VMWare ESX 4.0 and S7310

[tonyw3]

I am about to configure VMWare ESX 4.0 update 1 and S7310 (2010.Q1.1.0 (2010.02.09.1.0)), is NFS or ISCSI better to use for the datastore?

[Duke]

Generally NFS is the better solution. You'll get better analytics and working at a file-level is often easier than at a block-level. NFS performance used to be a lot better than iSCSI on the S7000, but since they replaced the iSCSI stack this is less of an issue. I think I'm correct in saying that iSCSI has slightly lower latency while NFS has better streaming performance, so NFS is definitely the route for something like a file server, but SQL and Exchange servers may benefit slightly from iSCSI. However, raw device mapping may also be a better option for these types virtual servers anyway. If you've got the time and space, try setting up both datastores and put identical VMs on both then monitor disk performance with the actual workload you'll be using.

 

Cheers,

Chris

[tonyw3]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. We have done some testing on a S7210 and we found that "dd" and "vdbench" gave a better performance using ISCSI but this my not be the case with our database PostgreSQL.

 

Have you or anyone on this forum got ISCSI on the S7000 working with VMWare ESXi 4, if so, did you have any issues with setting it up or any performance issues?

 

 

Thanks Tony.

[Duke]

I used iSCSI for testing but ended up using NFS for real-world (albeit it development servers) use. No issues with iSCSI when I did try it though, just set up your VMkernel stuff right in ESX. I was using the old iSCSI stack on the S7000 though so it's a bit different now. Both NFS and iSCSI are certified for use with ESX so you shouldn't have any problems.

[apaton]

No problems with ESXi 4 and iSCSI on the S7000, done it at a few sites.

 

If using iSCSI you could present an iSCSI LUN as a RDM and you can tune the LUN for PostgreSQL, If I/O is low-medium then stick to a standard VMFS datastore for simplicity.

 

Recommended changes for PostgreSQL LUN (NOT VMFS)

Create individual LUNS for PostgreSQL and Logs

Change S7000 Databases Record size to 8k for optimal write performance for table space (Matches PostgreSQL default page size) Logs may bet better at 128K

 

Andy

Edited June 16, 2010 by apaton
Clarification on Databse Record Size

[tonyw3]

Thanks for the updates.

 

Tony.

[Butuz]

Originally when I set up my 7110's iSCSI performance was dire so I set up with NFS and it's been working a treat. Apparently iSCSI performance is fixed now so I guess its up to you!

 

Butuz

[tonyw3]

Thank you for your reply. I think that we will be going down the NFS/CIFS route.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

tonyw3.

[drLurve]

Hi Tonyw3/Butuz,

 

Do you guys have configuration setting for S70310 iSCSI? In order to setup the s7310 storage, we should configure the storage LUN with initiator or targets? i found out that if i setup the LUN thru initiator cannot be detected by the OS. Any idea on that?

[RobFuller]

I’m more than happy with my iSCSI performance (7100), though it really was noticeably slower before the software update. I’m using Hyper-V however so not much help there as iSCSI is really the only ‘supported’ option.

[drLurve]

Hi Rob,

 

Since u r using s7100, i assume the iscsi configuration should be same. My initiator is under SunOS. So on storage side, i just need to create a LUN under target and auto assign IQN? I have done this and the SunOS can detect the rdsk but i cant newfs the partition. I tried to use format to create partition. No issue. If there any steps i missed out? please advice.

[Duke]

Do you guys have configuration setting for S70310 iSCSI? In order to setup the s7310 storage, we should configure the storage LUN with initiator or targets? i found out that if i setup the LUN thru initiator cannot be detected by the OS. Any idea on that?

 

What OS? Sun have docs on using S7000 with ESX (iSCSI and NFS), and using S7000 in a Windows environment (although this primarily covers CIFS shares).

 

Oracle - BigAdmin System Administration Portal

[drLurve]

I am using S7310 with Sun Solaris 10 but the initiator OS is not important, right? i need to confirm the iscsi configuration on s7310.

[tonyw3]

I found this guide useful when I was setting up S7210 ISCSI and VMware:

 

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/storage_vmware.pdf

 

Tony.

 

Hi Tonyw3/Butuz,

 

Do you guys have configuration setting for S70310 iSCSI? In order to setup the s7310 storage, we should configure the storage LUN with initiator or targets? i found out that if i setup the LUN thru initiator cannot be detected by the OS. Any idea on that?

[drLurve]

Hi Tony,

 

Thanks for the info. I have go thru the big admin guide. I found out that we need to identify the initiator IQN from the OS (VM ESX in big admin guide) and create an initiator in the S7000 storage. I used the "iscsiadm list initiator-node" to identify Sun Solaris IQN and used it to create an initiator in S7000 storage. From there, i drag the initiator to iSCSI initiator group and created a LUN. I tried to use auto-discovery and static discovery on Sun Solaris but still nothing.

 

Another way i tried is straight to the SAN>Targets>iSCSI Target>Auto Assign IQN+alias>Share>+LUN. Surprisingly the OS recognized the LUN in command "format" but i cant "newfs" or mount it.

 

Which is the proper way? The document is showing the storage to use +initiator to accept the initiator IQN. The OS then will detect/rescan the target (storage) automatically. Why the storage have both initiator and target option? Confused admin here.

[drLurve]

--Removed--

[apaton]

Hi Tony,

I used the "iscsiadm list initiator-node" to identify Sun Solaris IQN and used it to create an initiator in S7000 storage. From there, i drag the initiator to iSCSI initiator group and created a LUN. I tried to use auto-discovery and static discovery on Sun Solaris but still nothing.

