Page 3 - Table of Contents
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................. 1 Terminology/Glossary .................................................................
Page 5 - Introduction; Implementing ESX4.1 on the MD32xxi Storage Array; iSCSI Software Initiator; Jumbo Frames
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 3 Introduction The Dell™ PowerVault™ MD32XXi storage solution consists of either a standard or high availability configuration. The standard (simplex) configuration has a single controller with four 1GbE ports. It can...
Page 6 - MPIO; Supported Hardware and Software; Hardware Requirements; Architectural Setup
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 4 MPIO – With ESX4.1 and vSphere4, customers can benefit from Multi-Path I/O from the ESX4.1 server and the SAN. This allows for multiple connections to be concurrently used to allow for greater bandwidth. This is esp...
Page 7 - Establishing Sessions to a SAN
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 5 3. More than one Network Interface Card (NIC) set aside for iSCSI traffic 4. No Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS) for iSCSI traffic Not every environment requires all of the steps detailed in this whitepaper. Users w...
Page 8 - PowerVault MD32xxi Storage Setup and Configuration
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 6 PowerVault MD32xxi Storage Setup and Configuration C REATE VIRTUAL DISKS ON MD32 XXI USING STEPS DESCRIBED IN : http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md3000i/multlang/gsg/DAO_BCC/DY731A00MR.pdf . A FTER OPEN...
Page 10 - Select
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 8 If a new host group is desired select the radio button for that option and enter in a name for your host group using standard host naming conventions (e.g. no spaces etc.). Should you already have one or more ho...
Page 11 - iSCSI Software Initiator Configuration on ESX4.1 Server
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 9 On completion, Select Yes to proceed to the next host you wish to configure, or Select No to end the configuration wizard. Helpful Hint: Record the MD32xxi IP address for later configuration iSCSI Software Initi...
Page 14 - Clustering with ESX4.1 / Creating DRS Clusters
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 12 10. Click Close . Clustering with ESX4.1 / Creating DRS Clusters Refer to the following VMware website for a complete up-to-date list of the prerequisites for clustering with ESX4.1 server. http://www.vmware.com/pd...
Page 15 - Step1: Configure vSwitch & Enable Jumbo Frames; Step2: Add iSCSI VMkernel Ports
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 13 Go to the configuration tab and select Storage Adapters . Select the iSCSI Software Adapter and click Rescan . The newly created iSCSI target and LUN should be visible from the ESX server. Step1: Configure vSwitch ...
Page 17 - Step3: Assign Network Adapters
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 15 To verify the configuration enter the following command: esxcfg-vswitch –l The output will look similar to this: Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks vSwitch2 64 7 64 9000 PortGroup Name VL...
Page 20 - Step4: Associate VMkernel Ports to Physical Adapters
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 18 Click Next after you have selected the chosen adapters. For now keep the defaults listed in the Failover Order screen and click Next . Review the adapters listed and click Finish completing the process. These adapt...
Page 23 - Step5: Enable VMware iSCSI Software Initiator
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 21 Step5: Enable VMware iSCSI Software Initiator The next step, if it has not been done already, is to enable the iSCSI initiator to prepare the ESX host to connect to the PowerVault SAN. This can be done either throu...
Page 25 - Step6: Binding VMkernel Ports to iSCSI Software Initiator
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 23 Step6: Binding VMkernel Ports to iSCSI Software Initiator This next step will bind the VMkernel ports, which were configured in Step 4 earlier, to the iSCSI Software Initiator. If this step is skipped there will on...
Page 27 - Step7: Connect to PowerVault MD32XXi Storage
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 25 esxcli swiscsi nic list –d vmhba33 This will list all of the information for VMkernel ports that are assigned to the iSCSI Software Adapter. Step7: Connect to PowerVault MD32XXi Storage Now that the advanced config...
Page 31 - Step8: Connect to a Volume on PowerVault SAN
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 29 4. Check Disallow un-named discovery sessions , if desired. Step8: Connect to a Volume on PowerVault SAN The next step is to connect to the volume on the SAN and verify the connection status. Since the iSCSI access...
Page 32 - Contact Information
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 30 Step9: Enabling VMware Native Multipathing – MRU One of the new advanced features that is enabled by configuring the iSCSI Software Initiator the way we have is that now we can take advantage of MPIO by using MRU. ...
Page 33 - Appendix A; Step A1: Configure vSwitch and Enable Jumbo Frames
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 31 http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esxi41_e_vc41.html Dell/VMware alliance home page: http://www.dell.com/vmware Appendix A This appendix details an example of how to over commit the number of VMk...
Page 35 - Step A3: Assign Network Adapters
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 33 Step A3: Assign Network Adapters Just like in the previous example, the next step in the process is to assign the network adapters (NICs) that will be attached to the iSCSI network and used for iSCSI traffic. These...
Page 36 - Step A4: Associate VMkernel Ports to Physical Adapters
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 34 Click the Network Adapters tab. Then click Add . This will open up the Add Adapter Wizard. From here select the vmnics that you want to add to the vSwitch. In our example it will be vmnic2 and vmnic3. Click Next af...
Page 41 - Step A7: Connect to the Dell PowerVault Storage
Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server Software Page 39 255.255.255.0 10.10.5.255 00:50:56:7d:b5:f2 9000 65535 true STATIC We can determine the same information as was found from the GUI. Now that we know the vmhba# and the vmk# we can map each VMkernel Port to the iSCS...