VMware's SVmotion - NPIV

[BrendonHiggins]

I need to move some vm from one datastore to another on a different SAN.  Has anyone done this before with ESX 3.5, FCP connectivity and NetApp filers?

I have read that it will not work if NPIV is enabled {link} but I believe this is off by default in NetApp's ESX connectivity tool kit.

Thanks for any help

Bren

[rodrigon · Accepted solution]

Hi Brendon,

Yes, I did and without NPIV it really works.

I did a migration to NetApp 3170 using Storage VMotion and this FAS3170 was connected in a new SAN.

Thkx!

Nascimento

[BrendonHiggins]

Thanks

I will try it this weekend

[radek_kubka]

In my humble opinion NPIV is more relevant to 'standard' VMotion (ESX host to host) than Storage VMotion (storage to storage).

In former scenario NPIV helps to preserve WWN settings when migrating a VM, because physical HBA WWN on target host will be different from source. From the doc you are refering to: "This will ensure that the NPIV connection is maintained when the VMotion takes place. Otherwise the VM will default back to the physical HBA WWN and will not be using NPIV."

In latter scenario HBA WWN doesn't change as the VM remains on the same host.

Regards,
Radek

[amiller_1]

Yep -- have done LOTS of SVMotions under ESX 3.5 -- iSCSI, FC, NFS and a mix of all of those. Absolutely no issues (no NPIV in the environment) except for one very large VM that turned out to be active (when I was told it wouldn't be ). It got hung up and I had to putz around at the service console for a while but ultimately got it back (no data loss...just downtime).

[radek_kubka]

A quick follow-up:

Interestingly enough, SVMotion will not work if a VM in question has any LUNs attached to it via NPIV.

Here is a thourough dicussion around this issue / limitation:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/221823?tstart=15

Regards,
Radek