Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA)
Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) is a modular storage management framework, which was introduced with VMware vSphere 5. It has a plugin framework, which can be used by third party vendors to create Multipathing plugins, which can leverage array-specific Multipathing, load balancing, or failover features. VMware has its own default Multipathing plugin called the Native Multipathing Plugin (NMP):
Since, third party plugins are beyond the scope of this book, we will delve deeper into the components and functions of VMware NMP.
Every storage device detected by the ESXi host will be associated with a Multipathing plugin (MPP). This is achieved with the help of a claim rule. If there aren't any claim rules for a third party MPP, then the VMware NMP will claim the device and associate an SATP and PSP to it.
VMware NMP has two main components:
Storage Array Type Plugin (SATP)
Path Selection Plugin (PSP)
SATP is responsible for keeping a tab on the status of...
