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6 Replies Last post: Jan 8, 2009 2:36 PM by jjohnston1127

Please help me with iSCSI software initiator setup in ESX.

Jan 8, 2009 11:59 AM

jjohnston1127 219 posts since
Apr 9, 2007

Greetings,

I have a DELL MD3000i SAN with dual controllers. Each controller has two iSCSI nics for multipathing. I have always used FC so I am a little nervous in setting up iSCSI networking on ESX. Please help me.

Controller 1 port 1 is ip address 192.168.253.2
Controller 1 port 2 is ip address 192.168.254.2
Controller 2 port 1 is ip address 192.168.253.3
Controller 2 port 2 is ip address 192.168.254.3

I have VLANs setup on my layer 3 switch for vlan 253 and 254. IP addresses being 192.168.253.1 and 192.168.254.1 respectively.

My goal is to setup a fully-redundant connection with failover support, but I am having trouble grasping the networking setup on ESX.

I am planning on using two NICs in an active/standby (one NIC active on one VLAN, standby for the other, and vice versa) configuration.

Can anyone please tell me exactly what to do to ensure fully redundant connectivity?

Thank you in advance.

Tags: 3.5, iscsi, storage, networking

Reply Re: Please help me with iSCSI software initiator setup in ESX. Jan 8, 2009 1:27 PM

mike.laspina 2,193 posts since
May 26, 2006

Hi,

You will need to create two vmkernel port groups for the iSCSI data plane and on those same vSwitches you will need a service console on that subnet.

e.g.

vSwitch1 - vmkernel net : iSCSI-Network1 = 192.168.253.100

Service Console = 192.168.253.101

vSwitch2 - vmkernel net : iSCSI-Network2 = 192.168.254.100

Service Console = 192.168.254.101

At least one physical nic on each vSwitch is required.

Regards,

Mike

http://blog.laspina.ca/

Reply Re: Please help me with iSCSI software initiator setup in ESX. Jan 8, 2009 1:35 PM

in response to: mike.laspina

jjohnston1127 219 posts since
Apr 9, 2007

Yeah, I was wayyy overthinking it. I got it up and working just a few minutes ago with one vmkernel port group and 2 NICs assigned to that vSwitch.

I have one more question now - I got the storage presented. I presented 1 LUN (500GB). If I look at the iSCSI adapter details, I see 4 "Send Targets"...why 4 send targets if there is only 1 LUN?

Each target shows me the same information for iSCSI name, alias, and target LUN.

Reply Re: Please help me with iSCSI software initiator setup in ESX. Jan 8, 2009 1:56 PM

in response to: jjohnston1127

mike.laspina 2,193 posts since
May 26, 2006

Thats normal since there are 4 IP addresses on the target available. The iSCSI software stack is bizare.

Once you create a VMFS volume have a look at what esxcfg-mpath -l outputs at the console.

You should have at least 2 paths available.

http://blog.laspina.ca/

Reply Re: Please help me with iSCSI software initiator setup in ESX. Jan 8, 2009 2:17 PM

in response to: mike.laspina

jjohnston1127 219 posts since
Apr 9, 2007

Ok, so I presented send targets of 192.168.253.2 and 192.168.253.3 (the configured port 1 on each controller).

Output of the command is:

Disk vmhba33:0:1 /dev/sdc (571180MB) has 4 paths and policy of Most Recently Used
iScsi sw iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esx1-57a5107e<->iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.6002219000aaf63200000000496311c7 vmhba33:0:1 On active preferred
iScsi sw iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esx1-57a5107e<->iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.6002219000aaf63200000000496311c7 vmhba33:1:1 On
iScsi sw iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esx1-57a5107e<->iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.6002219000aaf63200000000496311c7 vmhba33:2:1 Standby
iScsi sw iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esx1-57a5107e<->iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.6002219000aaf63200000000496311c7 vmhba33:3:1 Standby

So what I understand from the reading is vmhba33:0:1 is probably the 192.168.253.2 address, vmhba33:1:1 is the 192.168.253.2 address, both being accessed by NIC 1 (the primary active NIC).

The other two are NIC 2 standby.

Correct?