trying out esos - want second nic as iscsi interface

[kdh ismgr]

hey all

I'm trying out to see if esos could work to replace our current setup.

we have a Dell blade chassis connected to a dell md3220i san  via multiple 1gb copper ethernet on a switch.

this is a vmware vcenter / horizon view environment.

I want to test esos and compare speeds with using a few small SSD vs the 20 10k spinning disks in our current san.

(also want to move to 10gb ethernet)

We had a vendor setup the current hardware, to connect the san to the blades (and vmware).

I've got a desktop i7 computer with a single hdd and 2 nics.  I already have esos setup where there is a iscsi target and scst device

There is NO raid card in this box.

One nic is configured as the management interface for esos.

Now where I'm stuck - I'm not sure how to setup the second nic to connect to the iscsi (on the switch).

thanks.

[Marc Smith]

Hi,

So, the desktop i7 computer is going to be the ESOS storage server?
You say the box has two NICs... it sounds like you are dedicating one
NIC to "management" and the other NIC should be used for iSCSI
connectivity (target)? If that's the case, then in the TUI, you could
just configure an IP on the second NIC, and use the IP address of that
NIC from the initiator side (eg, the portal address).

If you're wanting two utilize both NICs for front-end iSCSI storage
connectivity, that works too -- unless maybe your management network
is physically different and the SAN (Ethernet) switches are different.
In that case, the scenario you described above is probably what you
want.

But in case you do want to utilize both NICs, I'd add a second iSCSI
target (giving you two total); this can be done from the Targets menu
in the TUI. Configure the second NIC using the TUI. Then, at the
shell, you can restrict each iSCSI target to only operate on a
specific interface (IP) like this:

echo "add_target_attribute iqn.2016-05.esos.localhost:379d4
allowed_portal 192.168.40.21" >
/sys/kernel/scst_tgt/targets/iscsi/mgmt
echo "add_target_attribute iqn.2016-05.esos.localhost:d92cf
allowed_portal 192.168.40.22" >
/sys/kernel/scst_tgt/targets/iscsi/mgmt

Where each target name and IP address above is replaced with whatever
the values are for your system. This will limit the portals (IP
interfaces) to specific targets, and this way you force communication
to those targets via a specific IP (interface).

Hope that helps. Let us know if you have any more questions.


--Marc



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[kdh ismgr]

Thanks so much for the quick response.

I think the below is what I was missing.  (btw, the i7 desktop is just for my proof of concept. if it works, then I would get something beefier).

[kdh ismgr]

Everything worked !  awesome.  Thanks Marc.

a couple of questions as I try to move to getting hardware for a live production use of ESOS...

I thought I read something about using the default of 1500 MTU instead of 9000 MTU - but I don't remember where or why I read this....

My current VMWare esx hosts are connected to the iscsi san with 9000 MTU.

also, to avoid needing a switch, is it possible to hook up 10gb SFP+ direct from the host nic to the ESOS nic  ?

[Marc Smith]

On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 7:46 AM, kdh ismgr <is...@kdhnews.com> wrote:
> Everything worked ! awesome. Thanks Marc.
>

Great, glad to hear.

> a couple of questions as I try to move to getting hardware for a live
> production use of ESOS...
>
> I thought I read something about using the default of 1500 MTU instead of
> 9000 MTU - but I don't remember where or why I read this....

Yes, in the TUI, when configuring your Ethernet interfaces, you can
select a different MTU -- it should match whatever is on the initiator
side (ESXi machines it sounds like).

>
> My current VMWare esx hosts are connected to the iscsi san with 9000 MTU.
>
> also, to avoid needing a switch, is it possible to hook up 10gb SFP+ direct
> from the host nic to the ESOS nic ?

That should be fine -- I know with modern NIC's when connecting
NIC-to-NIC you no longer need a special cross-over cable, so I would
think using Twinax SFP+ cabling would work as well. Might be worth a
quick Google search to look for confirmation before purchasing
anything (if needed).


--Marc

[Dan Swartzendruber]

I can attest to a point to point link working with intel 520-da2 using generic passive twinax cable.