vCenter Storage Filters are enabled by default within Virtual Center. They give a layer of protection while performing VMFS datastore operations, such as when creating new vmfs datastores. Storage filters help prevent storage corruption by stopping you attempting to use devices that are already in use. They also enable the rescanning of datastores automatically following changes.
Types of vCenter Storage Filter
| VMFS Filter | config.vpxd.filter.vmfsFilter | Prevents you from adding a LUN that is already in use by another datastore or host. |
| RDM Filter | config.vpxd.filter.rdmFilter | Prevents you from re-using an RDM that is already attached to a virtual machine. If two or more hosts need access to the same RDM, do not disable this filter |
| Same Host and Transports Filter | config.vpxd.filter.SameHostAndTransportsFilter | Prevents you from creating a VMFS datastore extent using an incompatible LUN. |
| Host Rescan Filter | config.vpxd.filter.hostRescanFilter | Enables automatic rescan and update of VMFS data stores after you perform any datastore management operation. |
Editing vCenter Storage Filters
You can disable/enable storage filters by following these steps.
- Open your vCenter‘s advanced Advanced Settings screen.
- If the Key does not already exist, add one of the keys from the table above and enter a value of False.
- Click OK to confirm, and close the window.
vCenter Storage Filter Use Cases
One use for storage filters would be to use the Host Rescan Filter to prevent the automatic storage rescan that occurs when you create a new VMFS datastore when you are creating multiple datastores. You could then just scan each host in the cluster once, when you have created all your datastores, rather than have it occur automatically after creating each one.