initializing iSCSI SAN in VMWare Workstation 9

Similar Questions

• 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!

• Config network initial ESX with iSCSI SAN

  Hi all

  I want to install 2 ESX 3.5 servers which will be connected to an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN.

  The SAN is on a VIRTUAL, 10.x.x.200 with a 255.255.255.224 LAN Gateway.  This VLAN is not routable, DNS servers, etc.

  What I am trying to understand, it's for the initial setup of ESX, when I set the config network (console), should I register the IP address for the VIRTUAL LAN, example was:

  IP address: 10.x.x.201

  Gateway: 255.255.255.224

  Primary DNS: white

  Secondary DNS: white

  Or, for example B, should I use our 'public' speaking:

  IP Adress:129.x.x.201

  Gateway: 255.255.255.0

  Primary DNS:129.x.x.1

  Secondary DNS: 129.x.x.2

  I know that with the VIC, I can later add vSwitches, etc., but at least for the initial installation, I want the configuration to provide smoother operation. Thanks for any idea that you can provide!

  Chad

  Hello and welcome to the forums.

  What I am trying to understand, it's for the initial setup of ESX, when I set the config network (console), should I register the IP address for the VIRTUAL LAN, example was:

  Use example B (129.x.x.x) for the Service Console (management functions), and after that the system is in place to add an another vSwitch used to connect to the SAN VLAN.

  Good luck!

• Best practices for Exchange 2003 with VMWare ESXi 3.5 and iSCSI SAN

  Hello guys,.

  Here's the Q? We have 1 physical Exchange 2003, the HOST of 4 and 1 iSCSI SAN with LUN 3, 1 for data, 1 for VMWare and 1 for SQL, if we're going to virtualize it, I don't know where to put data Exchage and newspapers. I do not think that that is a good practice to put together the data but I do not have another SAN. So, what can I do?

  Thank you.

  We have 813 mailbox.

  I agree with cainics, start an average size and go from there.  I know it's a production mail server and you can not exactly 'play' with the settings because this requires time, but if you do the VM too big, you would have nothing left for other virtual machines.

  I would go 2 vCPU and at least 4 GB of RAM, maybe 8GB.  There must be parameters for the Exchange mailbox 813 and X users # to implement your environments in order to get an idea of the amount of RAM that will be... 4GB seems minimal to me, but 8 GB would probably be better like that.

• (Beginner) of the initial steps for the new installation of vmware workstation & guest os

  Hi, very new for the virtual machine. I need help on what type of software (vmware), need and the first steps of the installation.

  Current configuration: a portable 3 separate HD, 1 computer = Windows 7, 2 = XP, 3 is Linux RH. I have manually swap HD to work on each operating system.

  Req: A laptop with Windows 7 as main OS and two other OS (XP and Linux) Guest.

  (1) I prefer not to install OS and the entire application again for the guest operating system (XP and linux), will like to convert, copy, etc.

  (2) can I install multiple OS (XP) for testing of applications and then delete them?

  (3) can I use a different version of an application in a guest operating system?

  The software that I need to buy:

  VMware workstation 7.1

  Version of the converted VMware?  (this may be free, I think)

  ThinApp 4. ???

  If these are vmware software that I need is a step by step installation, in particular of the convert.

  Thank you, ralph

  Hi Raoul,.

  Welcome to the forums.

  VMware vCenter Converter Standalone is a free download that is accessible to everyone, so you can use it to convert your existing machines.

  For testing purposes, you can create a virtual machine "or" with all standard applications, and then use the function 'linked-clone"of the workstation. In this way, you can have several machines quickly with the same basic configuration to test different applications.

  It is more complicated to have multiple versions of the same application in a single virtual machine. ThinApp seems to be the solution, but it should require the application packages (I have no experience with ThinApp) construction. It's a bit complicated just to test. Way the easiest would be to create a new virtual machine for each version of the application.

  Workstation and the converter are very easy to install if you use a standard configuration.

  Good luck.

  Concerning

  Franck

• 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.

• VMware Workstation 7 cannot be reduced

  My host OS is Win7 64 bit and installed Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit on VMware Workstation 7.

  I managed to install VMware tools in the virtual machine, but when I open

  and tap the shrink, then a few horrible things happen...

  He do not have a virtual disk can be chosen inside the test to white... just like the attachment.

  I'm sure that disk space is not pré-alloue for this drive hard and independent, persistent mode.

  This problem bothered me several days. Could someone help me...

  Thank you!!

  Guys and the retractable function supported for Ubuntu 9.10? I read this one (although it's player) but these are some similar symptoms.

  After a 'patch-loving"2.0.2 installation server that I believe that Ubuntu 9.10 is still not taken in charge at by100%.

