Outbound ISCSI traffic is always from 1 nic

[stexlollo]

hello

i' testing my Equallogic p100e with esx 3.5 host for only the outbound storage iscsi traffic from esx node, my question is:

if i have 2 ACTIVE nics in the same vswitch of my vmkernel port and cos 2 port for iscsi traffic, can i see the OUTBOUND traffic from esx vmkernel in all the 2 nics, to my 2 pswitches where iscsi vlan is ?(trunked interswitch not stacked)

i try and i know that with eql box i must create more volumes to load balance the iscsi session in the 3 interfaces of the p100e, but nothing, the outbound traffcic from esx node, goes always trhougth a nic, the first in fail over order of iscsi vswitch.With all load balancing options.

the outbound traffic from eql box is ok: if i have 3 volumes, and i have 3 VMs, 1 VM per volume, the traffic from p100e goes from all 3 nics until the pswitch's ports, but there it uses always the same link of the first outbound iscsi esx nic.the second seems to be only in stand-by mode, althought it's the seconde ACTIVE nic for iscsi traffic.

Anyone has any suggestion to bypass thi limit, or any link setting between esx iscsi nics and phisical switches (i have 2 switches hp 2848) so 1 nic per pswitch

i think the limit is that vmkernel that is in a vswitch has always the same source ip address, and this source ip address has the same destination ip target of the eql group box: the target group ip and not the targed nics interfaces ip.(3)

HOw the outbound traffic is moved from vmkernel view, i think not for vm port id or other mac hash load b. policy.these settings do not change the outbound traffic in vmkernel view and not vm network view.

Thanks all.

[zommarin]

Hi!

I have not tried this myself, but in the VIC under <Your ESX Server>->Configuration->Storage->Select VMFS volume->Properties you can "Manage Paths...". I think the default is to use the most recently used path, but you may change it to round robin (experimental). This might do the trick?

Best regards,

/AZ

[dkfbp]

If you are running software iscsi on ESX on normal nics you will only have one active path. I have experinced the same thing. If you want to use multipathing you need an iscsi HBA.

[depping]

Your correct, I noticed the same on a P100e. The problem is the loadbalancing methods, with the software initiator and a target group it's not possible to create a channel to the EQL as far as I know.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[jhanekom]

For a detailed discussion of this topic, look for Paul Lalonde's posts regarding iSCSI and Load Balancing. He's done a lot of work around this.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Avmware.compaullalondeiscsibalancing

[virtualdud3]

Per VMware's iSCSI Design Considerations and Deployment Guide, page 7 -

Software iSCSI Features and Limitations[/b]

*Multipathing support for failover only, no load balancing by using multiple physical network adapters (NIC teaming)

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/iSCSI_design_deploy.pdf

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[dagterberg]

@virtualdud3

This document is outdated. It still says VCB is not supported with iSCSI.

With 3.5/2.5 it is

[Mike_Deardurff]

I also saw the document iSCSI Design Considerations and Deployment Guide dated from november 2007 stating only support for 2 nics with iscsi HBAs whether 2 single port or 1 dual port. Is this still valid?? Why is there not an updated doc on this? As mentioned above too, the doc still states no VCB support. Id like to know whether my iscsi configs are supported or not and whether im limited in ways.....