FreeNas 9.2.1.6 iSCSI -> ESXi 5.1u2

[Phil Greene]

I'm trying to connect an IBM x3650 running ESXi 5.1 via iSCSI to a HP N54L running FreeNAS 9.2.1.6 and I'm running into issues. I also installed a 2nd NIC on my desktop, spun up a VirtualBox instance of ESXi 5.1u2 and I'm having the same issues. After adding a software iSCSI initiator and rescanning, ESXi doesn't pick up any storage. I have no problems using my desktop's Win 7 iSCSI initiator to connect - the space appears in disk management aftewards.

I used this guide to set up FreeNAS: http://www.vladan.fr/how-to-configure-freenas-8-for-iscsi-and-connect-to-esxi/

1) I did a fresh install of 9.2.1.6.
2) I configured IPv4 settings including the IP, subnet, gateway and local (Microsoft) DNS servers.
3) Created a Portal with default settings - later changed the portal from 0.0.0.0 to the IP of the FreeNAS box.
4) I created an iSCSI initiator with default settings - afterwards I tested assigning the IP of the software initiators from the ESXi hosts as well as specifying 192.168.0.0/24 in the authorized network section.
5) Created an iSCSI target with basic settings seen in the how-to.
6) Created an extent - (this wasn't mentioned in the article) specified a filename under the ZFS volume:

7) Then created the target/extent association.

8) Restarted the iSCSI service and rescanned from ESXi and I see nothing. Connecting from Win 7 works.

Any thoughts?

I should mentioned I had this working previously in our other office in order to offload ESXi guests to the storage for a ESXi upgrade and filesystem reformat. I had trouble reconnecting to hosts in our main office and subsequently re-doing the configuration over and over. I ended up doing a fresh install of 9.2.1.6 but haven't been able to get it working again. I believe I had to previously specify the initiator IP and authorized network to get it working, but that doesn't appear to be the issue this time. My memory is also a bit fuzzy as it was a good 3-4 months ago I did the configuration that actually worked.

 

[dlavigne]

Does this help at all?

Note that the requirements for booting vSphere 4.x off iSCSI differ between ESX and ESXi. ESX requires a hardware iSCSI adapter while ESXi requires specific iSCSI boot firmware support. The magic is on the booting host side, meaning that there is no difference to the FreeNAS® configuration. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide for details.

 

[Phil Greene]

I'm not trying to boot vSphere off of iSCSI. The IBM host running vsphere on local storage and the virtualbox ESXi host is running off of my desktop's storage. The issue is with getting these ESXi 5.1 hosts to connect to the FreeNAS extent over iSCSI using software initiators paired with NICs.

 

[cyberjock]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "rescan" as scanning only looks for stuff that is just not mounted yet but has been in the past (unless I'm mistaken anyway).

When I add iSCSI storage to ESXi I have to go to the iSCSI Software Adapter and add the appropriate settings for the iSCSI target.

There are links in the FreeNAS documentation that show this step-by-step if you are confused.

 

[Phil Greene]

I was a little vague there with what exactly I was doing. I enter the FreeNAS IP and port in the dynamic discovery tab for the ESXi iSCSI initiator. When closing out of that box, the vsphere client prompts to rescan for targets. Alternatively, when I make changes on the FreeNAS side, I can simply press the "Rescan All" button within the storage adapter config in the vsphere client.

 

[cyberjock]

When I did this 2 days ago when I entered the ISCSI info for the FreeNAS server if it was wrong it would reject the info and I'd have to readd it. So "rescanning" is inadequate unless you've actually mounted that exact iscsi target before. I think you are getting ahead of yourself by trying to scan as it doesn't sound like you've actually used the target yet. ;)

 

[Phil Greene]

What I did was configure the networking for the software initiator:

And rescanning apparently "sees" something, as it populated the static discovery section with the freenas target name.

How do I get the storage to actually "mount" so that I can create a datastore through the "add storage" section of the vsphere client? Like I said, I had this working previously on two separate ESXi hosts using this method. I just don't exactly recall the "tweaks" I had to do to eventually get it working.

 

[cyberjock]

I'm not sure. This is ESXi territory and we don't provide support for ESXi itself. I'm on a slightly newer version than you so things may or may not be quite the same. Please see the link in the documentation for a step-by-step example.

 

[diehard]

Are you sure you associated the extent with the target?

 

[Phil Greene]

Are you sure you associated the extent with the target?

Yep, it's in the OP.

I'm waiting to hear back from VMware's support.

 

[Serverbaboon]

You followed the other steps in Vladen's post that he's has linked as a previous openfiler post to make sure your vmkernal network is correct? ( sorry not sure of your experience levels)

On the web GUI of your Freenas box double click the status box at the bottom of the screen when you rescan and you can check for messages from the iscsi daemon to see if there are any error messages, or I guess on the monitor screen if you have one.

I know it will be galling to hear but it does work OK for me, and I am silly enough use CHAP at home with multiple targets, for 5.1 u1 and now 5.5 u1. I basically have what Vladin has done, although as I typed the above I have just realised that I used a separate vlan and subnet so I would may need to try again.

 

[Phil Greene]

I removed the port binding from both the production host and virtualbox esxi host, rescanned, and the storage showed up. Re-added the port binding and the storage still shows up.

 

[Serverbaboon]

So working now?

 

[Phil Greene]

Well, just moved the server into place and booting it back up - didn't create a LUN yet, but it looks to be working.

 

[Serverbaboon]

Sheer thinginess then..:)