Today I installed two Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN boxes on my vSphere hosts.
EqualLogic Installation
Installation was a BREEZE! 10 minute setup... REALLY! Dell hit the money on this aquisition (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/05/dell-acquires-equallogic-for-14-billion/), but whats 1.4 BILLION DOLLARS to a company like Dell right?
The only downfalll that I've seen so far, is that you cannot have multiple RAID types within the enclosure. Unlike most (all) HP/EMC arrays, where you can have RAID 5 arrays sitting next to RAID 10 arrays int he same enclosure.... with the EqualLogic; you cannot. What a shame in my opinion :(
So I decided to use RAID 5 for the system type, I'll test the addition RAID level later. I created a 500gb volume, added the necessary IP's to the ACL on the Access tab, and I was ready to rock.
- Note: make sure you enabled shared access to the volume!
vSphere Configuration
First, let me give you a breakdown of the systems that I have configured:
Software (pretty simple):
vSphere 4 eval (35 days left in fact)
Hardware:
Dell R805 (2)
64gb memory
Dual quad-core AMD 2356 CPU's
Two quad-port Intel 82571EB NIC's
Two single-port Qlogic QLE406Xc iSCSI HBA's
iSCSI HBA Configuration
Per Dell's handy-dandy EqualLogic Configuration Guide (TR1043-VMWareFAQ-1.30.pdf), there are a few things that you need to configure prior to hitting the ground running. Those are, in order:
- Enable ARP redirect on the HBA using: esxcfg-hwiscsi -a allow vmhbaX
- Enable support for jumo frames on the HBA using: esxcfg-hwiscsi -j enable vmhbaX
- Verify these settings are correct by using the ISCLI utility availible from the QLogic website
To set them, run ‘iscli’ at the Service Console. To get to the settings:
- Enter ‘4’ (Port Level Info & Operations)
- Enter ‘3’ (Edit Configured Port Settings Menu),
- Enter ‘3’ (Port Firmware Settings Menu),
- Finally ‘7’ (Configure Advanced Settings)
- Press ‘enter’ until you see “ExeThrottle.” The default is 64, maximum value is 256. Higher values increase performance. A setting of 128 is safe and a good starting point.
- Continue to press ‘enter’ until you see ‘IP_ARP_Redirect’ and set that to ‘on’
- Continue to press ‘enter’ until you see ‘KeepAliveTO’ and set that to ’60.’ Set to ‘120’ if you are booting the ESX server from the array.
- Continue to press ‘enter’ until you return to the previous menu
- If you have two ports, Select ‘11’ (Select HBA Port) and configure that port.
- When finished, select ‘10’ (Save Changes and reset HBA).
Keep in mind, if you booting from SAN, a reboot is required for these changes to take effect, luckily I am not :)
VMware iSCSI Configuration
Configuring the hardware initiators was for the most part painless... IF your network team can figure out what subnet you're actually supposed to be on :)
I started by configuring the HBA's by going to Configuration > Storage Adapters > Properties of the HBA
From here I entered the IP/NM/GW that the network team so graciously provided to me. Next on the dynamic discovery tab, I entered the IP address of the EqualLogic "group". Now a quick rescan of the HBA and POOF! there's my 500gb LUN!
I added the lun, formatted it and I was done.
Now to deploy some systems onto the array and do some performance testing! That's coming up in part two!
