HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide

5 Configuring the Host for a Fibre Channel Connection
This chapter describes the procedures and considerations that are required to set up an ESX host
to communicate with an HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage over a Fibre Channel connection.
Installing the HBA and Drivers
Before setting up the ESX host, make sure the host adapters are installed and operating properly.
If necessary, consult the documentation provided by the HBA vendor for instructions.
Drivers for VMware supported HBAs are included as part of the ESX OS installation package
supplied by VMware. Updates and/or patches for the HBA drivers can be acquired through
VMware support.
For Brocade FC HBA, the default Path TOV (Time-out Value) parameter is set to 30 seconds. It is
recommended to change this value to 14 seconds with VMware Native Multipathing Plugin (NMP).
To change the value of this parameter, it is required to use Brocade BCU command line utility. See
the see VMware website for more information:
VMware
The BCU tool is available for download from the Brocade web site.
To display the list of adapter ports, run the following command
# esxcli brocade bcu --command="port --list"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Port# FN Type PWWN/MAC FC Addr/ Media State Spd
Eth dev
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1/0 - fc 10:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:2f 091e00 sw Linkup 8G
0 fc 10:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:2f 091e00 sw Linkup 8G
1/1 - fc 10:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:30 673000 sw Linkup 8G
1 fc 10:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:30 673000 sw Linkup 8G
To query a port# from the above output, run the following command:
# esxcli brocade bcu --command="vhba --query 1/0"
PCI Function Index : 1/0/0
Firmware Ver : 3.0.0.0
Port type : FC
Bandwidth : 8 Gbps
IOC state : operational
PWWN : 10:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:2f
NWWN : 20:00:00:05:1e:dc:f3:2f
Path TOV : 30 seconds
Portlog : Enabled
IO Profile : Off
Interrupt coalescing : on
Interrupt delay : 0 us
Interrupt latency : 0 us
To change Path TOV value (repeat for all ports) follow the example below. Also this command can
be included in ESX host startup such that it will be run automatically.
# esxcli brocade bcu --command="fcpim --pathtov 1/0 14"
path timeout is set to 14
To query a port# after a change was made, follow the example below:
# esxcli brocade bcu --command="vhba --query 1/0"
PCI Function Index : 1/0/0
Firmware Ver : 3.0.0.0
38 Configuring the Host for a Fibre Channel Connection