Symmetrix FA bits settting requirement for VMware host

Posted by Diwakar

VMware hosts require few mandatory FA bits setting before SAN storage to be provision. Apart from FA bits a series of procedure require from installing HBAs, HBA Firmware and drivers, zoning, mapping, masking devices, to configure kernel files and devices.

Let’s assume we have already identified Symmetrix FA port for VMware host and completed zoning on switch. It is better to have separate FA pair for VMware host. (You can connect VMware host to 2 pair FA if you have enough FA resources available and going to deploy critical application which require more performance).

You can identify the FA port available on Symmetrix:

symcfg list –connections.


Verify port flag settings-

symcfg list –fa -p -v

( FA-Number and Port where your host connected/zoned)


The following FA bits/flag require being set/Enable:

                     i)    Common Serial Number (C)


                    ii)    VCM State (VCM) --- (ACLX for V-MAX)


                    iii)    SCSI 3 (SC3)


                    iv)    SPC 2


                    v)     Unique World Wide Name (UWWN)


                   vi)     Auto-negotiation (EAN)


                   vii)    Point to Point (P)

Note :- FA bit/flag requirement may vary depending on Symmetrix, but most of times you require to enable above bit for VMware host.

Create a command file for setting FA port flags, call it faflags.cmd with the below entry:

# For C-Bit

set port FA:Port Common_Serial_Number=enable;


set port FA:Port Common_Serial_Number=enable;

# For VCM-Bit

set port FA:Port VCM_State=enable;


set port FA:Port VCM_State=enable;

# For SC3-Bit

set port FA:Port scsi_3=enable;


set port FA:Port scsi_3=enable;

# For SP-2-Bit

set port FA:Port SPC2_Protocol_Version=enable;


set port FA:Port SPC2_Protocol_Version=enable;


# For UWWN-Bit

set port FA:Port Unique_WWN=enable;


set port FA:Port Unique_WWN=enable;

# For EAN-Bit

set port FA:Port Auto_Negotiate=enable;


set port FA:Port Auto_Negotiate=enable;

# For PTOP-Bit

set port FA:Port Init_Point_to_Point=enable;


set port FA:Port Init_Point_to_Point=enable;

Once you prepare command file, you can commit the file:

symconfigure –sid preview –f  faflags.cmd

Verify port flag settings once again, required FA flags should have be enabled by now-

symcfg list –fa -p -v

You are ready to provision SAN storage for VMware host now…

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4 Comments:

  1. Anonymous Says:
    5 May 2010 at 18:22  

  2. Don't ever do any of the above commands on a running symmetrix with attached hosts. A better way is to set HBA flags at the masking level for each host type on the array. Frequently multiple host types will share FA's on a DMX. EX (symmask -sid xxx -wwn 11111111111111 -dir 7a -p 0 set hba_flags on SPC2,SC3,C -enable.

  3. Diwakar Says:
    5 May 2010 at 18:53  

  4. You are right but this post was for new FA configuration for VMWare Host on Symmetrix. I clearly mentioned in post about using separate FA for VMware env. " It is better to have separate FA pair for VMware host". You can enable any flags on HBA level when FA are shared/heterogenous but I recommend separate FA as best practice.

  5. Anonymous Says:
    6 September 2010 at 14:39  

  6. good point raised by Anonymous user because not all the we have freedom to dedicate separate FA for separate ENV.

  7. sunnybull Says:
    7 December 2010 at 10:15  

  8. Diwakar,

    I think you missed to mention to set the FA port offline before changing setting on it. Setting aside FA for ESX would be expensive option.

    symcfg -sid xxxx -sa xx -p x offline

    symconfigure -sid xxxx -f faxx_bits.cmd commit

    As mentioned by another reader, setting the bits on HBA would be desirable by most users

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