Is it mandatory to have the NFS Vmkernal Switch stay with Service Console?

[deepu_cherian]

If they have to staty together, what is the secret behind that?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

No it is not necessary. The NFS vmkernel device does not require participation by the SC vmkernel device. Only iSCSI requires that type of network participation. And that is only for Chap Authentication which happens whether you use CHAP or not. Note that this may be slightly different if you are using an iSCSI-HBA.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[deepu_cherian]

Thanks. Can you explain little more about iSCSI-HBA and its requirements? Also, where do I specify the authentication?

[admin]

NFS does require some partiticipation fo the Service Console to work. The VMkernel NFS stack doesn't do DNS resolution, so when NFS shares are mounted (at first create and each boot) the Service Console performs the DNS lookup and passes the resolved IP address to the VMkernel. As long as DNS lookups will work the NFS and Service Console interfaces can be on different networks.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

An iSCSI-HBA will not work for NFS and there is only one from qLogic that is supported. The type is listed on the VMware HCL. the HBA offloads iSCSI specific overhead and in effect is a network card specifically designed for iSCSI. the Current one does NOT do CHAP and you still need the SC involvement for that. However, future ones may. Note you would enter iSCSI authentication information via the Storage Adapter properties dialog for the iSCSI vmhba. Also you can do so from the CLI using esxcfg-swiscsi as well I believe.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization