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shendrickson10
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3.5 and SAN 101 Questions

How do I configure the ESX boxes to share iSCSI SAN luns being presented so a VMware Cluster of servers so they can see it for VMotion, DRS, HA, etc.

My network looks like the following: Two independant networks/subnets, one for the SAN and one for the users. I have two virtual switches setup, each with a Service Console. One is connected to the user side and one is connected to the SAN side. Each of those is connected to the physical ethernet port on the host. Each ESX server can see the LUN that I created on the SAN. This is where I get confused. I add the storage to one ESX server within the VI client and it seems to add it just fine. When I try to add the same storage to the other ESX hosts, I'm asked to format the LUN again. This is where I stop. Thank you for any assistance.

Steve

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ponpalani2001
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Hi,

As long as you are able to see the same label on both the ESX thats is fine. Browse through the LUNS and cross check you are seeing the same vmdk files.

Thanks

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java_cat33
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What iSCSI SAN are you using?

Are you using a iSCSI software initiator or a hardware initiator?

Besides that - if the luns are presented to both hosts, you only have to create the datastore once (this only needs to be done on one of the ESX servers) - when this is complete the new datastore should be visible to the other host and you don't have to do anything else.

ponpalani2001
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Hi,

It seems you are trying to add the LUN to the other ESX server. Just scan the LUN all should ok since you should have already configured your shared LUN on the other host on the cluster.

Thanks

shendrickson10
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I'm using the EMC AX4-5i with software initiators. When I look at the storage under the configuration tab on both ESX servers, I see the name of the Storage with a number inside parathesis, VM (1). Is that normal?

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ponpalani2001
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Hi,

As long as you are able to see the same label on both the ESX thats is fine. Browse through the LUNS and cross check you are seeing the same vmdk files.

Thanks

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presscomp
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We had problems with an EMC AX150i that couldn't be seen by more than one host; we had to go into Configuration, Advanced Settings, LVM and set LVM.EnableResignature to 1.

Not sure if it's needed on all EMC's or if it was particular to our setup or the AX150i.

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