A host is a collection of initiators (Fibre Channel WWPNs, iSCSI IQNs or NVMe NQNs) that refers to a physical host. A FlashArray host object must have a one-to-one relationship with an ESXi host. Every active initiator for a given ESXi host should be added to the respective FlashArray host object. For example, if an initiator is not yet zoned with Fibre Channel, and not intended to be, it can be omitted from the FlashArray host object. Furthermore, while the FlashArray supports multiple protocols for a single host (a mixture of FC, iSCSI, and NVMe), ESXi does not support presenting VMFS storage via more than one protocol. Therefore, creating a multi-protocol host object on the FlashArray when in use with VMware ESXi should be avoided.
If the host is connected to a vCenter, the most efficient way to connect to a FlashArray is using Everpure's vSphere plugin. Follow the documentation here.
In the following example, the ESXi host has two online Fibre Channel HBAs with WWPNs of 21:00:00:0e:1e:1e:7b:e0 and 21:00:00:0e:1e:1e:7b:e1:
Add FC Host Object - Manual through FlashArray GUI
Add FC Host Object - Manual through ESXi GUI
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On the FlashArray GUI, create a volume by navigating to (1) Storage , selecting the (2) Volumes tab then selecting the (3) + to pull up the volume creation wizard.
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Populate a (1) Name, the (2) Provisioned Size and optionally a (3) Pod or Volume Group. Select the (4) Host or Host Group dropdown then find the (5) host that will be connected to the volume.
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Select the (1) Connect Volume checkbox and optionally configure (2) LUN, (3) QoS and (4) Protection Group. Finally, click (5) Create.
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(1) Search for the volume name that was just created and click the (2) hyperlink of the volume.
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Copy the volume (1) serial number for validation later in the ESXi GUI.
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On the ESXi GUI, select (1) Storage, the (2) Adapters tab and finally click the (3) Rescan button to rescan for newly presented storage devices.
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Select (1) Storage, the (2) Datastores tab and click the (3) New datastore button.
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Populate a datastore (1) Name, validate the volume (2) Serial number from the FlashArray GUI and select the appropriate device. Click (3) Next.
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Validate the (1) defaults of using the full disk and VMFS 6 then click (2) NEXT.
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Validate the (1) details of what was configured and click (2) NEXT.
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Confirm that the disk will be erased and click (1) YES.
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The datastore should now be (1) created and visible in the ESXi GUI.