iscsi Nic Bonding

[ranjitcool]

Hey Guys,

I thought there was something that could not be done using the client, iscsi nic bonding - am i right? I heard in 4.1 we can do that from the client, am I right?

I couldn't remember what iscsi setting couldn't be done with the client. Please assist.

Thanks

RJ Ratan

[AndreTheGiant]

You mean assign (bind) more than one vmkernel to the software iSCSI initiator?

Only in ESXi you can do from the vSphere client (as well as change the MTU to enable Jumbo Frames).

Andre

[NickEvans]

Hi,

The iSCSI binding can only be done from the CLI in 4.1.

However it has been added to the VI client in vSphere 5.

The command to bind the vmkernel to the software iscsi adapter is:

esxcli swiscsi nic add –n vmk0 –d vmhba34 (or vmhba33, what ever id your iscsi adapter is)

Nick.

[jmounts]

If you bind multiple vmknics to the swhba, and you have multi physical nics preped for iSCSI make sure you do a a 1:1 or 2:1 equal nic matching on the vSwitch.

If you just blindly assign vmknics to your HBA and you dont load balance the physical nics to the port groups properly, you can actually take a hit on your iSCSI performance.

I ran into an environment a while ago where the server manager had 9 vmknics tied to thier HBA and they had 7 of those vmknics bonded to a single physical nic. Caused HUGE congestion on the back end, even with 9k MTU.

[micx]

Hi RJ Ratan,

Just to add what others have already said, what can NOT be done in the vSphere client 4.1 is the binding of VMKernel iSCSI ports to the iSCSI software adapter on an ESX/ESXi host.  This has to be done on the CLI.  There are some other steps that need to be completed as well.

The following article and the embedded video will clear everything up.

http://deinoscloud.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/all-nic-and-iscsi-port-pairs-to-a-single-vswitch-dont-fo...

Thanks,

Michael