Which vSphere 6.x storage service provides array-based operations at the virtual disk level?

Local storage is directly attached to a single ESXi host and does not support array-based operations or integration with external storage array services.

Virtual Volumes (VVols) integrate with compatible storage arrays to perform data services like snapshots, replication, and cloning natively on the array but scoped to each virtual disk. This per-VM, per-virtual-disk granularity allows the storage array's hardware offloads to operate without being abstracted away by a VMFS datastore container.

Virtual SAN (vSAN) is a software-defined, hypervisor-converged storage solution that aggregates local disks; it does not provide array-based operations sourced from an external storage array.

Datastores (VMFS or NFS) are logical containers for storing VM files and do not themselves expose or perform array-based operations at the virtual disk level.