Load Balancing Policy- does it matter for ISCSI port-binding?

[ddearaujo1]

Hello -

Does the load balancing policy matter when you configure a vmkernel port group with 1 uplink/adapter to use for iSCSI port binding?

My environment is (somewhat) complicated.  I have 2 physical NICs on each ESX host that are configured as etherchannel (w/o LACP) links.  My vSwitch/DVS has been configured with a few port groups that all use IP hash as the load balancing policy (and both NICs are teamed; i.e., 2 Active Uplinks/Adapters).  This configuration works just fine. 

If I want to create 2 vmkernel port groups for use with iSCSI port binding and MPIO, do I need to change the load balancing policy for these port groups since only 1 of the vmnics is being used (i.e., vmnic0 for vmk1; vmnic1 for vmk2)?  Or, does it even matter since the multipathing policy (in this case Round Robin) will ultimately perform the load balancing?

[vuzzini]

Hello ddearaujo1,

In this instance, you must have selected to Override switch failover order under the Nic Teaming option for port group as you would be choosing one active uplink for individual port group. So the load balancing option at port group level is not selected.

Route based on IP Hash works by taking the source and destination IP addresses and performing a mathematical calculation on each packet to determine which uplink in the team to use. In iSCSI port binding, only one uplink is used with a specific. So there is no point selecting the Load Balancing option.