Booting ESXi 8.0 from SAN is supported

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Query regarding whether ESXi 8.0 supports “Boot from SAN” configuration and the supported protocols for such setup.

Environment

vSphere 8.x

Resolution

Yes, ESXi 8.0 supports booting from a SAN (Storage Area Network). When configured, the ESXi host’s boot image is stored on one or more LUNs within the SAN storage system. During startup, the host boots directly from the SAN LUN instead of a local disk.
ESXi 8.0 supports booting through both Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBA) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Converged Network Adapters (CNA).

Additional Information

For detailed guidance, refer to the following Broadcom documentation:

Boot from SAN Benefits
Requirements and Considerations when Booting from Fibre Channel SAN
Getting Ready to Boot ESXi from SAN