Cannot connect iSCSI zvol under FN 11.1-U7

[James S]

I had a set of disks go bad in my iSCSI store which meant a complete rebuild of the pool. I upgraded to 11.2-U5 at the time I could not set the iSCSI device (now reported as a bug). I've reverted to 11.1-U7 (active boot under the gui). I am trying to re-setup iSCSI to esxi 6.0 with FN 11.1.U7 which was working before (following John Keen's guide). I've done a clean install of esxi 6.

I just cannot get the zvol to show up on the esxi side. I am now out of ideas. Any help to crack this problem would be really appreciated.

Basic settings are attached below as screenshots.

Troubleshooting or information so far:
- I've checked the devices on the esxi side. This shows the SSD system disk, WD HDD and CD-Rom

Code:

[root@localhost:~] esxcli storage core device list
naa.600508e00000000030bf27996e48ce01
   Display Name: LSI Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.600508e00000000030bf27996e48ce01)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 113487
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508e00000000030bf27996e48ce01
   Vendor: LSI
   Model: Logical Volume
   Revision: 3000
   SCSI Level: 6
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: degraded
   Is RDM Capable: true
   Is Local: false
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: true
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unknown
   Other UIDs: vml.0200000000600508e00000000030bf27996e48ce014c6f67696361
   Is Shared Clusterwide: true
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is SAS: true
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   Is Boot Device: true
   Device Max Queue Depth: 128
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
   Drive Type: logical
   RAID Level: RAID1
   Number of Physical Drives: 2
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

naa.50014ee2bb6e806f
   Display Name: ATA Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.50014ee2bb6e806f)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 1907729
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.50014ee2bb6e806f
   Vendor: ATA
   Model: WDC WD20EFAX-68F
   Revision: 0A82
   SCSI Level: 6
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: degraded
   Is RDM Capable: true
   Is Local: false
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: false
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unknown
   Other UIDs: vml.020000000050014ee2bb6e806f574443205744
   Is Shared Clusterwide: true
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is SAS: true
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   Is Boot Device: false
   Device Max Queue Depth: 32
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
   Drive Type: physical
   RAID Level: NA
   Number of Physical Drives: 1
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Display Name: Local ASUS CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)
   Has Settable Display Name: false
   Size: 0
   Device Type: CD-ROM
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Vendor: ASUS
   Model: DRW-24D5MT
   Revision: 1.00
   SCSI Level: 5
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on
   Is RDM Capable: false
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: true
   Is SSD: false
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unsupported
   Other UIDs: vml.0005000000766d68626133333a303a30
   Is Shared Clusterwide: false
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is SAS: false
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   Is Boot Device: false
   Device Max Queue Depth: 1
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
   Drive Type: unknown
   RAID Level: unknown
   Number of Physical Drives: unknown
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

- Looked at the ctl.conf Which seems to match my settings but I may be missing something

Code:

root@freenas:/var/log # cat /etc/ctl.conf
portal-group default {
}

portal-group pg1 {
        tag 0x0001
        discovery-filter portal-name
        discovery-auth-group no-authentication
        listen 10.0.0.1:3260
        listen 10.0.1.1:3260
        option ha_shared on
}

lun "store-1" {
        ctl-lun 0
        path "/dev/zvol/vm-datastore/store-1"
        blocksize 512
        option pblocksize 0
        serial "ac1f6b2542fe00"
        device-id "iSCSI Disk      ac1f6b2542fe00                 "
        option vendor "FreeNAS"
        option product "iSCSI Disk"
        option revision "0123"
        option naa 0x6589cfc000000b2f7a820c76db024268
        option insecure_tpc on
        option rpm 7200
}

target iqn.2011-03.org.exam.istgt:iscsi-target-t {
        alias "iscsi-target-t"
        portal-group pg1 no-authentication

        lun 0 "store-1"
}

- I've successfully pinged the network connection from both sides.
I just used ping from FN to esxi. While using (successfull) vmkping -I vmk1 10.0.0.1 / 10.0.1.1. from the esxi side

- ctkadm devlist -v shows

Code:

root@freenas:/var/log # ctladm devlist -v
LUN Backend       Size (Blocks)   BS Serial Number    Device ID
  0 block            1887436800  512 ac1f6b2542fe00   iSCSI Disk      ac1f6b2542fe00
      lun_type=0
      num_threads=14
      pblocksize=0
      vendor=FreeNAS
      product=iSCSI Disk
      revision=0123
      naa=0x6589cfc000000b2f7a820c76db024268
      insecure_tpc=on
      rpm=7200
      file=/dev/zvol/vm-datastore/store-1
      ctld_name=store-1

The debug.log is full of these lines

Code:

Sep  5 14:13:21 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:14:21 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:15:21 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:16:22 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:17:22 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:18:23 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:19:23 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:20:24 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:21:24 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''
Sep  5 14:22:25 freenas /alert.py: [ws4py:360] Closing message received (1000) 'b'''

I'm really stuck and desperate to get this up and running -- hopefully without doing a complete rebuild.

Thanks for any help.

 

[HoneyBadger]

You've entered the static discovery targets as a DNS name; can your ESXi machine resolve "iSCSI-0-0" to an interface on FreeNAS? The target name of iqn.2011-03.exam.istgt also doesn't match up with the name set on your FreeNAS machine (iscsi-target-t)

Can you link the exact guide you followed? There might also be some unnecessary use of port binding here, ESXi 6.0 has different rules for it vs. 6.5 regarding visibility requirements between initiators and targets. IIRC you don't require it in your setup since your host has only one IP in each subnet.

 

[James S]

Thanks very much! The zvol has shown up. I've been staring at this, revisiting the guides and Googling but had run out of ideas. Sorry - the mistakes here are a bit of naivete.

I want to check that the setup is "right" rather than just about working.

You've entered the static discovery targets as a DNS name; can your ESXi machine resolve "iSCSI-0-0" to an interface on FreeNAS?

I've now set the static target as the FN IP (screen shot attached).

While now working - I see esxi seems to have coped with the naming approach - it seems wrong / unconventional. If I'm following right, in FN the base name should be iscsi-target-t and the selected target should be iscsi-target-t? (FN-target-names attached)

Can you link the exact guide you followed?

The guide I followed (successfully) last time is:
FN-11 with esxi-6.5

There might also be some unnecessary use of port binding here, ESXi 6.0 has different rules for it vs. 6.5 regarding visibility requirements between initiators and targets.

Should I be making changes here? Is just two connections to the iscsi disk enough or is more in principle better?
My setup is not big with 4 VMs (an Ubuntu webserver, a virtual classroom - BigBluebutton, NextCloud and a Windows 10 machine).

IIRC you don't require it in your setup since your host has only one IP in each subnet.

So nothing to be done here, right?

A couple more questions (sorry - I really appreciate your expertise).
I have added a second zvol by adding another extent and associated target. While it shows up in esxi is this the correct way to be doing things? Screen shots attached.

From what I've read iscsi is rather RAM hungry. Currently I've got 32GiB which I guess is not ideal. I've read a few posts on memory use and have seen suggestions of 1GiB / 1TiB storage. Under iscsi I'm not sure how to manage this. The attached screenshot shows wired of 29.7GiB, free of 637.7M (active only... 9.1M). I'm guessing this means, since I'm not yet under load, that I need more RAM. I'm thinking to increase to 64GiB.

Thanks!