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9 Configuring iSCSI Connectivity with VMware vSphere 6 and Dell PS Series Storage | TR1075
5 Installation overview
Each environment will be different, but the following sections provide example installation steps for
configuring a new ESXi host to connect to a PS Series SAN. Throughout these examples, the names and IP
addresses assigned will need to be changed to be relevant in your environment. These examples assume a
switch with Jumbo Frames support on the physical hardware.
This paper focuses on one-to-one VMkernel mapping with two physical NICs and two VMkernel ports.
This would be a typical solution for many environments to utilize all of the bandwidth available to the ESXi
host’s network interfaces.
There are some suggested configurations depending on the number of NICs that will be used for iSCSI
traffic. Every environment will differ depending on the number of hosts, the number of PS Series members,
and the number of volumes. In a default configuration, assign one VMkernel port for each physical NIC in
the system. So if there are two NICs, assign two VMkernel ports. This is referred to in the VMware iSCSI
document as 1:1 port binding.
Keep in mind that it is the VMkernel port that establishes the iSCSI session to the volume and the physical
NIC is just the means it utilizes to get there.
Due to how the PS Series SAN automatically load balances volumes across multiple members and iSCSI
connections across multiple ports, this configuration will give both redundancy and performance gains
when configured properly.
Table 1 Sample configurations
NICs
VMkernel ports
2 physical 1GbE NICs
2 VMkernel ports (1 per physical NIC)
4 physical 1GbE NICs
4 VMkernel ports (1 per physical NIC)
2 physical 10GbE NICs
2 VMkernel ports (1 per physical NIC)
This provides scalability and performance as the SAN environment grows without having to make changes
on each ESXi host.
If more iSCSI connections are desired, follow the above sample configurations to obtain the number of
VMkernel ports that match the environment and the number of paths you need to the PS Series SAN.
Always keep in mind the entire infrastructure of the virtual datacenter when deciding on network path and
volume count. To see the current connection limits of pools and groups for the Dell PS Series SAN, view
the release notes at eqlsupport.dell.com (login required).
All of these configurations are done at the iSCSI vSwitch level. This means that once the configuration is
completed, the ESXi host will create multiple iSCSI connections to the PS Series SAN. Every new volume
will have more iSCSI connections as well. Once this is configured, changes are only required if more NICs
are being added or if more or less paths to the storage are needed.