NetApp Host Utilities on a Guest using ESXi and RDM LUNs

[jarred]

Hey folks, quick question:

What's the requirement for the Host Utilities for a Windows 2008 guest running SDW 6.2 inside an ESXi environment, when using FC RDM's for LUNs?

I cannot find anything directly on point, typically I would install the Host Utilities on any physical host, or virtual host using iSCSI from within the Guest.  However, the ESX host utilities are not supported on ESXi, and the matrix doesn't go into detail about host utilities on the Guest OS.

Anyone know?  TIA!

Jarred Medlock

PS Consultant,

NetApp, Inc.

[lele]

Jared

You dont need to install the host utilities on the guest OS, however you need to set the disk timeouts correctly.

You have to use Virtual Storage console on Vcenter which replaces host utilities as you cant have them on the esxi.

Thanks

Abhijit

[chriskranz]

It makes no real difference if this is ESX or ESXi as this is a Guest OS configuration. The recommendation is to always install the NetApp Host Utilities when you are connecting NetApp storage to a system. In this case you are connecting it to a Virtual Machine, so you want to make sure the host utils as loaded into the Guest OS.

Obviously you want to make sure the correct timeouts are set for ESXi at the ESX layer, and also the Guest OS timeout values, but I would definitely install the NetApp Host Utils within the Guest OS if you are giving it any NetApp storage directly (RDM or iSCSI within the guest).

Hope this helps...

[amiller_1]

Complete agreement -- if I'm installing SnapDrive on a box (physical, virtual, whatever), I always install the Host Utilities first (possibly overkill but just avoids potential issues).