the entire storage array.
- The minimum size of a VVol is 1MB. Storage arrays must support at least 2TB VVols.
- The maximum size of a data‐VVol is as large as whatever vSphere supports (62TB). The maximum size of a config‐VVol is currently 4GB. ESXi hosts will never try to create a virtual volume larger than what the array advertises as maximum.
- The maximum number of VVols supported by a storage array is up to each vendor to decide what they want to support. The maximum number of VVols required by VMs in a cluster of ESXi hosts is the product of maximum number of virtual disks per VM (60), maximum number of snapshots per virtual disk (32), and maximum number of VMs per vCenter cluster (10,000). This make the theoretical maximum around 19 million total VVols.
- The minimum number VVols a powered-on VM will have is 3 (config, swap, data) (swap goes away when VM is powered off). Each snapshot will add at least one additional VVol per virtual disk (plus an additional if memory state is selected). The maximum number of VVols a powered-on VM could have is around 2,000: 1 – config, 1 – swap, 60 – data, 1,920 – snapshots (60×32), 32 – memory state.
