2 NICs, Separate IP range for VMs and NAS.?

ThisUserNameDoe · ‎01-09-2013

Hi all. The following is all running in VMware Workstation 9 (not that it should matter really)

Is it possible to have my iSCSI NAS storage on a completely different network to my VMs.?

For example, I have ESXi 5.1 with 2 NICs. 1 on 172.16.1.x/24, the other on 10.1.1.x/24 range.

I would like the 172 range to be for my VM network, and the 10 range for my storage network.

Is this possible.?

I have a Windows 2008 R2 server on the two networks, and using the iSCSI Initiator, I can see my storage great.

ESXi can't however.

I have setup the iSCSI Software Adapter, added in the network card that is configured on the 10 range

I've added the IP address of my NAS in the Dynamic Dicovery tab, and did a Rescan All, but nothing is showing up

There is also nothing in the NAS logs for anything trying to access it

I am guessing it's because of gateway issues. I have seen the following techdoc (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200142...) that says you can add additional gateways, but I have not having any success

~ # esxcfg-route -l
VMkernel Routes:
Network          Netmask          Gateway          Interface
10.1.1.0         255.255.255.0    Local Subnet     vmk1
172.16.1.0       255.255.255.0    Local Subnet     vmk0
default          0.0.0.0          172.16.1.1       vmk0

~ # esxcfg-route -a 10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.1
Adding static route 10.1.1.0/24 to VMkernel
Error: Duplicate route to network 10.1.1.0/24 found. Please delete the old route first.

~ # esxcfg-route -d 10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.1
Deleting static route 10.1.1.0/24 from VMkernel
Error: Unable to delete route to 10.1.1.0/24 this route is automatically created based on the IP address and netmask of one of the VMkernel TCP/IP interfaces

Can anyone help.? Is this even possible.

Thanks

jasonvp · ‎01-09-2013

ThisUserNameDoesntExist wrote:
Is it possible to have my iSCSI NAS storage on a completely different network to my VMs.?
For example, I have ESXi 5.1 with 2 NICs. 1 on 172.16.1.x/24, the other on 10.1.1.x/24 range.
I would like the 172 range to be for my VM network, and the 10 range for my storage network.

Will your VMs be accessing the iSCSI storage directly? Or will the ESXi server be doing it? I assume the latter? If the former, you're going to be forcing your router to carry storage traffic from the 172.16.1/24 network to the 10.1.1/24 since the VMs don't exist on the second subnet. Bear that in mind.

I have a Windows 2008 R2 server on the two networks, and using the iSCSI Initiator, I can see my storage great. ESXi can't however.

What happens when you try to ping the NAS' IP from the ESXi server?

~ # esxcfg-route -a 10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.1
Adding static route 10.1.1.0/24 to VMkernel
Error: Duplicate route to network 10.1.1.0/24 found. Please delete the old route first.
~ # esxcfg-route -d 10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.1
Deleting static route 10.1.1.0/24 from VMkernel
Error: Unable to delete route to 10.1.1.0/24 this route is automatically created based on the IP address and netmask of one of the VMkernel TCP/IP interfaces

What's the NAS' IP? This is happening because the server already has a 10.1.1 IP address, so a static route for that same subnet is superfluous. You shouldn't need to add any local static routes unless the NAS' IP isn't on the 10.1.1/24 subnet.

jas

ThisUserNameDoe · ‎01-09-2013

Thank you for the quick reply.

You are correct, the ESXi servers are connected to the NAS, not the VMs

I can't ping the SAN from the ESX boxes

IPs are...

DC - 172.16.1.11

VC - 172.16.1.12

NAS - 172.16.1.50 and 10.1.1.50

ESX1 - 172.16.1.51 and 10.1.1.51

ESX2 - 172.16.1.52 and 10.1.1.52

Thanks

jasonvp · ‎01-09-2013

ThisUserNameDoesntExist wrote:
I can't ping the SAN from the ESX boxes
IPs are...
     NAS - 172.16.1.50      and     10.1.1.50
     ESX1 - 172.16.1.51     and     10.1.1.51
     ESX2 - 172.16.1.52     and     10.1.1.52

Does your NAS have a shell? Can you ping the ESX boxen from it?

What's the physical layout look like? Is the NAS connected to the same Ethernet switch as the ESX boxen are?

jas

ThisUserNameDoe · ‎01-09-2013

This is all being hosted in VMware Workstation 9, so there is no physical.

Um, I can't ping anything on the 10 network.

jasonvp · ‎01-09-2013

ThisUserNameDoesntExist wrote:
This is all being hosted in VMware Workstation 9, so there is no physical.
Um, I can't ping anything on the 10 network.

OK, I have to admit you've sort-of confused me here. You mention ESX a few times, then VMWare Workstation 9. They're two different things entirely.

How many physical servers do you have? What are they running? How are they connected?

jas

ThisUserNameDoe · ‎01-09-2013

Sorry for the confusion, I did say at the top of the original post, all this in running inside VMware Workstation 9

I have 1 physical machine, Windows 7, running VMware Workstation 9.

In that I have configured 2 LAN segments (Called "Domain" and "iSCSI")

I have 5 Virtual Machines running...

1x Windws 2008 R2 Domain Controller

1x Window 2008 R2 for Virtual Center

2x ESXi 5.1

1x NAS4Free Server

The NAS and ESXi VMs have 2 NICs each, one on each LAN Segment

The "Domain" Segment is 172.16.1.x/24, and "iSCSI" is 10.1.1.x/24

Does that help?

jasonvp · ‎01-09-2013

ThisUserNameDoesntExist wrote:
The NAS and ESXi VMs have 2 NICs each, one on each LAN Segment
The "Domain" Segment is 172.16.1.x/24, and "iSCSI" is 10.1.1.x/24

I strongly suspect that this is a Workstation configuration issue and not an ESXi one. It seems an awful lot like there's no virtual L2 connectivity between your ESXi servers and the NAS. Unfortunately I know nearly nothing about Workstation so I won't be of much more help here. You might consider asking this in the Workstation forum.

jas