Hi All,
I am hoping someone might be able to help. We currently have two Equallogic SANS as the back end storage for our ESXi servers (5). When implementing Equallogic's you have to create a vswitch on each ESXi server and add two vmkernel ports. Each 10GBe nic is linked to a vmkernel port and you then do network port binding. All good.
So roll on to the time we need to replace the Equallogics as they are getting on a bit. We decided with our Dell partner on the new Dell EMC ME4024 SAN. However, this works in a different way as you have to use two subnets for each SAN fabric (or at least this is documented in the best practises guide). Essentially, the EMC SAN has two controllers with 4 nics in each. Lets call them A0,A1,A2,A3 and B0,B1,B2,B3. You are supposed to split connections A0,A2,,B0,B2 through one switch and A1,A3,B1,B3 through another switch. Also each group of those nics should be on a seperate subnet (i.e. A0,A2,,B0,B2 = 172.168.19.0/24 and A1,A3,B1,B3 =172.168.20.0/24). You would then create two vswitches on the ESXi host with one vmkernel port each with one being on one subnet and the other being on the other subnet.
So, i tried this but apparently (it seems) that i could never get a LUN to show up in vSphere. I was told by our Dell partner that this was probably because we are still running the Equallogics and they are using network port binding. We put the two vmkernels that we were using with the EMC SAN into a network port binding and hey presto, we can now see the storage.
The problem we have is that we have to migrate over all of our VM's to the new storage and currently, it is not really in a good state as the EMC is using network port binding using two SAN fabrics (i.e. two subnets).
My quesiton is therefore if anyone knows if there is a way to run the EMC SAN in a supported configuration whilst running the Equallogics? There is some documentation on the Dell site that says:
"If multiple VMkernels are used on the same subnet, configure the network port binding:
- On the software iSCSI adapter, click the Network Port Binding tab, then click the plus (+) icon to add the virtual network port to bind with the iSCSI adapter.
NOTE This step is required to establish a link between the iSCSI Adapter and the Vmkernel adapters that are created in the Configure the VMware ESXi VMkernel procedure.If each of the VMkernels used for iSCSI are on separate subnets, skip this step."
but this seems to be in contrast in the VMWare best practises guide for the SAN that recommends two San Fabrics on different subnets with no network port binding.
We need to know if it is supported to run ports A0,A2,B0,B2 and A1,A3,B1,B3 on the same subnet and use network port binding (otherwise we cannot see any LUNS seemingly).
I realise I would probably be better off asking Dell this but just on the off chance someone has had a similar issue with SAN coexistence I thought I would post here in case anyone has any ideas or experience. Its a bit of a difficult situation to be in as I assumed that VMware would be able to cater for both types. I was surprised that none of the LUNS showed up from the EMC SAN when creating two new vswitches and setting it up as per their requirements. I don't know why but it seems that if you use network port binding on another vswitch/SAN set up, you cannot see the storage on the EMC when setting it up with another two new vswitches. Does anyone know why that would be?
It seems unlikely we will be able to send the SAN back so somehow i have to get it to a stable state enough that i can migrate all of the VM's off the equallogics then rebuild the networking so it is in a supported configuration on the EMC. That is, if we cannot get some confirmation if running all ports on the new SAN can be on the same subnet. We are not too bothered about MPIO in round robin as 10GBe should be more than enough for our requirements so if that is the only thing that would cause issues then that is ok.
thanks for anyone who read and any help
Paul
