ESX 3 and EMC Cx300 weirdness

[EncryptedToast]

Hi all,

I have ESX 3.0.2 with just one test VM on it, the guest is Win2003. I also have a CX300 that has production data on it with LUNS zoned to a different ESX environment, and one RAID group dedicated for this test environment.

The FC HBA is zoned to the CX, and I am able to create a storage group and assign LUNs to the ESX server. Where things get strange is, when I go into the VI client, the only place I see

the mapped LUNs are on the ESX host itself. I found them by choosing the host > Storage Adapters > rescan. They show up, but I don't know how to make the guest aware of them and utilize

them. If I select the guest, the only option I see for storage is right clicking and choosing "Edit settings". I see an "Add" and "Device Type > disk" but nothing shows up, and I dont see anywhere to scan for changes. I did some searching on this site but all the documentation I find is very old (ESX 2.x) so the GUI doesnt even look the same.

Is there a best practice guide or some reference as to how to best use these LUNS in the guest environment?

Thanks.

[claxton]

You are on the right path. When you edit the virtual machine, select ADD, Hard disk (click next). We use Raw Device Mappings (click next), then you should see the available luns that you saw available to the host. We take the defaults to complete the task. Then, go into the virtual machine, and use the disk management utility (you'll probably have to rescan to see the drive). Hope this helps.

[EncryptedToast]

Thanks, but that is the problem: I dont see any of the LUNs from the VM persepctive; I see them on the host but not the guest. It appears I am missing something, but I am not sure what...:_|

[claxton]

When you edit the virtual machine settings, do you see any hard disks listed that have a "summary" of Mapped Raw LUN after adding the disk?

If not, then it sounds like you're not going far enough. You click ADD, choose hard disk (make sure you click NEXT), choose the Raw Device Mappings (Click Next again), then you should see the target luns the host sees.

[mclark]

Are you saying that you are firing up the Windows VM you've created, logging in, and then in Windows Explorer expecting to see the LUN? If so, you will not. The VM has no knowledge whatsoever of the SAN it is on. You create additional disks in the VM settings using the space you carved out on the CX300, but these additional disks you create appear as regular SCSI disks to the VM. Your VM itself will not see LUNS, the FC SAN, etc.

[TheRealJason]

After you do a rescan of the adapters from the "Storage Adapters" tab/section and it sees your new LUN, you need to go to the "Storage" tab/section and click "Add Storage". It should see your new LUN, and you can create a VMFS formatted volume from there. Then you can follow the instructions on creating a disk for a VM. Post here if you have trouble with that.

Jason

[EncryptedToast]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I managed to get some test LUNs assigned as raw mappings, although it did not go quite the way as mentioned here. Basically, I never see the storage under "Storage > Add Storage" on the host itself. The only way I see these luns is from "Storage Adapters" link under "SCSI Target 0 and 1". Which in and of itself is odd, since this HBA only has one port (?)

Within the guest (still in VI, not actually logged into the guest OS) I dont see anything under data store. I can see the raw mappings by right clicking the guest and choosing "Edit Settings". I see:

Hard Disk 1 (Local Virtual Disk)

Hard Disk 2 (one of the raw luns)

Hard Disk 3 (the other raw lun)

Now, as if things are not confusing enough, I decided to wipe the slate clean and start over. So (From Navisphere) I moved the luns out of the storage group , unbound them , updated the host. Bascially at that point there are no more luns mapped to this VM. Nada. But for some reason, no matter how many times I rescan (from VI), bounce the VM (from VI as well as logging in and shutting down" I STILL see these two luns within VI. Doing a "rescan disks" in the guest OS (manage conputer> disk management) doesnt seem to help either, they still show up as unintitialized disk. But in Navisphere they are nowhere to be found. The storage group is empty, and no LUNs are bound in the RAID group.

So I gues I have a better understanding of how to add luns, but am still confused as to why these "ghost" luns just refuse to go away.

Oh, another note: If I right click the guest VM (from VI) and choose "Edit Settings" and highlight one of these luns, there is a button for "Remove" but it is greyed out.

:smileyalert: