VMware hosts on ESX box sharing one HBA, want to move VMhosts one per week into Santap - Can this be done?

[65VW]

Hello All,

An ESX server box with one HBA will eventually run 4 VM hosts each sharing the single HBA, and each VM host will be deployed on the ESX box one at a time over several weeks and each will have an RDM mapped storage Lun. Also each VM host will be moved into Santap for replication as it is deployed/created.

Is this possible to do: Move one VM host into Santap at a time, if the single HBA is shared by several VM hosts on the one ESX box, over the span of a few days?

Santap seems to require an original Back End Vsan and a Front End vsan for each host, so the first VM host would be able to be mapped in a Back End vsan (VMhost to RDM storage) and then "FC moved" into its Front End vsan to be split by Santap (CVT's, DVT's,Zones, and all else inplace). But how would the reaming hosts be able to be "FC moved" into Santap as they are created/deployed? The single shard HBA that was already "FCmoved" into a FE vsan with the first VM host and cant be moved again, even if all VM hosts are to end up in the same FEvsan as VM host #1.

So for an ESX box with one HBA that is to run 4 VM hosts through Santap, is it a requirement that all 4 VM hosts be created on this ESX box be up and running, Zoned in a Back End vsan, and RDM mapped to all their storage, then all 4 VM hosts need to be "FC moved" into the Front End Vsan for Santap at the same time?

I cant figure out if its a requirment that all hosts be moved at the same time when the HBA is shared, or if there is a way to "put" each new VM host directly into a Front End Vsan, to be split by Santap, without it ever being originally in a Back End Vsan.

Any comments are appreciated and thanks in advance.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Ignore the fact that this is ESX, what would you do on a physical box? Set it up that way. On ESX unless the Array is Active/Active you generally only use one HBA at a time for ALL VMs anyways. With only one HBA in a physical box regardless of ESX how would you set up Santap.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[65VW]

Hi Texiwill,

Thanks for the answer, that helps.

Just to clarify (I don't have a lab to test this in):

So I "FC" move the single ESX HBA physical channel from the BEvsan to the FEVsan, then I just need to map any additional Luns for additional VM hosts to the HBA that is now in the FEvsan (and associated with the original BEvsan), and these newly mapped Luns will now be in the FEvsan for Santap and can be assigned to any of the individual VM hosts on the ESX box.

So as you said, consider the ESX box a vanilla host, move this host into Santap, then simply map any additional drives needed for the VM hosts to the HBA/ESX box now in the FEvsan. And once the additional Lun is mapped to the ESX box in the FE vsan, I can then use the VM management tool to assign the newly mapped LUN(s) to any one of the VM hosts I choose that lives in the EXS box.

Thanks again for your answer and help.

Paul Jensen

Architect

Office 425-945-0048

Cell 206-571-4525