NPIV, Virtual WWNs, and Virtual Machines

[Mi77]

Hi,

If NPIV allows multiple WWNs to login to the fabric. Can I conclude that for zoning, I can tied up a storage LUN to one of the Virtual Machine using this machine's virtual WWN (vWWN) that is generated by the NPIV capable physical HBA?

[WFHC-WI]

Hi Mi,

The physical HBA has hard-coded WWNs. If you use Virtual Connect in your enclosure (requires a VC-Enet/Flex-10 module + VC-FC module) then you have the option of assigning virtual WWNs from HP's pre-defined pools. Your zoning will depend on which WWN option you select.

For each virtualization platform I am aware of, you zone the LUN to point back to the host server rather than the virtual guest running on it.

good luck

[Mi77]

OK, what if I have a single ProLiant server with an NPIV capable HBA and NPIV capable switch. I have 4 Virtual Machines which WWWN's provided by the HBA (with NPIV). Now I would like to zone each VMs to my storage LUNs utilizing in zoning the Virtual WWWNs provided by the NPIV HBA which are tied up to the Virtual Machines.

Is this possible?

[Michael Leu]

I don't see why it should not work. Just check that the switch has NPIV enabled and you should be good to go.

As mentioned above combining NPIV by HBA and NPIV by Virtual Connect will probably not work.

[Mi77]

Great, thanks so much Sir, it's Crystal now.