How do I access NPIV-enabled Fibre Channel storage from within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 or 6.4 guests on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 host
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 (or newer) guest
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 (or newer) guest
  • Hyper-V

Issue

  • How do I access NPIV-enabled Fibre Channel storage from within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 or 6.4 guests on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 ?

Resolution

  1. Set up NPIV on your Fibre Channel card and assign LUN(s) to it in accordance with your storage hardware vendor's directions.
  2. Next, assign the requisite LUN to a virtual guest as follows:
    1. First, mark the LUN as offline using the Windows diskmgmt utility.
      1. Start up diskmgmt.exe from a powershell window.
      2. Select the requisite LUN, right-click it, and select the Offline option.
    2. Next, use the Windows Hyper-V manager to add the LUN as an IDE device to the virtual guest as follows:
      1. Start up Hyper-V manager.
      2. Select the virtual guest of interest, right-click it, and select Settings.
      3. Select an IDE controller and then select Hard Drive and click Add.
      4. Select the Physical hard disk radio button and then use the drop-down box to select the LUN which was offlined previously.
      5. Click Apply and then OK.
  3. Boot up the virtual guest and access the LUN normally from within the guest. The device should show up under a regular device path such as /dev/sdb .

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