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7 Replies Last post: Sep 11, 2008 9:15 AM by litkaj
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esx3i and openfiler 2.3

Sep 10, 2008 9:31 PM

Click to view Elitoh's profile Enthusiast Elitoh 43 posts since
Nov 13, 2007
Tried to setup and openfiler iscsi server today and failed a few times. I have done alot of searching and did not find much besides the the petri method. I am failing big time. For some reason it will not connect I can ping the openfiler box from my vms but when I go to setup iscsi on the esxi server it just wont find it. Does anyone know or have a good tutorial for this type of setup?
Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 10, 2008 11:30 PM
Click to view kriewald's profile Hot Shot kriewald 261 posts since
Jan 7, 2004

Just to check your openfiler configuration:

Can you mount a iscsi volume with windows (microsoft initiator)?

Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 1:18 AM
in response to: kriewald
Click to view guyrleech's profile Virtuoso guyrleech 1,770 posts since
Mar 6, 2006

I found this excellent article on Doug Brown's site and followed it:

http://www.dabcc.com/blogs/leew/post/How-to-set-up-a-free-iSCSI-or-NAS-storage-system-for-VMware-ESX-using-Openfiler

However, I had the same issue as you in that the OpenFiler box seemed to be happy but ESXi wouldn't see the volumes I had created. A Vista iSCSI Initiator also refused to see anything exported from OpenFiler so I suspect the problem is with OpenFiler. I haven't used OpenFiler before, I've used the iSCSI Enterprise Target (IET) on a "standard" SuSE distribution which worked fine with ESX at least.


Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 5:09 AM
Click to view litkaj's profile Hot Shot litkaj 105 posts since
Mar 16, 2007
From a clean install of OpenFiler 2.3:

1a. Create Physical volume on a single disk
1b. Create Software RAID volumes on multiple disks and create an array
2. Add volumes from #1 into a Volume Group
3. Create an iSCSI volume in the VG from #2
4. Start the "iSCSI target server" service
5. Add a network entry for the client machine (or local subnet if private) at the bottom of "System > Network Setup"
6. Click "iSCSI Targets" on the Volumes page
7. Click "Add" to create a new target.
8. Click "Lun Mapping"
9. Click "Map"
10. Click "Network ACL"
11. Change the combo box for your network to "Allow".

Jason Litka
http://www.jasonlitka.com
Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 5:11 AM
in response to: guyrleech
Click to view litkaj's profile Hot Shot litkaj 105 posts since
Mar 16, 2007
BTW... The network configuration options used on the link posted by guyrleech are wrong. Both entries are identical and allow all of 192.168.2.x.

Jason Litka
http://www.jasonlitka.com
Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 8:39 AM
in response to: litkaj
Click to view Elitoh's profile Enthusiast Elitoh 43 posts since
Nov 13, 2007
That Link was great. Didn't get me up and running though. Fortunately and unfortunately thats the way I did it to begin with. If I am understanding correctly Openfiler will take any disks and make them connectable to via iScsi. Correct?I will try the MS initiator and see where the problem lies.
Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 8:58 AM
in response to: litkaj
Click to view Elitoh's profile Enthusiast Elitoh 43 posts since
Nov 13, 2007
The Correct answer goes to "litkaj". I was missing one ESSENTIAL step which none of the how to's that I read mentioned. The link that was provided did mention it as well but originally not few that I read. Anyway I mapped it and everything is working now. Thank you guys for the help.
Reply Re: esx3i and openfiler 2.3 Sep 11, 2008 9:15 AM
in response to: Elitoh
Click to view litkaj's profile Hot Shot litkaj 105 posts since
Mar 16, 2007
No problem. If you have OpenFiler-specific problems check out our forums as what I posted was a copy-and-paste from something I'd told another user a couple weeks back (I'm one of the moderators over there).

Jason Litka
http://www.jasonlitka.com
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