HBA interface on guest virtual machine

[ricky73]

Can I add HBA interface in guest virtual machine (Centos 6) so that OS can see directly drive unit of my tape library, which is connected to my SAN, and to write data to fiber channel.

Vmware host is blade server which is linked to FC.

Does it Vmware layer to permit to guest OS to see directly HBA interface ?

[krish290785]

You might want to look for VMDirectPath I/O Pass thru. This would let you pass thru the devices to the Guest VMs. Off course, Your host Hardware need to support VT-D to get this.

[cjscol]

Yes you can dedicate a HBA to a VM so that it can access it directly but it is dedicated to that VM so cannot be shared with any other VM or used by the hypervisor. You need to use Directpath I/O. Select the ESXi host the VM is running on, on the Configuration tab under hardware select Advanced Settings, click Configure Passthrough to configure the HBA for DirectPath I/O. You can then add that HBA to your VM as a PCI device. When the tape drive is zoned up to that HBA your VM should be able to see it.

Of course as the HBA is in that ESXi host and HBAs in other hosts will have different WWN then you cannot vMotion the VM between hosts.