PowerFlex: Cannot access Datastores

Possible scenarios:

• ESXi hosts cannot write or read to Datastores that are presented by PowerFlex
• ESXi hosts cannot see devices that are being presented by PowerFlex
• ESXi hosts hang when trying to create Datastores presented by PowerFlex

Possible causes:

ESXi/SDS networking is not configured correctly.

• The ESXi host must have vmknic/s configured to reach the SDS backend data paths.
• The SDS VM must have nic/s configured to reach the ESXi hosts frontend data paths.
• If the PowerFlex backend has Jumbo frames enabled, then the ESXi hosts MUST be enabled as well.
• Duplicate IPs may exist in the environment

To confirm the networking is configured correctly, do the following tests:

• Ping from the ESXi host to each SDS data path/s: vmkping -d -s 8972 <x.x.x.x>
• Ping from the SDS to the problem ESXi host/s on the data path/s: Ping -M do -s 8972 <x.x.x.x>
• Run this command on the ESXi host to check the connection state to the SDSs: localcli network ip connection list

  • [root@localhost:~] localcli network ip connection list
    Proto  Recv Q  Send Q  Local Address                            Foreign Address      State        World ID  CC Algo  World Name
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    tcp         0       0  10.0.1.1:58090                         10.0.1.1:7073     SYN_SENT        71052  newreno  net_sched
    tcp         0       0  10.0.1.2:58011                         10.0.1.2:7072     ESTABLISHED     71052  newreno  net_sched
    tcp         0       0  10.0.1.3:58094                         10.0.1.3:7072     ESTABLISHED     71052  newreno  net_sched
    		Note that the State "SYN_SENT" indicates a connection issue. The state to each SDS needs to be "ESTABLISHED"
    		 

Wrong SDS package installed.

• The standard SDS package (EMC-ScaleIO-sds-2.0.x) operates on port 7072 while other SDS packages operate on other ports. 
  • Example: EMC-ScaleIO-sds1-2.0.x operates on port 7073.
• The SDC package is defaulted to connect through port 7072.
• To check which port the SDSs are operating on, run the following command from the current master MDM:

  • scli --query_all_sds |grep -i SDS

     

    • SDS ID: 78b9ea2900000002 Name: 10.0.0.3-ESX State: Connected, Joined IP: 10.0.1.3 Port: 7073 Version: 2.0.13000
      SDS ID: 78b9ea2800000001 Name: 10.0.0.2-ESX State: Connected, Joined IP: 10.0.1.2 Port: 7072 Version: 2.0.13000
      SDS ID: 78b9ea2700000000 Name: 10.0.0.1-ESX State: Connected, Joined IP: 10.0.1.1 Port: 7072 Version: 2.0.13000
      			

• Add any necessary vmknic/s to the ESXi host to ensure that it can reach communicate on the backend data paths.
• Enable Jumbo frames throughout the entire Data network if Jumbo frames are being used.
• Install the correct SDS package if the wrong one was installed unknowingly.