Configuring software iSCSI Round Robin MPIO on ESX 4.x.

This is just a quick post about configuring software iSCSI Round Robin MPIO (2:1 mapping) on an ESX 4.x server. Here is a quick overview of the procedure:

1. Create VMkernel ports on a vSwitch
2. Configure the VMkernel ports
3. Assign physical NIC’s to the vSwitch
4. Configure the uplinks on the vSwitch
5. Enable software iSCSI initiator
6. Find and add VMkernel ports to the iSCSI initiator
7. Add an iSCSI target to the iSCSI initiator
8. Rescan the HBA adapter
9. Set Round Robin as the default path selection policy for all datastores

Ok, let’s get started! 🙂

1. Login to your ESX host with the root account.
2. Enable Jumbo Frames on the vSwitch. In this case, I’ll be using vSwitch2. This step is optional, if your network does not support Jumbo Frames, skip to step 3. Type: #esxcfg-vswitch –m 9000 vSwitch2
3. Create four VMkernel ports on vSwitch2:
   a. #esxcfg-vswitch –A VMkernel1 vSwitch2
   b. #esxcfg-vswitch –A VMkernel2 vSwitch2
   c. #esxcfg-vswitch –A VMkernel3 vSwitch2
   d. #esxcfg-vswitch –A VMkernel4 vSwitch2
4. Configure the VMkernel ports. The –m option is optional if you using Jumbo Frames:
   a. #esxcfg-vmknic –a –i -n -m 9000 VMkernel1
   b. #esxcfg-vmknic –a –i -n -m 9000 VMkernel2
   c. #esxcfg-vmknic –a –i -n -m 9000 VMkernel3
   d. #esxcfg-vmknic –a –i -n -m 9000 VMkernel4
5. Assign the physical adapters (vmnic2 & vmnic3) to the virtual switch:
   a. #esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic2 vSwitch2
   b. #esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic3 vSwitch2
6. Configure the uplinks so that only a single physical adapter is listed per VMkernel. Assign VMkernel 1 & 2 to vmnic2 and VMkernel 3 & 4 to vmnic3. You will actually remove the unnecessary vmnic from the uplinks list:
   a. #esxcfg-vswitch –p VMkernel1 –N vmnic3 vSwitch2
   b. #esxcfg-vswitch –p VMkernel2 –N vmnic3 vSwitch2
   c. #esxcfg-vswitch –p VMkernel3 –N vmnic2 vSwitch2
   d. #esxcfg-vswitch –p VMkernel4 –N vmnic2 vSwitch2
   e. Verify the configuration with: #esxcfg-vswitch –l
   f. You should end up with something like this:
7. Enable software iSCSI initiator: #esxcfg-swiscsi –e
8. Add VMkernel ports to the software iSCSI initiator:
   a. First, find the vmhba adapter, it will probably be labeled as Software iSCSI, Type: #esxcfg-scsidevs –a
   b. Next, find the vmk interfaces associated with the VMkernel ports created in step 3: #esxcfg-vmknic –l
   c. Now, add the vmk’s to the vmhba, type: #esxcli swiscsi nic add –n <vmk_#> -d <vmhba_#> .Repeat this step for each vmk#.
   d. Verify the bindings with: #esxcli swiscsi nic list –d <vmhba_#>
   
9. Add an iSCSI target to the software iSCSI initiator: #vmkiscsi-tool –D –a <IP_address> <vmhba_#>. Repeat this step if you have more the one iSCSI target.
10. Rescan the vmhba adapter with: #esxcfg-rescan <vmhba_#>
11. Set the Round Robin path selection policy as default for all datastores:
    a. #esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp –satp VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA –psp VMW_PSP_RR *
    b. #esxcli corestorage claimrule load
    c. #esxcli corestorage claimrule run
12. Logoff from the ESX host.

* Please note the double dashes with the satp and psp parameter.

When you’re done, start the vSphere Client, login to your ESX host and verify the active I/O paths to the datastore(s). If the configuration changes are not reflected in the GUI, refresh the view where applicable.

Cheers!

– Marek.Z