Connect P300H with iscsi initiator in ESX4.0 Sam Lee Version 1.0 (OCT, 2009) - 1 - QSAN Technology, Inc. http://www.qsan.com.tw White Paper# QWP200917-P300H
lntroduction In this document, it describes how to use the software iscsi initiator and QLogic QLE4062 in ESX 4.0 to connect to QSAN P300H controller as the iscsi target. And it can also implement multipath I/O and jumbo frames in ESX 4.0 with P300H.This configuration can also apply to all QSAN P series models. Environment Host OS: VMware ESX server 4.0 NICs: Vmnic3 (management) Vmnic0/vmnic1 (connect to P300H) Host OS for Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise management console: Diagram NIC: Lan1(connect to ESX server management port) iscsi target: QSAN P300H RAM: 1GB DDR2-533 Firmware: 1.0.0 (20091002_1100) iscsi data port: 192.168.1.4/24, 192.168.2.4/24 LUN attached: LUN 0 for 300GB - 2 -
Configuration Part 1: Using software iscsi initiator 1. Login the ESX Server from VMware vsphere Client. 2. In Configuration tab, modify Networking setting to add a VMkernel network. (It is the TCP/IP stack which handles traffic for ESX server services, such as VMotion, iscsi, and NFS.) 3. Make sure to choose VMkernel connection type. - 3 -
4. Create a virtual switch and make sure to choose the right network interface which is connected to the same network with P300H iscsi data port, here are the network interfaces vmnic0 and vmnic1. - 4 -
5. Specify Network Label and setup a proper VMkernel network IP which is used to connect to the iscis data port of P300H. - 5 -
6. Check all settings, then click Finish button. 7. In order to use the multipath I/O with the iscsi target, It s necessary to create another VMkernel network with IP 192.168.2.100/24-6 -
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8. In Configuration tab, select Storage Adapters to list all the storage adapters. Choose iscsi Software HBA and click property to modify the settings. 9. In iscsi initiator Properties, select General tab and click configure to enable iscsi initiator. - 8 -
10. In Dynamic Discovery tab, click Add button to set iscsi target IP, here is iscsi data port of P300H. - 9 -
11. After configuring iscsi initiator settings, the Rescan window will pop up. Click Yes button to rescan all devices on iscsi connections. 12. After rescanning the host, it will be found that the available LUNs list in the Details column when selecting the iscsi software adapter. Although only one LUN is created on P300H, there are two different physical paths to the same LUN. Therefore the system displays two different records to the same LUN here. 13. The LUN attached storage is used as the virtual disks of guest OS. In Configuration tab, select Storage and click Add Storage. - 10 -
14. Select Storage Type as Disk/LUN, and click Next. 15. Select the LUN, and click Next. - 11 -
16. Enter a datastore name for the new storage, and click Next. - 12 -
17. Click Next. 18. Check all settings, then click Finish button. - 13 -
19. Now, a new storage is added on datastores of ESX4.0.The ESX server provides settings to the multi-path I/O. We select the iscsi storage and click property to modify the settings. 20. Select Manage Paths. - 14 -
21. In Manage Paths window, it will display how many paths connect to this LUN and what path is active now. The policy is in fixed mode, it can be modified by pull-down menu. There are three load balance policies available, Fixed, Most Recently Used, and Round Robin. The difference between Fixed and Most Recently Used is that Fixed will make the active path to failback once the preferred path is restored from a failure status, but Most Recently Used policy will keep the active path stay in used. Fixed and Most Recently Used policies will use only one path to transfer the iscsi network traffic at the same time, whereas Round Robin policy will use all available paths to transfer the data. - 15 -
22. Now the data storages can be added as the virtual disks of guest OS. Right click on the guest OS and select Edit Settings. 23. In the Hardware tab, click Add button. - 16 -
24. Select Hard Disk, and click Next. - 17 -
25. Choose Create a new virtual disk, and click Next. 26. Select the Specify a datastore, and click Next. - 18 -
27. Select iscsi Storage on P300H, click OK. 28. Click Next. 29. Check all settings, then click Finish button. - 19 -
Part 2: Using iscsi HBA QLogic QLE4062 1. In Configuration tab, select Storage Adapters to list all the storage adapters. Choose QLE406Xc iscsi HBA and click property to modify the settings. 2. Setup a proper network IP which is used to connect to the iscis data port of P300H. - 20 -
3. In Dynamic Discovery tab, click Add button to set iscsi target IP, here is iscsi data port of P300H. - 21 -
4. Use the same steps to setup another port IP of iscsi HBA. 5. It provides settings to use Multipath I/O. Right click on one path and select Manage Paths. 6. In Manage Paths window, it will display how many paths connect to this LUN. The policy is in fixed mode, it can be modified by pull-down menu. - 22 -
Part 3: Enable jumbo frame Jumbo frames allow ESX server to send larger frames onto the physical network. The network must support jumbo frames end-to-end to be effective. Up to 9kB (9000 Bytes) of jumbo frame is supported. Before enabling this function, check with the hardware vendor to ensure that the physical network adapter and the iscsi storage support jumbo frame. Jumbo frame must be enabled for each vswitch via vsphere CLI. Also, creating a VMkernel network interface with jumbo frame enabled is necessary. 1. Login to the console of ESX host to enable jumbo frame. 2. Add a new portgroup to the vswitch2. - 23 -
3. The default MTU setting is 1500. 4. Change the MTU setting to 9000 on vswitch2. It s OK. But setting on vswitch1 will fail because the physical network adapter does not support jumbo frame, it will display unable to set MTU to 9000.... 5. Check the settings again, the MTU of vswitch2 becomes 9000. - 24 -
6. Back to ESX client, the vswitch2 has been established.select Properties to add physical network adapter. 7. Select Network Adapters tab, then click Add button. - 25 -
8. Select vmnic4 and vmnic5, then click Next button. - 26 -
9. Check all settings, then click Next button. 10. The vswitch2 has been created successfully. 11. Enable jumbo frame in P300H. - 27 -
12. To verify jumbo frame on guest OS in ESX 4.0, set the virtual network adapter jumbo packet to 9000. 13. Connect to P300H. Capture packets with a software named Wireshark. It will be found that the maximum segment size is 8960 bytes. It s jumbo frame enabled. - 28 -
Summary QSAN P series controller provides high performance I/O and disk fault tolerance with RAID function. It can provide a safety storage for the virtual disks of guest OS in ESX server. Applies to All QSAN P series controllers FW (20091002_1100) References VMWare Documentation http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/ How to capture packets with Wireshark ftp://ftp.qsan.com.tw/qsan_documents/white_paper/qwp200913-p200c- How_to_capture_packets_ with_wireshark.pdf - 29 -