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Dell R710 iSCSI MAC listed fro 4 embedded NIC cards
Hi,
We have inherited 2 x Dell Poweredge R710 servers. I notice looking at the system info that each embedded NIC has 2 MAC addresses listed, one for the Ethernet and one for iSCSI. I have read in the manual that there is some licensed key functionality available. Looking at the lin below it appears this is a TOE option for the NIC.
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=541-10052
These 2 R710 servers will be ESXi hosts connected to an Equallogic PS6000XV. I was planning on using 2 of the NICs in the R710 for the iSCSI traffic and 2 for the remaining needs.
Any suggestions on best practice for the Dell R710 setup? I have not yet found any documentation on the iSCSI feature shown in the DRAC screen, should I bother with the TOE iSCSI?
Thanks
Satish Singh
87 Posts
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May 20th, 2014 11:00
Hello Jimmy, I am looking into this for you.
While I do so, please see this thread:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/f/4466/t/19415996.aspx
Per mattslavin's post, some pertinent information regarding the NIC hardware key can be found in the manual on page 96-97:
Link to manual downloads:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-r710/manuals
Direct Link to manual:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-r710_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf
delljimmy
11 Posts
0
May 20th, 2014 21:00
Hey thanks the post helped a little. I am still thoroughly confused on this though.
The reason is that I have 4 physical ports and these are 1GbE ports. Under the DRAC it shows as
NIC1
EhterNEt
iSCSI
and the same for NIC2, NIC3, NIC4.
So my assumption here is that NIC1 can be used for iSCSI storage traffic and regular LAN traffic and the adapter will keep that separate, is that accurate?
If this is the case I still only have 1Gbit, 1,000,000,000 bps or 1Gbps of bandwidth per physical NIC correct? This is the part that confuses me.
It appears to me that I only have 4Gbps total bandwidth between my 4 cards, however, when I do an esxcfg-nics -l it shows 8 1Gbps NICs... But under storage adapters it shows 4 x iSCSI storage adapters.
So do I have 4Gbps or 8Gbps total bandwidth? If I only have 4Gbps what is the benefit of this setup? I understand what TOE does, but, it seems to me that if I use this TOE my NICs will be sharing bandwidth between iSCSI and regular traffic.
Can I shut this feature off so I only see 4 NICs?
Again thoroughly confused, please excuse the ignorance..
Thanks!
delljimmy
11 Posts
0
May 21st, 2014 19:00
Hi let me try this another way.
I have 4 physical NICs with 4 being reported as iSCSI HBA/initiators.
vmnic0 84:2b:2b:65:03:86
vmnic1 84:2b:2b:65:03:88
vmnic2 84:2b:2b:65:03:8a
vmnic3 84:2b:2b:65:03:8c
vmnic4 00:10:18:8b:60:0c iSCSI
vmnic5 00:10:18:8b:60:0e iSCSI
vmnic6 00:10:18:8b:60:44 iSCSI
vmnic7 00:10:18:8b:60:46 iSCSI
Since we will be utilizing an Equallogic PS6000XV as the SAN storage, I am planning to use these for connectivity to the iSCSI storage..
vmnic4 00:10:18:8b:60:0c iSCSI
vmnic5 00:10:18:8b:60:0e iSCSI
vmnic6 00:10:18:8b:60:44 iSCSI
vmnic7 00:10:18:8b:60:46 iSCSI
I am then going to use 2 of the NICs for the VMnetwork
vmnic0 84:2b:2b:65:03:86
vmnic2 84:2b:2b:65:03:8a
And the remaining 2 for the Management and Vmotion network
vmnic1 84:2b:2b:65:03:88
vmnic3 84:2b:2b:65:03:8c
Any Dell Equallogic gurus with experience with the Dell servers and onboard iSCSI key know if this setup looks good?
My alternative is to use 2 of the physical NICs for iSCSI traffic, and 2 for the Management, Vmotion and VMnetwork.. with 4 NICs I am not sure what else would be best practice..
Thanks