True Multipath in Nested ESXi 5.5 U3

[kc5ruj]

Please help me stop banging my head against the wall.  I'm trying to properly configure multipathing in my lab.  Is there ANY possibility of adding a second software iSCSI adapter?  I've already added iSCSI port binding which only gives the one iSCSI adapter redundancy, not the entire data path.  I did add a second server instance on the virtual SAN with no joy.  Is this just a limitation of nested environments or am I missing something?

[MattiasN81]

Hi.

No you cant add a second software initiator, the only reason for having several IQNs is when you have a IQN tied directy to an HBA adapter, in this case its a software component tied to VMkernel with no hardware tied directly to it.

You will get full redundency with port binding if you set up the physical adapters correct

For example.

vSwitch1

Vmnic1, Vmnic2

Port Group 1- iSCSI-1

Port Group 2- iSCSI-2

Load Balancing policy for the Port Groups

iSCSI-1

Active - Vmnic1

Inactive - Vmnic2

iSCSI-2

Active - Vmnic2

Inactive - Vmnic1

Then just add the portgroups to iSCSI port binding and specify all storage controller IPs under either dynamic discovery or static discovery and you will have full redundency too all data paths.

Same rules applies to both physical and nested setups, no difference