Inexpensive iSCSI SAN\NAS

Similar Questions

• OPENFILER w / ISCSI?  Any decline in performance compared to a commercial ISCSI SAN?

  Experiment with VMWare ESXi and want to put in place a San to store all Virtual Machines and storage.  Are there performance problems if you use OPENFILER compared to a commercial ISCSI SAN?   HCL hardware supported - Asisde speed problems are there?  I intend to use the hardware failover and load balancing, but need a San to achieve this.  On a budget, so I was wondering if all this aside, will be an OPENFILER solution be slower than a commercial SAN ISCSI...

  Well, maybe...

  I agree with this, if you use the other stuff on the same machine as Openfiler, but if you have dedicated a machine serving via Openfiler iSCSI volumes, then you should get pretty good performance - perhaps even comparable to "material" iSCSI implementations  I have a PE2800 with a single processor and 4 GB of RAM which is my Openfiler iSCSI SAN/NAS head.  The performance is very good - is perhaps not as good as some of the commercial solutions, but works very well.

  In addition, many commercial solutions are focused on software, hardware not in function.  The short week, SOHO are "firmware" based, but iSCSI is still usually done in software - many times by a demon of Linux on the box.  Of course, it's the only thing he does, but simply because it's a software does not mean that it will hurt.

  I use Openfiler in a production environment - no problem.  You can also purchase support for Openfiler, which makes it even more viable production.  Do not hit, just because it is a software, just because it's open source, or just because it's Linux.  There are a lot of people out there using Microsoft Windows Storage Server in production - why not Openfiler?

• Impossible to mount simultaneously multiple targets since a single iSCSI SAN iSCSI

  Hi guys,.

  I recently deployed FreeNAS 8.0.3 as a practice laboratory iSCSI SAN on one of my HP Proliant microservers.  The first target is a measure of physical disk since it was noted that the drive is faster than file extensions.  I have install the Initiator Software for dynamic and found discovery.  I built on that vCenter.  It was pretty slow going to see that it is also on a 100 MB network.  I decided to buy a gigabit switch and a 240 GB SSD.  I added the SSD as another target.  However, I can't get two data warehouses at the same time.  Am I missing something?  The two are listed under iSCSI Software Initiator...

  Connected targets: 2

  Features: 1

  Paths: 2

  When I'm actually in the paths, I see two targets, but only one can be Active (e/s) and the other is active.  To switch between data warehouses, I had to disable the currently active (e/s) an and the reactivate to failover to the other.  I wish that both target mounted at the same time.  How can I do this?  Thanks for any help.

  Mark

  My apologies in advance if I'm wrong understand something in the description of the problem, but it seems that you have only 1 "" meaning a block at the level of the device (iscsi) LUNS presented through two separate iscsi (two separate cobinations iqn/IP) targets. You can't have a VMFS in LUN data store so I am bit confused with your statement "I can't climb the two warehouses of data at the same time"...

  Peter D

• ESXi 4.1 or ESXi 5.0 with iSCSI SAN

  Hello

  I'm trying to establishing an environment that is / will be an iSCSI SAN backend entirely.  I know of a lot of reading that the best practice is to config the ESXi host with:

  VMKernel > vmnic > physical network adapter > switch ports > port on SAN (config 1:1 - no grouping of vmnic)

  Environment:

  ESXi 4.1 & 5.0

  Force10 switches

  EqualLogic iSCSI SAN (PS4000 & 6000)

  Here's my real question (playing the Devil's advocate):

  Why I shouldn't team 3-4 vnmics on a vswitch with multiple vmkernel ports?

  Given my environment.  Can someone point me to a technical document that explains what will / could happen if I set up the environment ESXi in this way?

  Thank you

  BDAboy22

  So, basically, we want the SAN to take full responsibility for the failover instead of the network and/or the SAN for who should resolve the failure (which could lead to the time of restitutio in integrum longer session).   I understand that correctly?

  Yes, that's right, we want to stack storage for vSphere manage with path selection and tipping - and by connecting each vmknic directly to the physical vmnic map we sort of "simulate" how to CF cards and also ignores the network failover mechanisms. As you probably know you also need to "bind" the iSCSI Software to the two vmnic (GUI now in 5.0, esxcli in 4.x)

• is it possible to have 2 iscsi san?

  Hi all

  is it possible to have 2 iscsi san?

  Thanks for any comments, you can add...

  Hello.

  Yes, but it is better to keep them separate connections on separate switches/VMkernel as well.

  Good luck!

• ProLiant BL460c G7 iSCSI SAN boot

  Hello
  I'm looking to start a single ProLiant BL460c G7 of our HDS iSCSI SAN and then install ESXi 5. The blade has no local storage. The SAN is already in use by the cluster of our production.  In the iSCSI SAN config guide it States to set up storage so your host has access LUNS. How can you do this if your host is not installed? How can I configure the LUN to only be accesed by my hosts IQN name when I don't have an IQN name yet? What I must first install ESXi? I'm obviously missing something any help would be great!

