Multiple iSCSI interfaces

[quivos]

Hi folks!

Like so many others, I am struggling with the limited capacity of single gigabith ethernet, and the horrible industry adaptation of mutli-gigabit NIC's for the consumer/SOHO market.

My current setup is a FreeNAS 9.2 with a single 1Gigabit connection to a consumer gigabit switch, to which there is also my ESXi 5.5 server connected (also single gigabit NIC).
I am running iSCSI over that connection, as well as management and whatever have you..

My idea was to slap on two additional Intel 1000 NIC's on each server, and connect them directly using two different iSCSI portals (or is that two different extenders? not sure), for two different sets of ZFS volumes.

Now: I know that you cannot achieve dual-gigabit ethernet by teaming the interfaces - and that is not the plan.
The setup would be something like;

iSCSI for ZFS volume 1, iSCSI portal 1
NAS (NIC #1) <-- 1.1.1.0/30 --> ESXi (NIC #2)

iSCSI for ZFS volume 2, iSCSI portal 2
NAS (NIC #2) <-- 2.2.2.0/30 --> ESXi (NIC #2)

Both servers would still be connected via their onboard LAN to the gigabit switch, providing access to the outside world.

Anyone have any opinions on whether this would work (if not, why??), or suggestions on how to otherwise do this? And before anyone suggests, I'm not based in the U.S, so buying a cheap 4Gbit or 10Gbit used NIC from eBay is not an option :-(

Cheers to everyone in advance!

 

[HoneyBadger]

Howdy quivos,

What you're setting up there is a basic MPIO configuration, but since you only have two servers (and presumably don't plan to expand to more) you can get away with just directly connecting them to each other.

In this case you'd create a single iSCSI portal, but listening on both IP addresses assigned to the NICs. The same LUNs would be presented via both interfaces and ESXi would utilize both paths for increased speed and redundancy. One set of targets, one set of extents, and one datastore visible to ESXi - just with two paths to it.

 

[quivos]

Awesome! Sounds like this might just do the trick :) Will give it a spin and post back