  ---

  iSCSI SAN software

  http://www.starwindsoftware.com

• Left and initiator ISCSI hardware

  Hello

  I am wanting to install a Lefthand P4500 ISCSI SAN with 3 x ESXi4 servers and use hardware ISCSI initiator. Now, my question is I plug the adapter of material directly into the ISCSI storage or I can plug it into a switch that connects to the storage as with the ISCSI Software initiator?

  Thank you

  You can do both. I would use a switch (or more) to take advantage of multiple paths.

  Marcelo Soares

  VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

  Technical Support Engineer

  Globant Argentina

  Review the allocation of points for "useful" or "right" answers.

• iSCSI SAN, ESX4 Datastore recommended sizing

  Hi all.  I am in the final stages of our construction of vSphere and I'm looking for best practices in terms of sizing of the warehouses of data/Lun on a SAN, iSCSI for several hosts of ESX4.

  What we have:

  Two HP c7000 blade enclosure with three BL460c in each enclosure.

  All servers will run ESX4 and use an iSCSI SAN (Software initiator).

  I'm not sure of the best way to configure these elements.  A large unit number logic holding a large store of data?  A few small LUN each holding a data store? A unit number logic/data store for each ESX host?  I don't want to use vMotion and who could help narrow down the answer.

  Any help that you experienced people from VMware can each give this noob is very much appreciated.

  -Dave

  Dave

  This is my golden rule.

  Virtual machines are mixed on data warehouses to optimize storage efficiency and the efficiency of the I/O - low mix I/O virtual machines with virtual machines I/O high on the same data store.

  VMs per VMFS datastore 12-16 maximum.

  16 VMDK files per VMFS datastore maximum.

  * A VMFS volume per LUN storage.

  * At least 15% to 20% of a VMFS data store should be left as open space to meet requirements such as the virtual machine swap files and snapshots.

  According to your needs - you will initially 30 virtual machines, you must look for set 2 data warehouses-, but the number of vmdk files or e/s for a virtual machine needs can change that.

• How to connect to iSCSI SAN without compromising security

  Hello:

  How to enable server OSes (VMS or physical host computers) to connect and LUN iSCSI mount without compromising the safety of our ESX host?  We have a few Microsoft servers that need to use iSCSI initiators at Mount MON for MSCS.   We cannot use the ESX initiators because VMware doesn't support iSCSI to virtual storage with MSCS.  We have already read all the documentation and spoke with VMware support, so we know that our only option is to use the iSCSI initiators in Microsoft servers to connect to the LUN.

  Our concern is security.  If we let the servers use their iSCSI initiators to connect to the San, then they also won't have access to our service and the vkernels via the iSCSI network console?  ESX requires that you have a port the service console and the port of vkernel on the iSCSI network for each ESX box that you want to use the ESX initiator for.  We struggle to understand how to connect any machine (virtual or physical) to the iSCSI network to mount LUN without exposing our service and vkernels consoles.  I know that the best practice is to remove this VMs network for this exact reason, but of course many organizations also have physical servers (UNIX, Windows) who need to access their iSCSI SAN.  How people treat this?  How much of a security problem is it?  Is there a way to secure the service console and vkernel ports while allowing host ESX - no access to the SAN?  I know that many of you are facing this exact in your organizations situation, please help.  Obviously, it is not supposed that nobody uses their SAN iSCSI for anything else except for the ESX host.  I thank very you much.

  James

  Hello

  Check out this blog

  Use of firewall is certainly a step in the right direction for that. If you can't have separate iSCSI networks, then you will need to isolate nodes NON-ESX/VCB iSCSI using other mechanisms. I would certainly opt for firewalls or reduce the redundancy to just 2 network-by-network cards and not 4 to a single network.

  Someone at - it any other suggestions? Surely many ESX users share their iSCSI SAN with a lot of different systems and operating systems. Thanks again.

  They do, but they do not secure their networks for their VMs ESX iSCSI / other physical systems. You have asked a very important question and it's how to connect to iSCSI SAN without compromising safety. If the options are currently:

  1. Physically isolate

  2. Isolate using firewall

  Given that ESX speaks in clear text and does not support IPsec for iSCSI, you have very limited options that are available to you. The firewall you use and charge iSCSI, you send through it will determine if there is no latency. Yes its a cost extra, but if it is an independent network switches/ports/etc.

  Best regards
  Edward L. Haletky
  VMware communities user moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
  ====
  Author of the book ' VMWare ESX Server in the enterprise: planning and securing virtualization servers, Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
  Blue gears and SearchVMware Pro items - top of page links of security virtualization - Security Virtualization Round Table Podcast

• The use of frames with iscsi SAN

  Hello

  We are moving our warehouses of local DAS to a SAN iscsi in common.

