Creating a Block Storage Subsystem (View)

A block subsystem is created on the cluster as a view with Block as the sole enabled access protocol. Create the view on an empty directory path.

Subsystems may not be nested one under another.

Creating a Block Subsystem with the VAST Web UI

In the VAST Web UI, select Element Store from the left navigation menu and then select Views.
Click Create View to add a new view.
The Add View dialog appears.

In the General tab, complete the following fields:

Tenant	If the cluster has multiple tenants, select the tenant on which you want to create the subsystem.
Path	Enter the full path from the tenant root to the directory that you want to create and allocate to the subsystem. The directory will be created when the view is created. It must not be a pre-existing directory. It also must not reside under a path that is already used for block storage. It is also advisable not to create it under a path that is exposed to other protocols, since clients accessing that path may see the subsystem directory without being able to access it.
Protocols	Select Block. All other protocols are disabled when you select Block.
Policy name	Specify a view policy configured with the tenant and VIP pools that you want to use for the view. Tip The following are the only view policy settings that are relevant to block view configuration: Tenant VIP Pools Note Up to 16 network paths are supported on client connections to block subsystem views. One virtual IP pool with protocol role is used per path. All security flavor options are compatible with block-enabled views. None of the remaining view policy settings affects block storage. Select an existing view policy from the dropdown, or click Add new Policy to create a new one and follow the procedure described in Creating View Policies. Creating View Policies

Complete the Block fields:

Name

Enter a name for the subsystem. The name is incorporated into the generated subsystem NQN.

Subsystem NQN

This field is read-only. The value is generated after the name is defined.

It is the NVMe Qualified Name (NQN), a unique identifier, incorporating the subsystem name, used to identify the view as a remote NVMe storage target for block clients.

You can use this field to retrieve the subsystem NQN for connection from the client.

Define as the default view (subsystem)

Enable this option if you want to set the view to be the default subsystem view. The default subsystem view is used as a default if a block volume is created by VMS REST API without a view being specified.

Click Create.
The view is created. You can see it displayed in the Views tab.

Creating a Block Subsystem with the VAST CLI

Use the view create command:

Specify the path (--path PATH). The path must be a new path.
Use the --policy-id ID parameter to specify a view policy.
Tip
The following are the only view policy settings that are relevant to block view configuration:
- Tenant
- VIP Pools
  Note
  Up to 16 network paths are supported on client connections to block subsystem views. One virtual IP pool with protocol role is used per path.
All security flavor options are compatible with block-enabled views. None of the remaining view policy settings affects block storage.
Specify --protocols BLOCK to configure block access to the path. Do not specify any other protocols.
Use the --name parameter to specify a name for the subsystem (required for block views). The name must be unique within the tenant.

For example:

vcli: admin> view create --path /empty_new_dir --policy-id 2 --protocols BLOCK --name blocksystem1