Multipathing with SW iSCSI initiators

Similar Questions

• Question on the iSCSI initiators and several NIC

  I read the attached document.

  The document speaks to create more iSCSI initiators to talk to the SAN (I understand this bit).

  Page 15 step 4: VMkernel Ports associated with physical cards

  The document speaks about 3 network cards that have been attributed to a vSwitch.

  The document then continue to talk about the creation of links to individual access to a network adapter for each VMkernel path.

  My question is:

  Why do this?

  Why not create three separate vSwitches and create an initiator iSCSI for each vSwitch?

  VCP3 & VCP4 32846

  VSP4

  VTSP4

  Why would you not create a vSwitch for each iSCSI NIC and VMkernel port. Why the document insists on putting all the NIC in a vSwitch?

  The number and type of vSwitches is not interesting.  You can use a vSwitch or vSwitches as much as you have physical NIC.  It works as well for the former two vSwitches static or vDS.  The configuration example is just one of the ways that you can do.  Any combination is supported.

  Andy

• The s/w and h/w on the same host iSCSI initiators.

  Hello

  Can someone tell me if both software and hardware on the same host iSCSI initiators and looking the same LUN is supported in ESX3.5U5, 4.0U2 and 4.1.

  If this isn't the case, please give me the URL of any article of vmware goes in the same.

  Thank you

  P Martin

  The closest would be on page 28 of the 4.1 "iSCSI SAN slot Guide.

  http://www.VMware.com/PDF/vSphere4/R41/vsp_41_iscsi_san_cfg.PDF

  Because the software initiator ESX is definitely a charge adapter, this could be considered to be applicable.

  In spite of being is not clearly established, there is no summer tested enough to be considered as support even if there are no known issues.

  Andy

• Network with TOE iSCSI adapter

  I'm going to my old server as a storage server and connect via iSCSI to new ESXi server. Former storage server will be linux with iSCSI software target machine. The question is: does make sense to have the NIC with TOE iSCSI on a new server if it is software target on the other? If so, then should I upgrade old server network adapter to one with TOE iSCSI? Or just buy without?

  In this case, you can buy not NIC with TOE, iSCSI HBA with TOE, but, and there is no reason.

  StarWind Software R & D

• Try to test ESX4 with test iSCSI (FreeNAS)

  Hello

  I learn about VSphere, ESX4 and iSCSI and a simple way to assess it is to use the FreeNAS with ESX4 60 day trial.  We will get a solution EMC SAN and VSphere full blown, installed in the coming months, but I would like to have a little play time of first hand.

  So I FreeNAS installed in VMWare Workstation with SCSI 4 72 GB disks.  These disks in a RAID5 configuration and iSCSI is enabled.  I can connect to iSCSI using the Microsoft iSCSI initiator.  I can format the drive and store the files that it contains.  He has even worked with ESXi 3.5, but I have since then wiped to try the latest version of VMWare VSphere4.

  For the life of me, I can't add this iscsi datastore.  In vSphere client under Configuration > storage adapters, I have the connection iSCSI vmhba33 to the FreeNAS box NetBSD iSCSI disk (iqn.1994_04.org.netbsd.iscsi_target, 0x4a71bbb1667c11de), name of runtime: vmhba33:C1:T0:L0, 216 GB of capacity.

  Now under Configuration > storage, I try to create the data store.  Add storage > disk/LUN > choose my iSCSI option only displayed, name it vmds1, 256 GB, block size: 1 MB, maximize the capacity, next, finish.  In a few minutes, I get always an error ' error in the configuration of the host: unable to create the file system, please see VMkernal log for more details.  Under FreeNAS that I tried formatting as EXT2, FAT32, NTFS or leaving no formatted.  No work.

  I remember having a heck of a lot of trouble to get this to work with ESXi 3.5, but I end up getting things backwards and 2 virtual machines running.  Although I did jump immediately to try to vSphere 4.  Now I don't remember what I did, or maybe this version does not play nice with FreeNAS iSCSI implementation.

  On the events tab, I see lots of "connectivity lost to the iqn.1994_04.org.netbsd.iscsi_target, L, 0x4a71bbb1667c11de of storage device.  Vmhba22:C1:t0:l0 path is down.  Touch of data warehouses: "VMDS1."  Recovery attempt is underway and results will be communicated shortly. »

  There is an inscription that says "restored access to the 4a4bc1e1-f4bb4a45-cc91-000c2910ccd5 (VMDS1) volume due to connectivity problems successfully.

  Even if it is followed by more 'Lost connectivity' message above.

