What does VM provisioned IOPS refer to?

VM provisioned IOPS refers to the maximum input/output operations per second that are allocated to a virtual machine (VM). This concept is crucial in virtualized environments since it allows administrators to specify how much storage performance a VM can use. Proper allocation of provisioned IOPS ensures that a VM has sufficient performance for its workloads while also effectively managing the storage resources of the host.

This means that when provisioning a VM, an administrator can set a cap or limit on the number of IOPS that the VM can utilize, which helps in balancing performance across multiple VMs on the same host and avoiding any single VM from monopolizing storage resources.

In high-performance applications or environments where storage I/O can become a bottleneck, understanding the provisioned IOPS allows for better capacity planning and optimization of storage performance in a VMware vSphere environment.