Describe désert/VMware/NPIV here.
Requirements for Using NPIV
f you plan to enable NPIV on your virtual machines, you should be aware of certain requirements.
NPIV can be used only for virtual machines with RDM disks. Virtual machines with regular virtual disks use the WWNs of the host’s physical HBAs.
HBAs on your host must support NPIV.
For information, see the VMware Compatibility Guide and refer to your vendor documentation.
Use HBAs of the same type. VMware does not support heterogeneous HBAs on the same host accessing the same LUNs.
If a host uses multiple physical HBAs as paths to the storage, zone all physical paths to the virtual machine. This is required to support multipathing even though only one path at a time will be active.
Make sure that physical HBAs on the host can detect all LUNs that are to be accessed by NPIV-enabled virtual machines running on that host.
The switches in the fabric must be NPIV-aware.
When configuring a LUN for NPIV access at the storage level, make sure that the NPIV LUN number and NPIV target ID match the physical LUN and Target ID.
Zone the NPIV WWPNs so that they connect to all storage systems the cluster hosts can access, even if the VM does not use the storage. If you add any new storage systems to a cluster with one or more NPIV-enabled VMs, add the new zones, so the NPIV WWPNs can detect the new storage system target ports.
* https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-EF872879-C27C-4FF8-BF3D-C4570B960E68.html
Assign WWNs to Virtual Machines
Assign WWN settings to virtual machine with an RDM disk.
You can create from 1 to 16 WWN pairs, which can be mapped to the first 1 to 16 physical FC HBAs on the host.
Prerequisites
Create a virtual machine with an RDM disk. See Create Virtual Machines with RDMs.
Procedure
In the vSphere Web Client, browse to the virtual machine.
Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
Click VM Options.
Click the Fibre Channel NPIV triangle to expand the NPIV options.
Deselect the Temporarily Disable NPIV for this virtual machine check box.
Select Generate new WWNs.
Specify the number of WWNNs and WWPNs.
A minimum of 2 WWPNs are needed to support failover with NPIV. Typically only 1 WWNN is created for each virtual machine.
Results
The host creates WWN assignments for the virtual machine.
What to do next
Register newly created WWNs in the fabric so that the virtual machine is able to log in to the switch, and assign storage LUNs to the WWNs.NPIV support is subject to the following limitations:
NPIV must be enabled on the SAN switch. Contact the switch vendor for information about enabling NPIV on their devices.
NPIV is supported only for virtual machines with RDM disks. Virtual machines with regular virtual disks continue to use the WWNs of the host’s physical HBAs.
The physical HBAs on the ESXi host must have access to a LUN though their WWNs in order for the virtual machines on that host to have access to that LUN using their NPIV WWNs. Ensure that access is provided to both the host and the virtual machines.
The physical HBAs on the ESXi host must support NPIV. If the physical HBAs do not support NPIV, the virtual machines on that host start using the WWNs of the physical HBAs for LUN access.
Each virtual machine can have up to 4 virtual ports. NPIV-enabled virtual machines are assigned exactly 4 NPIV-related WWNs, which are used to communicate with physical HBAs through virtual ports. Therefore, virtual machines can use up to 4 physical HBAs for NPIV purposes.