ESXi and iSCSI

[rwozniczka]

I apologize if this was answered elsewhere on this forum if so please point me into right direction. I'm reviewing ESX_SAN_CFG (iSCSI Configuration Guide) and I'm bit confused on page 37 and down there is a section Installation of iSCSI Initiators and Storage and I think I missing something here.

Here is what I'm trying to accomplish I have existing HP iSCSI storage with 5 DL360 G5 servers each connected to dedicated LUNs (other words 5LUNs) CHAP security enabled each server can only see and connect to its own LUN, 3 of this 5 DL360 servers are currently W2K3 with VMware Server installed on them, I moved all VMs from 1 of DLs to free it up and installed ESX on it, this server has 2 dual port adapters, 1 x NC373i and 1 x NC360T total 4 NICs. In previously mentioned Guide page 40 asking to go to Configuration - Storage Adapters and view Hardware iSCSI initiators, well I do not see any (I think) all I see is Smart Array P400i (vmhba1) local disks I do not want to use this for storage ,631xESB/632xESB IDE Controller (vmhba0) and iSCSI Software Adapter, what am I missing? I can see my Network Adapters in Hardware - Network Adapters area and those are vmnic0, vmnic1 (NC373i) and vmnic2, vmnic3 (NC360T). I want to use NC360T for iSCSI network and since this storage network has to be isolated from LAN should I create another Virtual Switch then associate vmnic2 and vmnic3 with this VM switch and then connect physical NIC for iSCSI network with this Virtual Switch in order to see LUN on iSCSI storage?

One additional question related to this setup while using windows OS I could use HP MPIO for failover (HP iSCSI storage we use has 2 controllers in active/passive mode) each controller had physical ports connected to different VLAN (controller 1 - VLAN2 and controller 2 -VLAN3) and each VLAN was also on different physical switch which made this configuration fully redundant, is this possible in ESX / iSCSI configuration? I believe if I remember correctly in ESX 3.0 it was not possible to configure ESX with multi paths to iSCSI storage has this changed?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to ESXi forum.

In previously mentioned Guide page 40 asking to go to Configuration - Storage Adapters and view Hardware iSCSI initiators, well I do not see any (I think) all I see is Smart Array P400i (vmhba1) local disks I do not want to use this for storage ,631xESB/632xESB IDE Controller (vmhba0) and iSCSI Software Adapter, what am I missing?

It will be something like vmhba40 but only appears if you have a vmkernel portgroup on the vSwitch.

I can see my Network Adapters in Hardware - Network Adapters area and those are vmnic0, vmnic1 (NC373i) and vmnic2, vmnic3 (NC360T). I want to use NC360T for iSCSI network and since this storage network has to be isolated from LAN should I create another Virtual Switch then associate vmnic2 and vmnic3 with this VM switch and then connect physical NIC for iSCSI network with this Virtual Switch in order to see LUN on iSCSI storage?

Yes you will need another vSwitch and will want it to have a vmkernel portgroup on the vSwitch for iSCSI. With 4 pNICs you have to make some choices about how to proceed as you really need minimally 6 pNICs when using software iSCSI.

One additional question related to this setup while using windows OS I could use HP MPIO for failover (HP iSCSI storage we use has 2 controllers in active/passive mode) each controller had physical ports connected to different VLAN (controller 1 - VLAN2 and controller 2 -VLAN3) and each VLAN was also on different physical switch which made this configuration fully redundant, is this possible in ESX / iSCSI configuration? I believe if I remember correctly in ESX 3.0 it was not possible to configure ESX with multi paths to iSCSI storage has this changed?

You use VMware NIC Teaming within the vSwitch to solve failover issues.

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

[rwozniczka]

since I do not have QL adapters and unless I'm mistaken this is the only one that can be use for iSCSI hardware I'm limited to iSCSI Software Initiator, right? are there any other iSCSI HBAs then QL4010?

and Yes I can see iSCSI software adapter vmhba32 which if enabled allow me to add name, alias, IP for ports in Portal Target group on HP iSCSI SAN I also can configure CHAP Authentication here is where I'm stuck. On HP iSCSI SAN I create initiator to represent this ESX host match iSCSI name and alias, then allow this initiator access to previously created LUN, in HP mgmt console there are 2 places where I specify CHAP secret on the initiator and the target these 2 must be different. Using ESX iSCSI initiator I have only one place to configure CHAP Authentication in oposite to iSCSI configuration on Windows OS which actually does have CHAP for initiator and CHAP for target so which CHAP secret this is initiator or target? and to be honest I tried to create new Initiator on HP SAN and DID NOT use CHAP on initiator itself in HP SAN config then used Target CHAP secret in ESX configuration but had no luck rescan did not discover any new storage. Not sure why because I know that vSwitch1 with VMkernel Port I created with static IP assigned from iSCSI network range can communicate thru vmnic1 with rest of the iSCSI network. Previously this particular server where I have ESX installed was running W2k3 OS and using same hardware, cabling, I even kept same IP from old server, M$ iSCSI initiator software I had no problem connection to LUN on HP SAN now with ESX cannot discover anything, getting frustrating.

