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  • 1.  ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 01:28 PM

    NPIV==Fibre Channel N_Port ID virtualization.  ANSI T11 standard that describes how a single FC HBA port can register with the fabric using several worldwide port names(WWPNs)...

    Question1:  was NPIV introduced first in ESX4 ...  if not then in what ESX version...?

    Question2:  is the following a correct statement...

    "These are the methods of allocating storage that can be supported by certain storage arrays:

    1) VMFS

    2) RDM LUN

    3) NPIV

    4) RDM HBA

    thanks in advance!

    -r



  • 2.  RE: ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 11:37 PM

    I believe 3.5 was the first iteration of NPIV in a VMware infrastructure.

    Also, add NFS to you list of datastores.



  • 3.  RE: ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 11:55 PM

    Hi,

    As cmcminn mentioned, NPIV introduced in VI 3.5. Reference: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/new_storage_features_3_5_v6.pdf

    Question2:  is the following a correct statement...

    "These are the methods of allocating storage that can be supported by certain storage arrays:

    1) VMFS

    2) RDM LUN

    3) NPIV

    4) RDM HBA

    1. VMFS

    2. NFS

    3. RDM (Physical, Virtual)



  • 4.  RE: ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 21, 2012 02:35 PM

    Thx very much,

    As I understand it now,  NPIV is a virtual adapter, not a filesystem.  NPIV gives a VM a way to user Fibre Channel.... correct?

    And, could you please explain or provide pointers to documentation re: RDM(physical?, virtual?)  ...

    Thx,

    -r



  • 5.  RE: ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 21, 2012 02:47 PM

    NPIV allows you to allocate LUNS to a specific VM instead of a vSphere host.  It has to be used with RDMs and here is some documentation about setting it up.   http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_4_vsp4_41_npivconfig.pdf



  • 6.  RE: ...couple questions...

    Posted Feb 21, 2012 02:52 PM

    NPIV allows you to register multiple WWNs on a single HBA port. Your HBAs and also SAN switches need to have NPIV support. And it only works with RDMs. more detailed info can be found here: http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/2009/07/27/npiv-support-in-vmware-esx4/

    RDMs or Raw Device Mapping allows VMs direct access to the LUNs thus enabling to take advantage of some advance SAN features (snapshots, etc). As you mentioned, RDMs have 2 modes, virtual and physical. The major difference between them feature wise(among others) is virtual mode supports snapshots, you can read about it in detail here:

    http://www.virtuallifestyle.nl/2010/01/recommended-detailed-material-on-rdms/