vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.1 - Documentation - VMware
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<strong>vSphere</strong> <strong>Storage</strong><br />
Boot from Fibre Channel SAN Requirements and Considerations<br />
Your <strong>ESXi</strong> boot configuration must meet specific requirements.<br />
Table 7-1. Boot from SAN Requirements<br />
Requirement Description<br />
<strong>ESXi</strong> system<br />
requirements<br />
Adapter<br />
requirements<br />
Follow vendor recommendation for the server booting from a SAN.<br />
Enable and correctly configure the adapter, so it can access the boot LUN. See your vendor<br />
documentation.<br />
Access control n Each host must have access to its own boot LUN only, not the boot LUNs of other hosts. Use<br />
storage system software to make sure that the host accesses only the designated LUNs.<br />
Multipathing<br />
support<br />
n Multiple servers can share a diagnostic partition. You can use array specific LUN masking to<br />
achieve this.<br />
Multipathing to a boot LUN on active-passive arrays is not supported because the BIOS does not<br />
support multipathing and is unable to activate a standby path.<br />
SAN considerations SAN connections must be through a switched topology if the array is not certified for direct connect<br />
topology. If the array is certified for direct connect topology, the SAN connections can be made<br />
directly to the array. Boot from SAN is supported for both switched topology and direct connect<br />
topology if these topologies for the specific array are certified.<br />
Hardware- specific<br />
considerations<br />
Getting Ready for Boot from SAN<br />
If you are running an IBM eServer BladeCenter and use boot from SAN, you must disable IDE drives<br />
on the blades.<br />
When you set up your boot from SAN environment, you perform a number of tasks.<br />
This section describes the generic boot-from-SAN enablement process on the rack mounted servers. For<br />
information on enabling boot from SAN on Cisco Unified Computing System FCoE blade servers, refer to Cisco<br />
documentation.<br />
1 Configure SAN Components and <strong>Storage</strong> System on page 58<br />
Before you set up your <strong>ESXi</strong> host to boot from a SAN LUN, configure SAN components and a storage<br />
system.<br />
2 Configure <strong>Storage</strong> Adapter to Boot from SAN on page 59<br />
When you set up your host to boot from SAN, you enable the boot adapter in the host BIOS. You then<br />
configure the boot adapter to initiate a primitive connection to the target boot LUN.<br />
3 Set Up Your System to Boot from Installation Media on page 59<br />
When setting up your host to boot from SAN, you first boot the host from the <strong>VMware</strong> installation media.<br />
To achieve this, you need to change the system boot sequence in the BIOS setup.<br />
Configure SAN Components and <strong>Storage</strong> System<br />
Before you set up your <strong>ESXi</strong> host to boot from a SAN LUN, configure SAN components and a storage system.<br />
Because configuring the SAN components is vendor specific, refer to the product documentation for each item.<br />
Procedure<br />
1 Connect network cable, referring to any cabling guide that applies to your setup.<br />
Check the switch wiring, if there is any.<br />
58 <strong>VMware</strong>, Inc.
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