Dell MD3200i - Help with configuration

[JonThompson]

Hello

We have purchsed a Dell MD3200i to use as a SAN device connected to a physical server. I have been trying to follow the Dell guide, and I have managed to create two disk groups with 3 hard drives in each. I have created two Virtual Disks for use as storage devices.

And now what??? I can't work out what the next step should be, basically we want the host server to see the SAN as two giant hard drives as we want to use the SAN with Backup Exec like our previous SAN.

Has anybody else achieved this? If so, how?

Thanks.

[JonThompson]

*BUMP*

Can anybody help?

[tmcd35]

I'm gonna hazard two guesses (If I'm wrong let us know and I'm sure someone with more knowledge of other systems will chime in). 1) It's an iSCSI SAN box, and 2) You are running a Microsoft Windows network.

I'll also assume you have all the networking stuff on the SAN set up and both it and the Servers are on the same network. Ideally, you'd use a separate switch/network for your data traffic and have a dedicated NIC in the right IP range on the servers for accessing the SAN.

All that being the case, then I'm guessing these two links are the missing parts of the puzzle...
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Step-by-Step Guide

and the iSCSI software download...
Download: Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator Version 2.08 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

If you set this up righ then you should see the SAN volumes appear in Disk Manager on the Windows Boxes for you to format and use as if they were locally attached drives.

[JonThompson]

Thanks for replying. Yes, it is an iSCSI SAN, and we are running a MS server which is connected to the SAN. I have assigned two IP addresses to the two RAID controllers, and the SAN, and they are all on the same subnet. (I can access the SAN using the Dell software.)

The first link didn't work, but the second one took me to the download page where I downloaded the exe and the user guide. I'll have a look at this later today, time permitting and let you know how I get on. Thanks.

[JonThompson]

@tmcd35 I didn’t need to install the software as it's already included in Server 2008. I read the MS website, and I have launched the iSCSI Initiator software, and used the quick connect option. However, every time I enter both IP addresses for the two iSCSI Raid controllers into the target box and click connect; it returns an 'Initiator Error.' message for both of them.

Any ideas?

[tmcd35]

Unfortunately it's been a very long time since I last set this up (another school some 4 years ago). My guess is a setting on the SAN to enable iSCSI. The other thing I vaguely remember is something to do with security - CHAP? - settings.