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csidenver
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iSCSI Questions

I had two iSCSI questions.

The first is that I have two iSCSI NAS devices and only one of them will show up when I create a new LUN. The one that shows up shows shows "Active (I/O)" under paths on the "storage adapters" tab. The one that does not only shows "Active".

Secondly, on the one that is working I added a drive to one of my VM's but can't get it to show up on the actual machine under "My Computer." I would like to use the iSCSI drive to hold the data from two different databases that are running "Pervasive" and "SQL" These two databases are running under different VM's. One is on SBS2003, and the other under Win7-Enterprise. It's the Win7 Enterprise that won't display the new drive in "My Computer."

Thanks in advance.

John.

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AndreTheGiant
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First question: it depends by your multipath policy, that could match your storage type. With an active/passive (on the same LUN) storage you can have only a single I/O channel.

Second question: you cannot share the SAME iSCSI LUN between two Windows machine without a failover cluster OR without a cluster aware filesystem.

The risk is loose all your data.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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csidenver
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Andre,

#1, I actually have two seperate iSCSI NAS devices, one on .250, and the other on .251. My VMWare is on .150. Is it still not possible to use both of them independently at the same time to a single VM Machine runing EXSi for a single channel each?

#2 I didn't word that very well. I want to point one iSCSI with one database to 250, and the other one to 251 and keep them seperate. The problem I'm seeing with the one iSCSI I have working is that I can't find the Disk inside of the VM. It shows up on my VM Client as active, but if I go to "My Computer" then I can't find it. I want to save my database data there. (NAS device is Linux based Raid 5 and can do network based of site scheduled back ups.)

Thanks,

John.

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AndreTheGiant
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#1

You can use both but with different VMs (some on first NAS and other to the second).

#2 Have you check in Disk Management (of guest OS)? Do you see the disk there?

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
csidenver
Contributor
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Andre,

#2 I checked in disk management and it was there. I assigned a drive letter to it and got it working (thanks). It did have a funny name "System Reserved" that was associated with it (see attached JPEG). What does that mean?

#1 By different VM's, you mean Guest OS, not different VM Hosts right? Any idea why the one only shows "active" and the other shows "active I/O". I am now able to use the one to .250 that shows active I/O, but the one that only says active won't show up in the LUN choices and I can't get it set up.

Thanks,

John.

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AndreTheGiant
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What does that mean?

Have you make a P2V with Converter?

Or have you installed the system with a custom DVD?

In this there there is usually a "hidden" partition with driver or in some cases with diagnostic programs.

you mean Guest OS?

Yes

Do you have at least one running VM on each NAS taget?

In this case you must see two active I/O.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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csidenver
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Andre,

I didn't use a P2V converter or a custom DVD, it's all a function of the Linux Firmware on my NAS device. See attached screen shots.

I have one VM Guest OS for each iSCSI device, but noticed that I am pointing both NAS devices (Synology) towards the management IP of the VMWare HOST at .150. Is this a problem, does it need to be seperated at the IP level so that they don't arrive at the same place? Both iSCSI connections are set up exactly the same way of the different NAS boxes, and both show connected both at the NAS device and under "paths" on the VMBox, the only difference is the "Active" vs "Active I/O" status and that the "Active I/O" shows up as a choice to map under "Storage," and the other doesn't.

Thanks Again,

John...

PS... I have to attend an off site safety training tomorrow, so I probably won't be available until later in the day.

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AndreTheGiant
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Sorry, I haven't tried the Synology NAS yet.

So I do not how to configure them to share a volume (and if the can works with ESX).

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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csidenver
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Andre,

No problem, one of the two is working and they are configured the same. I'm not sure why the second one had a problem.

Thanks,

John.

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Steubing
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Hi,

I had a similar problem, however I was using a single Synology NAS with 2 iSCSI Volumes. In the Storage Adapter Path View the 1st volume always showed Active (I/O) and the other would just show Active.

What I've discovered is that you need to change the LUN # on the Synology to a different number for each Volume.

It's somewhat bizarre because I thought that the target name would be sufficient to differentiate it, but it doesn't seem so. I'm guessing it's a Synology issue.

Hope this helps!

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