Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Lumious
LumiousFlag for United States of America

asked on

VMware iSCSi Storage Network Connection Issue

Hi,

I’m having issues with connecting my SAN Storage device to my VMware environment.  The Hosts are having trouble seeing the LUNS on the synology device.  I recently changed my network around with different VLANs and separating the traffic in different ways than what I was doing before.  Before, I did separate the traffic, but I put everything on the 10.5.1.1 /255.255.255.192 sectioning off the network with different VLANs.  I don’t know what I’m doing wrong or why the Hosts wont see the LUNS on the device.  I’ve set this up before, but I’m completely stumped on why its not working.  I’ve recanned the Storage Devices and VMFS Volumes multiple times, Enabled/Disabled the iSCSi target on the device (with a reboot) but still no luck.

Attached is my complete document of what I have set up with screen shots for very easy reference.

Please let me know as soon as you can on what I'm not seeing here.

Thanks!
VMware-iSCSi-Storage-Network-Con.docx
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

can your ESXi server vmkping your SAN IP Address?

(not ping!)
Exactly what I was thinking, can you vmkping the synology from the ESXi hosts, also are you using iSNS on the Synology? it simplifies scanning for iqn's
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

I will check on both this morning.

Stay tuned.

Thanks
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

I tried to vmkping from Host to Target through Putty and it didn't work.  I tried to vmkping from Windows machine to Target and it didn't work either.  I've attached screenshots showing what I typed in.

iSNS on the Synology device for the 3 LUNS is not enabled.  Should I enable it?  Also when enabling iSNS it also asks for a iSNS Server, do I have to put one in?  What is that actually?

Please let me know when you get a chance.

Thanks
11-19-2013-7-05-47-AM.jpg
11-19-2013-7-02-51-AM.jpg
You are only required to vmkping from host to storage interface.

Isns is just a name server that stores own like a DNS server does a records.

The symbology IP address for the storage interface is what you should enter for isns.

If you cannot vmkping from the host, check each part of your network.
Your networking is incorrect, from host to iSCSI SAN, and hence why your LUNs are not connectecting.
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

Hanccocka:
- Could you explain what you are seeing in a little more detail?

Thanks
10.5.4.87 is your ESXi Host

10.5.3.52 is your SAN.

vmkping, cannot send a ping request to your iSCSI SAN, it's therefore unreachable.

What IP Address does your vmkernel portgroup have, and is it on the same network as your SAN?
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

See attached for Network details for Hosts and SAN.

Please let me know what you think and any suggestions on how to go about this.

Thanks
11-19-2013-9-43-37-AM.jpg
11-19-2013-9-44-59-AM.jpg
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

Yes I am using multipath, those articles I actually followed which are great.  Since we verified the IP Addressing, next is verifying the VLANs, tagging, switches, etc...

I've attached an image from my HP ProCurve switch which shows the VLANs.  VLAN 104 is where the ESXi hosts (VM Network and Management Network) are connected to on those ports.  VLAN 103 is where the the iSCSi Network cables are connected into from the Hosts with the "untagged" ports for where the SAN connects in to.

Quick question:  When initiating the iSCSi initiator, it gives it a Name by default.  If that name is changed by clicking configure, will that effect the connection to the LUNS?  See attached image.

Please let me know when you get a chance.

Thanks
HP-ProCurve-VLANS.jpg
11-19-2013-10-16-56-AM.jpg
Name is populated from iSCSI discovery, I would leave as is, and do not change.

okay, if using untagged ports, this network interface should be connected to two physical nics on the switch, and nics connected to SAN.

no tag is required on the SAN or ESXi host.
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

If the name that the iSCSi discovery populated got changed, would that effect the connection to the LUNS?

There are 2 ports on the HP ProCurve that the the NICs from the SAN are connected to which are untagged.  They are part of VLAN 103 as well.  

The ESXi hosts each have 2 cables that are dedicated for (VM-MGMT Network VLAN 104), (iSCSi Network VLAN 103), and (vMotion Network VLAN 102).  Each of these ports are tagged accordingly to where they are plugged into the HP ProCurve as you can see from the tagging in the previous image of the HP ProCurve Switch.

When you mentioned that "no tag is required on the SAN (which they aren't tagged, they are "Untagged" as you can see from the image) or the ESXi host: The cables that are used from the ESXi Host for the iSCSi, which are plugged into the ports of the HP ProCurve on VLAN 103, are you saying I'm not supposed to tag those?

Please let me know when you get a chance.

Thanks
changing the name is not going to stop vmkping from working.

All looks okay, but clearly VLAN 103 is not working correctly.

you have not tagged the virtual machine portgroups with 103 ?

if you remove all the VLAN 103 info, can you ping the SAN?
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

Wow....we all missed this one....JUMBO wasn't enabled on the VLAN ports for the HP ProCurve.  I set JUMBO to 9000 on all the NICs in VMware but not on the VLANS.

My LUNS came up right away after making the change on the Switch.

Thanks
Jumbo Frames should only be on your Storage Network, as per my EE Article mentioned earlier!

odd, you should still have been able to ping?

does vmkping still work?
Avatar of Lumious

ASKER

Hi,

After enabling JUMBO on the VLANS, I was then able to Ping everything and my LUNS came right up on each host in VMware.

Thanks