Connecting a FC library to Fabric Interconnect = VM joy?

[dgapinski]

Hello,

I am trying to see if my thought is even possible. In my mind, I can imagine our Cisco UCS blades running VMware having no problem communicating to a Fiber Channel-connected tape library over the same fabric interconnect that connects the blades to our SAN. The goal provided would be to eliminate the last physical server; i.e., that Veeam can run within a VM on the blades. Is there any reason why this would not work? Our vendor was skeptical that this would in fact work.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Gostev]

Hi, did you know that as per the vSphere 5.x Release Notes, VMware does not support Tape Drives connected directly to ESXi 5.x? Thanks!

[quadstor]

Would fibre channel/PCI passthrough work ? That way you are working directly with the tape devices from within the VM. Haven't tried it, just guessing that it might work.

[Dima P.]

It might work - but that would be unsupported, and any unsupported configuration means "on your own risk'.

[dgapinski]

Understood - things to consider then! Thanks for your responses, much appreciated.

[veremin]

Another problem with this scenario is that VB&R VM will be pinned down to the one specific host; which means most VMware features will not work (vMotion, Storage vMotion , HA , DRS). Thanks.

[dgapinski]

Too bad that Finance put the clamp on us so that we cannot buy the library anymore and the question is moot. Thanks for the future answer to my future question tho!

[Dima P.]

Dan,
Thank you for the heads up! If you wish you can test tape functionality with VTL like Falconstor or Quadstor - they are both pretty solid, however Quadstor is free.

[stevenrodenburg1]

Please note that using FC Tapedrives inside VM's through mechanisms like NPIV is a Pain. Don't even go down that path.
Use a physical server to control a tape-device.