8/20q switch & VMWare NPIV/RDM

[Simon Green_2]

Hi,

We're having a play with the above and struggling to get it to work with the 8/20q switch.
RDM requires NPIV which the switch apparently supports however the VMWare docs indicate that the VM must be able to see a lun when it logs onto the fabric or it will break down the connection - we're running hard zoning so how do we create this zone mapping manually (when the WWPN is never logged in)? Do we have to do anything special on the switch port?

Appreciate any help as this is driving me round the bend!.

Simon

[Uwe Zessin]

RDMs DO NOT require NPIV - they even predate the ability to configure it.

NPIV is used to give a VM an 'identity in the SAN'. Unfortunately, you need multiple steps before the NPIV function stucks.

- create the zones

- present the disks on the storage array to the virtual WWPNs at the same(!) LUN addres like the VMkernel presentation [I guess you're missing this step]

- then power on the VM

...."hard zoning"
you mean a port-based zoning? Because modern switches can do hardware enforcements on WWN-based zoning, too.


Again:
if you just want to use a simple RDM - don't waste valuable time with NPIV.

[Simon Green_2]

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately I do need to give the VM's an identity becuase we need to perform snapshots at the storage array level and hence want to ensure the relevant LUNS are fully quiesced by the snapshot agent on the individual VM.

The thing I am struggling to unserstand with our switches is that I do not see how I can configure a zone without the virtual HBA logged into the fabric (in order to create the zone) and I cannot get the VM to stay logged into the fabric without the virtual HBA seeing some storage (which it can't because no zone exists!).

Bit chicken and egg unless I am missing something fundamental.

Simon