luns not showing up...

[sjsotelo]

I have a dell pe 1950 with a emc supported HBA connected by fiber to a CX3-20,

I have a setup 2 raid 1/0 luns, one of my physical servers is a windows computer connected with a HBA card and can connect and see the lun just fine, however on the vmware server 3.5i with the newest updates, it can not see the lun at all.

any ideas?

-Stephen

[weinstein5]

What HBA are you using? - Just because EMC supports it does not mean that VMware supports it for ESX - check the HCL -

[mcowger]

Is your zoning right?

--Matt

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Are you connected via a FC switch and have you verified your zoning?

[sjsotelo]

Thanks for the fast reply, the "fiber channel" HBA shows up under the storage adapters in the hardware configuration. So i was assuming that vmware was communicating correctly with the HBA, however I do not think the HBA is communicating with the san. The SAN does not see vmware at all, and I cant seem to figure out how to add to the SAN due to the fact that 3.5i doesn't have service a window for commands.

[sjsotelo]

Sorry this is my first san, and i have been working on it for the past 2 days, the san is default from the factory for the most part. So I'm not sure if any zoning is going on or what, do you know how I would check?

[sjsotelo]

No FC switch, connected directly to the san. Sorry, not sure how to check the zoning, ill search around.

[weinstein5]

This is your issue = ESX I believe no longer supports direct connect ot a SAN but requires a FC switch ot be the core of the SAN Fabric -

[sjsotelo]

Thanks, since you did not sound 100% confident, and before I go tell my boss we need a $2.5k switch, can anyone else verify this?

-Stephen

[mcowger]

This is false - there are many listed storage devices certified for direct connect, included the CX3-20.

Check your LUN masking.

--Matt

[Dave_Mishchenko]

It is a supported configuration - page 8 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_san_guide.pdf. But should you plan to add ESX hosts and to share LUNs (i.e. to use vmotion/ HA /etc) then you would need to add one or more switches.

[weinstein5]

I stand corrected - I knew this was an issue with ESX 2 and thought it had carried over to VI-3

[sjsotelo]

Thanks guy for all the help so far.

But going back to my original problem, how do I get vmware listed as a host in the san?

[mcowger]

In that case, look at your LUN masking.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You'll need to review the setup on the SAN to see if you have allowed access to the LUN to the ESX host. You'll also want to remove access to the Windows server that you mentioned can see the storage.

Also take a look at installing the Remote Command Line Interface. It comes as a Windows / Linux install or a Linux appliance. I have some instructions on installing the appliance here - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Import_RCLI_Appliance.html.

[kastlr]

Hi,

the easiest way to verify proper SAN connectivity settings is the following.

• Reboot the server

• Enter the HBA BIOS

• Goto boot device selection and verify your LUN could be seen

It might be necessary to apply/enable the BOOT Bios to/on your HBA, but even if you boot from internal disks, it's worth doing so.

Simply because it allows you to verify your SAN connectivity (Zoning and LUN access) without a running OS.

If it could be seen at this level, you could focus on proper driver revisions or OS settings because the SAN connectivity is configured correctly.

If not, you need to focus on your SAN and storage array.

This easy trick did help me several times when I need to argue with OS admins that the problem accessing a LUN wasn't caused by the SAN or storage array.

Assuming your problem resides in the connectivity, you should also check if your HBA is configured with

• arbitrated loop mode instead of switched fabric

• proper speed setting

• support of spares LUN's

• LUN range to scan includes your LUN

And you need to perform some tasks on your CX3-20 also like

- create a storage group for your ESX server

- add the LUN to that storage group

- register the host on the CX3-20 (manually or by installing the NaviSphere agent on your ESX host)

- add the registered host to your storage group

Hope this helps a bit.

[sjsotelo]

I went into the HBA settings by doing a CTRL+Q as it the server booted. I logged into the options and went into the settings and enabled the HBA Bios, next I checked to see if it saw any devices and or lun's and it did not. I guess the san is not allowing the HBA to see anything or connect to it, but im not sure how to fix this.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

How are you making out with this? Does the SAN see the HBAs for the ESX host? I believe this is an active / passive SAN - if so and given that you're connecting directly to the unit have you plugged into a port for the active storage processor? Perhaps you could switch cables with the Windows server that can see storage.

[kastlr]

Hi,

check your zoning.

Even when you didn't configure the CX correctly, you should see a "pseudo" LUN0.

As you not see such a LUN, you're not connected to your CX right now.

To verify my statement, check connectivity status on your CX.

[sjsotelo]

We have two servers connected directly to the san. One server (windows based) works fine with the san, and the HBA bios see's the lun 0. The second server (vmware) HBA does not see any lun's. And im not sure why, it might not be on an "active" fiber port on the back of the san as one guy pointed out. So I'm going to try a few things and see what i can do.

-Stephen