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Appliance 5230 HBA ports using initiater or target mode!!!

Rami_Nasser1
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Hi All ,

I have the current case and need to clarify how right is the configuration:

I have an 5230 appliance as media server D model ,and initially  all HBA port coming with initiator mode to be used as tape out and vmwre host. I will configure some SAN client to be connected to this appliance (Or to be zoned) ,so for this I have to enable FT SAN client inside the appliance to work as target mode.and the other will still works as initiater.

The question is regarding vmware host : I still need to have vmware host in initiater mode to worked proporly Right !!! But I'm going to take backup for VM's using SAN mode first. and all images will be kept in the appliance not on the SAN storage. The confustion is here :

When I'm using SAN client (the data flow from SAN client to the appliance directly through SAN  Fabric and for this we configured the Appliance port as Target mode)  clear and logic .

But  for VMware Backup I see that we should have the same thing ( the data flow from the SAN storage(created snapshot ) to the Appliance  but we have to configure the appliance port as initiater.

Could you please help in this : why for vmware host I have to use initiater mode instead of Target mode?

 

Regards,,,

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

chashock
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Because technically the VADP backup host is reading from the VM storage, not being written to from it.  Unlike SAN Client, where the client itself is pushing the data and sees the appliance port as the SAN target it is writing to.

I've over-simplified it a bit, but that's the basic way to think about it.

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RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

In the SAN Client Scenario you're changing the ports on the appliance to TARGET mode. Basically you're turning them into TAPE DRIVES as seen by the SAN CLIENT OS. The SAN Clients then think, great, I've got a tape drive connected I"ll write to it.

 

In the VMware SAN transport method, we are just getting access to the luns/disks where the vmdk's lie, so we can pull them / read them via the SAN instead of the via LAN.

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3

chashock
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Because technically the VADP backup host is reading from the VM storage, not being written to from it.  Unlike SAN Client, where the client itself is pushing the data and sees the appliance port as the SAN target it is writing to.

I've over-simplified it a bit, but that's the basic way to think about it.

RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

In the SAN Client Scenario you're changing the ports on the appliance to TARGET mode. Basically you're turning them into TAPE DRIVES as seen by the SAN CLIENT OS. The SAN Clients then think, great, I've got a tape drive connected I"ll write to it.

 

In the VMware SAN transport method, we are just getting access to the luns/disks where the vmdk's lie, so we can pull them / read them via the SAN instead of the via LAN.

Rami_Nasser1
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Appreciate .

SAN Client  configuration clear and good.

For vmware host You are right the  vcenter create snapshot in the lun , and then vmware host (appliance) reading the snapshot and send it through SAN to the Appliance storage then the snapshot released .Because of this the port  should be Always in initiater mode .

 

thanks I believe it is clear

 

regards