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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-08-2013 02:04 AM

MS cluster over VM using MSiscsi initiator

Dear Team,

We want ot create a cluster of two VMs using 2008 R2 on a vmware cluster. the IP subnet used to connect our SAN and ESX is 192.168.x.x and that of our LAN and VMs is 10.x.x.x.

So how can we add the RDMs to our VM using the MS iscsi initiator having two different IP subnets.

Is there any documentation available for the same? If not please help me to get this done.

Is there any performance issues using MS isci for cluster configuration ?

thanks

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ramkrishna1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-08-2013 09:15 AM

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

please follow below two link which will clear most of the doubts.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg232621%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/cc731844%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

"concentrate the mind on the  present moment."
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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-09-2013 02:11 AM

Hi,

I want to know how can we present a RDM to a VM having the IP subnets different from our Management LAN.

The subnet used to connect the SAN to the ESXi host belongs to 192.168.91.x and that of the vmotion, management is 10.x.x.x.

The VM is only having one virtual NIC and having IP 10.x.x.x, so how it will communicate to the SAN having 192.168.91.x subnet.

Please help.

Regards.  

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-09-2013 02:51 AM

Hi,

You present the LUN to the ESXi host(s) both using 192.168.x.x in your example.  In the VM(s) you then add a new harddrive selecting the RDM option and pointing towards the LUN you presented to your ESXi host(s).  There is no need in this scenario for the VM(s) to see the 192.168.x.x network or use the MS iSCSI initiator if it's RDM you plan to use.

The following article on perennially reserving the LUNs used in the MS Cluster is worth noting: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016106

Edit:  Some RDM information if you've not already seen:  http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-8E664...

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-09-2013 03:09 AM

Hi ,

Actually the need is that we have to use MS iSCSI initiator for clustering, since vmware apart from FC only supprts the in-geust OS iscsi and we are using sofwatre Iscsi initiator to connect the SAN to ESX hosts.

So please suggest.



Microsoft Clustering on VMware		vSphere supportVMware HA supportvMotion DRS supportStorage vMotion supportMSCS Node LimitsStorage Protocols supportShared Disk
FCIn-Guest OS iSCSINative iSCSIFCoERDMVMFS
Shared DiskMSCS with Shared DiskYesYes1NoNo2 5 (5.1 Only)YesYesNoNoYes2Yes3
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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-09-2013 03:52 AM

You mention you're only using one vNIC per VM, is there a reason why you can't add more?  Can you add a portgroup for the vSwitch using the 192.168.x.x network and add a vNIC on your VM(s) connecting to this portgroup/vSwitch and use this to communicate with the SAN?  You would then present the LUN to the Windows VMs directly rather than RDM via the ESXi host.

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-09-2013 04:07 AM

The existing vNIC on the virtual machine is having a default gateway of the subnet 10.0.0.0 and the new vNIC (which you are asking to add on to the VM) connecting the vSwitch using the 192.168.x.x network will be having the ip range of  192.168.x.x network. So how it will communicate to the SAN (192.168.x.x network) since the default route is pointing to 10.0.0.0 network.

Thanks.

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-09-2013 05:02 AM

The VM vNIC connected to 192.168.x.x will not use the default route it will communicate directly to the SAN over the 192.168.x.x subnet, no routing will be used, the same way that your ESXi hosts are using iSCSI to communicate to your SAN already. Adding a portgroup to the same vSwitch for VM Guest OS iSCSI will work.

If you didn't want to use the existing iSCSI vSwitch and you have avaialble pNICs in the host you can add a new vSwitch for the Guest OS iSCSI with a similar confuguration to the existing one on the 192.168.x.x subnet.

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2013 12:19 AM

Hi,

I have added a portgroup to the existing iscsi vswitch. Later on I have added that vNIC port on to the VM. I have assigned the IP 192.168.91.200.

But I am not able to ping even one of the iscsi vswitch port IP of the esx host from the VM. So how can we communicate to the SAN?

portgroup.PNG

IPs.png

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-11-2013 12:42 AM

But I am not able to ping even one of the iscsi vswitch port IP of the esx host from the VM. So how can we communicate to the SAN?

Can you ping any of the IP addresses of the SAN array controllers from the VM?

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2013 12:45 AM

No !!!!!! I am not able to ping the IP addresses of the SAN array controllers. I cant even ping any subnet of 192.168.X.X.

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-11-2013 01:09 AM

I have used this configuration before, for the 192.168.91.0/24 you should be able to ping your local VM vNIC, the vmk ports for the iSCSI vSwitch and the IP addresses of the SAN controllers.

Using vmkping from the ESXi hosts what of the above interfaces do you get a response from?  Are there any firewalls in play here?

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2013 03:14 AM

No We dont have firewall runnig.

I can ping every ip address using vmkping from the ESXi hosts under subnet 192.168.x.x except the newly configured VM vNIC on to the server.

vmkping.PNG

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-11-2013 03:44 AM

Are you able to post an ipconfig/all and route print for the Windows VM?

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2013 03:49 AM

Please find the same

Preview file
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Preview file
4 KB
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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-11-2013 04:02 AM

I am not familiar with why you'd have two ipv4 addresses on each ethernet adapter?

From your route print you can see there is no gateway for your 192.168.91.0/24 subnet via your vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter #5 with IP 192.168.91.200, this looks like a Windows configuration problem.  See attached route print for what I'd expect to see.

Preview file
22 KB
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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-12-2013 03:32 AM

Hi, I was also thinking there could a windows issues w.r.t newly added vNIC.

But it is happening on all the vms I have. Actually whenever I am assigning the IP address to the newly added vNIC on any VM I am getting an IP conflict, the same can be seen in the creen shot as duplicate.That is why we cannot see this vnic under the route print.

Can you please help as it hapening on all the VMs ?

ip.PNG

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-12-2013 05:09 AM

This has a few suggestions for a Windows based solution:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsserver2008r2networking/thread/2cedb9b7-8385-...

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jitu000
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-12-2013 05:12 AM

As in my previos post, it is hapeening on all the VMs.If its a windows issue than it should remain with a single or two...

Is there any config required from vcenter ?

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virtualinstall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎04-12-2013 05:39 AM

The only thing I can think of is, if in vCenter the vSwitch MAC Address Changes were set to Reject, see here:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-74E2059A-CC5E-4B06-81...

There is also a KB article on resolving IP address conflicts that may help troubleshooting:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008177

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