  We will have two physical hosts (1 ESX 3.5 and an ESXi 3.5) with two iscsi devices (1 DELL MD3000i and 1 openfiler 2.2 "in the home-built') and two dedicated switches (a 16 ports GBit 1216T one one port 8 Gbps unmanaged Linksys Dlink).

  Both iscsi devices have connections ethernet redundand (Dell has 4 ports on 2 different controllers, openfiler has 2 ports), so I planned to distribute connections on two switches for redundancy.

  each ESX and ESXi physical hosts have 2 ethernet NIC dedicated to iscsi

  My doubts/questions are:

  -is the switch 'Office' of linksys OK for this configuration? Or should I get a second Dlink 1216 T?

  -J' need to have the Dell MD3000i to least performance that we conduct with the local SAS DAS storage.

  Can I activate "frames" switch and Dell MD300i? What ESX and ESXi? and linksys switch (will it work with thaat jumbo mtu)?

  -If I DO NOT activate the Jumbo on openfiles iscsi, will it work with standard MTU even if it is connected to the switches with active Jumbo?

  -should I 'team' toghether both connections ethernet in iscsi on the physical ESX/ESXi hosts?

  an another question I have is:

  -We currently have a LUN iscsi on device openfiler which is accessible using the initiator Microsoft iscsi sw inside a win2k03 virtual machine on the host ESX 3.5. Can I disable initiator Microsoft iscsi inside the virtual machine, log on to this LUN using ESX iscsi sw and have win2k03 to find all the data?

  Thanks in advance

  Guido

  Take a lok at it to your specific questions

  http://communities.VMware.com/thread/107173

  And for an overview of ISCSI on ESX reading this, when you get a chance.

  http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/01/a-multivendor-post-to-help-our-mutual-iSCSI-customers-using-VMware.html#more

• Re: Satellite keyboard Funtions vs. VmWare Workstation

  Hello

  I'm new to this forum...
  I recently bought a Toshiba Satellite U500-115.
  After you install all the programs I need, I noticed that the eco and the start/stop button lights buttons didn t work anymore.

  I uninstalled programs Toshiba - nothing works. So I installed win 7 pro x 64 again.
  Buttons worked!!

  I discovered that vmware workstation 6 and 7 are at the origin of this problem.
  As soon as I install the vmworkstation software the keys won´t work.
  Uninstall--> buttons work.
  I don't want to use both: buttons and vmware 6 or 7.
  It seems to work with vmware 5.x, but this version of vmware is officially not recommended to work with win7. It takes about 10 minutes push button vmware initially until the vm ware starts booting.

  Perhaps someone could confirm this problem.
  Hope of a quick solution!
  Concerning
  bachmayeah

  Maybe it sounds pessimistic now, but I don't think you'll have a quick solution to this.
  The feature tools and utilities Toshiba is tested with the own operating system preinstalled and not with some third-party additional party software.
  Can you imagine how these applications you will find there? Who should test the functionality with hundreds of other application? It is certainly not possible.

  I use VmWare, but I imagine that there is a problem where two applications met the other.

  Sorry, but I don't think that there is nothing you can do about it.

• EqualLogic PS6100X: direct connections (double) iscsi to 3 vmware ESX host

  Hello

  Due to the reduction of costs, we integrate

  1 x ps6100x Dell Equallogic (2 controllers to each 4 ports)

  3 x dell poweredge r720 (each have 2 ports dedicated for trafficking SAN storage)

  vSphere 5.5 (shared storage on the San)

  Without the use of SAN switches. Each host has dual direct connection (1 to each SAN controller) with the initiator iscsi software.

  We did before with Dell MD3200i, who has also 2 controllers and 8 ports, so we expect no problems.

  But now that I have read on the Equallogic, I'm starting to become uncertain if this Setup will work?

  I know that this is not recommended, but at this point, my only concern is that it will work (even with less performance).

  Can you please give me some advice on this?

  Best regards

  Joris

  P.S. If this is probably NOT possible, what would be the best/low average cost to make this possible?

  I've seen this failure at work, as in the connections dropped, BSOD was virtual machines with a single host with no switch.  iSCSI traffic tends to be very burst, which is having when the right switch pays you back.

  Re: 3750 X are those good switches, there is some adjustment settings that need to be addressed.  Also to solve a flowcontrol problem download the most current IOS firmware.

  For such a small group / number of servers, the stacked 2960 would be OK.  Perhaps to problems later if you need to scale this environment.  lack of 2960 allocate buffer, then you want to start without Jumbo frames, all enter into stable and of good practices.  So maybe later try enabling it.  3750 X works very well with Jumbo and Flowcontrol active BTW.

