ESX Server 3.0 Tips and Tricks
Mostafa Khalil, VCP
VMware Product Support Engineering
Agenda
Storage Area Network
VMFS-3
iSCSI Storage
NFS
Storage Area Network (SAN)
Components
Topology
Identification
SAN Components
Initiators (host HBAs)
QLogic 1/2/4Gb
Emulex 1/2/4Gb
See HCL for supportability
Set HBA’s BIOS to “Point-to-Point” or similar to that
Targets (Storage Processors’ Ports)
Active/Active Arrays
Active/Passive Arrays
Check the HCL for supportability
Fabrics (Switches and Fibre Connections)
No specific listing on HCL
1/2/4Gb switches
May need to set switch port to “Fx” or equivalent (e.g. F-Port)
SAN Topology – Point-to-Point
AKA Direct Connect
Not supported
Except CX100
Server
HBA
Storage
SP
SAN Topology – Absolute Minimum
Switch allows additional
connections of more storage or
more servers
No redundancy
Many single points of failure
Supported by VMware for ESX
Server as a bare minimum
configuration
If the Storage Arrays are not
listed on the hardware
compatibility list (HCL), VMware
only supports them with this
simple configuration
Server
HBA
FC Switch
Storage
SP
SAN Topology – Arbitrated Loop
Not Supported
Server
HBA
Server
HBA
Storage
SP
SAN Topology – Multipath Fabric
FC Switch
Server
HBA HBA
Server
HBA HBA
Storage
SP
SP
SAN Topology – Fully Redundant Fabrics
Recommended
Server
HBA
HBA
Server
HBA
HBA
Storage
SP1
SP2
FC Switch
FC Switch
Identifying SAN Configuration
VI Client
Console
Multipath Analysis
Cannonical Name
vmhbaC:T:L
In this example
Vmhba0:0:0
Policy: MRU or Fixed
In this Example: MRU
Path States:
On
Off
Standby
Dead
Multipath Analysis - Identifying Targets
SAN Type
Port ID
WWN
SPA0
xx:xx:xx:60:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPA1
xx:xx:xx:61:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPA2
xx:xx:xx:62:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPA3
xx:xx:xx:63:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPB0
xx:xx:xx:68:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPB1
xx:xx:xx:69:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPB2
xx:xx:xx:6A:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPB3
xx:xx:xx:6B:xx:xx:xx:xx
SPA1
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:x9
SPA2
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:x8
SPB1
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xD
SPB2
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xC
N/A
20:0X:00:00:00:00:xx
N/A
20:0Z:00:00:00:00:zz
IBM FAStT
HP E