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Use Case Study: Using Active System For VMware Cluster Environment Configuration

adapter. Since an iSCSI IQN was from the Active System Manager pool, it is recommended to enter the

IQN assigned by Active System Manager for consistency, but you may use a different IQN if you wish.

Note that VMware software does check for the correct IQN format and will not let you enter a value if

it doesn’t follow the IQN naming specification referenced earlier in this document.

Next go to the “Network Configuration” tab and click “Add” to bind the appropriate vmkernel Network

Adapter with this storage adapter. For the first storage adapter select vmnic0 which in this case is

associated with vmk1. You will be able to confirm you have correctly configured your iSCSI vSwitches

and adapters because VMware should report that your configuration is “Compliant”.

Finally, add the target information for the two shared iSCSI storage volumes which will be used for this

cluster. This will require you to have the IP information, port, and iSCSI target names for the two

shared volumes to which a connection will be made.

Once this information has been added and saved vCenter will prompt for a rescan of the host adapter,

which should cause the previously created storage volumes to be discovered. These volumes will then

be visible under the “Details” section for the adapter you just scanned.

Repeat the process to connect the second, redundant iSCSI storage adapter to these same two volumes

with the following difference: the second storage adapter should be associated with the second

VMKernel (vmk) Network Adapter, which in this case is vmnic1.

Once both adapters have been connected and rescanned each should have exactly one connection to

the same two storage volumes. Once all four connections are active, the shared storage can be added,

formatted, and set up for multipathing. This process should be repeated on every host present in the

cluster.

Add Shared Storage

In order for the cluster to function correctly it requires at least two shared storage volumes connected

to all hosts in the cluster. In the previous steps it was ensured that both storage volumes were

accessible by both storage adapters on all hosts in the cluster. The next step is to make the storage

available for use by adding it and formatting it. The ESXi hosts will also need to take advantage of the

redundant paths which have been set up to this storage by using connections on both fabric A1 and A2

which were configured using Active System Manager.

On the “Configuration” tab navigate to the “Storage” link, then select the link to “Add Storage”. This

will launch as wizard to add your storage volumes for access by this host. Select the storage type to be

“Disk/LUN”. Select one of the two iSCSI volumes connected to in the last step. Select the file system

version you would like to use. Enter a name for your datastore. Specify how much capacity of the

datastore to make available for formatting, then complete the wizard. Repeat this process for the

second shared volume.

Enable MPIO When Using Other (Non-EqualLogic) Storage

If you are using EqualLogic storage and MEM, you can skip this section. Once you have added and

formatted your storage, you want to make sure to set the appropriate multi-pathing settings for these

devices. There are currently two connections to each shared storage volume which will be used by the

host. One path is on A1 using port 1 on the Broadcom CNA, and the second path is on fabric A2 using

port 2 of the Broadcom CNA. To view both of these paths, highlight the storage volume on the

“Configuration” tab in vCenter Server under the “Storage” link. Once the storage volume is