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iSCSI should work just fine. &nbsp;The only thing I would suggest to you if you could do it and have the resources, is to create a VLAN for your iSCSI interfaces. &nbsp;This way the traffic between your iSCSI interfaces will be separate from the rest of your network traffic.<br />

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I have no opinion on either RHEL or SUSE but I would also add openfiler as your choice of solution for providing NFS/ISCSI storage. (<a href="http://www.openfiler.com" rel="ugc">www.openfiler.com</a>) I think it is quite good for doing this, especially since it is dedicated to doing that!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
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Unfortunately, I work under a contract that requires I use software on an approved list. I looked, and openfiler isn't on it.<br />
It was the FIRST solution I looked for on the list!
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Ah ... then I am useless in trying to help you :-) Good luck..
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Have you taken a look at freenas.org?<br />

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Lets just say that the only two options I have are SLES and REL.
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I've sued openfiler (linux based but optimized nas/san) with good feedback on iSCSI. &nbsp;Attempting to setup for NFS but having some issues, software is free but they charge for documentation
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@paulsolov ... sued... <br />
oh dear was it that bad??! ... unless it's a keyboard prolbem and a ytop :-) and you meant used... &lt;grin&gt;
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@jools: it really must have been terrible! :)
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it's a user to keyboard interface issue.<br />
<br />
On the subjet though FREENAS will also do NFS and iSCSI
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Unfortunately, it also isn't in the approved software list. If you have have used freenas or openfiler with esx, I would like to hear about it, but I can't USE either.
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Gonna be slim pickin's here for you but here is some reading <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/rhel-centos-fedora-linux-iscsi-howto.html" rel="ugc">http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/rhel-centos-fedora-linux-iscsi-howto.html</a><br />
<br />
I am sure you have seen it all but I hope you can show your client the other solutions and hopefully they can be open to them as they are *nix based solutions also.<br />

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Let's just say that I should feel lucky that red hat and suse are on the approved list!
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Sounds like a gov't contract LOL<br />

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I think I can confirm that much! :)<br />
Still getting the hang of what I can and cannot say.
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@robocat: First of all, that is a cool handle. Secondly, where did you find that list? I searched the compatibility list, but couldn't find... well, anything, actually.
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<br />
<a href="http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_san_guide.pdf" rel="ugc nofollow">http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_san_guide.pdf</a><br />

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You didn't really answer the question that I asked, but I do appreciate the answer just the same. I am probably going to go with NFS, but hosted on a SLES box.
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That should have been an &quot;A&quot;. I have requested a MOD come look at it.
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I would like to use a linux server to work as a cheap SAN for an ESX setup. I am looking for stories/thoughts about usings either Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Suse Linux Enterprise Server to act as an iSCSI or NFS target for an ESXi server. Positive and negative. I would like to split the points between to two most complete comments, but if one is incredible, I will assign the writer all 500. 
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I would like to use a linux server to work as a cheap SAN for an ESX setup. I am looking for stories/thoughts about usings either Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Suse Linux Enterprise Server to act as an iSCSI or NFS target for an ESXi server. Positive and negative. I would like to split the points between to two most complete comments, but if one is incredible, I will assign the writer all 500. 

iSCSI or NFS for ESX in REL or SLES

A server is a computer program or a machine that waits for requests from other machines or software (clients) and responds to them. This architecture is called the client–server model. The clients may run on the same computer or may connect to the server over a network. The purpose of a server is to share data or hardware and software resources among clients. Typical computing servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.

Server Software

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Linux is a UNIX-like open source operating system with hundreds of distinct distributions, including: Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, CentOS, and Arch Linux. Linux is generally associated with web and database servers, but has become popular in many niche industries and applications.