[rwozniczka]

... so I'm stuck on this one, I have vSwitch1 configured to communicate with iSCSI network and I know this part works because I can ping ESX iSCSI IP but all I see is vmhba32 under iSCSI software and no LUNs, also in storage there is nothing new other then local SCSI devices from DL360 server... I have LUN configured to allow ESX initiator to use it but nothing works, I'm not even sure at this point what the problem is because rescan does not provide any info i.e. invalid CHAP or something else. any idea what should I look for?

[rwozniczka]

ok so here is where I'm under Storage Adapters I have this iSCSI Software Adapter vmhba32 Type iSCSI but cannot discover any LUNs on target I'm trying to connect, so I went back to some training materials for ESX 3.0.1 and I think I sort of find my problem because it reads as follow: "The software initiator works with daemon called vmkiscsid that runs in the service console. Therefore, the service console NIC and VMKernelNIC both need to talk to the iSCSI storage since iSCSI daemon is what initiates the session, and what performs the login and authentication."

Two ways to do this:

- SC Port and VMKernel port share same vSwitch and in the same subnet or

- have routing in place so both SC and VMKernel can access the storage

then there is a screen representing vSwitch with VMkernel Port with IP 10.1.1.153 and Service Console Port vswif1: 10.1.1.253 so much about install and config material.

My mgmt port created during install of ESXi is not called Service Console Port but just VMkernel Port and additionally I set this up as connected to LAN beacuse it is easier to get to it from VI3 client, I can change it but this is how it is now. Anyways I have vSwitch1 with VM Port Group and VMkernel Port (IP from iSCSI network) so base on above requirements I attempt to add SC Port to vSwitch1, but via "add network wizard" I only can add either VM or VMkernel no SC Port so since my existing SC is VMkernel Port type I tried to add another one to vSwitch1 with different IP then VMkernel from iSCSI network but I get error message:

"Error during the configuration of the host: You cannot create two or more vmkernel nics on same subnet. A vmkernel nic with same vmkernel already exust in the subnet"

ok, so how do I add additional SC port to vSwtich1 that is used by iSCSI storage network?

also, while checking my install and config manual I found following paragraph "In order for the iSCSI software initiator to communicate with its target iSCSI storage, outgoing port 3260 needs to be opened in the service console firewall" manual has screenshot of Firewall Properties under Configuration - Software - Security Profile, I do not even have that all I see here is Services and VMWare VC Agent and NTP Daemonis it because this is ESXi host vs. fully licensed ESX?

[rwozniczka]

ok, so I started over changed mgmt IP directly on ESX server to IP from iSCSI network, install VI client on W2k3 server that has NIC directly connected to iSCSI network was able to login to ESX and now I have vSwitch0 with VMkernel Port with IP from iSCSI network range, added VM Port Group and although from this W2k3 I can connect to ESX server using IP from iSCSI network, I can ping target I'm trying to connect to I still cannot connect to target when doing rescan.

I purposely under Configure Management Network use target IPs in place of "real" DNS IPs just to make sure ESX can successfully ping those while doing Test Management Network from ESX console and Yes it can but rescan does not find anything... what I am doing wrong here?

[Robert_F]

Hi, It looks like we have the same problem: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1029075 Did you get it working?

[rwozniczka]

no, I did not have more time to waste on this I probably will come back to this later next week and if I cannot get it to work, I will go with Oracle VM or HyperV in windows 3008 server OS... and by the way I do not use openfiler

[Robert_F]

Ah ok well I just got it resolved at my end here.

It was a configuration on openfiler.

It might be your iscsi device too.

What threw me of is that the MSinitiator worked with the openfiler but ESXi needed the lun to be mapped in openfiler

[rwozniczka]

since I do not use openfiler I'm not sure what you mean by mapped? if you mean I should have LUN associated with Target I'm trying to connect to then YES I have it mapped, here is how it goes in my case:

• I have Active controller with 2 physical ports

• I added IP address of 192.168.200.24 to one of data ports on an Active Controller

• I created portal named esx-vs2 associated with above IP

• on Target I mapped LUN 1t3

• I created and added portal group esx-pg1 on Target hp1510i30

• and finally I added previously mentioned portal esx-vs2 to portal group esx-pg1

This config was solely created to test esx connectivity with iSCSI and it is as simple as it can gets, my other 2 Targets have multiple portal groups each portal group have multiple portals and multiple IPs associated with different physical data ports located on different Controllers to make this fully redundant, since ESX does not support Active/Passive configuration and is not going to use my secondary controller located in MSA1510i SAN I create this Target 3 to make it very simple config... but I cannot get this to work. I do not even have CHAP set to get it put of this picture where my other Targets and iSCSI initiators (windows servers) use mutual CHAP config, I do not know why this is not working but this is huge waste of time for me.