Pass-Through devices no VMware
Autor: Diego Fucitalo | Publicado: 2012-10-18T17:26:00-03:00

Olá,

Segue um material de configuração de Pass-Through no VMware, testei na versão 4.1 e funcionou legal.



1- Adding a tape Library/Tape drive utilizing VMDirectPath (Make sure your hardware &amp; software setup meet VMDirectPath before you proceed with this method)

Note: The below steps has been obtained from&nbsp;VMware KB Article:&nbsp;1010789

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About VMDirectPath I/O pass-through devices

You can connect up to two passthrough devices to a virtual machine. When selecting the devices, keep in mind these restrictions:

Devices cannot be plugged in after a PCI Bridge.
You cannot have&nbsp;two devices in two different contexts (for example, one used by VMkernel and one in pass-through) using the same PCI slot. For example, the dual head NIC is dedicated to the VMkernel OR is available for pass-through. If you select one, the other is automatically selected as well. A dialog informs you why this occurred.


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Configuring pass-through devices

To configure pass-through devices on an ESX host:

Select an ESX host from the&nbsp;Inventory&nbsp;panel of VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client.
On the&nbsp;Configuration&nbsp;tab, click&nbsp;Advanced Settings.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Pass-through Configurationpage lists all available pass-through devices.Note: A green icon indicates that a device is enabled and active. An orange icon indicates that the state of the device has changed and the host must be rebooted before the device can be used.
Click&nbsp;Edit.
Select the devices and click&nbsp;OK.Note: If you have a chipset with VT-d, when you clickAdvanced Settings&nbsp;in VI Client, you can select what devices are&nbsp;dedicated to the VMDirectPath I/O.
When the devices are&nbsp;selected, they are marked with an orange icon. Reboot for the change to take effect. After rebooting, the devices are marked with a green icon and&nbsp;are enabled.Note:&nbsp;The configuration changes are saved in the /etc/vmware/esx.conf file. The parent&nbsp;PCI bridge, and if two devices are under the same PCI bridge, only one entry is recorded.The PCI slot number where the device was connected is 00:0b:0. It is recorded as:/device/000:11.0/owner = “passthru”Note: 0b is 11 in decimal.


To configure a PCI device on a virtual machine:

From the Inventory in VI Client, right-click the&nbsp;virtual machine and&nbsp;choose&nbsp;Edit Settings.
Click the&nbsp;Hardware&nbsp;tab.
Click&nbsp;Add.
Choose the PCI Device.
Click&nbsp;Next.Note:&nbsp;When the device is assigned, the virtual machine must have a memory reservation for the full configured memory size.


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2- Adding a Tape Library/Drive as a SCSI device to the VM running on ESX/ESXi.

The below instruction are coming from&nbsp;VMware KB Article:&nbsp;1016407.

To configure a tape device with a virtual machine in ESX 4.0 and ESX 4.1:

Consult your backup hardware and software vendor to ensure that your tape device and backup software&nbsp;are supported to work with VMware ESX 4.0 and ESX 4.1.&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;the&nbsp;Additional Information&nbsp;section in this article.
Configure the tape device and controller&nbsp;according to the&nbsp;hardware vendor’s guidelines.
Connect VMware vSphere Client to the&nbsp;VMware vCenter Server or VMware ESX host.
Click on the VMware ESX host which has the hardware connected.
Click&nbsp;Configuration&nbsp;tab &gt;&nbsp;Storage Adapters.
On the&nbsp;Storage Adapters&nbsp;list, identify the controller which has the tape attached.
Under&nbsp;Details, record the&nbsp;Runtime Name&nbsp;of the tape device.&nbsp;For example, vmhba2:C0:T1:L0.
Select the&nbsp;virtual machine&nbsp;that will use the tape device, and click&nbsp;Summary&nbsp;tab &gt;&nbsp;Edit Settings….
Click the&nbsp;Hardware&nbsp;tab &gt;&nbsp;Add….
Select&nbsp;SCSI Device&nbsp;from the list of device types and click&nbsp;Next.
Select the appropriate device from the&nbsp;SCSI Device&nbsp;drop down list.
Select the&nbsp;Virtual Device Node&nbsp;which matches the&nbsp;Adapter and&nbsp;Target of the&nbsp;Runtime Name&nbsp;of the device, as recorded in step 6. The Virtual Device Nodes are denoted as:. For example,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Runtime Name&nbsp;vmhba2:C0:T1:L0 corresponds with a&nbsp;Virtual Device Node&nbsp;of (1:1), (2:1), or (3:1).Note: For more information about theRuntime Name, see&nbsp;Identifying disks when working with VMware ESX (1014953).Warning: For clarification,&nbsp;(0:1) is also&nbsp;available for configuration.&nbsp;However this bus is usually already&nbsp;populated by a virtual&nbsp;disk in a typical virtual machine setup.&nbsp;As tape operations by nature are quite disruptive for devices on the same bus, to avoid&nbsp;interruption, ensure the tape devices’&nbsp;target IDs are&nbsp;on a separate bus from the other virtual machine disks attached to the virtual machine. For example,&nbsp;bus (0:x) can have&nbsp;several virtual machine disks, while bus (1:x)&nbsp;has the tape pass-through device(s).
Proceed to install and configure the backup software&nbsp;according to the software vendor’s guidelines.


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Additional Information

The functionality of the tape library and the backup software in conjunction with VMware ESX is partner-supported. VMware assumes that the third party vendor has completed necessary validation to support this configuration in a production environment.In the event that a problem is found,&nbsp;VMware recommends opening a&nbsp;support request directly with the third-party or partner&nbsp;vendor’s support organization. VMware collaborates with other vendors via Technical Support Alliance Network (TSANet) or Cooperative Support Agreement (CSA).For more information regarding third party vendor support, see&nbsp;Third Party Hardware and Software Support Policy.

:Note:

As of vSphere 4.0, ESX only supports connectivity to parallel SCSI tape libraries.
VMware only supports the attaching of Parallel SCSI based tape Devices to an Adaptec SCSI Controller, see Page 20 of the&nbsp;Virtual Machine Backup Guide&nbsp;for further information


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Now, you ask which method shall I use. If your hardware &amp; software configuration is supported by VMDirectPath, then I would check with the tape library vendor on which method to use, else you are stuck with the attaching directly to SCSI method. Remember the support statement here highly depend on your tape library vendor, so consult your vendor before implementing it.

At the end, I would still say if you can avoid attaching a tape library to a virtual VM then by all mean just avoid it as it will make your life much easier beside there is many other good methods for backing up VMs that does not require it (Ex: vStorage API)

Referências:&nbsp;

http://www.virtualizationteam.com/virtualization-vmware/vsphere-virtualization-vmware/adding-tape-librarydrive-to-vm-running-over-esxesxi-4.html

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&amp;cmd=displayKC&amp;externalId=1016407