NetApp and VMware vSphere Storage Best Practices

CREATE MULTIPLE ISCSI VMKERNELS
1 Open vCenter Server.
2 Select an ESX host.
3 In the right pane, select the Configuration tab.
4 In the Hardware box, select Networking.
5 In the upper-right corner, click Add Networking to open the Add Network wizard
6 Select the VMkernel radio button and click Next.
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Note: You will create a VMkernel for every Ethernet link that you want to dedicate to
iSCSI traffic. Note that VMkernels can be on different IP subnets. This configuration is
required if combining iSCSI with NFS datastore access.
Configure the VMkernel by providing the required network information. A default
gateway is not required for the VMkernel IP storage network.
Each VMkernel must be configured to use with a single active adapter (such as
VMNIC0) that is not used by any other iSCSI VMkernel. Also, each VMkernel must not
have any standby adapters (see Figures 11 and 12).
The software iSCSI daemon is required to be bound to each VMkernel. This step can
only be completed using the CLI.
Connect to an ESX or ESXi console and run the following:
esxcli swiscsi nic add –n -d
As an example:
esxcli swiscsi nic add –n vmk0 -d vmhba33
esxcli swiscsi nic add –n vmk1 -d vmhba33
Verify the iSCSI to VMkernel bindings. Connect to an ESX or ESXi console and run the
following:
esxcli swiscsi nic list -d
As an example:
esxcli swiscsi nic list -d vmhba33
See Figure 13.
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