Learn about Granting Virtual Disk Access To Hosts and Host Groups

After defining the   , you can begin to assign  access to the  or  defined in the Topology View of the  window.

Typically, virtual disk access is defined by assigning a  using the Storage Partitioning Wizard, allowing you to grant a host group or host access to a particular virtual disk (or a number of virtual disks) in the . To learn more about the Wizard, see A Preview of the Storage Partitioning Wizard.

Important:

• Each host has its own  address space, and will therefore allow the same LUN to be used by different host groups or hosts to access virtual disks in a storage array.
• You can define one virtual disk-to-LUN mapping for each virtual disk in the storage array.
• Virtual Disk-to-LUN mappings are shared between  in the storage array.
• The same LUN might not be used twice by a host group or host to access a virtual disk. A unique LUN must be used.
• An  mapping is not required for  managed storage arrays. If your storage array is managed using an out-of-band connection, and an Access Virtual Disk mapping is assigned to the , an Access Virtual Disk mapping will be assigned to every host created from the Default Group. To prevent this from happening, remove the Access Virtual Disk mapping from the Default Group. For more information, see Removing an Access Virtual Disk Mapping.
• Not every operating system will have the same number of LUNs available for use. Be sure to read the restriction information in Restricted Logical Unit Number (LUN) Mapping before setting up virtual disk-to-LUN mappings.

Granting Virtual Disk Access to Host Groups

In the following example, three storage partitions have been defined.

The first storage partition consists of Virtual Disk Financial. This virtual disk is accessed by Host KC-B using LUN 5. Even though Host KC-B is part of the logical Host Group Kansas City, Host KC-A cannot access this virtual disk because the virtual disk-to-LUN mapping was created with Host KC-B rather than the Host Group Kansas City.

The second storage partition consists of Virtual Disks Legal and Engineering. These virtual disks are accessed by Hosts KC-A and KC-B in Host Group Kansas City using LUNs 2 and 4, respectively.

The third storage partition consists of Virtual Disks Marketing and H Resources. These virtual disks are accessed by Hosts Omaha A and B in Host Group Omaha using LUNs 7 and 2, respectively.

Granting Virtual Disk Access to Hosts

In the following example, Host Omaha has been granted access to Virtual Disk Legal through LUN 6 using either of its . Host Kansas City has been granted access to Virtual Disk Financial through LUN 6 and Virtual Disk Engineering through LUN 7 using either of its host bus adapter (HBA) host ports. Note that the same LUN (LUN 6 in this example) can be used for virtual disk access for both hosts (Omaha and Kansas City), because each host has its own LUN address space.

A Preview of the Storage Partitioning Wizard

The following introduces the dialogs you will encounter when using the Storage Partitioning Wizard:

• The Introduction dialog of the Wizard describes the process of creating a storage partition, and reminds you that the required virtual disks and host groups and/or hosts must be created before continuing the Wizard.
• The Select Host Group or Host dialog enables you to select a single host group or host for which access is to be defined.
• The Select Virtual Disks/LUNs dialog guides you through the process of selecting a virtual disk, then assigning a LUN that the host group or host will use to access the virtual disk. The Wizard is completed on this dialog.

Reconfiguring Virtual Disk-to-LUN Mappings

A virtual disk-to-LUN mapping is reconfigurable. You can:

• Change a virtual disk-to-LUN mapping
• Remove a virtual disk-to-LUN mapping
• Define additional virtual disk-to-LUN mappings

Related Topics

Learn About Creating Storage Partitions

Using the Storage Partitioning Wizard

Learn About Using the Mappings View