  I'm really tired.  I really want to play with that using iSCSI to simulate our future iSCSI EMC SAN.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

  I use several laboratory purposes but for me Openfiler was easy to install and administer. A decent free ISCSI SAN network.

  http://www.Openfiler.com/

  In addition, because you are looking at EMC you might want to take a look at their Celerra VSA (virtual SAN) for laboratory use.

  Check out this post from Chad - http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/08/celerra-virtual.html

• iSCSI MPIO (Multipath) with Nexus 1000v

  Anyone out there have iSCSI MPIO successfully with Nexus 1000v? I followed the Cisco's Guide to the best of my knowledge and I tried a number of other configurations without success - vSphere always displays the same number of paths as it shows the targets.

  The Cisco document reads as follows:

  Before you begin the procedures in this section, you must know or follow these steps.

  •You have already configured the host with the channel with a port that includes two or more physical network cards.

  •You have already created the VMware kernel NIC to access the external SAN storage.

  •A Vmware Kernel NIC can be pinned or assigned to a physical network card.

  •A physical NETWORK card may have several cards pinned VMware core network or assigned.

  That means 'a core of Vmware NIC can be pinned or assigned to a physical NIC' average regarding the Nexus 1000v? I know how to pin a physical NIC with vDS standard, but how does it work with 1000v? The only thing associated with "pin" I could find inside 1000v was with port channel subgroups. I tried to create a channel of port with manuals subgroups, assigning values of sub-sub-group-id for each uplink, then assign an id pinned to my two VMkernel port profiles (and directly to ports vEthernet as well). But that doesn't seem to work for me

  I can ping both the iSCSI ports VMkernel from the switch upstream and inside the VSM, so I know Layer 3 connectivity is here. A strange thing, however, is that I see only one of the two addresses MAC VMkernel related on the switch upstream. Both addresses show depending on the inside of the VSM.

  What I'm missing here?

  Just to close the loop in case someone stumbles across this thread.

  In fact, it is a bug on the Cisco Nexus 1000v. The bug is only relevant to the ESX host that have been fixed in 4.0u2 (and now 4.1). Around short term work is again rev to 4.0u1. Medium-term correction will be integrated into a maintenance for the Nexus 1000V version.

  Our implementation of code to get the multipath iSCSI news was bad but allowed in 4.0U1. 4.0U2 no longer our poor implementation.

  For iSCSI multipath and N1KV remain 4.0U1 until we have a version of maintenance for the Nexus 1000V

• iSCSI multipath with Distributed Virtual Switch error

  Ive followed the iSCSI SAN guide and have iSCSI multipathing works well with a regular virtual switch. Ive cancelled all configurations and have begun to see if I can get this working with a dVSwitch.

  I get the error "Add Nic failed in IMA"

  Someone at - it ideas?

  I recently worked on a case of iSCSI with VMware support and they mentioned a known issue with iSCSI and dVS, this is also described in the release notes, but may still have a problem. You can contact the technical support for confirmation.

  • ESX/ESXi 4.0 4.0 does not support the compatible ports with DVS binding configuration VMkernel network interface cards

  If you configure compatible with vNetwork Distributed Switch port binding NICs VMkernel, the operation fails if you enter esxcli swiscsi nic adds - n vmkx d vmhbaxx and vmkiscsi-tool - V - a vmkx vmhbaxx orders through the service console or the vSphere CLI.

  Workaround: Use only inherited vSwitch VMkernel NIC for port binding.

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

  William Lam

  VMware vExpert 2009

  Scripts for VMware ESX/ESXi and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

  repository scripts vGhetto

  VMware Code Central - Scripts/code samples for developers and administrators

  http://Twitter.com/lamw

  If you find this information useful, please give points to "correct" or "useful".

• configuration of several hardware iSCSI initiators

  I have 2 qlogic iSCSI intiators in my 3.5.4 ESX Servers I need to connect to an iSCSI target in a redundant configuration. With the vSwitch network connections it is simple enough, create a vSwitch and group all interfaces NIC that you want to use for this vswitch. The network layer deals with redundancy and load balancing. With iSCSI software initiators, it looks like using the vmkernel from what I've seen in the SAN configuration guide.

  Each hardware iSCSI adapter seems to have need it is the own address IP etc... How can I set up redundancy and load on 2 separate hardware initiators balancing?

