Trying to test ESX4 with test iSCSI (FreeNAS)

[kjstech]

Hello,

I'm learning about VSphere ESX4 and iSCSI and a simple way to evaluate it is to use FreeNAS along with the ESX4 60 day trial. We will be getting a full blown EMC SAN and VSphere solution installed within a few months, but I'd like to have a little bit of playtime first hand.

So I have FreeNAS installed in VMWare Workstation along with 4 SCSI 72gb disks. These disks are in RAID5 and iSCSI is enabled. I can connect to the iSCSI using the Microsoft iSCSI initiator. I can format the disk and store files on it. It even worked with ESXi 3.5, but I since then wiped it to try the latest version of VMWare VSphere4.

For the life of me, I cannot add this iscsi datastore. In vSphere client under Configuration > Storage Adapters, I have the vmhba33 iSCSI connection to the FreeNAS box NetBSD iSCSI Disk (iqn.1994_04.org.netbsd.iscsi_target,L,0x4a71bbb1667c11de), runtime name: vmhba33:C1:T0:L0, 216GB capacity.

Now under Configuration > Storage, I attempt to create the datastore. Add Storage > Disk/LUN > Choose my only iSCSI option shown, name it vmds1, 256GB, Block size: 1MB, Maximize capacity, next, finish. Within a few minutes I will always get an error "Error during the configuration of the host: Unable to create Filesystem, please see VMkernal log for more details". Under FreeNAS I tried formatting it as FAT32, EXT2, NTFS, or leaving it unformatted. None work.

I remember having a heck of a lot of difficulty getting this to work with ESXi 3.5, but I did end up getting things going, along with 2 virtual machines up and running. Although I blew it all away to try vSphere 4. Now I don't remember what I did, or maybe this version doesn't want to play nice with FreeNAS iSCSI implementation.

Under the Events tab I see a lot of "Lost connectivity to storage device iqn.1994_04.org.netbsd.iscsi_target,L,0x4a71bbb1667c11de. Path vmhba22:C1:T0:L0 is down. Affected datastores: "VMDS1". Recovery attempt is in progress and outcome will be reported shortly."

There is one entry that says "Successfully restored access to volume 4a4bc1e1-f4bb4a45-cc91-000c2910ccd5 (VMDS1) following connectivity issues"

Although this is followed by much more of the above "Lost connectivity" messages.

I'm at wits end. I really want to play with this using iSCSI to simulate our future iSCSI SAN from EMC. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[mjsvirt]

I use several for lab purposes but for me Openfiler has been easy to setup and administer. A decent free ISCSI SAN.

Also, since you are looking at EMC you might want to take a look at their Celerra VSA (virtual SAN) for lab use.

Check out this post from Chad -

[kjstech]

Ok, I've installed Openfiler and what do you know, the iSCSI connection now works great! Wonder if FreeNAS isn't fully complying with the iSCSI specification? Oddly I had it working with ESXi 3.5, but of course it wasn't so easy.

Thanks for the link for the Celerra simulator. Might want to give that a shot. Seems pretty complex to get setup, but we'll see what time allows.

[mjsvirt]

That's great to hear!!

If you found the information I provided helpful, please consider awarding points.

Thanks,

JS

[TonyDiMaggio]

Do a chmod 777 on the iscsi file you created in FreeNAS. If you also share out the iSCSI file thru CIFS, you can give Everyone Full Control from a Windows box. I had the same error and that fixed it...

[harria5]

Hello

Has anybody gotten esx4 to work with EMC celerra simulator product? I'm in the process of trying it now. The lun is all created and I can see it under the Storage Adapters in the VI client. However, I cannot see it when I attempt to add to the list of datastores. I'm selecting Storage/Add Storage/Disk-LUN and then Next. I'm not seeing the LUN.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[sysprobs]

FreeNAS is a good option and easy to setup too. I like it. Here are the easy steps to connect FreeNAS with vSpeher 4.