vSphere NPIV - hbas in guest OS? (Windows 2008)

[klausternm]

I have been configuring VMWare NPIV via RDM on a Cisco UCS platform. I see the WWPNs generated by NPIV on my FC switch, and looking at the ESX host console I see the VPORTs and WWPNs, so it seems that things are working.

However, within the guest OS (Windows 2008) I don't have any indication of connectivity to the to the FC SAN. Should I be seeing any HBAs, anything via Storage Manager, Netapp SnapDrive, etc...?

Thanks.

[mike_laspina]

Hi,

Enabling NPIV at the VM does not expose any virtual FC hardware to the VM. NPIV was designed to allow Virtual Mode RDMs to be presented to a VM using a separate wwn allowing more flexible mapping and data flow montoring.

Regards,

http://blog.laspina.ca/

vExpert 2009

[admin]

N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)

======================

Makes it possible to use the NPIV technology that allows a single Fibre Channel HBA port to register with the Fibre Channel fabric using several worldwide port names (WWPNs). This ability makes the HBA port appear as multiple virtual ports, each having its own ID and virtual port name. Virtual machines can then claim each of these virtual ports and use them for all RDM traffic.

NOTE - You can use NPIV only for virtual machines with RDM disks.

To present luns to the VM directly using NPIV first you need to enable NPIV in VM Properties. To enable NPIV,

1) Edit the VM properties and go to the tab 'Options'.

2) As you could see in the attached screenshot, select the option Fibre Channel NPIV and Generate new WWNs.

3) After enabling the NPIV if you go the same window you will be able to see the WWPN and the WWPN as you can see in the attached screenshot.

After Enabling NPIV on the VM side you need to do the zoning on FC switches and Lun mapping on Storage Array using the WWN generated on the VM. Also the LUN has to be assigned to the VM as RDM disk.

After that you should be able to access the disk inside supported guest operating systems using NPIV. But there will not be any new HBAs presented inside the VM.

If this answer this question please mark the thread as answered.

~Sudhish

[klausternm]

Thanks for the helping clarify this for me.

I was also missing communication between the Netapp Snapdrive tool and vCenter that allowed guest to see and mount other LUNs.

- Klaus