iSCSI connectivity

[AhmadMDS]

Hello Guys,

i am planning to connect my ESXi servers to two new storage solutions ( MSA and 3PAR) through iSCSI.

i would like to ask you about the connectivity between the ESXi servers and the storage devices.

below is the process i am thinking about,

- create software iSCSI adapter

- discover targets dynamically ( two targets to be discovered: one for MSA and one for 3PAR)

- we only have two 10 GB ports for the storage so i am wondering how to configure the connectivity while ensuring the redundancy

- i have to create four VMkernel adapters ( two for MSA and two for 3PAR)

-my problem is with the binding process, because as long as i know, only one active adapter should be active for each VMkernel.

so i am thinking of the below topology

as we can see the connections are as follow

MSA-VMK1 : NIC1

MSA-VMK2 : NIC2

3PAR-VMK1 : NIC1

3PAR-VMK2 : NIC2

is that topology correct and supported? any suggestions please

thank you in advance.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Assuming that all target ports (3PAR and MSA) are in the same broadcast domsin, you'd only want to configure two iSCSI port groups, e.g.

iSCSI-1 -> vmnic1 (active), vmnic2 (unused)

iSCSI-2 -> vmnic2 (active), vmnic1 (unused)

With this configuration, you can configure iSCSI port binding with both port groups, since both of them can reach all target IPs.

If your storage configuration looks differently, please describe it briefly.

André

[AhmadMDS]

Hi Andre

thank you for your reply!

Sorry i did not mention that this is a new installation.

i thought that MSA and 3PAR should be in different subnets, so that no conflict occur.

so if i configure them as per your suggestion, the solution will look like the below, right?

what do you think of the first topology i posted where i used four VMkernels? i am just curious if this is feasible.

any other suggestion is appreciated

thank you

[a_p_]

I doubt that your initial topology is supported, and/or will even allow for port binding.

The setup with two iSCSI initiator ports and four target ports per storage device should be fine.

Please also note that 8 paths per LUN is the supported maximum anyway.

André

[AhmadMDS]

thank you Andre for your valuable input.

please note that my initial topology allowed me to do port binding (tested in my LAB) because eventually each VMkernel port is connected only to one NIC adapter, but i don't know the impact of this as i don't have MSA and 3PAR for testing, furthermore we don't know if this is supported.

i will go with your topology and implement it.