Jumbo Frames - Multipathing - iSCSI same?

[KENZVMWARE]

I'm trying to create a mutipathing configuration to a SAN that includes Jumbo Frames...

Going by the documentation " iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide" your able to create jumbo frame vmk#'s via cmd but it will only alow me to create one per vSwitch

If i were able to get the 2 onto the same switch i would then (as per the above mentioned guide) segregate the 2 with their own phisical nic.

The other way was to create the two seperate vSwiches with a jumboframed, software iscsi connected vmk# and configure the storage for round robin, but after configuring that and checking the SAN volume, it was only using one of the connections... although you could see both.

Is there a way to do this?

Cheers..

[AndreTheGiant]

See on iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.

You can create one vmkernel interface for each vSwitches or more vmkernel interfaces of the same vSwitch.

But first see on your storage manual and also check if there is some specific best practice for your storage.

For example Dell-Equallogic require a single vSwitch with more vmkernel interfaces, but Dell MD3000i require 2 different (and isolated) vmkernel interfaces on two different vSwitches.

Andre

[KENZVMWARE]

Andre,

it's an Equallogic, but then you can't enable Jumbo frames.. it only allows one per vswitch... that's my dilema, is there a work around ?

Thanks for the response.

[AndreTheGiant]

Do you have ESX/ESXi 4.0?

You must be able to create more vmkernel interfaces on the same vSwitch on the same network.

Andre

[KENZVMWARE]

Andre,

ESX 4... I got it to work with 2 seperate vSwitches configured with iSCSI and Jumbo frames, then configured the storage for Round Robin and they are load balancing to the SAN... nice!

I couldn't get a second jumbo framed enabled vmnic to attach to the vSwitch - the error was "there's already a connection on this interface" (thats not the exact error, but along that line - appologies for not saving the output) this was the cmd... esxcfg-vmknic -a -I <ip address> -n <netmask> -m <MTU> <port group name>

[AndreTheGiant]

You have to create the right interface with jumbo frame before enable iSCSI.

Andre