Fibre Channel NPIV
Settings
N-port ID virtualization (NPIV) supports
sharing a single physical FC HBA port among multiple virtual ports, each with
unique identifiers. This capability lets you control virtual machine access to
LUNs on a per-virtual machine basis.
Each virtual port is identified by a pair of world
wide names (WWNs): a world wide port name (WWPN) and a world wide node name
(WWNN). These WWNs are assigned by vCenter Server. For detailed information on
how to configure NPIV for a virtual machine, see the
Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
.
NPIV support is subject to the following
limitations:
- NPIV must be enabled on the SAN switch. Contact switch vendors for information about enabling NPIV on their devices.
- NPIV is supported only for virtual machines with RDM disks. Virtual machines with regular virtual disks continue to use the WWNs of the host’s physical HBAs.
- Virtual machines on a host have access to a LUN using their NPIV WWNs if the physical HBAs on the ESXi host have access to a LUN using its WWNs. Ensure that access is provided to both the host and the virtual machines
You can set up NPIV with the
VirtualMachineConfigSpec
properties that start with
npiv
.