The VMware virtual volumes (VVOLs) environment requires that you have VASA Provider for clustered Data ONTAP, a vCenter with hosts running ESXi, and storage systems running clustered Data ONTAP.
The following graphic provides a high-level view of how these pieces work together:
The vCenter Server and the ESXi hosts perform management operations on VVOL datastores by invoking methods against VASA Provider. This communication is handled outside of the data path, so it is referred to as “out of band management.” VASA Provider communicates with Data ONTAP to perform storage operations.
