6.0.1

Configuring iSCSI Adapters and
Storage 10
Before ESXi can work with a SAN, you must set up your iSCSI adapters and storage.
To do this, you must rst observe certain basic requirements and then follow best practices for installing and
seing up hardware or software iSCSI adapters to access the SAN.
The following table lists the iSCSI adapters (vmhbas) that ESXi supports and indicates whether VMkernel
networking conguration is required.
Table 10‑1. Supported iSCSI adapters
iSCSI Adapter (vmhba) Description VMkernel Networking
Software Uses standard NICs to connect your
host to a remote iSCSI target on the
IP network .
Required
Independent Hardware Third-party adapter that ooads the
iSCSI and network processing and
management from your host.
Not required
Dependent Hardware Third-party adapter that depends on
VMware networking and iSCSI
conguration and management
interfaces.
Required
After you set up the iSCSI adapters, you can create a datastore on iSCSI storage. For details on how to create
and manage datastores, see “Creating Datastores,” on page 160.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“ESXi iSCSI SAN Requirements,” on page 70
n
“ESXi iSCSI SAN Restrictions,” on page 70
n
“Seing LUN Allocations for iSCSI,” on page 70
n
“Network Conguration and Authentication,” on page 71
n
“Set Up Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters,” on page 71
n
“About Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters,” on page 74
n
“About the Software iSCSI Adapter,” on page 81
n
“Modify General Properties for iSCSI Adapters,” on page 87
n
“Seing Up iSCSI Network,” on page 88
n
“Using Jumbo Frames with iSCSI,” on page 95
n
“Conguring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Adapters,” on page 97
VMware, Inc.
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