Adding and Classifying Virtual Fibre Channel Fabrics in VMM

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager

You can discover and add Fibre Channel storage fabrics to manage in Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) for System Center 2012 R2. You can also assign classifications for the added fabrics.

Before you begin, verify the following prerequisites:

• Ensure you are a member of the Administrator user role, or a member of the Delegated Administrator user role.

• Ensure you have installed the SMI-S provider for the device on a server that the VMM management server can access over the network by IP address or FQDN. For information about how to obtain SMI-S providers, see Configuring Storage in VMM.

  Note

  Do not install the SMI-S provider on the VMM management server. This configuration is not supported.

You can create a Run As account before running the Add Storage Devices Wizard, or during the wizard. The Run As account must have permissions to access the SMI-S provider. You can create a Run As account in the Settings workspace. For more information about Run As accounts, see How to Create a Run As Account in VMM.

Use the following procedures to discover and classify Fibre Channel storage fabrics.

To discover and classify Fibre Channel fabrics

1. Open the Fabric workspace.

2. In the Fabric pane, click Storage.

3. On the Home tab, click Add Resources, and then click Storage Devices to start the Add Storage Devices Wizard.

4. On the Select Provider Type page, select Fibre Channel fabric discovered and managed by a SMI-S provider.

5. On the Specify Discovery Scope page, do the following:

   1. In the Provider IP address or FQDN box, enter either the IP address or the FQDN of the storage provider.

   2. In the TCP/IP port box, enter the port number that is used to connect to the provider.

   3. If required, select Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection to enable HTTPS for communicating with the provider.

   4. Next to the Run As account box, click Browse, and select a Run As account that can access the storage provider. If you do not have an account. click Browse, and then in the Select a Run As Account dialog box, click Create Run As Account and follow the instructions.

6. On the Gather Information page, VMM automatically discovers and imports the Fibre Channel fabric information. If the discovery process succeeds, the discovered fabric name, switches and fabric World Wide Node Names (WWNN) are listed on the page. When the process successfully completes, click Next. To retry the discovery process for an unsuccessful attempt, click Scan Provider.

   Note: If you selected the SSL connection, the following occurs:

   • During discovery, the Import Certificate dialog box appears. Review the certificate information for the storage provider, and then click Import.

   • By default, when you import a certificate for a storage provider, verification of the common name (CN) that is used in the certificate occurs. However, this may cause an issue where storage discovery fails when the certificate does not contain a CN value, or the CN value does not match the expected format of NetBIOS name, FQDN or IP address that VMM uses.

7. On the Fibre Channel Fabrics page, do the following for each storage fabric that requires a classification:

   1. In the Storage Device column, select the check box next to a Fibre Channel fabric that you want VMM to manage.

   2. In the Classification column, select the classification that you want to assign to the fabric. For instructions on creating a new fabric classification, see How to How to Create Storage Classifications in VMM. When finished, click Next.

8. On the Summary page, confirm the settings, and then click Finish.

Managing Virtual Fibre Channel in VMM
Configuring Storage in VMM