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RemStur
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iSCSI SAN Connectivity

I am a bit new to this so please be gentle.

We are in the process of migrating a few of our less critical servers to VSphere. Since the servers are at a CoLo we are going to install eSXI on our server and use the CoLo's hosted SAN via iSCSI. The CoLo has provided us with a block of IP Addresses that we can use for SAN connectivty.

SAN connectivity is on it's own dedicated NIC (1 for testing purposes) and physical switch.

Management Network
192.168.72/24

SAN IP Block
172.26.11.0/26
172.26.11.1 - GW

Target IPs
172.31.3.105
172.31.3.109

I have created a sepearate virtual switch for the iSCSI and bound a physical NIC to it. I then added the iSCSI software Adapter, loaded the Target in Dynamic Discovery, bound the NIC to the software iSCSI adapter.

I then added a route to 172.31.3.0/24 to go to 172.26.11.1.

When I scan for new storage I am coming up blank. If I go back into the Software adapter, the targets are now listed on the Static Discovery tab. The CoLo is saying that their Compellent is not receiving any requests.

So I built up a Windows VM and loaded it on this host (using an Openfiler iSCSI on the managment network) and installed the Microsoft iSCSI initiator. Using that software I am able to connect to the CoLo SAN from inside the VM.

What am I missing? Why can I not connect to the SAN from the host? Any help will be much appreciated.

Bob
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Rubeck
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http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-0D31125F-DC9D-475B-BC...

(Physical NICs must be on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage system they connect to)

/Rubeck

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Josh26
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SAN connectivity is meant to be a layer 2 activity.

Adding a route on this network is not supported.

The overhead of going through that extra hop is something you don't want, even if you can make it work.

You really don't need an IP range from your datacenter, you should use something isolated for iSCSI.

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RemStur
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So the CoLo is telling me this is they way they set up SAN connectivity for all of their customers. Is it safe to assume that they are incorrect (would not be the first time) or at least not using ESXi?

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Rubeck
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http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-0D31125F-DC9D-475B-BC...

(Physical NICs must be on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage system they connect to)

/Rubeck

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Josh26
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Whilst other iSCSI products may support this configuration where ESXi doesn't - it is certainly not a best practise with any product.

wdroush1
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Kim Rubeck wrote:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-0D31125F-DC9D-475B-BC...

(Physical NICs must be on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage system they connect to)

/Rubeck

Is it that VMWare will just reject any responses from outside of it's subnet regardless of whether or not the TCP/IP connection is properly set up?

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RemStur
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Thanks all... I am back in the process of wrangling with the data center. Fun...

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