ESXi5 iscsi configuration with multiple NICs

[Sam-E]

Hi

I have 2 ESXi 5 hosts with 12 NICs in each.  Storage is by IBM and I have 8 port iSCSI card in it.  I have 2 HP Procurve switches and 2 subnets for iSCSI.

I want to get maximum performance. 

Currently I have the following configuration

Storage: ==> 4 ports in one iSCSI subnet / other 4 ports on the other iSCSI subnet / Jumbo frames enabled

Switch: ==> Jumbo frame enabled, 2 Subnets, no trunking for iSCSI ports

ESX hosts: ==> vSwitch1 with 8 NICs and 8 vmkernel entries.  Each vmkernel has Jumbo frame enabled (NO ip hash)

1. Is this a proper configuration? 

2. Should I have differnet vswitches for each subnet? 

3. Am I assigning too many NICs to iSCSI?

4. What do you suggest?

IBM support has offered minimal support.  I appreciate your help

[ars3n]

You're off to a good start.

Redundancy

• Active/Active on your iSCSI Multipathing configuration.
• I would use two NICs for Management/VMotion traffic (assuming you won't be doing alot of load balancing). One plugged into the first switch and the other plugged into the other switch. At least the same for VM and iSCSI (more on this below).

• Performance

• Less vSwitches. More NIC teaming. More vSwitches do not improve performance.
• Separating your iSCSI subnet twice doesn't provide any performance advantage. I assume you have a sepeate VM subnet (this simply makes it clearer to analyze/debug as your traffic is isolated).
• Ensure you're running at full duplex everywhere.
• How many NIC connections are you using for your VM networks? How you divvy it up between VM, iSCSI, management is based on your application profile (e.g. backend intensive or front end intensive).
• Use a spearate iSCSI target per LUN to separate your queues. Make sure you use Round Robin in the multipathing configuration (default).
• RAID level on your filer matters.

Maximum performance depends on your application(s) use case. You'll want to monitor the traffic across your VMKernel ports and your VM network to ensure you're providing . Enable DRS.

1. We're getting there.

2. No

3. Depends on your work load.

4. See above.

[Sam-E]

Thank you for your response

I have an additional 4 NICs on each of my ESXi hosts.  I am going to use them for management/Vmotion/VM traffic.  IP hash and aggregation on the switch side

I have one LUN (around 6 TB Raid 5 with Spare) configured on the storage.  There are 8 NICs on storage iSCSI.  4 configured with Subnet1 and the other 4 with Subnet2.