ESX 3.5 Guest machines cannot see more than one iSCSI virtual disk

[mlaguda]

Hello,

In our enviroment, we currently have two guest machines (running Windows server 2003) on a single ESX 3.5 host (dell PowerEdge 2950). The virtual machines are stored on our SAN (Dell PowerVault MD3000i). There are other virtual disks setup on the SAN that we would like to connect directly via an iSCSI inititator on each of the guest machines. However, when trying to do this, we only see one disk LUN at a time. Physical servers can access all the LUNs without any issues, only these two cannot.

We prefer not to use RDM, as I have been told it is not nessesary and outdated (please tell me if is isn't the case). The SAN has the lastest firmware update. The esx host itself can see all the LUNs. On the SAN the "host type" for both virtual machines are setup as windows server 2003/2008 clustered.

Is there anything I am missing/possibly misconfigured?

Regards,

Marc

[TomHowarth]

are we talking about the guest hosted on the ESX host here?

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[mlaguda]

Yes. There are two guests hosted on a ESX host. Both guests cannot see more than one disk.

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Have you choose the sharing option for your Volumes on MD3000i?

See:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/md3000i_esx_deploy_guide.pdf

Andre

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to ESX 3.5 forum.

Also please note that you should NOT use iSCSI intiators to the same iSCSI server that your ESX server can see. If you do there is a security risk. Your VMs could then be used to attack your ESX hosts so in general this is not recommended. RDM is DEFINITELY not an outdated technology and from a Security perspective is much safer.

Best regards,

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[thecakeisalie]

Further to what Texiwill mentioned about security, the repercussions/drawbacks of using in-VM iSCSI initiators (as opposed to the VMware supported RDMs) are noted within the SAN design and deployment guide (p 201): http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_design_deploy.pdf

Also note that you will not be able to quiesce the filesystem (during backup/snapshot operations) as per KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009073

[mlaguda]

Thanks for everyone's input. I did manage to get the iSCSI initiator to work for all disks (needed to load software/drivers for the md3000i on each host), but i'll have to look into using RDMs, as you guys have suggested maybe a better option.

Marc

[AndreTheGiant]

Have you solved your problem?

Andre

[mlaguda]

Yes, thank you. I needed to load the md3000i software on each of the vm's.

Marc