  Initiators of material are a little different, because they have a BIOS configuration aspect as well.  If you want to boot-from-san configuration, you must configure your initiators with their hw bios and set the IPs and the targets and LUNS to boot from BIOS hw.  With other than the boot LUN LUN, they are configured in the same way as the initiator of the sw.  Each card will be visible in the section storage cards.  You access this configuration and configure targets and LUNS on each.  Once you do this, you will see the same LUN via multiple paths, ESX will recognize the LUNS as separate for the same LUN paths and redundancy is achieved.  If your San is active/active, you can split manually which LUN will be accessible through which HBAS and load balance like that.  You will still need the vmkernel port in your vSwitch as the initiator of the software, but instead to simply configure the initiator sw 1, you configure both your HW HBA.

  -KjB

  VMware vExpert

• The upgrade to ESXi 4.1 with storage iSCSI software to ESXi 5.5

  I intend to upgrade ESXi 4.1 with which I have attached to ESXi 5.5 iSCSI software storage

  I've updated all my guests who were on the SAN storage with no problems.

  I would like to know that if it there's nothing I should take care before I update the host connected iSCSI to ESXi 5.5, as for the hosts with SAN attached storage I made to remove the cables of SAN before upgrading the host.

  Also, if all known problems, you will be informed during the upgrade to ESXi 4.1 to ESXi 5.5 with iSCSI Software storage, please let me know?

  If there is no different process to upgrade coz in ESXi 4.1 I do not see this link ports of iSCSI vmkernel ports software iSCSI but I know in ESXi5.5 we have to or I just launch a procedure of standard upgrade via the Update Manager and everything will be taken care?

  Thanks in advance

  With ESXi prior to version 5, linking ports had to be done via command line. However, if it has been configured correctly, you should be able to upgrade to ESXi 5.5 (assuming that the host has not been previously updated since version 3). BTW. the last time that I disconnected the host of storage for an upgrade has been with ESX 3.0.

  André

• How to clean and do a fresh install with attached iscsi LUN?

  I intend to migrate both esx 4.1 with esxi5.1 hosts before you wipe and do a clean install.  Each host is connected to two iscis without, with 4 LUNS of each SAN attached to each host.  Each lun
  spread over 3 degrees is. I plan on vmotion (not storage vmotion) guests from one host to another to make the upgrade.  I'm stuck on the determination of what will happen to the iSCSI LUNS after I
  upgrade to esxi5.1 guests.  It seems that I should just be able to reattach, but I'm not sure.  Can I just attach the LUNS to the new installation 5.1 hosts and see all the
  VMDK intact, or is there something that I am on?

  And should the migrated to another host virtual machine continues to run on the iscsi san, while I upgrade of the host, they were released since then?  It seems that storage must be removed from the process as the LUNS
  should not remain attached to the host after it is cleared and the iqn name no longer exists.

  
  Am that I on the right track here?  What Miss me?

  jackjack2, understand you this? I went ahead and moved to esxi 5.0 U2 of ESX 3.5 u5. Had to perform clean install and I have an iSCSI SAN. That's what I did:

  1 a taken a screenshot from all my ESX host configurations. Go to configuration-> software adapter-> click on the iSCSI--> properties--> iqn copy map and alias-> click the dynamic discovery tab and note any IP address. You may need these IPs with the discovery of data warehouses later.

  2. after having documented the configs, put the host in maintenance mode.

  3. after maintenance, remove the host from the vcenter server. Connect directly to the host and close.

  4. remove all the network cables. Cable marking help before you detach the cables.

  5. clean install esxi 5.0.

  6. after installation, before rebooting, set the network cables.

  7. configure and test the management network. If your network management test fails, see if you have anything that is entered in the id vlan. Chances are that your port is not shared resources in the physical switch. In this case, remove the id vlan (during the configuration management network) work.

  8 bring the vcenter server host.

  9 configure the network, dns, time, etc.

  10 Add a software iSCSI adapter. This card will have a new iqn. Either you provide this iqn to your SAN administrator so that it can update side SAN, or you can use the old iqn name.

  11. in my case, I made a copy of the new iqn and then deleted. Entered the old iqn name obtained in step 1. Additionally, entered the alias (since one was present before). After that, a new analysis and update still does not fill in data warehouses. So, I went to the properties of the iSCSI adapter and then discovered added tab dynamic addresses IP that did not exist before (otherwise, you will need to enter the virtual IP address of the cluster that you data store (s) belong to). Once the IP addresses have been added to the dynamic discovery tab, he asked if I wanted to rescan the HBAs. I said yes and viola! my data stores have been populated.

  12 Add the host to the cluster.

  Note that you can add iSCSI adapter when you affiliate you the host to the cluster. However, in this case HA will not be happy because no heartbeat of data storages will be detected. In addition, when data warehouses are discovered it may appear initially as not mounted. Don't panic. After a minute or two it will be mounted.