 

Another way i tried is straight to the SAN>Targets>iSCSI Target>Auto Assign IQN+alias>Share>+LUN. Surprisingly the OS recognized the LUN in command "format" but i cant "newfs" or mount it.

 

Sound like your close to get it working

You don't need to do any thing specific for Solaris iSCSI client/Initiator S7000 Config,

1) On the S7000, create an iSCSI Target Group (Target IQN) and an iSCSI Initiator Group (iSCSI IQN)

 

For the iSCSI Initiator you need the Solaris IQN

root@jedi:/> iscsiadm list initiator-node
Initiator node name: [b]iqn.1986-03.com.sun:01:bad8c4f3ffff.4592afd1[/b]
Initiator node alias: -
       Login Parameters (Default/Configured):
               Header Digest: NONE/-
               Data Digest: NONE/-
       Authentication Type: NONE
       RADIUS Server: NONE
       RADIUS access: unknown
       Configured Sessions: 1

2) On S7000 create and assign a LUN to Target and iSCSI Initiator Group

 

3) Configure Solaris iSCSi (I prefer to use Static mode)

 

iscsiadm modify discovery --static enable

iscsiadm add discovery-address

iscsiadm add static-config ,:

 

The is the one form the S7000 iSCSI Target Group

 

root@jedi:/> iscsiadm modify discovery --static enable
root@jedi:/> iscsiadm add discovery-address 192.168.99.246
root@jedi:/>  iscsiadm add static-config iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:eb5f63b2-f1f0-c731-f28d-d56664395cfa,192.168.99.246:3260

root@jedi:/> iscsiadm  list target
Target: iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:eb5f63b2-f1f0-c731-f28d-d56664395cfa
       Alias: sun-storage
       TPGT: 2
       ISID: 4000002a0000
       Connections: 1


root@jedi:/> echo "" | format
Searching for disks...done


AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
      0. c1t0d0 
         /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@a/pci17c2,10@4/sd@0,0
      1. [b]c2t600144F0D1F98B7300004C93ECB40001d0[/b] 
         /scsi_vhci/disk@g600144f0d1f98b7300004c93ecb40001
Specify disk (enter its number):

4) All Done you will see you new iSCSi Lun with "format", if using Solaris x86 then remember to run "fdisk" as well.

 

 

root@jedi:/> newfs /dev/rdsk/c2t600144F0D1F98B7300004C93ECB40001d0s0
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c2t600144F0D1F98B7300004C93ECB40001d0s0: (y/n)? yes
Warning: 1324 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated
/dev/rdsk/c2t600144F0D1F98B7300004C93ECB40001d0s0:      20900564 sectors in 3402 cylinders of 48 tracks, 128 sectors
       10205.4MB in 213 cyl groups (16 c/g, 48.00MB/g, 5824 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 98464, 196896, 295328, 393760, 492192, 590624, 689056, 787488, 885920,

Andy

Edited September 18, 2010 by apaton
ty

[tonyw3]

Hi Tony,

 

Thanks for the info. I have go thru the big admin guide. I found out that we need to identify the initiator IQN from the OS (VM ESX in big admin guide) and create an initiator in the S7000 storage. I used the "iscsiadm list initiator-node" to identify Sun Solaris IQN and used it to create an initiator in S7000 storage. From there, i drag the initiator to iSCSI initiator group and created a LUN. I tried to use auto-discovery and static discovery on Sun Solaris but still nothing.

 

Another way i tried is straight to the SAN>Targets>iSCSI Target>Auto Assign IQN+alias>Share>+LUN. Surprisingly the OS recognized the LUN in command "format" but i cant "newfs" or mount it.

 

Which is the proper way? The document is showing the storage to use +initiator to accept the initiator IQN. The OS then will detect/rescan the target (storage) automatically. Why the storage have both initiator and target option? Confused admin here.

 

Hi drLurve,

On the S7000 storage I normally set up both initiators and target(s). This is for mapping a initiator/target to a LUN.

 

The steps that I have used in the past to set up a static OpenSolaris server was: (should be the same for Solaris apart from the pkg install bit)

 

1. Install the SUNWiscsi package

 

pkg install SUNWiscsi

 

1. svcadm enable svc:/network/iscsi_initiator:default

 

2. iscsiadm modify discovery --static enable

 

3. iscsiadm list discovery

 

4. iscsiadm list initiator-node

 

5. iscsiadm add static-config iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:1effd458-6b1c-6f8d-b1a0-dc5aabbf1f51,10.1.1.70

 

6. iscsiadm list static-config

 

Static Configuration Target:

iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:7136fd12-a275-ecf5-9fb7-c3117f1a5f70,10.1.190.141:3260

 

7. devfsadm -i iscsi

 

8. format (to check)

 

9. fdisk c0t600144F04B8F90D900001517ABDD8E00d0p0 (on x86 only partition the disk)

 

Hope this works for you.

 

 

Tonyw.

[drLurve]

Thanks guys, i manage to mount it on solaris adi. Anyhow, can multi VMware ESX 4.0 host access to the same LUN? If yes, is it we need to add the initiator to the initiator group?

[apaton]

Anyhow, can multi VMware ESX 4.0 host access to the same LUN? If yes, is it we need to add the initiator to the initiator group?

 

Yes, VMware's VMFS is a clustered filesystem.