We're about to set up a pair of Dell 2950's attached to an MD3000i. The 2950's will be running VMWare Standard, and all the VM's will be Windows 2003 Server. Since we're new to both VMWare and SANs, we have a lot of questions. Can anyone point me to a good source of information for getting started?

I've read through the MD3000i manuals, and my initial questions are:

* The manual talks about installing the iSCSI initiator for Windows. What about VMWare? Don't you need to install a VMWare iSCSI initiator? Do you still need to install the Windows iSCSI initiator in the Windows VM's, if they're running in VMWare? I'm thinking "no", but want to be sure.

* What are some of the best practice options for configuring the MD3000i with VMWare? Do I give each VMWare VM its own virtual disk? Its own disk group? What if I want to move a VM from one VMWare host to another? It seems like you'd need both hosts to be in the same host group to do that...?

* The manuals don't much get into the performance considerations for the various options for configuring the physical to virtual disk mappings. Is there a good source of information on this?

* I didn't see anything in the manuals, either, about how we should choose to configure the NIC's in the MD3000i. We'll have two redundant Dell GB switches, and two servers. Is there doc somewhere that can help us figure out how to set this up?

Thanks!

- Dave

HI Dave,
I'm going through exactly the same thing at the moment.
I too have an MD 3000i and a pair of 2950s I'm trying to get talking to it.
I was able to download and install the Windows iSCSI initiator no problem, but like you am not sure what I need to do to get the Linux VM Server to see the LUNs.
I've even created a virtual 2003 server which CAN see the LUNs directly, but cannot initialise the disk because of "an internal error". I think this is because I need to create Datastore on my ESX Server and then assign disk from that datastore to my virtual servers.
The fact that the virtual server can see the disk gives me some hope that all my network settings are correct.
I have gone into the ESX Server - Config - Storage Adaptors - iSCSI Software Adaptor - details - properties - Dynamic Discovery tab, and added the IP address of the iSCSI storage array, but I can hit rescan all day and not see the LUNs.
I have the same problem on the MD3000i - The host isn't detected automatically - and when I put the properties of the storage initiator in manually I get no result.
I would love to see the answers to all your questions and have found the manuals lacking in these areas also.
On the networking - Dave Jaffe's article Dell iSCSI Storage for VMware - has some good info on NIC config. Even though it deals with other hosts.
F.Y.I. - I'm based in Melbourne Australia and would welcome any questions.
Thanks.

Hi, Acrobat!

Where can I find Dave Jaffe's article?

- Dave

Sorry - here's the link
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/VMware_iSCSI.pdf

Here's a link that might help you:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/tree?c=us&cs=04&dl=false&l=en&s=bsd&treeid=36A7F22F77FF0B38E040A68F5B282469&doclang=en

Hi Acrobat-

Thanks for the nice words about my paper. Too bad it didn't solve your problem!

It sounds like you are doing things correctly. I'll probably end up handing you off to the VMware team here at Dell but first let me answer one of your questions around how to hook up a VM to iSCSI storage. There are basically two ways to do it, guest-attached, in which the guest (eg. your Windows 2003 VM) attaches directly to iSCSI and ESX-attached, in which ESX creates a datastore on the iSCSI storage and then the VMs use that storage for their local disks. Both methods can be used concurrently and there are pluses and minuses of each. (ESX-attached is simpler from the point of view of the VM creator - he or she need not worry about iSCSI initiators, etc. - whereas with guest-attached all the backup tools you use on a physical server can be employed directly in the VM).

It sounds like you have created a Windows 2003 VM with the OS on an ESX datastore (not iSCSI) and now you wish to create an additional virtual disk on MD3000i iSCSI storage. Then you went ahead and installed the MS iSCSI initiator into your VM and tried to connect to a LUN you have already created on the MD3000i. This is when you got the failure during disk initialization. This should have worked exactly the way it worked with your physical Windows server. The fact that Windows Disk Management saw the iSCSI LUN indicates your networking is correct. I would compare the physical connection to the virtual connection for any differences.

Then it appears that you attempted to attach the iSCSI LUN to ESX and, again, it sounds like you made all the right moves. Again, I would go through my paper and double check you have all the permissions correct.

If you can't get these two approaches to work please write back and I'll ask our VMware folks to weigh in.

Dave

Dave:

I've learned a bit more since my original post. I read your paper, and it was very helpful.

Can you advise on best practices for configuring redundant paths to my MD3000i? I will have two Dell 2950's, each with 6 NIC ports, running VMWare Standard, and a single MD3000i with two storage controllers. I will have two Dell 5424 24 ports switches.

