Using Fibre Channel storage with Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7

[chuckk281]

Peter was looking at using Fibre Channel storage with the Workstation WS4600c G6 blade with a Windows XP operating system. He wanted to know:

Can someone point me to a definitive support position on Windows XP or Vista or 7 with

FC HBA’s.

Answer from Des and Al came back:

You can sometimes find limited support on some arrays with XP (I assume Vista would be same), but it will at most be single HBA. Microsoft won’t provide/allow the MPIO for the desktop operating systems.

and

This paper is Microsoft’s position on XP and fibre channel storage. See attachment

Have you worked with basically desktop operating systems and fibre channel storage? Weigh in on the subject from what you have done.