6.0.1

Table Of Contents
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Host..Storage Partition 
Procedure
1 Browse to the host in the vSphere Web Client navigator.
2 Click the Manage tab, and click Storage.
3 Click Storage Adapters and select the iSCSI adapter to congure from the list.
4 Under Adapter Details, click the Targets tab.
5 Congure the discovery method.
Option Description
Dynamic Discovery
a Click Dynamic Discovery and click Add.
b Type the IP address or DNS name of the storage system and click OK.
c Rescan the iSCSI adapter.
After establishing the SendTargets session with the iSCSI system, you host
populates the Static Discovery list with all newly discovered targets.
Static Discovery
a Click Static Discovery and click Add.
b Enter the target’s information and click OK
c Rescan the iSCSI adapter.
About Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters
A dependent hardware iSCSI adapter is a third-party adapter that depends on VMware networking, and
iSCSI conguration and management interfaces provided by VMware.
An example of a dependent iSCSI adapter is a Broadcom 5709 NIC. When installed on a host, it presents its
two components, a standard network adapter and an iSCSI engine, to the same port. The iSCSI engine
appears on the list of storage adapters as an iSCSI adapter (vmhba). Although the iSCSI adapter is enabled
by default, to make it functional, you must rst connect it, through a virtual VMkernel adapter (vmk), to a
physical network adapter (vmnic) associated with it. You can then congure the iSCSI adapter.
After you congure the dependent hardware iSCSI adapter, the discovery and authentication data are
passed through the network connection, while the iSCSI trac goes through the iSCSI engine, bypassing the
network.
Dependent Hardware iSCSI Considerations
When you use dependent hardware iSCSI adapters with ESXi, certain considerations apply.
n
When you use any dependent hardware iSCSI adapter, performance reporting for a NIC associated
with the adapter might show lile or no activity, even when iSCSI trac is heavy. This behavior occurs
because the iSCSI trac bypasses the regular networking stack.
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If you use a third-party virtual switch, for example Cisco Nexus 1000V DVS, disable automatic pinning.
Use manual pinning instead, making sure to connect a VMkernel adapter (vmk) to an appropriate
physical NIC (vmnic). For information, refer to your virtual switch vendor documentation.
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The Broadcom iSCSI adapter performs data reassembly in hardware, which has a limited buer space.
When you use the Broadcom iSCSI adapter in a congested network or under heavy load, enable ow
control to avoid performance degradation.
vSphere Storage
74 VMware, Inc.