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VMware Docker Volume Driver for vSphere

We are enabling containerized app running on a VM under ESX to have native access to VMware-provided storage.

Storage allocated and assigned to individual containers or container scheduling systems is allocated from the same pool(s) as VM storage using native to Docker management surface (API/CmdLine). Yes. we are scoping to Docker (and docker placement apps like Kubernetes) only - no Rocket and other fun at this phase.

FAQ

• Where do I get the binaries ? What about the source ?
• Please look at GitHub Releases for binaries. Github releases allow downloading of source for a release in addition to git clone.
• How to install and use the driver?
• Please see README.md in the TP branch, e.g. https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/blob/0.1.0.tp/README.md. The same file has known issues for the release.
• How do I run the setup on my laptop?
  • Follow the guide

Troubleshooting

Docker Plugin to ESX Backend Communication.

• What is VMCI and vSock and why is it needed? The docker volume plugin for vSphere uses VMCI and vSock to communicate with the hypervisor to implement the volume operations. It comes installed on Photon OS and on Ubuntu follow VMware tools installation or use open vmtools apt-get install open-vm-tools. Additional reading for differences between VMware tools and open vm tools: Open-VM-Tools (OVT): The Future Of VMware Tools For Linux and VMware Tools vs Open VM Tools
• I see connection reset by peer (errno=104) in the plugin logs, what is the cause? 104 is a standard linux error #define ECONNRESET 104 /* Connection reset by peer */. It occurs if the Docker volume plugin cannot communicate to the ESX back end. This can happen if:
  • VMCI and/or vSock kernel modules are not loaded or the kernel does not support VMCI and vSock. Please read "What is VMCI and vSock and why is it needed?" above.
  • ESX service is not running. /etc/init.d/vmdk-opsd status. Check ESX Logs
  • ESX service and the plugin are not communicating on the same port. ps -c | grep vmdk #On ESX and " ps aux| grep docker-volume-vsphere # On VM``` check the port param passed in and make sure they are the same
• I see address family not supported by protocol (errno=97) in the plugin logs, what is the cause? 97 is a standard linux error #define EAFNOSUPPORT 97 /* Address family not supported by protocol */. It occurs if the linux kernel does not know about the AF family used for VMCI communication. Please read "What is VMCI and vSock and why is it needed?" above.

Contact us

Public

• [cna-storage@vmware.com](cna-storage cna-storage@vmware.com)
• [Telegram] (https://telegram.me/cnastorage)
• [Issues] (https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/issues)

Internal

• [VMware Internal Slack] (https://vmware.slack.com/archives/docker-volume-vsphere)