Minimum SnapDrive requirements for VMware ESX Guest OS

Each VMware Guest OS host in a SnapDrive for Windows configuration must meet minimum software and controller requirements.

In addition to the software requirements detailed below, you should have the following information ready before beginning a SnapDrive installation:

ESX Server root credentials and IP address
ESX VirtualCenter credentials (if VirtualCenter is installed)

Software requirements

Note: For the latest requirement updates, see the SnapDrive for Windows pages on the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/.

Component	Requirement
VMware ESX Server	Version 3.0.2 or later with required patches
Windows Guest OS	Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86 or x64) with the hotfixes specified in the SnapDrive host requirements
HBA	FC HBA (Emulex or QLogic) in the ESX Server with FCP ESX Host Utilities 3.0 for ESX 3.0.2 or FCP ESX Host Utilities 3.1 for ESX 3.5.0
iSCSI initiator	Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator in the Guest OS
NIC	Guest OS must be configured with Intel E1000 NIC (VMware NIC Driver installed with VMware Tools is not supported.) You can download the driver from http://www.intel.com. The steps to manually configure the Virtual Machine can be found in VMware knowledge base article 1003020 at http://kb.vmware.com.
Storport Miniport Driver LSI Logic SCSI Controller	ScsiPort Miniport Driver is the default LSI Logic SCSI Controller included when Windows Server 2003 SP2 is installed as the Guest OS in ESX Server. The LSI Logic SCSI Controller needs to be updated with the Storport Miniport Driver for proper SnapDrive operations. You can download the x86 or x64 version of this driver from http://www.lsi.com by searching for "LSI Logic Fusion-MPT SCSI Driver (StorPort)." For more recent updates on the controller requirements, see the SnapDrive 6.0 Release Notes.
VMware Tools	VMware Tools must be installed before beginning a SnapDrive installation.
.NET Framework	.NET Framework 3.0 in the Guest OS
SCSI controllers	To support more than fourteen LUNs, the Virtual Machine must be preconfigured with four SCSI controllers. An RDM LUN or a VMDK is required to hold on to these SCSI controllers.