iSCSI Network Port Binding Empty

[bkboudreaugd]

Hello all,

I am trying to set up an iSCSI connection on my ESX hosts however I am not able to select anything when in the "Network Port Binding" window.

I have 2 ESXi hosts (managed by VCSA 7.0.3) with a single distributed switch (LAG) with 3 port groups:

1) Mgmt, VLAN'd with two vmkernel adapters (1 for each host).

2) Storage VLAN'd with two vmkernel adapters (1 for each host).

3) VMTraffic VLAN'd with no vmkernel

I created the software storage adapter on each ESXi host, selected the newly created adapter and when I select "Network Port Binding-> Add" the window just displays the listing of physical adapters, but greyed out (see attached).

I watched a bunch of videos and did exactly the same thing in all of them with the glaring difference of the videos using standard switches when I am solely using distributed.

Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[pmichelli]

How many uplinks are you using on the vDS? In my scenario we have 4 per host.

I am using 2 for the VDS that handles all vLANS and MGMT traffic for ESXi.

I created a second vDS solely for storage and am using the other 2 uplinks.

But to be perfectly honest, I didn't like having the iSCSI on vDS so I ended up using standard switch for iSCSI. 

Not sure if you can port bind on a vDS if the uplinks are used to carry vLAN and MGMT traffic as well. Ideally you isolate the adapters to storage and use them only for that purpose

[bkboudreaugd]

I was using all 4, but after reading the link that André posted after you, I think I will change my environment to more reflect what you have described.

Thank you for the input!

[pmichelli]

If your iSCSI is going to 2 subnets for redundancy, make sure you create one VMkernel per port group and bind one NIC to one VMK. See my example below.

[a_p_]

AFAIK, port binding should only be used for single subnet storage connections.

André

[pmichelli]

This is how EMC's storage architects asked us to configure the iSCSI for both of our arrays.  We have 2 fault domains in an active./active configuration.

[a_p_]

That's interesting, because it's even in some of Dell's own Best Practices Guide (e.g. one that I just found https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/common/sc-series-vmware-vsphere-best-practices_en-us.pdf - Section 6.6.1). This one is for the SC, but I remember reading this for the Unity too.

The mentioned document refers to https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2038869

André

 

[pmichelli]

I trust you more than I would Dell / EMC .  I will read through this. Thank you very much for replying. 

[a_p_]

I strongly recommend that you read https://core.vmware.com/blog/iscsi-and-laglacp, and possibly rethink your network configuration.

André