  This is true, for this, but as your correctly point out if the OS is not installed how do you have a software iSCSI initiator - boot from an iSCSI SAN is supported only if you have an initiator of independent hardware installed in your ESXi host.

• iSCSI SAN Connectivity

  I'm kinda new to this Yes, you can be sweet.

  We are migrating some of our less critical servers to VSphere. Because the servers are at camp, we'll install eSXI on our server and use hosted camp via iSCSI SAN. The camp provided us with a block of IP addresses that we can use for SAN connectivity.
  SAN connectivity is on it's own dedicated NIC (1 for testing purposes) and physical switch.
  Management network
  192.168.72/24
  SAN IP blocked
  172.26.11.0/26
  172.26.11.1 - GW
  The target IPs
  172.31.3.105
  172.31.3.109
  I created a virtual switch for iSCSI and tied a physical NETWORK adapter to it. I then added the iSCSI adapter software, responsible for the target in the dynamic, linked discovery the NIC to the iSCSI Software card.
  I then added a road 172.31.3.0/24 to go to 172.26.11.1.
  When I scan for the storage of the new, I just blank. If I go back into the adapter software, targets are now listed on the static discovery tab. The camp is saying that their HDS does not all applications.
  So I built a virtual Windows machine and loaded on this host (using an Openfiler iSCSI on the management network) and installed the Microsoft iSCSI initiator. By using this software, I am able to connect to the SAN CoLo network from inside the virtual machine.
  What Miss me? Why can I not connect to the network the host SAN? Any help will be much appreciated.
  Bob

  http://pubs.VMware.com/vSphere-50/topic/com.VMware.vSphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-0D31125F-DC9D-475B-BC3D-A3E131251642.html

  (Physical network adapters must be on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage system, that they connect)

  / Rubeck

• iSCSI SAN storage

  Hello

  I am trying to build a practice for VCP certification test lab.  I use Workstation 7.1.4 and ESXi installed on the same host.  Can anyone recommend a good 'free' iSCSI SAN storage virtual appliance?  I went through the market, but wanted to get a recommendation from experts.

  Thank you

  Kim

  There are various products that you can use. E.g. Openfiler, Starwind, open-e or VSA from HP. For the last HP offers especially for VMware Player/workstation demo version.

  André.

• Make Accessible iSCSI SAN-VM via Windows iSCSI initiator

  I have a "total newbie" question that I hope can respond quickly enough.

  I added a new DELL MD3000i SAN to my storage network in order to use this SAN exclusively for Windows virtual machines. I have the vdisks large (2) 4 to 7 to each (Yes, I REALLY need unique and large volumes) defined on the MD3000i. (4) the MD3000i ports are connected to my iSCSI VLANS and have the id default host port 192.168.130.101/102 and 192.168.131.101/102.

  I have a MD3220i installed in the network and working with hosts ESXi 4.1 (2) (192.168.230.101/102, 192.168.231.101/102 of the subnets). I am quite familiar with how to make the storage available to the host via the initiator of the iSCCI, but I know not how to make accessible storage for virtual machines WITHOUT using the host to connect to the iSCSI SAN, create a data store, and then add a new virtual disk to the virtual machine.

  Only the vmnic dedicated to the iSCSI initiator have physical links to iSCSI VLANS (vSwitch01). The network switch has (2) network adapters connected to the network via vSwitch0 "inside".

  Any ideas on the best way to "get there from here"?

  Hello.

  You will need to create a group of ports in virtual machine on the same vSwitch created in your iSCSI ports group.  Give the virtual machine a 2nd NETWORK card and then assign it to the created virtual machine port group previously.

  Good luck!

• Several iSCSI SAN on different VLANS

  I have a little trouble to get this configured.

  In our environment, we have 4 guests and 2 EqualLogic iSCSI San. Each host has 3 NICs dedicated to iSCSI traffic, and they have been implemented to use the plugin for Multipathing of Dell with 3 VMKernel iSCSI ports, each bound to a NETWORK adapter physical and then linked to the iSCSI software adapter.

  We want to add a new SAN QNAP out some VMs test & dev environment of low cost data warehouses. The QNAP San not supporting Jumbo frames, we want to move them to their own VIRTUAL local area network.

  Can someone tell me how I can get this set up? I need of course a new VMKernel port running on the VLAN again, but after that I'm stuck.

  Thank you

  First: the initiator will be gracefully demote by using standard images.

  Second, there is nothing that prevents you from using the same trade for the qnap. If it does not manage the same way MPIO, you may need to add more exchanges and vmknics. If you place moderate to heavy load on the qnap it would interfere with the ability of the EMM to balance the load properly but allows to measure.

  We have a group EQL and a Celerra making MPIO in different ways. With Celerra you add several portals (ip addresses) network on different subnets so ideally you set up your trade in this way. For us, this meant adding a second portgroup and vmknic on each vmnic, resulting in a whole bunch of paths to the Celerra said. If our use of Celerra was far from being weak to non-existent I probably don't have it.

  -Anders

• question of iSCSI san

  Hello everyone,

  I just created my first with software e open iscsi san solution.

