Starting with Storage Foundation 5.0MP3 RP1, Storage Foundation supports the IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) environment. The VIOS is configured with NPIV capable FC adapters that are connected to a SAN switch that is NPIV capable. The LUNs mapped to the VIO client behave like an LPAR having a dedicated FC adapter. The devices in the VIO client appear as regular SCSI disks. Storage Foundation can access these LUNS, and treat these devices as if they came from a regular SAN storage array LUN. Unlike in the classic VIO environment without NPIV, SF treats these devices as if they came from a regular SAN storage array LUN. With NPIV, the VIO client environment is transparent to SF. All of the SF commands would have the same output as in a regular physical AIX server. SF identifies the vSCSI LUNs through the array properties of the LUNs. Otherwise, the devices in the VIO client appear as regular SCSI disks. You can import the disk group, which provides access to volumes and file systems.

Appendix A lists the details of the environment and configuration, including the firmware versions that are used during the NPIV support qualification with SF 5.0MP3 RP1 (AIX).

Symantec has qualified NPIV support with SF, starting with 5.0MP3 RP1.