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How to set up direct-attached MD3200i load balancing
I'd like to connect an MD3200i (with two raid controllers) to one of our Windows 2003 R2 servers without using a switch.
After browsing most of the documentation, some things remain unclear to me. I'm new to multipath/load-balancing, and can't figuer out how to set this up.
Is it possible to connect 1 host nic to raid controller 0, and another host nic to raid controller 1, and then aggregate the bandwith? Thus having 2Gbs instead of 1Gbs? Or is this only a redundant path sollution, that switches to the other controller if the first line fails.How do i set this up in terms of IP addresses, subnets. And where is the load balancing configuered. Is this explained anywhere in the documentation? I can't seem to find it. I've found some examples that include the use of a switch, but none with direct-attached sollutions.
What I would like to do is connect 4 UTP cables from the MD3200i to the host. 2 in the upper raid controller and 2 in the lower raid controller. And using load balancing in such a way that i have 4x1Gbs, resulting in a 4Gbs connection to one partition on the MD3200i.
Thanks for any help.
mrokkam
154 Posts
1
October 21st, 2010 09:00
Multipathing and load balancing in windows 2003 is handled by the MPIO driver that is installed when you install the "host" or "full" version install of the MD Storage Manager. There is no need to separately aggregate the NICs to get aggregated bandwith. The driver, by default, uses round robin on all ports connected to a single controller.
Also, for a single virtual disk, all IO goes through a single controller and the second controller acts as a redundant path. So, if you have 2x1 Gbps connections to each controller, you will have, at the most, 2 Gbps to each partition. Now, each controller can own virtual disks, so the second controller can own a second partition that will also have a separate 2x1 Gbps connection.
You can set up IPs and subnets similar to how you would with a switch as long as you can ping the connecting port. it might make sense to have each NIC on the host on a separate subnet and each port on the MD3200i on the corresponding subnet. This will make it easier while configuring your iSCSI.
You can use the MD configuration Utility to set up your iSCSI sessions too
-Mohan
mrokkam
154 Posts
1
October 22nd, 2010 13:00
Please can you post your network configs showing the port number and the IP address and the iSCSI sessions that you are setting up?
I assume the warning is just stating that you are not connecting each NIC to both controllers. That is OK in your case, though you are not getting NIC redundancy. Other than that, you should just verify the following:
At the end of it, you should be able to go to the iSCSI initiator and check that you have sessions from 192.168.130.101 to 192.168.130.103 and another from 192.168.130.102 to 192.168.130.104. You could have a similar setup on the 131 subnet such that you have 2 sessions to each controller from the host - and this is for NIC redundancy purposes...
Wouter2
4 Posts
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October 22nd, 2010 06:00
Thanks for the information Mohan, that clears quite some things up already.
I've tested connecting two cables to the same controller, an bandwith aggregation is indeed done automaticaly. Too bad this aggregation doesn't work when connecting a cable to the second controller, I was hoping it would.
Now would still like to connect another cable to the second controller, so that if the first controller fails, or the network connection to it is lost, the second controller takes over. I've attempted this by connecting one cable to the first controller, and another cable to the second controller. The two network interfaces on the host, and the two on the MD3200i are all in the same subnet. In the Modular Disk Configuration Utility i've used the following configuration
Controller 0: iSCSI port 0 192.168.130.101 -> Host address 192.168.130.103
Controller 1: iSCSI port 1 192.168.130.102 -> Host address 192.168.130.104
And i get the warning "The following host initiators cannot connect to both RAID controllers. For controller redundancy purposes, the host initiators should connect to both the controllers of the storage array. 192.168.130.103, 192.168.130.104. Do you want to continue?"
Without using a switch, how do I set this up? Thanks for helping with these basics, i just can't seem to find any full documentation on this, i've read the dell documentation, and the Microsoft iSCSI driver documentation.
Grts,
Wouter
Wouter2
4 Posts
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October 25th, 2010 06:00
Hey Mohan,
Thanks alot for the help, i've got it working. For potential future readers:
Using the Dell Modular Disk Configuration Utility, I don't think it's possible to start two iSCSI sessions, while that is what was needed to get redundancy.
I've dropped using the MDCU alltogether, and configured it trough Microsoft iSCSI initiator. It takes some reading and experimenting if you're new to iSCSI like me, but it's quite simple once you get it.
Now i've set up one session to the top controller, with round robin over 2 interfaces. And another session to the second controller with one interface, as a redundant backup.
Sweet... now let's fill these drives up :)
AndreW9955478
23 Posts
0
February 2nd, 2023 03:00
Good Morning,
I know the topic is old, but I still use an MD3200i equipment.
My question is the following, if I connect the MD3200i to the same esxi HOST, with 8 Network Interface, will I get a 4Gbps connection? (4x1GB), and the other 4 ports would be redundant?
I ask which setting I get the best performance?
Sorry for my English, I'm using a translator.
DELL-Erman O
Moderator
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2.4K Posts
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February 2nd, 2023 05:00
Hello, it's a bit of an old topic for me. Might be helpful VMware vSphere Storage Multi-Pathing (MPIO) to balance I/O across multiple network paths. You can try to check this. I tried to find some documentation on the subject. Please take a look at them. Hope those can help.
Best Practices For Running VMware vSphere On iSCSI https://dell.to/3wNnOgo
A Dell PowerVault MD3200 and MD3200i Series of Arrays Technical White Paper https://dell.to/3wRpSnw
DELL POWERVAULT MD3200I / MD3600I DEPLOYMENT GUIDE FOR VMWARE ESX4.1 SERVER SOFTWARE https://dell.to/3WZ4NSV
Basic Best Practices: iSCSI Host Port Setup and Configuration. Dell PowerVault MD3200i Series page19 https://dell.to/3RtcpMi...
Regards,