Hi everybody,
My system has a configuration like below:
- Blade Server: UCS B200 M2 (Model: N20-B6625-1) with mezzazine card M81KR
- Host OS: VMWare ESXi 5.0.0 - 623680
- Storage Connection: Blade Server --> Chassis --> Extender (FEX) --> Fabric Interconnect (UCS 6248UP) --> SAN Switch (Cisco MDS 9100) --> SAN Storage (EMC VNX5300)
Now we intend to implement a RDM Hard Disk via NPIV feature for a Virtual Machine(VM) on the Host Blade. Up to now, we have:
- Configured the NPIV setting of the VM and the VM displayed the generated WWPN and WWNN (NPIV status is Assigned)
- On the SAN Switch (Cisco MDS 9100), we have checked that feature NPIV is enabled (by command #show npiv status)
- LUN is created on EMC Storage
However, during the process of implementation, there are some issues as below:
- When we reboot the VM and check the /var/log/vmkernel.log, there is no information about NPIV event (search the log by the word "npiv")
- SSH login to the ESXi host and cat /proc/scsi --> there is only 1 folder named mptsas (/proc/scsi/mptsas), not like to be an folder which represents an HBA card (Emulex: lpfc, QLogic: qla)
- According to the URL:
Deployment Procedure --> 1. Enable NPIV on the Cisco MDS 9000 Family switch: We checked that the Fibre Channel license on Cisco UCS Manager had only activated 1 package ETH_PORT_ACTIVATION. The output is as below:
UCS A/ license # show usage detail
License instance: ETH_PORT_ACTIVATION_PKG
Scope: A
Default: 12
Total Quant: 12
Used Quant: 12
State: License Ok
Peer Count Comparison: Matching
Grace Used: 0
License instance: ETH_PORT_ACTIVATION_PKG
Scope: B
Default: 12
Total Quant: 12
Used Quant: 12
State: License Ok
Peer Count Comparison: Matching
Grace Used: 0
Meanwhile, the topic suggests that the Fabric Interconnect is licensed the FC_FEATURES_PKG Yes --> Did we lack any FC license for the NPIV to work correctly ??
4. On the SAN Switch, use command #show fcns database which lists all the WWPN of all the vHBA Host’s Port, NPV WWN of Fabric Interconnect, WWN of EMC Storage Processor (SP) HBA without the NPIV WWPN of the VM (that we generated before)
5. Although SAN Switch does not display the NPIV WWPN of the VM, we still try zoning this NPIV WWPN to the same zone with the physical vHBA of the parent ESXi host and the Storage SP port manually; like the following thread below:
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/11/npiv-n-port-id-virtualization.html
“FC Switch Configuration
On the FC switch, you will now have to create zones from the VM’s NPIV WWPN to the Storage Array ports WWPN. However, the VM’s NPIV WWPNs are currently not active, so they do not appear in the nameserver on the FC switch. Therefore they will need to be added manually. Once they are manually added to the FC switch, the WWPNs can then be placed in zones with the WWPN of the Storage Array ports.”
However, on the EMC Storage Management Console, the new expected initiator (NPIV WWPN of VM) does not appear. SO that we cannot assign RDM Lun to VM via NPIV feature.
In conclusion, we are wondering that:
- Whether the Cisco UCS supports VMWare NPIV feature ?
- And if our infrastructure supports the NPIV feature, are there any misconfiguration in our step ?
I’m highly appreciated for any suggested idea for this case, thank you so much !!
Accepted Solutions
HI Walter,
Did you mean that we have to change the NPIV WWN format or that of physical vHBA of the host ?
To make thing clearer, we send you some pic of our configuration:
1. WWN of 2 physical vHBAs on the ESXi host (these WWNs are generated automatically from Pool)
- vHBA0:
- WWPN: 20:A1:00:25:B5:00:00:5E
- WWNN: 20:00:00:25:B5:00:00:5E
- vHBA1:
- WWPN: 20:B1:00:25:B5:00:00:5E
- WWNN: 20:00:00:25:B5:00:00:5E
2. WWN of NPIV on Virtual Machine:
- WWNN: 28:16:00:0C:29:00:00:01
- WWPN: 28:16:00:0C:29:00:00:02
Would you mean this WWN format needs to be changed to 20:00:00:25..... format ?
3. We also send you the output of show fcns database command on MDS SAN Switch as below:
Actually, MDS SAN Switch can recognize the WWN of Fabric Interconnecte and all that of physical vHBA of every ESXi host except the NPIV's WWN.
Thanks Walter for your help,
But what a pity, the WWN of NPIV in VM cannot be customized because the VSphere genenerates it automatically based on the VMWare WWN OUI.
You can check the Vendor WWN OUI via the following URL:
http://wintelguy.com/index.pl
the result shows that the WWN of the NPIV of VM - 28:16:00:0C:29:00:00:01
is belong to VMWare Corp, and poorly we cannot change it to aa:bb:00:25:B5:cc:dd:ee Format that belongs to Cisco Corp
Otherwise, our final purpose is to create NPIV on VM and the Windows Server 2008 OS must recognizes new device but nothing works -- > Maybe i have to ask VMWare Community to have some more ideas.
I'm very exhausted when getting stuck in this case !
I you have any futhermore clue, don't hesitate to reply me on this thread, i'm very appreciated for you useful information :)
