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nicholas1982
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Does vMotion or SVmotion work with NPIV enabled.

If anyone can accurately advise on this it would be much appreciated.

We are building a new FC fabric using the Cisco MDS 9000. After reading many docs, it seems it would be best practice to enable NPIV.

However I just read some conflicting info on the following URL:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vi35/fibre_san_config/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=fibre_san...

“Note If you want to use VMotion for a virtual machine with enabled NPIV, make sure that the RDM file is located on the same datastore where the virtual machine configuration file resides. You cannot perform Storage VMotion, or VMotion between datastores, when NPIV is enabled. “

One part say if you want to use vMotion for a VM with NPIV do the following.. The last bit says you can’t vmotion if NPIV is enabled.

We are not currently using RDM’s but we thought if there is a requirement in the future NPIV would be enabled.

My main question is what do they mean by.. You cannot perform Storage VMotion, or VMotion between datastores, when NPIV is enabled. ?

And can anyone tell me if there is any reason why we should not enable NPIV ?

Regards Nicholas

Nicholas
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TomHowarth
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you can migrate the VM but not the VMDKs or NPIV attached devices

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Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410

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weinstein5
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The way I read that is Storage vmotion is out - I say this because of the second part of the statement - vmotion between datastores which is the definition of storage vmotion - NPIV should not impact vmotion other than the admonition about NPIV and RDM

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TomHowarth
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Nicholas,

There is a subtle distinction in the wording - one says vMotion (this is fine) the other relates to svMotion and vMotion over DataStores (Cold Migration of a Guests VMDKs) so what is actually being stated is that standard vMotion works but you cannot migrate from one storage datastore to another.

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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

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Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
nicholas1982
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So basically live VM storage migration to another datastore will not work with NPIV enabled?

Regards

Nicholas

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TomHowarth
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And just as importantly Cold Storage Migration.

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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

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Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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nicholas1982
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so you can't migrate a vm even powered off?

Nicholas
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TomHowarth
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you can migrate the VM but not the VMDKs or NPIV attached devices

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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nicholas1982
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I think there may be some confusion, because I have NPIV enable and I successfully migrated a live VM from SAN to local storage.

Just to reiterate the FC ports are set to NPIV as far as VM or vCenter configuration is concerned NPIV hasn't been configured.

I would like to know what to do with NPIV so that SVMotion doesn't to see if this is really true. do I just enable NPIV on the VM?

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TomHowarth
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Having NPIV enabled and having an NPIV device attached to a VM are 2 completely different beasts.

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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

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Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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nicholas1982
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Hi Tom,

Thanks for that, on our MDS 9000 the ports have been configured as NP and that is it, which should not affect SVMotion but what you saying if a VM is then configured to use NPIV, that VM only will not be able to SVMotion between datastores?

Just so I'm not getting confused with some other VMware technology, you would only configure NPIV on a VM to have logical WWNs asigned to it for direct SAN access / RDM?

Regards

Nicholas

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SimonLong
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Hi Nicholas, you are correct;

"N‐Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is an ANSI T11 standard that describes how a single Fibre Channel HBA port

can register with the fabric using several worldwide port names (WWPNs)."

Enabling NPIV will not cause an issue with VMotion or sVMotion, but once you attach LUN's using NPIV to your VM this is when VMotion and sVMotion will stop working properly.

Regards Simon

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nicholas1982
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Hi Simon,

Will it only affect the VM you configure it for, or can it affect other VM's on the host or vCenter?

P.S. Great site you have, It was my main source for study material when studying for the beta exam.:8}

Regards

Nicholas

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TomHowarth
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It will only affect the VM that as the LUN attached.

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

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Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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SimonLong
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Thanks, i hope it was of some help to you...i'm glad those 4 hours are over and done with!

If i understand NPIV correctly, it should only effect the VM it is configured on. Basicly when you use NPIV on a VM, NPIV generates and assigns WWN's; 1 for the Node and 4 for Ports (This can be done manually in the .vmx file). If the VM was VMotioned it would then be using a different HBA to access the Storage network, which would mean that the WWN's that were used will no longer work on the new HBA until new WWN's were generated and assigned. You may also need to add the new WWN's to your Storage Zones depending on your network setup.

Have a read of Jason Boche's post: http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2008/10/28/n_port-id-virtualization-npiv-and-vmware-virtual-infr...

Regards Simon

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