So with two switches, 6 ports on each server, and 4 ports (plus two mgt ports) on the MD3000i, I can configure lots of redundancy! I'm not sure on the best way to do this. I also don't know if all these extra ports buy me any extra performance, or if they just give me redundancy. I also am unclear if I should team the NICs. So I'm still learning. Any advice would be appreciated, or if you know of some docs on this, I'm happy to do some reading.

- Daev

Dave_T-

You are asking the right questions. I have the answers for physical Windows 2003 servers (see http://delltechcenter.com/page/MPIO+to+PowerVault+MD3000i+with+Microsoft+iSCSI+Initiator) but I'm not up on the latest with ESX so I will ask one of our VMware folks to weigh in.

Dave

I had the same problem when I recently setup an MD3000i with 2950. I was able to resolve it after some poking around. With ESX it is necessary to unblock the iSCSI port from the ESX firewall. In Virtual Center go to the Configuration tab for the system, then go to Security Profile. Click on Properties... and select Software iSCSI Client. After this goto the Storage Adapters section under Configuration tab and Rescan the iSCSI Software Adapter. If you have already setup the Host on the MD3000i you will see the LUNs appear.

Thanks Todd,
I'd already enabled the iSCSI Software Adapter on the ESX firewall. I can't help but feel I've missed something simple during the install. Do you need to set up iSCSI settings in the /etc/iscsi.conf file before the ESX server will recognize the MD?
I also went through this link which Dave_T gave me.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/tree?c=us&cs=04&dl=false&l=en&s=bsd&treeid=36A7F22F77FF0B38E040A68F5B282469&doclang=en
It suggested I need to set up CHAP authentication, which was easily enabled on the MD3000i, but when trying to put the CHAP secret into the ESX Server I get an error - 'Error during the configuration of the host: Failed to update Authentication properties.'
So I wasn't able to get Chap authentication set up either. Does CHAP need to be set up or is it optional?

CHAP is not required to get it to work. I did not enable or configure CHAP on either the MD3000i or the ESX 3.5 server. I also did not edit the /etc/iscsi.conf file. Have you created a LUN and assinged it to the manually configured ESX host in the MD3000i management utility? Have you rebooted the ESX server? Have you had the iSCSI software initiator rescan multiple times? (I sometimes have to rescan a storage adapter twice before it finds new storage)

Todd

I did create a LUN and assigned it to the ESX Host. Have rebooted the ESX server several times and hit rescan on the iSCSI initiator several times.
However...
When I created and assigned the LUN
In Modular Disk Storage Manager - Configure - Configure Host Access (Automatic)
The host was not automatically detected. (I can ping it though)
So to assign the LUN to the host I had to go to
Configure Host Access (Manual)
I entered a new host name - then manually entered the iSCSI Initiator name.
I then created a LUN and assigned it to that host.
Am I correct in thinking that the host should just appear under - Configure Host Access (Automatic)?
-----
I have noticed that when you Configure Host Access (Manual) - you can call the host and the iSCSI initiator something totally bogus and it will still be created.

Under - Config - Networking - Virtual Switch - Properties - I had not created a second VMKernel on the IP range of the second controller in the MD3000i. I added this and then when I went to to configure the host (Manual) - I typed a name in, it detected the iSCSI initiator name, then I could assign the LUN.
When I had the iSCSI software initiator rescan - it found the LUN.
COOOOOOOOLLL!!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone for your help.

"Dave:

I've learned a bit more since my original post. I read your paper, and it was very helpful.

Can you advise on best practices for configuring redundant paths to my MD3000i? I will have two Dell 2950's, each with 6 NIC ports, running VMWare Standard, and a single MD3000i with two storage controllers. I will have two Dell 5424 24 ports switches.

So with two switches, 6 ports on each server, and 4 ports (plus two mgt ports) on the MD3000i, I can configure lots of redundancy! I'm not sure on the best way to do this. I also don't know if all these extra ports buy me any extra performance, or if they just give me redundancy. I also am unclear if I should team the NICs. So I'm still learning. Any advice would be appreciated, or if you know of some docs on this, I'm happy to do some reading.

- Daev"

Yikes - my thread has been hijacked! :-)

Can anyone help with the questions below, and in my original post?

Thanks.

- Dave

The Dell MD3000i and VMware ESX deployment guide cand be found at:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/md3000i_esx_deploy_guide.pdf

Dave