How to configure PowerConnect 6224 and iSCSI MD3220i - no experience

I would recommend assigning an in-band management IP to your switch on the LAN VLAN so you can ssh into the switches if needed to modify your VLANs/switch settings

you can setup the hearbeat and live migration nics (use 2) in their own VLAN/subnet

you will need 2 iSCSI VLANs (one for each subnet) - you only need 1 iSCSI VLAN per switch (iSCSI_VLAN1 - switch 1, iSCSI_VLAN2 - switch 2).

if your controllers have iscsi_ports 0,1,2,3 used for iSCSI I would set it up as follows

Controller_1: ports 0 and 2 - iSCSI_VLAN1
Controller_1: ports 1 and 3 - iSCSI_VLAN2

Controller_2:ports 0 and 2 - iSCSI_VLAN1
Controller_2: ports 1 and 3 - iSCSI_VLAN2

Then on your server do iSCSI_port0 (NIC port 2?) to iSCSI_VLAN1 and iSCSI_port1 (NIC port 3?) to ISCSI_VLAN2

Let me know if these answered your questions.

"you will need 2 iSCSI VLANs (one for each subnet) - you only need 1 iSCSI VLAN per switch (iSCSI_VLAN1 - switch 1, iSCSI_VLAN2 - switch 2)."

Thanks for that, but I am still confused.

The docs show 4 separate subnets for ISCSI, two on each switch. I have 8 NIC ports in the server, so I'm not short of ports. So do I just follow the diagram in the docs and use 2 VLANs per switch?

If I run the heartbeat and live migration on these switches, for redundancy, I assume that I need to link the switches together somehow. How do I do that?

Thanks.

so are you using 1 switch for iscsi and 1 switch for LAN (live migration/vm traffic, cluster communications)?
or both switches for all traffic?

The seperate subnet topic: You dont HAVE to put each interface in its own VLAN. You can have 2 interfaces in the same VLAN/subnet. Often times when I set up MD32xxi here in our labs I'll use 2 VLANs instead of 4 just to make keeping track fo thigns simple,

In the example you are describing, where you have 4 interfaces per controller and each interface will be on a seperate VLAN/Subnet - then you need to increase your subnetting to take that into account. If you do go with 4 seperate vlans - are you going to use 4 different nic ports for iscsi?

"In the example you are describing, where you have 4 interfaces per controller and each interface will be on a seperate VLAN/Subnet - then you need to increase your subnetting to take that into account. If you do go with 4 seperate vlans - are you going to use 4 different nic ports for iscsi?"

Uisng both switches for iSCSI and wanting to use both for live migration/vm traffic and cluster communications as well. I was going to use 2 NIC ports on each server for iSCSI (I have 8 on each server), one for Live Migration and one for Cluster comms. As one is used for the LAN, that still leaves 3 for VMs.

Configuring iSCSI on the PowerConnect switches for the MD series arrays is fairly simple. Not sure if you already have this, but here's a document that describes best practices when configuring the powerconnect switches with the MD 32xx arrays.

PowerVault MD Series Storage Arrays IP SAN Best Practices White Paper
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/powervault_md_series_storage_arrays_ip_san_best_practices.pdf

Word of advice: Make SURE the 62xx series switch is up-to-date with the latest firmware release 3.3.1.10. This seems to be the most stable release so far and has ALOT of bug fixes.

Note: Flow Control is enabled globally (on all ports) by default in the 3.x firmware. The best practices white paper suggests that flow control be enabled on all switch ports and NICs passing iSCSI traffic.

This Dell Equallogic configuration guide should also be very helpful. It actually has the commands for the switch configuration explained in the MD Series white paper.
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/EqualLogic+Configuration+Guide#fbid=RwEVj1O76Lg

Note: The EQL and MD series network topologies and configurations are very similar, but there are some key differences. Be sure to read the documents carefully. If it were me I would use the EQL guide just for the switch commands listed and nothing else. The MD series guide should be used mostly. The only thing it's lacking is the commands needed to configure the switch features suggested.

 

some experts recommend to use single subnet as follows and apers that it is working

 

server side 2 NIC ports used

server 1: vSwitch1 iSCSI1 172.16.100.10 vSwitch2 iSCSI2 172.16.100.12

server 2: vSwitch1 iSCSI1 172.16.100.11 vSwitch2 iSCSI2 172.16.100.13

SAN MD3220i  2 ports per controller used

controler 0 port 0,1:
172.16.100.130          
172.16.100.132

controler 1 port 0,1:
172.16.100.131          
172.16.100.133

round robin

can someone tell me will this work and what is preferred solution and why

Any help will be appreciated

Wilson

 

Hello Wilson Jr,

Here is a link to our deployment guide.  ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_powervault/powervault-md3220i_Deployment%20Guide_en-us.pdf

It is best to split the iSCSI traffic across subnets so that you don’t get any corruption to happen or have both controllers trying to access the same virtual disk.  By putting both controllers on the same subnet you are increasing the chance for more errors then needed.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.