How to connect FC MSL2024 to ESXi Server

[Craig Eddington]

I am trying to connect a MSL2024 with 2x FC tape drives to an ESXi cluster (BL460c) HP C7000 Chassis.  We will be using a VM running DataProtector Backup Software.  The WWNs of the Tape Drives have been zoned to the blade, but not sure how to get the VM to find the Tape Library.

Any Help would be appreciated.  I see someone posted a similar question back in 2011 with no answer....so Im not holding my breath.

[giladzzz]

Hi

I don't think this is supported you can try

and dedicate the HBA on each server to the virtual machine

but this would actually disable the advantage of virtualization

Regards

[Curtis_Ballard]

It has been a few years since I'm aware of any significant testing in this space but I haven't heard of any changes that might affect tape supportability on VMware.  Unfortunately tape device pass-through into VMware is something that doesn't quite work.  It is possible to get it to almost work but it isn't reliable.  There is an incompatibility somewhere in the VMware IO stack.