Separate VMkernel for Datastore Heartbeat traffic?

[vmroyale]

Hello.

I was just reading the EqualLogic Tech Report "Configuring iSCSI Connectivity with VMware vSphere 5 and Dell EqualLogic PS Series Storage" and saw something new on pages 3-4.

Dell recommends that a highly available vmkernel port be created on the iSCSI subnet serving as the default vmkernel port for the datastore heartbeat traffic, so that datastore heartbeat traffic will then sit outside of the iSCSI software initiator and not consume any additional iSCSI storage connections. It goes on to say that the datastore heartbeat traffic will always use the lowest numbered VMkernel port on the vSwitch.

This makes sense, but it is the first I have heard of this. Is anyone else doing this, with EQ or other iSCSI solutions?

Thanks,

Brian

[rickardnobel]

Brian Atkinson wrote:

Dell recommends that a highly available vmkernel port be created on the iSCSI subnet serving as the default vmkernel port for the datastore heartbeat traffic, so that datastore heartbeat traffic will then sit outside of the iSCSI software initiator and not consume any additional iSCSI storage connections. It goes on to say that the datastore heartbeat traffic will always use the lowest numbered VMkernel port on the vSwitch.

Hello Brian, interesting document. Still a bit strange and there might be some name confusion here. From what I understand they did not mean the HA Datastore Heartbeat traffic, but that the specific Dell SAN does ping the ESXi host during the iSCSI connection setup and uses the result for some kind of placement.

From my understand the HA Datastore Heartbeat traffic would all go over the normal iSCSI connection to the SAN and I do not think there is any way to force those IOs to go another way than together with the ordinary iSCSI traffic.

[a_p_]

That's how I understand this too. IMO the wording "Storage Heartbeat" is a bit confusing here.

André

[vmroyale]

Thanks for the replies guys. It is confusing for sure, and the more I read it the more confusing it seems to get.

Anyone else???

Or how are people setting this up in their non-EQ iSCSI environments?

[depping · Accepted solution]

Not sure what Dell is talking about but datastore heartbeat "traffic" uses the normal iSCSI links. Each host will have a file on one of the heartbeat datastores and open it which means the there's a lock on the file. The overhead is minimal and there is no need to worry at all.