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Mkelleh
Contributor
Contributor

iSCSI will not connect

Hello, be merciful, we are new.

We have installed Infrastructure 3 on 3 servers. No matter what we do, we cant get any iSCSI communication to work from the ESX platform.

I want to do the simple stuff first.

We have VMWare server (On SLES 10) running in our production environment. Within this environment, on a Windows 2003 virtual machine, all we do is add a NIC, install iSCSI Initiator on guest OS, configure, and viola! the iSCSI volume is there.

We can not make this work in ESX! We can ping the iSCSI target address, so communication is there.

I am not trying to mount iSCSI as a host adaptor anywhere (at least not anymore), just make it work on the guest OS.

Additional note; we are using an iSCSI appliance from iStor, firmware 1.3.0.24. It is working as advetised. We can configure any Windows device to connect, we can configure a virtual Windows server on a SLES based system, not from ESX.

Help!

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20 Replies
Raymond
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Have you enable the iSCSI client option under the firewall?

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Jae_Ellers
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

He's just trying to get iSCSI working in the guest, so using the windows initiator to connect to a lun. The ESX firewall has nothing to do with the VM traffic.

Should just work. Not very efficient, but ok for low load use.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- http://blog.mr-vm.com http://www.vmprofessional.com -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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Mkelleh
Contributor
Contributor

Agreed, it should "just work". It isnt.

We are going nuts here.

A few points of illumination, to highlight our frustration.

1 - If the iSCSI initiator is within the WIndows environment, ESX just needs to provide the NIC, right? The initiator encapsulates the SCSI within an IP packet and sends it off over its NIC. The ESX passes it on from virtual NIC to physical, and off it goes. We can ping the iStor, so that connection is there. So why wont the iSCSI show up?

2 - We always have used the default settings for the connection. Are there any paramaters we should be changing?

3 - We cant telnet to the iSCSI host on port 3620, this shows that something is getting in the way of that communication. We have tried all the firewall configurations to no avail. Once again, a VMWare Server based hosted Windows server can indeed telnet on that port. All from the same switching.

Still waiting for the magic answer here.

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biekee
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Ad 3. Not to be picky, but don't you mean port 3260?

The procedure you are doing I have done several times. You even can hot add the ISCSI Lun , open Device manager, disk management and there you go.

Port/firewall problem?

bk

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Mkelleh
Contributor
Contributor

Doh!

Yes I did.

Seems like it should be simple. It isnt. Looking for answers from iStor at this point. They claim it has been done, will work from that end for now.

But I am still looking for any other suggestions.

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

I have a D-Link DSN-3200 which is an OEM of the iStor product (using the same buggy firmware that you are). ESX 3.0.1 is able to use the IP SAN's LUNs as DataStores without problems. I'm using the QLogic QLA-4052C as my iSCI HBA.

However, when I install the iSCSI Initiator into a Windows 2003 R2 virtual machine on ESX 3.0.1, just like you experienced, we can ping the target but not connect.

If we use VMware Importer to copy that ESX VM to a PC running VMware Server, the iSCSI Initiator within the VM starts working.

Both the ESX Server and the PC running VMware Server are connected to the same switch. The former uses NIC teaming while the latter does not. I'm not sure if this would be a factor.

We've reported a large number of defects in the iStor firmware. As far as I can tell, they have no QA process whatsoever. It's really a shame because I like the hardware.

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jeffpurcell
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Sounds like you may have a network issue. If your just trying to connect from a guest via a software initiator (i.e. Microsoft software initiator), you may want to take ESX out of the picture and try a Windows client to ensure your storage system is working properly. Once you have established an iSCSI session with a stand alone client, you should be able to modify the configuration for the guest within the VM.

There are 2 areas that I would be curious about.

1. Can you establish an iSCSI session with the iSCSI target

If you can not then you need to address the software initiator and

iSCSI service on your storage device to establish the network session.

2. Is you can establish a network session can you see the iSCSI LUNs?

Use disk the software initiator interface to view the devices visible to

your initiator.

If you can not see any LUNs, you probably have a LUN masking

issue.

