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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Cannot add iSCSI connection to ESXI

I installed ESXI last night and plan to use it for creating a test environment. I have spent about 6 hours now trying to get the iSCSI connection setup. The target is on an HP AIO 600. The array is inside of an HP MSA 70 connected to the HP AIO 600 via a P800 controller card.

I have set the target up with no authentication. I am able to connect to the target from another Windows server. The Server running ESXI only has 1 network card. From within Infrastucture Client, it never sees any targets.

I checked the event logs on the Target machine and I see where the initiator logged in at one point, but I never see any targets.

Any advice?

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

I'm not too familiar with iSNS servers, but would setting one up help me out any?

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

Does your iSCSI target have multiple portals by any chance? ie. Do you have more than one network interface bound to the iSCSI target?

I have seen situations where an iSCSI target that 'advertises' multiple portals (interfaces with unique IP addresses) to an iSCSI initiator causes the initiator to have difficulty connecting.

Can you verify that the iSCSI target is bound to only one interface (the one with the right IP address)?

Paul

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

What is this below iP? Does it exist on your target? Is it the default route out of your target?

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Paul, I'm not sure how to associate a specific target to a specific IP address. When I right click "Microsoft iSCSI Software Target" and go to Properties it shows both of my IP Address for the SAN there and they are both checked. When I right click the specific target I'm trying to connect to and go to properties, I see know options for specifying an IP address.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

When you right click "Microsoft iSCSI Software Target" and go to properties, ensure that only ONE of the IP addresses is checked. Make sure to keep the proper IP address checked, and uncheck the other one.

Do you have Windows Firewall running on your iSCSI Target server? If you're not sure, go to a command prompt (cmd.exe) and type: net stop sharedaccess

Paul

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Our network consists of two subnets: 10.104.x.x and 10.106.x.x. The 10.104.x.x is our main data subnet and 10.106.x.x is the iSCSI subnet. There is no routing setup between the two. The VMware server only has one network port and for cost and other reasons I'm not going to be able to add a second port at this time.

On another Windows server (10.104.x.x subnet) I was able to configure an iSCSI connection over the 10.104.x.x subnet. I know this is not ideal, but is my only option at this time. I cannot however, seem to do this with the ESXi box.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

If the ESXi host is on the 10.104.x.x network, it needs to connect to the iSCSI portal on the 10.104.x.x network. De-select the checkbox next to the 10.106.x.x address on the iSCSI target - we don't want to advertise this portal group via SendTarget.

You will then need to follow the instructions posted previously about disabling your ESXi iSCSI configuration and killing the iSCSI stack before trying to connect after this. If you don't follow those steps, the ESXi host will still hold on to the 10.106.x.x address in its internal portal list.

Paul

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Paul,

The ESXi box is a test environment connecting to our Production SAN. Our production servers do use the 10.106.x.x subnet so I cannot uncheck that box. Is there any other way to force the ESXi to connect to the 10.104.x.x address?

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Paul, I just re-read your post for the third time and it got me wondering....

If I uncheck the box beside the 10.106.x.x subnet, will that drop my existing iSCSI connections that use that port, or is that checkbox only for determing what addresses will be used during the initial iSCSI discovery?

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Can you run a pathping from your iscsi target to your vmkernel IP? Is it going out the correct interface? Is it able to get there? What is the binding order on your nics? Which interface is on top?

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

The pathping is successful and going out the correct interface. The binding order goes like this:

iSCSI (Teamed Connection) -


10.106.x.x connection

iSCSI Port B

iSCSI Port A

Onboard NIC -


10.104.x.x

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Can you modify the binding order so the 10.104 interface is on top, since that's what you want ESX to use?

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Funtoosh
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is it software or hardware ISCSI?

If it is h/w based ISCSI you need to make sure that FILER/SAN IP is pingable from ISCSI BIOS (Ctrl +S to get into it). This is first thing I would check if this is hardware based ISCSI

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Changing the binding order did not affect anything.

I'm using software iSCSI.

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

If the ESXi host is on the 10.104.x.x network, it needs to connect to the iSCSI portal on the 10.104.x.x network. De-select the checkbox next to the 10.106.x.x address on the iSCSI target - we don't want to advertise this portal group via SendTarget.
You will then need to follow the instructions posted previously about disabling your ESXi iSCSI configuration and killing the iSCSI stack before trying to connect after this. If you don't follow those steps, the ESXi host will still hold on to the 10.106.x.x address in its internal portal list.
Paul

If I uncheck the 10.106.x.x address, will existing iSCSI connections using that address be dropped? If not, it seems to me that I could do the following:

Clear out and disable iSCSI config on ESXi.

Reboot ESXi.

Uncheck 10.106.x.x address from iSCSI target.

Reconfigure iSCSI on ESXi, since 10.104.x.x address is the only one active on iSCSI target, it should connect

Recheck 10.106.x.x address on iSCSI target so if devices the use that address are rebooted they will reconnect to 10.106.x.x

I don't want to try this though unless I know that unchecking 10.106.x.x address will not drop existing connections.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

Well, if you have production traffic hitting the 10.106.x.x network, I wouldn't suggest deselecting it.

Long story short, ESXi shouldn't be preventing you from accessing the iSCSI target simply because you have a portal enabled that it cannot reach. It should still be able to connect on the 10.104.x.x portal.

Are there any error logs in the iSCSI target system (Event Viewer -> System) ?

Paul

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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

I did some testing and found that unchecking the box for 10.106.1.11 would not drop existing connections, so I went and and did that. I rescanned for targets and the scan went much, much faster. However, it still did not find anything.

The System Event log on the target does not show anything relevevent. The Application event log will occassionally show my initiator logging on/logging off, but nothing else.

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mike_laspina
Champion
Champion

Hi,

This is not an ESXi issue, You need to define a target portal at the HP iSCSI target and assign it only the interface 10.104.7.15. Otherwise the target will respond to a send targets returning all the interfaces as availble and currently your ESXi server is not configured to connect to those interfaces.

Regards,

Mike

vExpert 2009

http://blog.laspina.ca/ vExpert 2009
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yllw98stng
Contributor
Contributor

Mike, if I'm reading you correctly, I need to set up an additional target portal on my AIO. How do I go about doing this? From a Windows based iSCSI initiator, I've been successfully able to connect to the 10.104.7.15 address...does that make sense?

Thanks,

Jason

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mike_laspina
Champion
Champion

I don't have a hands on for an HP AIO,looking at the online manual reveals no options to control portals. Windows iSCSI clients will have it's own behaviors so we can't go on that alone.

Are you able to remove the ip configuration of the second interface to validate that this is a portal issue?

vExpert 2009

http://blog.laspina.ca/ vExpert 2009
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