Virtual Volumes w/ Equallogic

Hello Patrick, 

 Did you do a rescan of the iSCSI adapter? 

 Also what version of the firmware are the EQL arrays running?  

 Regards,

Don 

Hello, 

 OK, so that means you are connected to the PE control volume on the array.  What happens when you try to create a VVOL Datastore in VSM? 

 Don

Hi Donald,

Yes I did. Nothing came. I have a LUN ID 257 of 4K named like the VVOL in the peripherals, but that's all....

EQL si 9.1.1

Hi Patrick, 

 Re: Same.  Originally they weren't.  It used to be Storage Containers and VVOLs.  Which IMHO is correct. Now it's VVOL Datastores with VVOLs.   To easy to confuse what you are talking about. (again IMO)  

 I would also suggest that you make sure all the best practices for EQL + VMware are set.  For VVOLs extending the iSCSI NOOP Timeout is important.  Along with Login_Timeout, DelayedACK and not sharing VMDKs/VVOLs on single Virtual SCSI adapter inside each VM. 

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20434601/download

When you call support, they are going to need the PS array diags, VM support from a node you ran things from and the VSM logs.  Which you can start from the console of the VSM appliance. It's one of the menu options.  Then browse to that VSM IP.  The logs will be on a share there. 

 If you have more than one EQL array, to start you'll only need grab diags from the Group Lead.  If you SSH to the Discovery (or Mgmt address if you are using out-of-band mgmt)  then run: 

 GrpName>diag    It will start the diag process on the Group lead.   Or look in the event view in the EQL GUI and you will need a member name before each event listed. That member is the group lead. 

   If you don't mind updating here, that would be appreciated. 

 Regards,

Don 

Yeah sorry for messing up both terms but they are the same.

When you create a new VVol bank with VSM, it create the SC corresponding for reserving space on the EQL.

Of course, i'll use dumb VMs before putting production one into this ;)

According with what you say, i'll annoy support for this. I thought I had forgotten a little thing and there is so bad documentation on this that finding an answer is a pain :/

Thank you for your answer and have a nice day !

Regards,

Patrick

Hello, 

 By "vvol" are you referring to the VVOL Datastore or a new VM?   The better term is Storage Container  (SC) (which is how EQL GUI shows it) then inside The Storage Container are Virtual Volumes that make up VMs. 

 When you created the SC you should have specified a capacity.  That's how much space is reserved from the pool.  So once done, it's passive.  You can then create new VMs or clone/move one to that Datastore.  If you are just experimenting I would suggest cloning a VM instead of moving a production VM there. 

 Trying to triage something like VVOLs is best done via a support case.  They can webex in an take a look. 

 Regards,

Don

Hello Donald,

yeah I've already work with them for another problem. I unfortunatly know how they work ^^

I've checked all the prerequiste yesterday but they were all ok :) I've nicely follow this document some years ago.

While investigating by myself, i've found a vvold.log file in /var/log on my server... I didn't suspect this would exist ! And I've found my problem. I'll create a ticket according to this.

---------LOG FILE EXTRACTION--------------------------------

2017-09-14T07:06:41.971Z warning vvold[FFAD1B70] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaSession::GetEndPoint: failed to get endpoint, err=SSL Exception: Verification parameters:
--> PeerThumbprint: B3:59:AB:3B:14:E4:73:C8:69:73:6C:F8:BA:08:CD:75:6F:B8:FF:F1
--> ExpectedThumbprint:
--> ExpectedPeerName: 10.1.1.98
--> The remote host certificate has these problems:
-->
--> * unable to get local issuer certificate, using default
2017-09-14T07:06:41.971Z info vvold[FFAD1B70] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaSession::Initialize url is empty
2017-09-14T07:06:41.971Z warning vvold[FFAD1B70] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaSession::DoSetContext: Empty VP URL for VP (Dell Equallogic VASA Provider)!
2017-09-14T07:06:41.971Z info vvold[FFAD1B70] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Initialize: Failed to establish connection 10.1.1.98:8443/vasa-version.xml
2017-09-14T07:06:41.971Z error vvold[FFAD1B70] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Initialize: Unable to init session to VP Dell Equallogic VASA Provider state: 0
-----------END OF LOG FILE--------------------------------------

I'll come back with the resolution (I hope ^^ )

Have a nice day,

Patrick

Hello, 

 Did you happen to upgrade your vCenter or replace it with a new one? 

 Thanks for the update. 

 Don 

Did you ever find a solution to this problem?

Hello,

 You might want to try these blog on dealing with SSL and vVols.  

https://www.koolaid.info/vvols-vs-expired-certificate/

Regards,

Don