EMC Symmetric how to presented storage raw device to Virtual OS

I would say that you need to mask it to the physical machines first and then use the managing software of the physical machines to present 1 or more LUNs or virtual disks to virtual machines. That's how it's done with VMware ESX.

First you need to make sure you present 1 (or more) LUN to the ESX hosts, but this is the same as for any other physical server.

Steps:

1. create symdevice (symdev)
2. if needed, combine a few symdevs into a larger metadevice
3. map metadevice to the FAs the host is zoned to or wil be zoned to
4. create 1 or more zones on the SAN so the hosts can reach the storage array
5. mask the wwns of the hosts's hbas to the newly mapped device(s)
6. do a rescan on your host
7. if an RDM is needed on the virtual machine, add the new LUN as an RDM to the VM
8. if a virtual disk is needed, create a VMFS datastore on the new LUN and create a new disk on the VM, coming from the new datastore
9. if 7 and/or 8 are done, rescan for new disks on the VM and the VM should be able to format the new disks it sees

For newer systems like the VMAX with FAST pools, you don't need to map and mask anymore, but you need to know how to use masking views. these are much like storage groups on Clariion and VNX, with the addition of storage ports.

Hi RRR,

what is the complete manual name for VMware ESX, is it "Using EMC Symmetrix Storage in VMware vSphere Environments?" or this one "EMC® Host Connectivity Guide for VMware ESX Server"

regards,

JM

You should read both. But perhaps some insight in how VMware ESX works is a nice to have as well.

if this doesn't help you, I'm sorry to say, you will need somebody with at least some experience on the subject. That's where storage admins come in . If I could explain in a few words how to do their job, wouldn't that be awkward?

thanks for the input, i will try it on next week.

best regards