AX4 and NPIV

Hi Remi,

Please, refer to https://elabnavigator.emc.com/‎ since, there is no mention about NPIV in the Official White Paper:Using EMC CLARiiON with Microsoft Hyper-V Server

Please, do note below:

N-port ID virtualization (NPIV) provides the ability to share a single physical Fibre Channel HBA port among multiple virtual ports, each with unique identifiers. This capability lets you control virtual machine access to LUNs on a per-virtual machine basis.Each virtual port is identified by a pair of world wide names (WWNs): a world wide port name (WWPN) and a world wide node name (WWNN). These WWNs are assigned by vCenter Server. For detailed information on how to configure NPIV for a virtual machine, see the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.

NPIV support is subject to the following limitations:

- NPIV must be enabled on the SAN switch. Contact the switch vendor for information about enabling NPIV on their devices.

- NPIV is supported only for virtual machines with RDM disks. Virtual machines with regular virtual disks continue to use the WWNs of the hosts physical HBAs.

-  The physical HBAs on the Hyper-V Server must have access to a LUN using its WWNs in order for any virtual machines on that host to have access to that LUN using their NPIV WWNs. Ensure that access is provided to both the host and the virtual machines.

- The physical HBAs on the Hyper-V must support NPIV. If the physical HBAs do not support NPIV, the virtual machines running on that host will fall back to using the WWNs of the hosts physical HBAs for LUN access.

- Each virtual machine can have up to 4 virtual ports. NPIV-enabled virtual machines are assigned exactly 4 NPIV-related WWNs, which are used to communicate with physical HBAs through virtual ports. Therefore, virtual machines can utilize up to 4 physical HBAs for NPIV purposes.

Above limitation are mentioned for ESX Server, I am assuming here that it is same for Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

As Dynamoxx mentioned above. Please, consider referring to:

- How to Configure NPIV in a Microsoft Hyper-V Environment

AND/OR if you are using Hyper-V 3.0 for step by step instructions with the best practice refer to:

- https://community.emc.com/blogs/bottk/2013/03/23/best-practice-for-using-npiv-with-hyper-v-30

New (2013) entry level Brocades DS-300...

NPIV is enabled at the switch and at the host level, storage has no clue what's going on there as long as valid WWN logs-in to the SP port.

How you are connecting the host (Model of the switch will be used) ?

DS-300 supports NPIV.

The hypervisor must support NPIV, then you should enable NPIV on switches. For Cisco MDS, the command is

switch(config)# npiv enable. For Brocade, it's portcfgnpivport (0: disable, 1: enable). Refer to their administration guides for the details:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/sw/nx-os/configuration/guides/int/int_cli_4_2_published/npv.html

and

http://www.brocade.com/downloads/documents/technical_briefs/NPIV_ESX4_0_GA-TB-145-01.pdf

The you should create zones for all VM's WWPNs. And the single-initiator zoning rule still applies.

Roger W. wrote: The you should create zones for all VM's WWPNs. And the single-initiator zoning rule still applies.

no it does not , read up on Smart Zoning.