ISCSI VLAN WITH 2 HP 2848 - stack or interswitch trunk?

[stexlollo]

Hi all i'm Italian and sorry for my bad english.i'm a bit confused on network configuration, i appreciate yours help.

I have a p100e EQL , 2 hp 2848 last firmware and 2 hp DL385 G2 with 6 nic (2 integrated and 2 hp dual port 380T) with esx 3.02 standard update 1, patched,without VC and VMOTION (i hope in the future.Too many € !) I do not have VLANs in my business, but only different subnet.i have a firewall/router with an interface in LAN.

i'm testing the ISCSI lan firstly, without a VLAN and particular settings, but with a dedicated subnet 192.168.130.x with the 2 hp switches 2848, bridged with a normal interswitch link and a normal uplink to my 3 switch hp 2648 and 3 switches 2624 PoE, production lan 192.168.135.x. ALL SEEM OK.Volumes are up from both esx without error.

2 esx have this config:

vswitch0--> 4 nic for COS1+ VM network (i wanted to put COS1 in my production lan 135.x and not another subnet, for managment purpose,and i wanted to use 1 nic for VMs agent backup and 2 for VM production).Any best vswitches suggestion for my simple topology?

vswitch1--> 2 nic for vmkernel+COS for ISCSI (both in the 130.x subent net with 2 ip address)

eql p100e: 6 links (3 to first hp 2848 and 3 to second, with eql suggestions for optimal redundancy and no single point of failure)

my questions, and i suppose that i'll set a VLAN id 130 for ISCSI subnet 130.x,(no other vlan in my business):

1)what's best configuration if i want no single point of failure between esx and eql san and best performance?eql's support said me that 2848 doesn't support stack.It's false i think because 2848s support stacking with ethernet cable link, althought i do not know if it is the best configuration.i think that with 2 switches in stacking i can put esx iscsi vswitch in IP HASH nic teaming mode but my question is, can i trunk my 4 iscsi link of 2 esx hosts between the 2 switches?(esx1--> 1link to pswitch1 and 2link to pswitch2.Same for esx2 node).In that situation how many stacking link i must have, or i can have?( HP guide do not help me with stacking). i can set my 2848s with LACP link aggregation or i can't, to the esx nics?i think i can only TRUNK 2 nic of a esx node to a single pswitch, but in that situation i have pswitch as a point of failure, is not it?Or with 2 pswitches in stacking mode i can trunk and lacp like as one phisical switch?Any particular setting for my iscsi VLAN pass-trought between 2 stacking switches , esx node and eql p100?

2)ok no stacking, i must interswitch with trunk 2 pswitches 2848 with at less 4 link and i can link 2 nic of a esx node, one per pswitch, so i have no pswitch point of failure.but How must i set nic teaming mode in esx for outbound traffic and VLAN port group in the pswitches for inbound traffic?

3)eql support suggest flow control, RSTP,non unicast control and "QoS pass-trought-mode maximum" command for all ports of my iscsi VLAN with HP pswitches.in the CLI command of my switch last firmware, there isn't that QoS command nor unicast storm control, to optimize buffer port for iscsi traffic.Have any suggestion or experience?i can set for my vlan also Jumbo frame in hp vlan port group and also in the interswiches 4 link trunk?i know that esx 3.xx doesn support jumbo in iscsi software iniziator stacking so my another question is if i can't set jumbo in my esx's iscsi nics, why i must set it in the other end point (p100 has jumbo auto config to 9000 bytes when i link it to hp port but esx nic DO NOT ANSWER to jumbo packets i think, so is not this a performance issue?

4)if i enable VLAN id 130 in my esx 2 iscsi nics, do you know how can i enable same vlan in eql p100 eth ports?

5)last --> possible routing in 2 hp 2848 between VLAN 130 (1-12 ports UNTAGGED) and production LAN (non vlan but from default, others 13-48 ports are in VLAN 1 default-vlan as UNTAGGED ports).How can i set route in both 2 switches 2848 for my LAN to ISCSI VLAN routing.i think eql p100 needs send email and alert to my e smtp server so if vlan is totally isolted, it can't do this.

Sorry for long questions but you can answer with 1) 2) ecc.

By all and thanks.

Lorenzo

[stexlollo]

Uhm, i try with less word.

1)with my situation it's best to stack or interswitch my 2 hp 2848 with a VLAN for iscsi?

2)no stack but interswitch, how can i set nic teaming for no point of failure between esx nodes and Equallogic p100e san?

3)any suggestion with 6 nic per node, which best vswitch configuration?

4)any experience with esx 3.5 with jumbo support and an iscsi san p100e in a VLAN?

thanks

[ctfoster]

I am not familiar with the HP switching hardware so cannot advise but I believe jumbo frames are

not currently supported for iSCSI in V3.5.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/117941

[stexlollo]

thanks for the link.

Anyway i know that 3.5 esx supports jumbo frame, but i do not know how this support is integrated with software iscsi iniziator stack of esx 3.5.

i do not know with hba, but with a supported hba, there isn't software iscsi iniziator so i think that is a firmware's hba problem not a esx problem.

if there is a problem, sure.i think hba with esx 3.5 full supports jumbo and ToE, too.

But i do not use hbas...

by

[ctfoster]

<< i do not know how this support is integrated with software iscsi iniziator stack of esx 3.5.>>

Jumbo Frames are not supported from the ESX software iSCSI initiator at present. You need an HBA to use jumbo frames or

run the iSCSI initiator from within the guest.

[stexlollo]

Ok with "integrated support",my question was (my english is terrible):

since no support in iscsi software iniziator in esx 3.5, but only in nic for jumbo frames, is there a performance issue enabling jumbo frames between esx and iscsi san (switchs too) , without support in the internal iscsi software iniziator stack of 3.5 esx?

i have more performance issues with enabling jumbo in the phisical network and not in the virtual one?

Thanks

[doubleH]

yes definately with procurve switches. when jumbo's and flow control are enabled at the same time you will see a drop in performance. it's best to enable only flow control on procurve switches and you will see a perfomance increase. do a search for 'inofficial' and you will find a thread titled inofficial performance thread and you'll posts on this exact question.

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[stexlollo]

i want to test with iometer my eql p100 with iscsi esx iniziator,

what must i do and which parameters?

thanks

[doubleH]

here is the thread that has all the links for IOMeter and the configuration parameters...

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[stexlollo]

Hello last questions:

in esx3.5 i must enable jumbo frames in nic from COS or jumbo frames are auto enabled if nic is in the supported list?

in EQL p100e, how can enable VLAN id lan in eth interfaces?or outbound and inbound frames from p100e are auto enabled to receive and send vlan packet?i know that eql does not suport tagged vlan.

thanks

[doubleH]

from my understanding jumbo's are only supported in 3.5 for VM traffic (not storage traffic EG iSCSI iniator) remember that your network must support jumbo's end to end so the nics that your VM's use and the switches/switch ports must support jumbo's. the ESX3.5 "What's New page also states "Enhanced VMXNET is the next version of VMware's paravirtulized virtual networking device for guest operating systems. Enhanced VMXNET includes several new networking I/O performance improvements including support for TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) and jumbo frames.". You PS100 will auto detect if it can use jumbo's. I'm not aware of any VLAN settings for the PS100E so I'm not help there.

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