HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide
Table Of Contents
- HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for Fibre Channel
- 3 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for iSCSI
- 4 Configuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage for FCoE
- 5 Configuring the Host for a Fibre Channel Connection
- Installing the HBA and Drivers
- Installing Virtual Machine Guest Operating System
- Multipath Failover Considerations and I/O Load Balancing
- Performance Considerations for Multiple Host Configurations
- ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x Additional Feature Considerations
- Storage I/O Control
- vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
- HP 3PAR VAAI Plugin 1.1.1 for ESX 4.1
- HP 3PAR VAAI Plugin 2.2.0 for ESXi 5.x
- UNMAP (Space Reclaim) Storage Hardware Support for ESXi 5.x
- Out-of-Space Condition for ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.x
- Additional New Primitives Support on ESXi 5.x
- VAAI and New Feature Support Table
- VAAI Plugin Verification
- 6 Configuring the Host as an FCoE Initiator Connecting to a FC target or an FCoE Target
- 7 Configuring the Host for an iSCSI Connection
- Setting Up the Switch, iSCSI Initiator, and iSCSI target ports
- Installing iSCSI on VMware ESX
- Installing Virtual Machine Guest Operating System
- Creating a VMkernel Port
- Configuring a Service Console Connection for the iSCSI Storage
- Configuring the VMware SW iSCSI Initiator
- iSCSI Failover Considerations and Multipath Load Balancing
- Performance Considerations for Multiple Host Configurations
- ESX/ESXi Additional Feature Considerations
- 8 Allocating Storage for Access by the ESX Host
- 9 Booting the VMware ESX Host from the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
- 10 Support and Other Resources
- 11 Documentation feedback
- A Appendix

• On ESX 4.1, you can verify that the VAAI Plugin is installed and enabled on devices using
the following commands:
• To show the version of the installed VAAI plugin:
# esxupdate --vib-view query | grep 3par
cross_3par-vaaip-inserv_410.1.1-230815 installed
• To show that the claim rule is in effect for the HP 3PAR devices discovered:
• To show that the VAAI is supported on the device:
# esxcfg-scsidevs -l
naa.50002ac003da00eb
Device Type: Direct-Access
Size: 512000 MB
Display Name: 3PARdata iSCSI Disk (naa.50002ac003da00eb)
Multipath Plugin: NMP
Console Device: /dev/sdx
Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.50002ac003da00eb
Vendor: 3PARdata Model: VV Revis: 3110
SCSI Level: 5 Is Pseudo: false Status: on
Is RDM Capable: true Is Removable: false
Is Local: false
Other Names:
vml.020001000050002ac003da00eb565620202020
VAAI Status: supported
ESXi 5.x with HP 3PAR OS 3.1.1 uses the native T10 plugin, and should not show any HP 3PAR
plugin.
# esxcli storage core plugin list
Plugin name Plugin class
----------- ------------
NMP MP
The following outputs shows that Hardware Acceleration is enabled on HP 3PAR LUNs to take
advantage of the storage primitives on ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.x. Use the esxcfg-advcfg command
to check that the options are set to 1 (enabled):
# esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
# esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
# esxcfg-advcfg -g /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking
ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x Additional Feature Considerations 57