SC7020 iSCSI configuration is assigning all virtual ports created under a single storage controller EMM

Hi All,

I have configured iSCSI for an SC7020. I have previously configured SC series iSCSI and I wanted to air this particular issue on the forum to gain some feedback.

I have created a single fault domain on a single subnet.

I have utilised 8 physical ports across 2 controllers. In other words 4 x 10GB ports per controller.

Each of those physical ports are connected via SFP+ connectors to 2 switches (4 x ports per switch)

As per the below:

iSCSI Core Switch Connections

The Core Switches are already host to another 2 SANS on the same subnet which are all 10GB iSCSI with MTU  set to 9000 with those SANS.

Storage Controller 1

SC7020 EMM 1 Slot 2 port 1 --> CSW2 / port 39

SC7020 EMM 1 Slot 2 port 2 --> CSW2 / port 40

SC7020 EMM 1 Slot 3 port 1 --> CSW1 / port 39

SC7020 EMM 1 Slot 3 port 2 --> CSW1 / port 40

Storage Controller 2

SC7020 EMM 2 Slot 2 port 1 --> CSW2 / port 41

SC7020 EMM 2 Slot 2 port 2 --> CSW2 / port 42

SC7020 EMM 2 Slot 3 port 1 --> CSW1 / port 41

SC7020 EMM 2 Slot 3 port 2 --> CSW1 / port 42

The problem is that when I created the physical NIC IP addresses when creating the single fault domain. The virtual ports created all fall under a single storage controller even though I was assigning the IP to the Physical NICS on the other controllers as well. I have not seen this before when creating iSCSI ports. I have always seen that when you assign a physical IP address to a single physical port that it creates a single virtual port under that physical port where you assign the iSCSI IP address to.

All iSCSI ports are detected by the vSphere servers and I can see the volumes I created. Plus when you fail the controller all the ports failover. But then a warning comes up as shown below for all the ports.

Warning: Controller ports for this Storage Center are currently unbalanced due to a failover.  

then if you click on the virtual port with the warning message you receive the message below:

Warning: Virtual port is not in its preferred parent port

When this happens no paths are show as disconnected from within DSM or in vCenter under storage HBA paths etc.

All volumes are available...It is just that when you fail a storage controller over all the virtual ports swap from one controller to the next rather than like on our other SC series single default domain or multiple fault domain SANS where the virtual ports are evenly distributed across both controllers which is what I would have expected when I created each physical port and assigned a physical iSCSI network IP address.

I was hoping someone could help point me as to why this might have occured. I have never had this happen to me before when configuring IP addresses for SC series SANS.

 

I do realise that in order for the ports to be removed apparently I have to get DELL to remove them. I am not really interested in removing them I just want to rebalance them across both controllers and have a single virtual port assigned to each physical NIC just like our other SANS. But if I do try to assign the virtual ports to another physical port then I get the warnings above. I prefer to spread the workload across the controllers so we are using both SP's efficiently.

Thank you in advance

Regards,

Michael McGrath