Trying to Add A NetGear NAS Storage Array to New VMWare 6.5 environment

[TheCatsAreDrivi]

I'm working on an inter-forest domain migration here. As luck would have it, yes we do have VMWare support, but it's still in the old company's name. Transition of licensing is "being processed" but I am limited on how much support I can get for this until that gets sorted.

I'm trying to get a NetGear ReadyNAS 2100 storage array to connect to a newly installed ESXI 6.5 host. The host has no hard drives. Just a 32GB flash drive. (Not my idea.) So I need to add the NetGear as a datastore before I can create any VM's. Can't even setup V-Center. To complicate matters further, the NetGear array has a bunch of VM clones that need to be migrated ... so it is critical to add the NetGear Array without wiping it's current contents. At this point, I haven't done much with VMWare in quite awhile, so I'm relearning a lot of things. More than happy to dive into the CLI if there's no other way, but I don't believe that SSH is enabled presently and I'm working from home presently. (Is there a way to enable SSH from the web interface?)

I think my settings are right. I've never worked with VMWare 6.5 and the layout is certainly a little different from what I'm accustomed to.

From the Configure iSCSI page:

• iSCSI is enabled.
• CHAP is not enabled.
• I didn't do anything with Advanced Settings
• VMkernal NIC = vmk0
• Port Group = Management Network
• Valid IPv4 addresses have been statically assigned to vmk0 and vmk1.

When I rescan all hba's, it does successfully find both interfaces of the NetGear array. So the host is seeing the storage array apparently. No new device shows up under Storage --> Devices. Adding a new datastore fails with a "No Devices With Free Space" error message. So the iSCSI sees it but I'm missing something here.

Thanks in Advance!

[rcporto]

Check if you can see and mount the device using the CLI, like described on the following blog post: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2016/12/vmware-esxi-65-cant-add-existing-iscsi-lun/

[TheCatsAreDrivi]

Looks like that may be a winner for mounting the array without formatting it ... but apparently I'm still missing some things.

The esxcfg-volume -l command in CLI turns up absolutely nothing.

The iSCSI adapter is seeing the ports of the array successfully. What should my Network settings look like? Seems that the most likely culprit.

[TheCatsAreDrivi]

Definitely looking for ideas here. Could be the Network settings.

For some reasons, when I create vmk0 with Management Network and vmk1 with VM Network, they both grab onto vSwitch0 and don't wanna move. Poor lonely vSwitch1 with it's two physical ports is just sitting there empty with no port groups. This may be the underlying problem. There's probably something that could be done in the CLI to fix this, but it's been a long time and I don't remember what commands I would need to use for that.

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Can you check if you're not missing steps at NetGear side like the Allowed Initiators for the existing LUN? See the following guide: Using ReadyNAS OS 6 as a VMware ESX Datastore (iSCSI) | Answer | NETGEAR Support

And also check if you configured the vSphere side with all required settings: How to configure ESXi 6.5 for iSCSI Shared Storage – 4sysops

[TheCatsAreDrivi]

There were a number of nitpicky little details involved. I was mixing up things on IQN settings, but that was sorted out pretty easily. Unplugging one of the two network cables from the NetGear was another key. I didn't have the two on separate networks, which apparently the NetGear needs because it's not port-channel capable (which was unexpected for a device with two Ethernet plugs as it's only storage connectivity). If you had more than one interface with the same default gateway ... it got stuck and didn't work. Turning off access control on the NetGear side also helped and I've no idea why. On the VMWare side, turning off ALL services on the iSCSI vmkernal was another key, which I wasn't expecting. Also on the VMWare side, I deleted all targets in the Configure iSCSI page -- both Dynamic and Static, then put the IP for the one remaining NetGear interface back in Dynamic. Rescanned. As long as it only found the one entry, it seemed to be happy and the storage finally showed up.

Mostly took a lot of "press all the buttons and see what happens." Final analysis: I really and truly hate the NetGear ReadyNAS 2100 with all my heart and soul. But at least the damn thing works now.