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Bede
Asked: 2013-05-25 13:02:42 +0800 CST

Networking with VMware, physical adapters and iSCSI

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New VMware user here, setting up my first environment. I have an ESXi host that has four physical NiCs (NiC0, NiC1, NiC2, NiC3).

I have installed ESXi, the VCVA appliance, and several VMs successfully. They are connected to the local storage currently, but I want to connect to our iSCSI SAN.

Physically NiC0 and NiC1 are connected to our regular network switch. NiC2 and NiC3 are connected to our iSCSI network, which is a separate network. So what I have done is set NiC0 and NiC1 as active for the management network on the ESXi host. I left NiC2 and NiC3 unchecked.

When I use the vSphere client to create the iSCSI connection, it can't see NiC2 or NiC3. Do I need to enable all four NiCs to be able to use them in vSphere?

If I enable NiC2 and NiC3, they say they are disconnected, because they are connected to our iSCSI network and have no regular network connection.

Am I way off track here?

vmware-esxi

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You need to create another vSwitch to contain your iSCSI ports. This is separate from the vSwitch you created that holds your management and virtual machine traffic:

    Something like:

    enter image description here

    Once you get past this point, the process is straightforward.

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  2. It sounds like you didn'tsetup the vSwitches for iSCSI using NIC2 and NIC3.

    If not...

    See here for information on the basics to get you started:

    Configuring software iCSI setup

    and their Youtube video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FzXYUzYTJVE

    The information is for v4 but will get you in the right direction.

    EDIT: better walkthrough video for v5 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-HyD3E3cw

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