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fish6288
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ESXi 4 iSCSI Issue

I am having a problem with ESXi 4 that i cant figure out. I have enabled the iscsi feature and have pointed it to the correct place. But when i do a rescan for new storage it doesnt bring anything up. If i click on the "Paths" button it shows the Lun number correctly but under Status it shows as DEAD with a red diamond. What am i missing here? This is the ESXi 4 60-day trial version...im guessing it is licensed for iSCSI use. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

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paithal
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I haven't worked with 7.0.6. On 7.2, the command on to set ALUA is 'igroup set <igroup name> alua no'. Can you see what 'igroup show -v <igroup name>' gives ?.

The other quick workaround would be to delete the ALUA claim rule within ESX, i.e esxcli nmp satp deleterule --satp VMW_SATP_ALUA --vendor NETAPP --option tpgs_on. I think this may not be persistent across reboots.

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Jasemccarty
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What type of iSCSI target are you presenting?

Are you using any type of authentication? CHAP or Mutual CHAP?

Do you have the ESX host zoned in the iSCSI target for access?

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

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Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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fish6288
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Not using anytype of authentication for this test box.

Yes the ESX host is in the iscsi target to allow access ot the LUN.

I have completed all steps just like i would have in 3.5. I have several 3.5s up and running and none of them have a problem at all.

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Jasemccarty
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Can you vmkping the iSCSI address?

Do you have CHAP authentication as Prohibited to ensure that is isn't attempting to use any authentication?

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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Jasemccarty
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I'm wondering if the red diamond is indicating a path issue. It would seem so.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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fish6288
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CHAP is disabled.

Can i use a VMKPING on ESXi version?

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fish6288
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The iSCSI target is being presented form a NetApp Filer. Same filer that presents many of our Luns forour 3.5 environment.

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Jasemccarty
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You can with the RCLI.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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Jasemccarty
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Do you see the ESXi 4.0 box's initiator in the list of initiators on the NetApp?

I quit using the web gui, and now use the NetApp System Manager for quick administration tasks....

Under the Filer -> Configuration -> Protocols -> iSCSI do you see the initiator name for the ESXi 4.0 host listed?

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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fish6288
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Yes the initiator for the esxi 4 client is listed on the filer. I am installing the RCLI now to test the vmkping...will post back once i have tested it.

Thanks for the help so far.

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fish6288
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I was looking at the licensed features on the esxi 4 trial and didnt see a iSCSI usage listed like i do with the 3.5 version. Dont know if its just auto included with 4or what. Here is what is listed with the 60 day trial version

Product Features:

Up to 8-way virtual SMP

vCenter agent for ESX Server

vStorage APIs

VMsafe

dvFilter

VMware HA

Hot-Pluggable virtual HW

VMotion

VMware FT

Data Recovery

vShield Zones

VMware DRS

Storage VMotion

MPIO / Third-Party Multi-Pathing

Distributed Virtual Switch

Host profiles

Think that makes any difference?

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Jasemccarty
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Nope... I use iSCSI and NFS in the home lab, and never had to worry about licensing.

The red indicator seems to make me thing that there is a path problem.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
fish6288
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Ok. As soon as i figure out the RCLI (since i have never used it before) i will get back with the results of the vmkping.

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RenaudL
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Please note that on ESXi, "ping" and "vmkping" are actually the same binary, and both go through the VMkernel stack, so using one or another yields the same results.

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fish6288
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update...i still havent gotten the iSCSI target to work going to the NetApp device but i did get it to work hitting our EMC Celerra device. Set it up the same way just pointed to the EMC device instead of our NetApp and things worked fine.

Havent done the vmkping yet.

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paithal
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Do you see all the exported LUNs from NetApp but you see state as 'DEAD'?.

Could you post output of esxcfg-mpath -L

Can you do 'esxcfg-rescan <vmhbaX' and post the logs from /var/log/messages starting from you rescan?.

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Shafay2000
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I have the very same problem with two of my ESXi 4.0 stand alone host connecting to NetApp. My ESX 3.5 U4 hosts can see the new LUN but the ESX4.0 can not. Its really frustrating. The vmhba33 path says DEAD at the vCenter on both hosts. I can ping the Vmkernal ports IP address from other hosts so I know the physical network is setup properly

I did the install just I would in the past with 3.5U4. I have not used any CLI yet.

Any one else with the same senario or is this a new "feature" in vSphere 4.0 ?

attached is the screen cap of the iSCSI initiator

Shafay

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paithal
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Could you please upload the logs ?. On EXS4i, /var/log/messages and on ESX 4.0, /var/log/vmkernel. Please do a rescan once before taking the log.

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sbu77
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Same issue here. Is there an issue with ESX 4 and NetApp's iSCSI (we use FAS 270)?

No problems connecting from numerous 3.5 hosts, but get a dead path scenario (exactly as described in previous posts) with 2 different ESX 4 servers.

Could the jumbo frames be enabled for default and be causing the issue? I know that our physical switches don't have jumbo frames enabled. What command do we use to check it in SC?

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sbu77
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Possibly some helpful stuff from /var/log/vmkernel below. Any idea what this "Peripheral qualifier 0x1 not supported" message?

===============

Jun 3 10:07:33 vmkernel: 0:17:10:43.120 cpu1:4104)ScsiClaimrule: 735: Plugin NMP specified by claimrule 65535 was not able to claim path vmhba33:C0:T0:L0. Busy

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