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Content Owner: Roman Macek | ||||
Summary
Yes (Virtual Fibre Channel)
Details
(no major updates with WS2016)
Server 2012 has improved support for NPIV and enables you to connect Hyper-V / free Hyper-V Server virtual machines directly to your Fibre Channel Storage arrays by providing virtual Fibre Channel ports within the guest OS (instead of accessing it as virtualized storage through the host). NPIV lets multiple N_Port IDs share a single physical N_Port. This lets multiple Fibre Channel initiators use a single physical port, easing hardware requirements in SAN design, especially where virtual SANs (i.e. segregation) is needed . Virtual Fibre Channel for Hyper-V guests uses NPIV to create multiple NPIV ports on top of the hosts physical Fibre Channel ports. A new NPIV port is created on the host each time a virtual HBA is created inside a virtual machine. When the virtual machine stops running on the host, the NPIV port is removed.
Features/Benefit:
- Direct (native) access to Fibre Channel Storage from within the virtual machines - allowing native FC management (QoS, performance etc.)
- Cluster guest OSs over native Fibre Channel
- Virtual SAN (if a host is attached to multiple physical SANs using different physical HBAs you can define virtual SANs by grouping physical FC ports on the host that are attached to the same SAN)
- Up to 4 virtual FC ports per vm
- Supports live migration and MPIO (DSM within the vm)
Note: VMM no longer supports management of virtual machines deployed directly on LUNs exposed to Hyper-V through N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV). Workaround: Use virtual fibre channels that are configured for virtual machines in Hyper-V.
Server 2012 has improved support for NPIV and enables you to connect Hyper-V / free Hyper-V Server virtual machines directly to your Fibre Channel Storage arrays by providing virtual Fibre Channel ports within the guest OS (instead of accessing it as virtualized storage through the host). NPIV lets multiple N_Port IDs share a single physical N_Port. This lets multiple Fibre Channel initiators use a single physical port, easing hardware requirements in SAN design, especially where virtual SANs (i.e. segregation) is needed . Virtual Fibre Channel for Hyper-V guests uses NPIV to create multiple NPIV ports on top of the hosts physical Fibre Channel ports. A new NPIV port is created on the host each time a virtual HBA is created inside a virtual machine. When the virtual machine stops running on the host, the NPIV port is removed.
Features/Benefit:
- Direct (native) access to Fibre Channel Storage from within the virtual machines - allowing native FC management (QoS, performance etc.)
- Cluster guest OSs over native Fibre Channel
- Virtual SAN (if a host is attached to multiple physical SANs using different physical HBAs you can define virtual SANs by grouping physical FC ports on the host that are attached to the same SAN)
- Up to 4 virtual FC ports per vm
- Supports live migration and MPIO (DSM within the vm)
Note: VMM no longer supports management of virtual machines deployed directly on LUNs exposed to Hyper-V through N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV). Workaround: Use virtual fibre channels that are configured for virtual machines in Hyper-V.