  My situation: on the local disk, I put my VM

  I created 4 iscsi data warehouses

  1 will be used to back up my VM and can be reached for Vsphere

  The other 3 serve as a backup for my 3 VMS solution. I am connected to them through the Iscsi initiator in the virtual machine, format them, and now they appear as an additional drive in the virtual machine. I can see them in Vsphere but is no longer in data warehouses, but in devices (because they are formatted as NTFS)

  Now the question:

  Is it possible to see what data is on data warehouses that are formatted to ntfs When you are not connected to the virtual computer?

  When a virtual machine should crash, backupped data should always be saved to disk iscsi, but where can I get it?

  Thanks in advance, onkt

  NTFS is only accessible via windows server only. You can mount the iSCSI drive backup on another virtual computer.

• Problem with ESXi 3.5 host or our iSCSI SAN

  Hello

  Last week, twice we came into work and notice that some virtual machines on a host somehow the bomb and break the connection or work habit and are turned off.  It happens with mutiple errors, but we are not sure if it's the host itself or iSCSI SAN is too connected a NETgear ReadyNAS.  All the vmdk and vmx VM files are on the SAN storage are loacted here for targets.  Your opinion on this if someone could help determine what may be the question, please, thank you?

  Welcome to the forums

  I edit your images and delete the business credentials. There is a security risk that you should not expose.

  Take a look at the following.

  http://communities.VMware.com/message/1333118#1333118

• Live iSCSI SAN upgrade production network (Dell MD3000i and PowerConnect & ESXi 4)

  Hi all

  For the moment, I have a direct connection to my Dell MD3000i iSCSI SAN in ESXi 4 2 x host with no switch between the two, all of the virtual machine is within the SAN and running on both hosts.

  If I want to put a switch between the two and add one more iSCSI SAN so that the two SAN can be accessed / shared with the 3 ESXi 4 guests total, how should I approach the issue?

  any idea or guideline would be greatly appreciated.

  What I have to plan the time or can I change the old IP on the existing SAN iSCSI manually cable one by one without damage/alter the existing operation of the virtual machine on SAN? or I have to stop the virtual machine and then terminate the connection manually iSCSI session and then restart the host SAN?

  Thank you

  AWT

  Standard installation on the MD3000i is for a port iSCSI on each controller on a subnet and one on each controller to be on another.

  There have been people working successfully on a subnet, reported problems too.   I wish we were longer on our Vsphere upgrade, I'm not at a point but where I test things like Vmotion.

• Assistant can't see iSCSI SAN software

  Hello

  I test StarWind version 5 (www.starwindsoftware.com) with an ESX v3.5

  I have configured an adapter for iScsi (vmhba40) and specific vswitch (only the VMkernel port) software. There are specific NIC for iSCSI traffic and no rule of firewall between ESX and SAN.

  .

  Using the Wizard "Adding storage", I don't see the "iSCSI SAN software.

  Anyone have problems with this software SAN?

  Thank you for your reply,

  Yossi

  REM: to be sure that the Starwind is set correctly, I tried

  connect through Microsoft Initiator. And it has been directly

  Ok.

  You probably followed the white paper of http://www.starwindsoftware.com/images/content/StarWind_HA_ESX.pdf

  ?

  ---

  iSCSI SAN software

  http://www.starwindsoftware.com

• Slow performance read/write on iSCSI SAN.

  This is a new configuration of ESXi 4.0 running virtual machines off a Cybernetics miSAN D iSCSI SAN.

  Having a high data read the test on a virtual machine, it took 8 minutes vs 1.5 minutes the

  the same VM on a slower 1.0 Server of VMWare host with virtual computers on

  local disk.   I look at my reading speed of the SAN, and

  It's getting a little more than 3 MB/s max in reading, and usage of the disk on the virtual computer is slower 3MB/s...horribly.

  The SAN and the server is both connected to the same switch 1 GB.  I followed this guide

  virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-multivendor-post-on-using-iSCSI-w

  ITH-vmware - vsphere.html

  to get the configuration of multiple paths correctly, but I still do not get good

  performance with my VM.   I know that the SAN and network

  must be able to handle more than 100 MB/s, but I am not getting

  it. I have two network cards of GB on the multipath SAN to GB two network cards on the

  ESXi host.  One NETWORK card per VMkernel.  Is there anything else I can check

  or do to improve my speed?  Thanks in advance for advice.

  Another vote for IOMeter.

  Try to test 32K 100% sequential read (and write) with 64 IOs in circulation, this will give sequential performance.  Should be close to 100 Mbps per active path of GigE, depending on how much the storage system can get out.

  Then 32K 0% sequential read (and write) with 64 traffic against a LUN will IOs (say 4 GB +) good test size give a value for IOPS, which is the main factor for virtualization.  Look at the latency, must remain below approximately 50ms usually in order to be able to work if the default 32 IOs in circulation (by host) is OK (say you had six hosts, the table should be able to deliver the random i/o with a latency)<50ms with="" 192="" outstanding="" ios="" (="">

  Do not use the "test connect rate" and cela effectively tests only cached flow, which we are not so interested in any case.

  Please give points for any helpful answer.