SAN direct access for VMs

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Is there a way to give direct SAN access(virtual hba, dedicated hba) to VM?

I'm about to evaluate RHEV as a hosting solution for out storage infrastructure.

I need:
1. SAN tape access
2. array controller access

tomasz.orzechowski@asseco.pl's picture
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james.radtke@siriusxm.com's picture Guru 6863 points
20 January 2014 3:08 PM

We had discussed this a while back and I don't recall what we concluded.

I found this (which seems to indicate it is possible, but not supported)
https://access.redhat.com/site/solutions/58078

Here are others that are more focused on USB:
https://access.redhat.com/site/solutions/474373
https://access.redhat.com/site/solutions/146793

Would you be attempting to map the Raw Device in to a Virtual Machine? Like the command device for the library/robot and then each of the actual tape devices (or virtual tape devices)?
Are they presented as SCSI devices or Fiber Channel?

I would recommend that you open a case with Red Hat for clarification and request that functionality if it is not currently available.

tomasz.orzechowski@asseco.pl's picture Community Member 36 points
20 January 2014 3:44 PM

This is how it looks:

Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver 8.2.0.63.3p
Copyright(c) 2004-2009 Emulex.  All rights reserved.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:05:00.0 to 64
scsi6 :  on PCI bus 05 device 00 irq 169
device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.5-ioctl (2007-12-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
device-mapper: dm-raid45: initialized v0.2594l
lpfc 0000:05:00.0: 0:1303 Link Up Event x1 received Data: x1 xf7 x8 x0 x0 x0 0
  Vendor: IBM       Model: ULT3580-TD4       Rev: B710
  Type:   Sequential-Access                  ANSI SCSI revision: 03
  Vendor: IBM       Model: 3573-TL           Rev: 7.30
  Type:   Medium Changer                     ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: HP        Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI    Rev: H68W
  Type:   Sequential-Access                  ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: HP        Model: MSL G3 Series     Rev: 8.10
  Type:   Medium Changer                     ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: HP        Model: HSV400            Rev: 0953 
  Type:   RAID                               ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: HP        Model: HSV400            Rev: 0953
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05

I need to get access to those "Sequential-Access", "Medium Changer", and "RAID" devices.
Attaching disks ("Direct-Access") to VM is easy and works fine via "direct lun".

dmfaverma's picture Pro 494 points
21 January 2014 1:50 PM

We do something similar in RHEV. Although not tape we use multipath to present SAN LUNs to VMs. Works fine in RHEV as 'External (Direct LUN)' with proper configuration.

tomasz.orzechowski@asseco.pl's picture Community Member 36 points
21 January 2014 4:05 PM

Thanks David, I know that, I use that feature and it works fine.

tomasz.orzechowski@asseco.pl's picture Community Member 36 points
21 January 2014 8:39 PM

Maybe virtio-scsi is going to help? So far I've found that it's capable of SCSI passthrough, but no further information if already, if in RHEV 3.3.

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