ESX 3.01 CX500 Navisphere agent

[Phril]

We are running version 6.19.2.6.5-1. I have looked on both EMC and VM websites. Anyone know where can I get the latest version of the navisphere cli agent?

[mikemast]

I dont put a navisphere agent on my ESX servers, never needed one.?

I have multiple ESX servers hooked to a CX500 none have the agent and everything works fine.

[masaki]

Yes.

You should not install Navipshere agent.

ESX will manage itself the SAN.

Only update your hba fiber cards' firmware to the latest version.

[TomHowarth]

I have 6.19.4.7.0-1 PM me with a email address and I'll forward it to you

Not sure if there is a difference between a CX 300 and CX 500 regarding Navi agents though

[mikemast]

Yes I have talked to Vmware and EMC and the agents are not required for Clarion. ESX has power path software built in and will fail over fine. All you need to do is manually register your host with the Clarion.

I run a CX300 and a CX500, with 15+ ESX servers.

[whynotq]

correct you don't need to have the Agent installed it's just nice not to have to perform a manual registration/group edit.

there is no difference between the Agent for cx300 or cx500 as it is a host based file and used purely for out of band communications.

I always install it as it makes SAN admins happy to see LUN and Server info via EMC Navisphere, just follow the instructions in the EMC Clariion host connectivity guide remembering to open the port on the firewall as instructed.

[aenagy]

I have an ESX 3.0.1 server and have installed Navisphere v6.19.00. Even after opening the firewall (esxcfg-firewall -o 6389,tcp,in,naviagent ; esxcfg-firewall -o 6389,tcp,out,naviagent) the naviagent will not restart.

Any ideas? Any help would be appriciated.

[pgerritse]

Any important reason to install the agent in esx3.01?

Will I be missing important functionality if I don't?

[markwolf]

The navisphere agent does 2 important things. It registers the ESX host onto the storage array, so that when you go to the list of connected hosts, you'll see the ESX server by name instead of just a bunch of HBA's. Its not a big deal, but it does make it easier to manage from the storage. The second thing the agent does is that when you look at a LUN from the storage system, you'll see the hosts that have access to it and it will show you what volume the host is using to reference the LUN.

For instance, if you have several volumes that your ESX server(s) see that are the same exact size, when you look at them from the storage array, you'll see the fact that ESX01 sees LUN 20 as vmhba1:0:0 instead of vmhba1:0:10.

Basically, it makes it easier to manage and diagnose storage related problems. Just like in Windows, the agent shows LUN1 as the e:\ drive, and LUN 2 as the f:\ drive.

Its not critical and you can certainly get by just fine without it, but I would certainly recommend it. Its not difficult to install and it doesn't hurt anything.

I manage our SAN and our ESX environment, so that's just my 2 cents.

[John_S1]

We've found that, as with most EMC software, not installing it is your best option. ESX will manage the SAN and if you manually register, you'll get the same info as with Navi.

Not installing means not having to open firewall ports and not using Service Console memory or risking corruption.

[jjamieson]

I'm with you, Markwolf. Navisphere Agent is NOT a path management tool like PowerPath. It simply communicates with the Clariion and provides the Clariion with information about the configuration of the machine. It's very lightweight and not likely to cause any issues. We've been putting Navisphere on our ESX servers for three years without a single issue.

I recommend it for any ESX server if you use a Clariion. It just makes things better.

[cepohim]

where can I download the Navisphere agent for ESX 3.0.1?

[TomHowarth]

Welcome to the forums,

Send me a private message with your email address and I'll forward it too you

Kind Regards

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[opbz]

Personally I remove it whenever I see it.

The 2 benefits it provides are ease of connectivity and naming gives lun names in Navisphere thats it...If your luns are all identical it might help otherwise

For this small advantage you end up with a service that is constantly running and taking up resources.

Also found that in several cases navisphere actually introduced some performance issues.