Help with virtual switch from command line

[Gonzouk]

Hello,

We have a couple of new hosts to add into our cluster and I have nearly finished them, however I'm stuck on creating my final virtual switch using jumbo frames.

The switch I'm trying was setup by a consultant and doesn't seem to have an IP (well from the gui anyway):

However I'm not too sure what I need to type in the command line, this is kind of what I have used in the past but have an IP address on this one, I have attempted below to try and see it it looks right to you , but the last line I don't think I need based on the screen shot

esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch4

esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch4

esxcfg-vswitch -A FSVM_iSCSI vSwitch4

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic11 vSwitch4

esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 192.168.x.x -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 FSVM_iSCS

Is there a way I can look on the live servers to see how it was configure? I have a ssh session connected, but don't know the commands to show this.

Thanks

[amalanco8]

Hi,here is a sample of what you need to do in cli:

Create new vSwitch and Enable Jumbo Frames

esxcfg-vswitch –a vSwitch4

esxcfg-vswitch –m 9000 vSwitch4

Create vmkernel ports

esxcfg-vswitch –A FSVM_iSCSI vSwitch4

esxcfg-vmknic –a –i 192.168.x.x –n 255.255.255.0 –m 9000 FSVM_iSCSI

Attach pnic to your switch

esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic11 vSwitch4

Bind vmnics to VMkernel Port FSVM_ISCSI

esxcfg-vswitch –p FSVM_iSCSI –N vmnic11 vSwitch4

esxcfg-vswitch –p FSVM_iSCSI –N vmnic4 vSwitch4

In your picture you created a vm machine port group. you need a vmkernel port to use iscsi.

regards.

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[amalanco8]

if you want to see your current vswitches config :

esxcfg-vswitch -l

if you want to list the vmkernel ports

esxcfg-vmknic -l

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[Gonzouk]

This is what both commands showed (excluding the other switches):

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks

vSwitch4 128 4 128 9000 vmnic4,vmnic1 1

PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

FSVM_iSCSI 0 1 vmnic4,vmnic11

and

Interface Port Group/DVPort IP Family IP Address Netmask Broadcast MAC Address MTU TSO MSS Enabled Type

vmk0 iSCSI IPv4 192.168.x.x 255.255.255.0 192.168.x.x 00:00:00:00:00:00 9000 65535 true STATIC

vmk1 vMotion IPv4 192.168.x.x 255.255.255.0 192.168.x.x 00:00:00:00:00:00 9000 65535 true STATIC

[Gonzouk]

Thanks, do I need this line as our other server don't seem to have an IP and work fine:

esxcfg-vmknic –a –i 192.168.x.x –n 255.255.255.0 –m 9000 FSVM_iSCSI

[amalanco8]

yes, the esxcfg-vmknic -a will create you a vmkernel port, thats what you neeed, if you want to use iscsi you should create vmkernel port for iscsi communication.

regards.

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[amalanco8]

every vmkernel port HAS an ip address, why dont you post your other server's configuration, if you can take a screenshot is excelent.

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[Gonzouk]

Does this help:

I have created all apart from the "FSVM_iSCSI"

[amalanco8]

look at your vSwitch 1, "iscsi", it IS a vmkernel port , vmk0, just do the steps that i listed and you will get iscsi up on your other server, here in the screenshot it looks tlike you also have a FSVM_ISCSI that is a vm portgroup, unless you are using it for virtual machine traffic it is useless.

regards.

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[Gonzouk]

I have found out what the FSVM_ISCSI is. It is a separate network to separate the iSCSI traffic away from the VM network to a separate SAN, bypassing everything else. We have an intense server that generates a lot of IOPS on it's own SAN, so the front end is on the hosts, but the backend it has a dedicate iSCSI connection to a SAN.

I guess this explains no having an IP on the switch

[amalanco8]

only if that vm that generates a high load of iops is using some kind of iscsi client inside the guest os this "separation" works.

regards.

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[Gonzouk]

Yeah, I just looked on the server and it uses a iSCSI client. Does this change my command line config then? I all goes back to the last line showing an IP address, do I just no include this line?

[LarryBlanco2]

Just as amalanco8 stated. If you have a VM that generates a lots of iSCSI traffic and are segregating that you will be better served.

With that said, if you are using an iSCSI initiator from within the VM, that will generate a lot of CPU overhead for the host server. You will be better served by creating physical RDM on the VM for those disks on the SAN. Also, if you are using any tools that interface with the san directly from the VM, you will be able to continue to use them. For example, if it is a NetApp, Snapmanager for Oracle, SQL, Exchange, etc. The SCSI commands will continue to be sent to the LUN on the san.

Hope that helps.

Larry

[amalanco8]

ok, let me ask you something, you have a vmkernel port named "iSCSI" on your vswitch2 with jumbo frames o all your hosts?, if you have it you just need to create the vm portgroup so you will not add the line "esxcfg-vmknic –a –i 192.168.x.x –n 255.255.255.0 –m 9000 FSVM_iSCSI

"

regards.

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[Gonzouk]

I think the server is running ok to be hosted, it has been live for a few months and the hosts CPU stays low, based on our stats, usually below 2GHz and we are just adding 2 more identical hosts (4 in total):

last 7 days

[Gonzouk]

Thanks, I will give it a go right now.