  I hope this helps!

• ESXi 4.0 / 4.1 Broadcom iSCSI installation program / Support with unloading iSCSI

  Hello.

  I am new to the use of iSCSI on ESXi so I may have a few questions already answered. Sorry for that.

  Is it true that ESXi 4.1 supports iSCSI unloading, while ESXi 4.0 does not work?

  How to set up properly? I have a Dell R510 with an Quadport Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709.

  I like to use two network of 5709 with links LACP ports to connect to my iSCSI target (QNAP).

  I found a few messages about creating two vSwitches which each card of a network and mapping the vSwitch (vmkx) to the vmhbaXX (esxcli swiscsi nic add - n vmk1 vmhba35 - d).

  What is the right way? How to set up link aggregation then?

  This is what it looks like:

  

  

  Thank you

  Michael

  Hello

  you look here: http://blog.open-e.com/bonding-versus-mpio-explained/

• Problems with vicfg-iscsi on ESXi 4.1 servers

  Hi all!

  I am an administrator for some servers ESXi 60 + who have partially been upgraded to ESXi 4.1 (260247). Our vCenters have also been upgraded to 4.1.

  After this update, I tried to access these servers through the

  $> vicfg-iscsi - host ESX Server version is 4.1.0. This operation is supported on ESX, ESXi 4.0 4.0, or through VC 4.0

  > end disconnect

  I found no information on this subject in the knowledge base, or discussions. What I am doing wrong. This command worked perfectly with 4.0 and its updates.

  Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

  Thomas

  Since you have a mixture of guests 4.1 and 4.0, you will need to use the last 4.1 vCLI to manage your 4.1 hosts. The CLIs are mostly compatible with the previous version, including point releases or back 1 exit. The error is liekly your vCLI releases 4.0 most try to manage and configure a host 4.1

  You can download the latest here http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/ or use vMA 4.1 vCLI which includes the last vCLI

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

  William Lam

  VMware vExpert 2009,2010

  VMware VCP3, 4

  VMware VCAP4-DCA

  VMware scripts and resources at: http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/

  Twitter: @lamw

  repository scripts vGhetto

  Introduction to the vMA (tips/tricks)

  Getting started with vSphere SDK for Perl

  VMware Code Central - Scripts/code samples for developers and administrators

  VMware developer community

  If you find this information useful, please give points to "correct" or "useful".

• Overhead costs with software iSCSI vs NFS?

  If you use NFS to store your VMS VMDK files, could say nothing about the CPU above for this, compared to the iSCSI Software?

  If you use the FC or iSCSI hardware, it seems, most of the work could be discharged at the HBA, but what about NFS that needs to be done in software? It will be easier that iSCSI from the Vmkernel doesn't have to manage the lower block level access?

  Hello.

  The difference is very small.  Check out the white paper of comparison of the performance of the Protocol storage in VMware vSphere 4 .

  Good luck!

• several software iSCSI initiators

  Hello

  I have not heard that someone does this, so just to make sure: is it possible to connect two or more without an ESX host? As far I knew each SAN would require its iSCSI initiator, but I only know how to activate the default initiator and not add multiple.

  Thanks for your reply,

  -Rainer

  Yes, it is possible to connect multiple iSCSI targets to the iSCSI Software initiator.

  Create several VMkernel ports bind to the iSCSI initiator.

  • Connect vmhba34 to vmk1: esxcli swiscsi nic add - n d vmhba33 vmk1

  • Connect vmhba34 to vmk2: esxcli swiscsi nic add - n vmk2 d vmhba33

  • Check the configuration of vmhba34: esxcli swiscsi nic list vmhba33 d

  • Vmk2 and vmk1 should be listed.

  It is normally used to provide multiple active paths to iSCSI storage.

  You can also create additional VMkernel ports for more than one iSCSI SAN network.

• How many paths with HBAs iSCSI supported - failover?

  Hello

  Some time ago, I read when using Software initiator for iSCSI it is only supported to use a path.

  Now for host bus adapters:

  When I use a hardware initiator dual port HBA QLogic iSCSI adapter, is it supported to configure each port to connect to the storage on a different subnet?

  So that it looks like the FC switch?

  Example:

  HBA port 0: 192.168.1.100

  HBA port 1: 192.168.2.100

  Storage:

  Storage port r: 192.168.1.1

  B: 192.168.2.1 storage port

  I can use it like that?

  Thanks in advance!

  Concerning

  /EGR

  Hello

  Yes it is possible. But that I would use to different switches for redundancy and 2 VLAN different as you describe.

  Best regards

  Lars Liljeroth

  -