Anyone in an attempt to configure VMware VASA (native) in vSphere 5.5 for EMC VNX 5200 (and for the other models of the vnx2) know that it is not possible. It is a known bug confirmed by VMware (not included in vSphere 6.0) who does not know when it will be removed (if any). The solution to this problem is to install on any operating system (eg. Linux or Windows) EMC SMI-S agent, connect VNX to agent and registering it in vCenter as the Storage Provider.

The procedure is simple, download from the support.emc.com “SMI-S Provider” (the latest version is 4.6 / 7.6.2.65) and install (screenshots from Windows). During installation, select the “Array Provider”:

And additionally select SYMAPI:

Use command TestSmiProvider.exe to connect to the SMI-S Agent:

Register your VNX in SMI-S:

Use dv command to check if array (we can connect more than one) are properly visible:

In the last step, we add an SMI-S agent as the “Storage Provider” in vCenter. As you can see in the picture below, the added there is only one array (existing in vCenter). You can use one agent for multiple vCenter.

And that’s all, now we can use the storage profiles.