EMC Requirements

[tjg091]

We are running an ESX Advanced 4.1 host with a fiber attachment to an EMC Clarion NS120 SAN. Is the EMC Navisphere and Powerpath software necessary to configure Vsphere to see and utilize the disk from the EMC array? This was a requiremnet with standalone servers in the past but this is new ground for us in the Vsphere world.

Thanks,

TJ

[vmroyale]

Note: Discussion successfully moved from VMware ESX™ 4 to VMware vSphere™ Storage

[mcowger]

Navisphere and Powerpath are not required.

You do need FLARE 28 or above (pref. FLARE 30).

[vipinvk]

Navisphere manager/Unisphere manager is used to manage the EMC  storage. And powerpath is the path management software from EMC used in  hosts.

You may refer to https://support.emc.com/docu5265_Host_Connectivity_Guide_for_VMWare_ESX_Server.pdf?language=en_US for best practices.

[tjg091]

vipinvk,

I know what Navisphere manager/Unisphere and powerpath are used for on the EMC end but my question is are do they need to be installed on a VMware host server?

Thanks,

TJ

[jrocket]

TJ

NaviSphere is the UI used to Install,Configure and Maintain the EMC array. Nothing from NaviSphere needs to be installed on the Host(s)

Power Path is a High Availability / Multi Pathing software and is not required in order to connect the array to your hosts. It does provide extra features and functions and cost $ per host.

Rosco 

[vipinvk]

No, Powerpath (and navisphere also ) is not necessary to make the disks visible in the vsphere .Once done registration and allocation through storage groups in navisphere it should be visible in Vsphere after a rescan (NS120 is a celerra-NAS model and clariion model should be CX4-120 which is the backend storage in the NAS).

You can use either native multipathing for enabling multipathing on Vsphere.

[vipinvk]

Also you may refer to  http://www.vmware.com/pdf/clariion_wp_eng.pdf

[tjg091]

How is the multi-path managed via the fiber on the Vsphere host is powerpath is not installed??

[mcowger]

ESXi has a built in multipath manager (generally referred to as NMP-native multipathing).

[Josh26]

tjg091 wrote:

How is the multi-path managed via the fiber on the Vsphere host is powerpath is not installed??

Every other SAN vendor uses VMware's native multipathing software, there's no reason an EMC can't.

[vipinvk]

The link above explains native multipathing (with different mode) also in detail.