6.0

Table Of Contents
vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples
60 VMware, Inc.
YoumustconfigureiSCSIinitiatorsforthehosttoaccessanddisplayiSCSIstoragedevices.
Figure 51depictshoststhatusedifferenttypesofiSCSIinitiators.
ThehostontheleftusesanindependenthardwareiSCSIadaptertoconnecttotheiSCSIstoragesystem.
ThehostontherightusessoftwareiSCSI.
DependenthardwareiSCSIcanbeimplementedindifferentwaysandisnotshown.iSCSIstoragedevices
fromthestoragesystembecomeavailabletothehost.YoucanaccessthestoragedevicesandcreateVMFS
datastoresforyourstorageneeds.
Figure 5-1. iSCSI Storage
Discovery Sessions
AdiscoverysessionispartoftheiSCSIprotocol.Thediscoverysessionreturnsthesetoftargetsthatyoucan
accessonaniSCSIstoragesystem.ESXisystemssupportdynamicandstaticdiscovery.
Dynamicdiscovery.AlsoknownasSendTargetsdiscovery.EachtimetheESXihostcontactsaspecified
iSCSIstorageserver,itsendsaSendTargetsrequesttotheserver.Inresponse,theiSCSIstorageserver
suppliesalistofavailabletargetstotheESXihost.Monitorandmanagewithesxcli iscsi adapter
discovery sendtargetor
vicfg-iscsicommands.
Staticdiscovery.TheESXihostdoesnothavetoperformdiscovery.Instead,theESXihostusestheIP
addressesordomainnamesandiSCSItargetnames(IQNorEUIformatnames)tocommunicatewiththe
iSCSItarget.Monitorandmanagewithesxcli iscsi adapter discovery statictargetor
vicfg-iscsicommands.
Foreithercase,yousetup
targetdiscoveryaddressessothattheinitiatorcandeterminewhichstorage
resourceonthenetworkisavailableforaccess.Youcandothissetupwithdynamicdiscoveryorstatic
discovery.Withdynamicdiscovery,alltargetsassociatedwithanIPaddressorhostnameandtheiSCSIname
arediscovered.Withstatic
discovery,youmustspecifytheIPaddressorhostnameandtheiSCSInameofthe
targetyouwanttoaccess.TheiSCSIHBAmustbeinthesameVLANasbothportsoftheiSCSIarray.
IP network
hardware
iSCSI
host 1
SP
iSCSI storage
HBA2 HBA1
software
iSCSI
host 2
NIC2 NIC1
software
adapter