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the suggestion but the same virtual machine will not connect to the iSCSI target if it's running on ESX 3.0.1 but will if it runs on VMware Server (imported). So the conclusion is that ESX or the NIC on the ESX server is the problem. When I access the iSCSI target from ESX (not the guest OS), I'm using the QLA-4052C HBA (and that works fine).

But one other thing... I couldn't use the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in Windows 2003 R2 virtual machines running on two different servers (one an HP Proliant DL-380 and the other a Dell PowerEdge 2850). It makes me think that the NIC's probably aren't the problem. None of the virtual machines (or the service console) has any other network issues other than the aforementioned Microsoft iSCSI Initiator problem.

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2Advanced
Contributor
Contributor

have you gotten this working properly yet?

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2Advanced
Contributor
Contributor

Have you been successful in getting this to work?

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

No - the best I've been able to do is just use this SAN directly from ESX 3.0.1 as a datastore (which is the correct way to do it). The ESX software-based iSCSI initiator doesn't work with this target but the QLA4052C's do.

I have grave concerns about iStor's GigaStorATX's firmware and management console. I've literally logged over 30 defects and reported them to D-Link (the OEM) and haven't really seen any firmware updates. The log is unusable on this thing. I just think iStor has no quality assurance processes in place.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

What happens when you attempt to use the ESX software iSCSI initiator? Can you provide log files or screen dumps?

Paul

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Paul,

It just behaves as though I pointed it towards a bad address. Per 2Advanced, it sounds like there's a major firmware update to the D-Link DSN-3200 that was just released. I'll give that a try and then post the results here. I was thinking about trying your patch to see if that would correct the issue but since the QLA-4052C's were working (and I was running low on time), I didn't go back and do more diagnostics to understand what was going on.

-Nate

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2Advanced
Contributor
Contributor

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Kevin_Day
Contributor
Contributor

Did you ever manage to get these iStor units to work without the HBA ?

Also are they getting better with software releases? (I Hope so as I have got to use one!)

\- Kevin

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

While a number of bugs were fixed in the 1.4.0.27 firmware upgrade for the D-Link DSN-3200 (iStor GigaStorATX), some things have not been addressed:

\- Event log can not be properly scrolled so many events are inaccesible via the UI unless you export to a text file. Most of the event entries have no useful information anyway.

\- My unit just up and rebooted on me for no apparent reason (and no events in the log around that time). I just got an email that a "severe event occurred" with no detail. I don't trust its stability yet.

\- I get temperature alarms even though the unit is in a ventilated rack (at the bottom) next to the HVAC system. I think having 15 x 750 GB Seagates is too much for its fans.

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

I have to admit to some frustration with the unit. I had high hopes based on it having 8 x 1 Gigabit ports and the theoretical i/o's it should have been able to achieve. But the devil's in the details as they say and I think iStor is still struggling with software quality issues. I'm considering other options at this point for iSCSI from more mature vendors such as Equallogic, Lefthand Networks, and even Microsoft Storage Server (with the old StringBean Software iSCSI target). Even the iSCSI Enterprise Target might be a better option.

While I haven't gotten it working with the software initiator, I suspect that Paul's patch would solve the problem. I'm getting two new ESX Servers setup so I'll probably try that out with one of them. But overall, I like the QLA-4052C's so it hasn't been a pressing issue.

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natedev
Contributor
Contributor

Just as an update, I decided to step up and invest in a real SAN - Lefthand Networks' SAN/iQ. We'll be installing the modules tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. I think the DLink xStack would be a decent box for physical Windows 2003 Servers using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. I was hopeful that it would work with ESX and that I could have an 11.5 TB SAN for a song. I'm guessing that reserve/release wasn't implemented because it worked for one ESX Server (with nice performance) but not with two. I took the drives out and put them in our PowerVault MD1000 and am using them with Solaris now. I'll be putting the xStack up for sale on eBay tomorrow.

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codemorph
Contributor
Contributor

Any chance you can provide the ebay link for that istor unit? We have one working with esx server 3.01 and are able to load up and manage virtual machines from vi managment gui.

How much $$ you selling it for?

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