Category Archives: vm-ware

How to enable iSCSI on ESX using the Dell Equallogic plugin

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Make sure you have the VM-Ware CLI installed on your vCenter or desktop. ( Download Link )

Make sure you have downloaded the Equallogic plugin for ESX from the Equallogic website. The download is available when you have registered you storage device. when downloaded, extract the ZIP. (Link)

Make sure your ESX server runs in Maintenance mode!

Open the VM-Ware CLI and navigate to the extracted ZIP and run:

setup.pl --server=192.168.191.10 --configure --ips=192.168.193.50,192.168.193.51,192.168.193.52,192.168.193.53 --nics=vmnic0,vmnic1,vmnic2,vmnic3 --enableswiscsi

Behind “–ips=” add an IP for every physical NIC you add to the vSwitch.
Behind “–nics=” aad the physical NIC’s you want to use for iSCSI.

Default Jumbo packages is not enable by the plugin, to enable this connect to the ESX server using SSH and run the following commands:

esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitchISCSI
esxcfg-vswitch -l
esxcfg-vmknic -m 9000 iSCSI0
esxcfg-vmknic -m 9000 iSCSI1
esxcfg-vmknic -m 9000 iSCSI2
esxcfg-vmknic -m 9000 iSCSI3
esxcfg-vmknic -l

How to enable iSCSI on ESX using CLI

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Connect through SSH with the ESX server and become root

Create a vSwitch

esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch_iscsi

Enable jumbo packages on the vSwitch, note: your switch must support this!

esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch_iscsi

Add virtual NIC’s to the vSwitch, for throughput resins it is recommended to have 2 NIC’s per physical network interface. In this case I have 4 NIC for iSCSI.

esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI01 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI02 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI03 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI04 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI05 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI06 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI07 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI08 vSwitch_iscsi

Configure an IP for each virtual NIC and enable Jumbo package on the virtual NIC.

esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.60 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI01
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.61 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI02
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.62 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI03
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.63 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI04
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.64 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI05
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.65 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI06
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.66 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI07
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.31.54.67 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 iSCSI08

Next you have to add the physical interfaces to the vSwitch, this can only be done through the GUI (vClient). If you don’t see the added switch, click refresh.

When the physical NIC’s are added to the vSwitch, you now have to map the virtual NIC with the physical one.

esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI01 -N vmnic4 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI02 -N vmnic4 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI03 -N vmnic5 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI04 -N vmnic5 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI05 -N vmnic6 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI06 -N vmnic6 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI07 -N vmnic7 vSwitch_iscsi
esxcfg-vswitch -p iSCSI08 -N vmnic7 vSwitch_iscsi

Next check your configuration

~ # esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name      Num Ports   Used Ports  Configured Ports  MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0         128         6           128               1500    vmnic0,vmnic1,vmnic2,vmnic3

  PortGroup Name        VLAN ID  Used Ports  Uplinks
  VM Network            0        0           vmnic0,vmnic1,vmnic2,vmnic3
  Management Network    0        1           vmnic0,vmnic1,vmnic2,vmnic3

Switch Name      Num Ports   Used Ports  Configured Ports  MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch_iscsi    128         13          128               9000    vmnic4,vmnic5,vmnic6,vmnic7

  PortGroup Name        VLAN ID  Used Ports  Uplinks
  iSCSI08               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic5,vmnic6
  iSCSI07               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic5,vmnic6
  iSCSI06               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic5,vmnic7
  iSCSI05               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic5,vmnic7
  iSCSI04               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic6,vmnic7
  iSCSI03               0        1           vmnic4,vmnic6,vmnic7
  iSCSI02               0        1           vmnic5,vmnic6,vmnic7
  iSCSI01               0        1           vmnic5,vmnic6,vmnic7

Next you have to enable the software iSCSI adapter for ESX

esxcfg-swiscsi -e

Check in the GUI what the “vmnba” port number is of the software iSCSI adpater, and add the kernel ports to this adapter.
The kernel port numbers can be found in the GUI under the vSwitch. These number are added bijou ESX when adding a virtual NIC.

esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk1 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk2 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk3 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk4 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk5 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk6 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk7 -d vmhba37
esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk8 -d vmhba37

Now you can add a iSCSI target to the software adapter in the GUI (vCenter). After that you have to refresh the adapter and ESX will find the LUN’s if access is configured.