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77835
October 24th, 2012 14:00
Can't add iSCSI HBAs by IP address for vSphere 5 multipathing
I'm trying to set up iSCSI multipathing for vSphere 5.0 on a HP ProLiant BL460c G7 blade server. It has 2 physical NICs that connect to the Compellent controllers on a standalone switch (all on their own dedicated subnet). According to the Compellent documentation, when I try to add the HBAs to the server I should uncheck "use iSCSI Names" and then the 2 HBAs show up with separate IP addresses, such as (taken from the documentation):
However, when I uncheck "use iSCSI Names" nothing is shown. The list is blank. Though, if it's checked, I get the following:
It sounds like the Compellent documentation wants to map the HBAs separately instead of together per best practices.
Page 22 of the "Dell Compellent Best Practices with VMWare vSphere 5.x.pdf"
When the initiator is added to the server object using iSCSI names, both initiator ports are managed as a single object, thus all volumes mapped to it are automatically mapped down all paths. Keep in mind, this method will still use multipathing for each of the volumes; however the ability to map a volume down a single path will be lost.
If unsure which option to pick, the iSCSI initiator ports should be added to the server object by IP address, so that there is flexibility to map volumes independently to each initiator in the future.
So, any idea why I can't see these HBAs by IP address? Thank you for your help.
hallidayr
48 Posts
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October 26th, 2012 06:00
Are these screen shots your own? The IPs listed are in the same subnets
merc235
5 Posts
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October 26th, 2012 08:00
Yes, the software iSCSI adapters are on the same VLAN. Sorry if this is overkill, but I'll explain the set up in more detail. I have 2 physical NICs on the server dedicated for iSCSI. I have 2 physical switches that are not connected to the rest of our network. These 2 physical switches are only connected to eachother via a crossover cable.
Each of the 2 physical NICs is connected to one of the physical switches. So, NIC1 is connected to Switch1 and NIC2 is connected to Switch2. All of the ports on both physical switches are set to use the same VLAN.
The iSCSI connections on our 2 Compellent controllers are divided between the 2 physical switches for redundancy. The iSCSI network is 172.16.55.0/24.
According to the documentation from vSphere and Compellent, I should be able to set up a single vSwitch in vSphere with 2 VMkernel ports and 2 physical adapters (as long as I override the default settings of each VMkernel to only use 1 physical adapter).
After that, I went into the properties of the iSCSI software adapter and added the 2 VMkernel ports to the VMkernel port bindings section on the network tab.
Now that all of that is set up, I went further into the Compellent documentation and found that nothing is listed when I try to add the HBAs and uncheck "use iSCSI Names" per their documentation. It's stated in the Compellent documentation that:
When the initiator is added to the server object using iSCSI names, both initiator ports are managed as a single object, thus all volumes mapped to it are automatically mapped down all paths. Keep in mind, this method will still use multipathing for each of the volumes; however the ability to map a volume down a single path will be lost.
If unsure which option to pick, the iSCSI initiator ports should be added to the server object by IP address, so that there is flexibility to map volumes independently to each initiator in the future.
hallidayr
48 Posts
0
October 26th, 2012 08:00
That's very odd, I suspect it had something to do with them not being separated properly, though. Why is there a crossover between the two switches? Your fault domains should be totally separate, separate VLANs, separate subnets.
FWIW I have a working setup with ESXi 5.0.1, two switches with two VLANs, two fault domains, Series 30 controllers on 5.5.10, and software iSCSI adapter using two VMKernel ports mapped through a single vSwitch
hallidayr
48 Posts
0
October 26th, 2012 08:00
So your software iSCSI adapters are on the same VLAN? When you say there is a separate switch, do you mean per fault domain or just separate from the other traffic? This setup should have two fault domains, two switches or VLANs, two subnets, etc. In ESXi the port groups (presented as VMKernel Ports in the GUI) should be statically mapped through the vSwitch to different physical NICs. You go to the advanced settings for the software iSCSI adapter and connect VMKernel ports to NICs there too.
merc235
5 Posts
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October 26th, 2012 08:00
The first screenshot is from the Compellent documentation. The second screenshot is my own from what I'm seeing when I try to configure the HBAs the way Compellent has stated. The reason they are in the same subnet is because I'm configuring them on the VMWare side in the same vSwitch. Just like the following (taken from the "vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.0" documentation):
This is how my vSwitch for iSCSI is set up. Also, I've overridden the defaults so that each VMkernal adapter is only using one physical adapter.