SW iSCSI - no targets found

[maximilianp1]

I'm trying to set up an ESX 3.0.1 server to work with a Rasilient Rastor 4000 SAN using iSCSI.

The ESX Server 3.0.1 is configured as follows:

\- Dell PowerEdge 2450 2xPIII 1,0GHz with 2GB memory

\- all VMware components fully licensed

\- ESX stand alone no Virtual Center, just for try-out

Networking setup:

\- One physical NIC vmnic0

\- One virtual switch vSwitch0 using the vmnic0

\- 3 Portgroups set up on this vSwitch

• Service Console (10.5.3.6)

• VM Network (although no VMs in there yet)

• VMKernel port

Storage adapters:

One iSCSI Software adapter vmhba40

I set this one to enabled and set as SAN Identifier "iqn.2002-03.com.rasilient:00.00a0d1e16686" (taken from the Web frontend of our SAN system)

Dynamic discovery is set to the IP of our SAN.

The problem is that I cannot find targets... I went strictly by the manual for configuring a SAN storage, but on the "Add storage..." step, the VI Client cannot find any devices to add.

When I do a rescan at the Storage Adapter unit, the targets remain 0. The SAN Web frontend logs connections from our ESX Server, so it's (hopefully) not a networking issue.

We kind of suspect that we might have to set up our ESX Server as a specified host in our Rasilient Rastor system, but we couldn't try that so far.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[oreeh]

did you enable iSCSI in the ESX firewall?

[jkopp]

After you grant access to your LUNS on your SAN, you'll need to go to "storage adapters" click "rescan" with both check boxes checked. That's my experience anyway. After the scan (which usually gives me a timeout error...but it's OK), I'm then able to add storage and use the LUN.

I've also found that when working with iSCSI, if you use dedicated NICS for the iSCSI traffic, both those \*and the service console* must have access through any ACLs you may setup for discovery to work.

Also, if you plan on sharing this storage between multiple hosts, you may need to enable LVM volume resiganturing in the advanced settings for other servers to access the existing disks without wanting to reformat them on you.

Probably more than you're after, but you may find it helpful. Good luck with the iSCSI. Equallogic PS400 works great for us.

[Samcer]

Hi Maximilian1,

when you enable the iSCSI asking VMHBA40, ESX will calculate its own iqn such as "iqn.2002-02.com.vmwrare:xxxxxxxxx" you do not have to specify your SAN iqn (iqn.2002-03.com.rasilient:00.00a0d1e16686).

IQN are used as WWN in FC SAN, so IQN must be unique.

Disable your iSCSI emulation, reboot you server, re-enable iSCSI.

Then in the Dynamic discovery add your iSCSI IP address (not the management one)

Hope this helps

Sam

[natedev]

Please let us know how the Rastor 4000 works out for you. Hopefully, you've been able to get around the problem of not being able to see the targets. I'm very curious about this device's reliability and performance with ESX 3.0.1. The management software looks pretty well thought out.

[maximilianp1]

Yes, we are now able to see the targets - problem was, that ESX and Rastor were on different subnets.

Regarding performance, we only did a simple connection test ESX->Rastor and executed a single VM on it.

We plan to build up the proper environment (VMware Lab Manager) beginning next week, I will post our findings then.