vSphere Lab Storage: Synology DS414slim Part 4 - VAAI-NAS Plugin

Chris Wahl wrote a good blog post about the VAAI-NAS plugin some days ago. I really recommend to read this posting. Because of his article, I will only describe the installation of the plugin. You can download the plugin on the Synology homepage for free.

There are two ways to install the plugin: With the vSphere Update Manager (VUM) and a host extension baseline, or with ESXCLI.

Plugin installation using the vSphere Update Manager

First of all, we need to import the plugin (host extension) to the patch repository. Open the vSphere C# client, switch to the “Home” screen and click “Update Manager” under “Solutions and Applications”. Switch to the “Patch Repository” tab and click “Import Patches”.

Import the SYN-ESX-5.5.0-NasVAAIPlugin-1.0-offline_bundle-2092790.zip file. The next step is to create a new baseline, in this case a “Host Extension” baseline.

Scroll down and add the plugin to the baseline (click the down arrow button). Click “Next”.

Check the settings and finish the creation of the baseline.

Now attach the baseline to your hosts or cluster.

As you can see, the VUM detected that my hosts are non-compliant, because the host extension is missing.

During the installation process, the plugin is installed and a host reboot is triggered. After a reboot and a scan, all hosts should be compliant.

In addition to the now compliant host status, the NFS datastores should now support hardware acceleration. You can check this in the vSphere C# or vSphere Web Client.

Another way to install the plugin is using the ESXCLI.

Install via ESXCLI

Upload the esx-nfsplugin.vib to a local or shared datastore. I placed the file in one of my NFS datastores. Then use ESXCLI to install the VIB.

~ # esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/VMDS-NFS-SATA/esx-nfsplugin.vib
Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
Reboot Required: true
VIBs Installed: Synology\_bootbank\_esx-nfsplugin\_1.0-1
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:
~ #

Do enable the plugin, a host reboot is necessary. This ways is suitable for standalone hosts. I recommend to use the VUM whenever it’s possible.

Final words

I strongly recommend to install the plugin. Using the vSphere Update Manager, the installation is really easy. If you have a single host, try the installation using ESXCLI.