No Automatic mode for Boot-From-SAN?

[mallocarray12]

Just got off the phone with support confirming I'm good to go for an upgrade to 2.0.7 this weekend.  One thing I asked about was my one physical host that utilizes boot-from-SAN as it is diskless.  he said that I can still use 2.0.7 but I will not be able to change to Automatic mode on the array as it would interrupt the connection. This shouldn't be a huge deal as I only have a single array, but as the rest of my environment is VMware I was looking forward to being able to simplify the connections.

[bbeulin69]

Josh,

Can you clarify?  Are you concerned about the single host you have utilizing Boot from SAN, or are you worried about your VMware environment losing connectivity?  Yes, it's true that the Boot From SAN Volume may lose connectivity for the configuration to Automatic Mode.  However, with the VMware environment, if you install the NCM for VMware on your hosts, you should not see an impact to your VMware environment when establishing Automatic Mode.  I have done this successfully with several customers to date.  The two caveats are that you must be using VMware 5.1 or 5.5 Enterprise or Enterprise+ edition & you do have to put ESXi Hosts into Maintenance Mode in order to install the NCM for VMware.

Please let us know if that is helpful & don't be afraid to reach out to your account's SE or Nimble Support for further clarification.

Thanks,

Bryan Beulin

Nimble Storage

Sr. Systems Engineer - UT, Est. ID, WY

[mallocarray12]

I guess I'm worried about not being able to take full advantage of my Nimble and Automatic mode, since I will have to leave it in Manual so this one physical Windows boot-from-san box can continue working, forcing my VMware environment to not be able to full utilize the new feature.

Does that make sense?  I've installed NCM for VMware (which boots from an SD card) and am getting ready to upgrade my Nimble, but haven't done it yet.

[Nick_Dyer · Accepted solution]

Hi Josh,

I will not be able to change to Automatic mode on the array as it would interrupt the connection.

Whilst the above is potentially true, in practice I have never seen this been an issue deploying BFS with Nimble on Automatic networking - as long as the VTIPs are the same as the discovery IP address then I can't see it being a problem.

Perhaps it's worth giving support a call back to discuss?