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lcfc2
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iSCSI Config - Do I need this?

Hi All,

Looking for some clarification here, not sure if this is really storage or network but I'll put it out there.

Basically my config is as below (i've removed VM's and IPs).  I have an MSA attached directly but now we're expanding the network to incorporate a Backup to Disk solution which means we're going to implement a proper switched iSCSI setup.

The vendor we're working with has stated that we need to create a new VM port group on vSwitch 1 so there is a link between the iSCSI network and the Production network?  Is this necessary?  The VMkernel port group has a Def GW which allows the traffic to route and I haven't seen this in the VMware iSCSI confiig document.

iscsi.JPG

Thanks in advance

Lcfc

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rickardnobel
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lcfc2 wrote:

The vendor we're working with has stated that we need to create a new VM port group on vSwitch 1 so there is a link between the iSCSI network and the Production network?

What do they mean with a "link"? Should it be a VM with two vNICs connected to both vSwitch0 and vSwitch1?

Or perhaps they think that you might want to have internal iSCSI initatiors running inside the guests, directly accessing the iSCSI SAN?

Or some sorts of backup software running inside one VM that needs direct access to the storage?

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se

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vmroyale
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Hello.

The vendor we're working with has stated that we need to create a new VM  port group on vSwitch 1 so there is a link between the iSCSI network  and the Production network?  Is this necessary?

Did the vendor provide a specific reason why? Do they need this to access a management interface on the MSA? The iSCSI network should be isolated from the production network,  exactly as you have it now. Adding a VM network to vSwitch1 would only  be necessary, if a virtual machine needs to get access to the iSCSI  network for a valid reason. Even then, you don't need to route anything - or at least I wouldn't.

Good Luck!

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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rickardnobel
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lcfc2 wrote:

The vendor we're working with has stated that we need to create a new VM port group on vSwitch 1 so there is a link between the iSCSI network and the Production network?

What do they mean with a "link"? Should it be a VM with two vNICs connected to both vSwitch0 and vSwitch1?

Or perhaps they think that you might want to have internal iSCSI initatiors running inside the guests, directly accessing the iSCSI SAN?

Or some sorts of backup software running inside one VM that needs direct access to the storage?

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se
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lcfc2
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Thanks for the responses, both useful but I think ricnob may have answered the reason behind it.

The backup server will sit on both networks, production and iSCSI -  I guess to prevent the traffic routing across production but given the backup server is a VM too, how much of an isue is it if it doesn't have that extra port group?

Thanks

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