ESX Configuration Guide
See “Bind iSCSI Ports to iSCSI Adapters,” on page 98.
4If needed, enable Jumbo Frames. Jumbo Frames must be enabled for each vSwitch through the vSphere CLI. Also, if you use an ESX host, you must create a VMkernel network interface enabled with Jumbo Frames.
See the Networking section for more information.
5Configure discovery addresses.
See “Configuring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Initiators,” on page 99.
6Configure CHAP parameters.
See “Configuring CHAP Parameters for iSCSI Adapters,” on page 100.
Enable the Software iSCSI Adapter
You must enable your software iSCSI adapter so that your host can use it to access iSCSI storage.
Prerequisites
Before enabling the software iSCSI adapter, set up networking for iSCSI.
NOTE If you boot from iSCSI using the software iSCSI adapter, the adapter is enabled and the network configuration is created automatically at the first boot. If you disable the adapter, it is re-enabled each time you boot the host.
Procedure
1Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a server from the inventory panel.
2Click the Configuration tab and click Storage Adapters in the Hardware panel. The list of available storage adapters appears.
3 Select the iSCSI initiator to configure and click Properties.
4Click Configure.
5To enable the initiator, select Enabled and click OK.
After you enable the initiator, the host assigns the default iSCSI name to it. You can change the default name if needed.
Setting Up and Configuring Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
A dependent hardware iSCSI adapter is a third-party adapter that depends on VMware networking, and iSCSI configuration and management interfaces provided by VMware.
This type of adapter can be a card, such as a Broadcom 5709 NIC, that presents a standard network adapter and iSCSI offload functionality for the same port. The iSCSI offload functionality appears on the list of storage adapters as an iSCSI adapter. Although the iSCSI adapter is enabled by default, to make it functional, you must set up networking for the iSCSI traffic and bind the adapter and an appropriate VMkernel iSCSI port. You can then configure the adapter.
The entire setup and configuration process for the dependent hardware iSCSI adapters involves these steps:
1View the dependent hardware adapters.
See “View Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters,” on page 97.
If your dependent hardware adapters do not appear on the list of storage adapters, check whether they need to be licensed. See your vendor documentation.
2Determine the association between the dependent hardware adapters and physical NICs.
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Chapter 8 Configuring ESX Storage
See “Determine Association Between Dependent Hardware iSCSI and Physical Network Adapters,” on page 98
Make sure to note the names of the corresponding physical NICs. For example, the vmhba33 adapter corresponds to vmnic1 and vmhba34 corresponds to vmnic2.
3Configure the iSCSI networking by creating ports for the iSCSI traffic.
See “Networking Configuration for Software iSCSI and Dependent Hardware iSCSI,” on page 68.
Open a port for each NIC. For example, create the vmk1 port for the vmnic1 NIC and the vmk2 port for vmnic2.
4Bind the iSCSI ports to corresponding dependent hardware iSCSI adapters. This step is necessary no matter whether you have multiple adapters or just one.
See “Bind iSCSI Ports to iSCSI Adapters,” on page 98.
In this example, you bind port vmk1 to vmhba33 and port vmk2 to vmhba34.
5Configure discovery addresses.
See “Configuring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Initiators,” on page 99.
6Configure CHAP parameters.
See “Configuring CHAP Parameters for iSCSI Adapters,” on page 100.
Dependent Hardware iSCSI Considerations
When you use dependent hardware iSCSI adapters with ESX, certain considerations apply.
nWhen you use any dependent hardware iSCSI adapter, performance reporting for a NIC associated with the adapter might show little or no activity, even when iSCSI traffic is heavy. This behavior occurs because the iSCSI traffic bypasses the regular networking stack.
nThe Broadcom iSCSI adapter performs data reassembly in hardware, which has a limited buffer space. When you use the Broadcom iSCSI adapter in a congested network or under load, enable flow control to avoid performance degradation.
Flow control manages the rate of data transmission between two nodes to prevent a fast sender from overrunning a slow receiver. For best results, enable flow control at the end points of the I/O path, at the hosts and iSCSI storage systems.
nBroadcom iSCSI adapters do not support IPv6 and Jumbo Frames.
View Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
View a dependent hardware iSCSI adapter to verify that it is correctly loaded.
If the dependent hardware adapter does not appear on the list of storage adapters, check whether it needs to be licensed. See your vendor documentation.
Procedure
1Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a host from the Inventory panel.
2Click the Configuration tab and click Storage Adapters in the Hardware panel.
If installed, the dependent hardware iSCSI adapter should appear on the list of storage adapters.
3Select the adapter to view and click Properties.
The iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box displays the default details for the adapter, including the iSCSI name and iSCSI alias.
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