  These choices are better than no switch miles.  3750 x were pretty expensive last time I looked.  Unless you have a little already.  If you share them with the rest of the traffic that is not optimal, but at least put all ISCSI traffic on its own VIRTUAL local network.

  4948 are the right choice.  Some high-end HP switches.  Step away from the elders, like 2810 or 2824/48.  They seem to be there for cheap $$ but are designed for GbE Office not GbE iSCSI.

  Kind regards

• 6u2 ESXi host nested on VMware Workstation for Linux referee v12

  Hello all, I have

  I have a lab environment virtual running in VMware Workstation for Linux v12, and my ESXi hosts do not work correctly on one of the virtual networks. All my troubleshooting suggests a problem with nested ESXi hosts that may be a bug, but I want to assure you that I did everything properly first. That's why I post here with the hope that if I made a mistake that maybe someone else can point out he me.

  Physical system

  8 core Intel Xeon 2.1 GHz CPU

  128 GB of RAM

  OS - kernel Linux 64 - bit w/3.19.0-32-generic Linux Mint 17.3 (fully updated from this announcement)

  VMware Workstation 12 Pro - 12.1.1. Build-3770994 (fully updated from this announcement)

  Nested ESXi host VM

  ESXi v6.0.0 (Build 3825889, completely updated from this announcement)

  4 cards 'physical' (only 3 used for now)

  -all use the e1000 NIC hardware virtual, but also tried vmxnet3 NIC with no difference

  -vSwitch0 use vmnic0 & 1 vmnet16 of virtual network in a pair of active / standby

  -vSwitch1 uses vmnic2 on network virtual vmnet18

  -vmk0 used for management on vSwitch0 and vmk1 for iSCSI on vSwitch1

  -"Promiscuous" mode and forged passes enabled on all Port vSwitch groups (activating or turning off these features makes no difference)

  Test performed until now

  I checked that all the IP addresses and network masks used are correct.

  With the help of vmkping I ping other nodes on the network vmnet16 with success.

  With the help of vmkping I tried to ping the other nodes in the network vmnet18, but that has failed.

  I have depolyed other non - ESXi VMs on the vmnet18 network, and they are able to ping each other, but are unable to ping or ping by the ESXI host.

  I tried various material virtual NIC as mentioned before, but without changes in the results.

  I tried to use only local network instead of the vmnet18 guest network segments with no change in results.

  When I find out the status of the network adapters on the ESXi host through vCenter or host incorporated client vmnic0 & 1 time display network information, but vmnic2 shows no networks. Yet, I know that there is a network with different VM communicate on it. Moreover, I was able to get all of this work on a Windows system running 10 Workstation (this is the laptop that my employer gives me with).

  Having built nested ESXi labs on different platforms as well as physical environments in the past, I'm very confused as to why I can't get this special configuration to work. At this point my gut tells me that this is probably a bug any with the nested themselves ESXi hosts. Since I can get all this work on vmnet16 including the management of ESXi hosts and the VCSA that I use, I am sure that my vSwitch configuration is correct (other than the IP address space and vmnic configurations is bascially the same). Because I can get other virtual machines to communicate over the network vmnet18 I don't see how can be a VMware Workstation for the issue physical Linux host. Is there something obvious I'm missing here? I read on the ESXi hosts nested under VMware Workstation after having known problems and bugs with networking. If anyone else has experienced this?

  Thanks for any help others can provide!

  Kind regards

  Patrick

  Well, the problem is now resolved. The problem was what covelli was trying to explain, but I couldn't because the physical host network adapters being mentioned.

  The problem on the Linux host, but it was a problem of permissions with the virtual Ethernet adapters. The following article has the fix:
  With the help of Ethernet virtual cards in Promiscuous Mode on a Linux host (287) | VMware KB

  Even if I launched the workstation under the root user I have yet met this problem and which still makes no sense to me, but change the permissions solve the problem. I was not getting an error message on my Linux Mint and Ubuntu system, but when I tried on a second box of Linux Mint that I just got the error has been generated, and the error message was the above link it contains.

  So, here's what I learned:

  (1) the question has nothing to with a VMware Workstation definition that you can configure.

  (2) the question has nothing to do with a physical network card.
  (3) the question has nothing to do with any vmnic on the nested ESXi host.

  (4) apparently virtual Ethernet adapters are not the correct permissions when created.

  All you have to do to fix this is:

  (1) open a terminal.

  (2) run the command ' sudo chmod a + rw/dev/vmnet * "(don't forget to run this each time that you create a new virtual network).

  You can also create a group, as shown in the link above and simply give this group the correct permissions. Personally, I think it's easier to just give everyone the rw permission.

  I appreciate the help that others have offered. I did not understand what was asked for in previous answers because of the terms that have been used.