Hi Fred
What virtual HBA/driver would you configure in the VM?  To my understanding, the only virtual HBA available are VMLSILogic and VMBusLogic.  It's been that way for a long time.  This isn't to say VMware couldn't invent a new VMHBA or integrate virtual port functionality into the VMLSILogic implementation.  I'm just not sure what you would gain from it.  One of the main points of the VM architecture is to not have to worry about what drivers you need in the VM.
 
Another thing that comes to mind is that you couldn't use VMFS (for the VM's disk), since with a virtual FC port would talk directly to LUNs.  This becomes more like RDM, and again, I don't see what you gain.
 
It occurred to me to see what VMware had to say.  The only occurrence of "NPIV" on their site yields the following:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_lun_security.pdf
 
So, from their perspective, it seems the gain from NPIV is security.  It also look like this is not a shipping product/feature.
 
Share and enjoy!
 
Peter

From: Fred Grieco [mailto:fredgrieco@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 4:50 AM
To: Davies,Matt; Willeke, Jochen; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: Re: simple SAN?!

I'm pretty sure you can use FC to the VMs if you use virtual ports or NPIV. 

http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/magLogin/1,291245,sid35_gci1228666,00.html

This is a little like "NAT" for fibre channel.  It also requires sophisticated cards and switches.

Fred

----- Original Message ----
From: "Davies,Matt" <MDAVIES@generalatlantic.com>
To: "Willeke, Jochen" <Jochen.Willeke@wincor-nixdorf.com>; toasters@mathworks.com
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 6:24:50 AM
Subject: RE: simple SAN?!

On the VMware side, as far as I understand you can only use FC to the physical machine, not to a virtual machine, as the VM's do not support FC.
 
I believe you can still use VCB with Iscsi, it just needs a bit more scripting, I would check out the VMware discussion groups on the VMware website, I have always found them very helpful.
 
Cheers
 
Matt
 
 
 
 
 
 

From: Willeke, Jochen [mailto:Jochen.Willeke@wincor-nixdorf.com]
Sent: 23 November 2006 11:07
To: Davies,Matt; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: RE: simple SAN?!

We already use ISCSI, but we aer thinking about VMWare and VMWare has some nice features (e.g. VCB) which need an FC-SAN.
 
Thanks anyway
 
Jochen

From: Davies,Matt [mailto:MDAVIES@generalatlantic.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:59 AM
To: Willeke, Jochen; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: RE: simple SAN?!

If you are looking at low cost san, I would go Iscsi, as long as everything you need on Iscsi is on Gig ethernet ports, it should work fine.
 
Cheers
 
Matt
 
 

From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Willeke, Jochen
Sent: 23 November 2006 10:11
To: toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: simple SAN?!

Hi,
 
as we use not too much SAN at our site i am not really used to this topic. Yesterday i read an article about "simple SAN". "Simple SAN" seems to mean as an plug-n-play solution. But what about the components espacially the SAN-switches?
 
Do we see really new (and cheap :D) SAN-switches or only old products "reassembled" as a solution for small companies.
 
Regards
 
Jochen


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