10GB iSCSI Hardware Initiator

[halemeister]

Is there any support in ESX 4 for the use of a 10 GB iSCSI full hardware initiator instead of the software initiator? On the VMWare HCL I only see 10GB NIC and 1GB iSCSI adapters....i don't see any 10GB iSCSI adapters. I assume that means we can use the software initiator but hardware is not supported, correct?

[rManic]

HP and IBM will release the10Gbps H/W iSCSI initiator expecially with blade servers. We expect the same in near future.

regards

manic

[glynnd1]

manic, will these be HBAs like the QLogic or NICs with iSCSI offload?

[rManic]

Please reffer the following link

http://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_iSCSI_UCNA_First_Look_2009-12-18.html

I belive all the storage component vendors are concentrating on converged Network Adopter which supports FCoE,exspecially Qlogic amd Emulex.

CNA supports 2x 10Gbps ethernet + 2x 4GBps FC HBA's

regards

manic

[rManic]

please reffer the following I hope this will answer your question

http://www.chelsio.com/assetlibrary/products/S310E%20Product%20Brief%20090630.pdf

and it is also in vmware HCL list, The two adopters will offload iscsi traffic

[halemeister]

Does that adapter use the software iSCSI initiator or a hardware initiator?

[rManic]

as of now it is working with software initiator but it has TCP offload accellerator increases performance. H/W initiators are in road map.

in storage part HP Left hand SAN sells with 10 GBps iSCSI target

NetApp will release with FAS6030C

regards

Manic

[halemeister]

Any idea on time frame for the 10GB cards with hardware initiators built in...this year, Q2 Q3 or Q4...next year?

[halemeister]

What type of performance hit to you take on the host CPU with ESX 4 and these cards using a software initiator?

[rManic · Accepted solution]

Since already 10 Gbps iSCSI storage boxes released, We may expect by this year.

regards

Manic

[rManic]

find the performance report which is released by Chelsio.

I have tested boot up time of a win xp VM on a ESX running on UCS blade with 10 gbps NFS storage.

it boots up in 4 sec

regards

Manic