Fibre Channel (FC) is a storage protocol that the SAN uses to transfer data traffic from ESXi hosts to shared storage. The protocol packages SCSI commands into FC frames. To connect to the FC SAN, the ESXi host uses Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs).

Fibre Channel can only be used as supplemental storage for the management domain and consolidated workload domains, however it can be used as principal storage for VI workload domain.

Storage Type

Consolidated Workload Domain

Management Domain

VI Workload Domain

Principal

No

No

Yes

Supplemental

Yes

Yes

Yes

Prerequisites for FC Storage

  • A minimum of three ESXi hosts. Review the ESXi Fibre Channel SAN Requirements in the vSphere Storage Guide.
    Note: If you are using VMFS on FC as principal storage, and your VI workload domain is using vSphere Lifecycle Manager images as the update method, then only two hosts are required. Workload Management requires a vSphere cluster with a minimum of three ESXi hosts.
  • A pre-created VMFS datastore.
  • The hosts must be in the SDDC Manager inventory. See Commission Hosts.
    Important: The VMFS datastore must be mounted on all the hosts before commissioning.
  • A network pool that includes details for the vMotion network that will be used for the cluster. See Network Pool Management.

Procedures for FC Storage