This IBM® Redpaper™ publication describes the support of the IBM System Storage® DS8870 for VMware vSphere in general terms. It also describes in greater detail the VMware vSphere Storage APIs Array Integration (VAAI) primitives, the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware plug-in, and the IBM Site Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMWare Site Recovery Manager (SRM).

In addition to a high-level overview of the VMWare vSphere suite, this paper emphasizes the interaction of the software components with the IBM System Storage DS8870. It is intended for IT professionals who want an understanding of advantages such as off loading specific tasks to storage arrays, centralized service management, and simplified implementation of disaster recovery processes in virtualized environments.