Can't see wwn of VMWare VMguest on Cisco MDS 5913 with NPIV enabled

Welcome to the forums samus10. I hope you have a good time with us and that we can learn smoething from and you from us . Make sure to introduce yourself ni the coffee corner.

About the virtual wwpn's.... hmmmm, I can't remember anyone asking this question and so far I haven't had a need for giving VM's their own wwpn's, so I'm very interested in how this discussion will continue

Did you assign the WWN to the VM at time of creation or to an existing VM. I think that the WWN adds/changes to a VM need to be done with the VM powered off and that the WWNs will register with the fabric at boot time for the VM.

EDIT: Saw that you already mentioned the type of HBA. Removed question about HBA.

Yes, I assign the WWN at time of creation but wen I start the VM I don't see any new entry in the switch.

If after NPIV has been enabled on the switch, WWPNs have been assigned to the VM, the VM has been rebooted, and those WWPNs do not show up on the switch (show flogi database) then I would call support. There is pretty thin documentation in the Cisco FM and CLI guides on NPIV beyond how to enable it, and even less documentation on troubleshooting it.

thanks for your post, I will open a case with support.

Regards

Please post back here if you get an answer from support. I am curious about this as well and would like to know what the resolution is.

Out of curiousity, what is your reason for implementing NPIV? Just wondering what you need it for that a standard VM with RDM mapping did not provide?

Thanks,

Aran

The thing is that the VM server is for ECC console and I need direct connection to the symmectrix for the application.

Regards

RDM device would have provided that "native" connectivity so ECC/symcli can see the array

Would an pRDM work as a gatekeeper for symcli? How would symcli know that a pRDM device is from the sym and can be used to communicate with the array?

Yes, that is what I was wondering, if a pRDM of a Sym device would appear to the symcli as actually a device from a sym for use in SCSI communications. Have you tested this?

Well since we've completely hijacked this thread...

Yes I do have ECC and it is running on a physical box along with RM. I have been wanting to put it on it's own dedicated server because it is a pain to upgrade RM and SE on a box already running ECC. I really don't use ECC much, I mostly use it for the sym alerts and performance manager. Everything else I use the symcli or SMC.

i have not tested this but when i was contemplating whether to install ECC 6.1 in VMware vs Physical box i stumbled upon this solution emc186684, then ECC planning and installation guide confirmed the same RDM requirement. Do you have ECC in your shop ?

Thank for the helpful post, I will go with RDM and not with NPIV.  I open a case with support and the only ting he sees is that he can see the wwpn and close the case.