Openfiler driving me MAD!!!

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Hi all,

Have been looking at openfiler to try and set up a SAN just to play around with in my test environment... have followed various guides and posts plastered around the internet, and my ESX will just NOT see the LUN I have created in openfiler - anyone got any idea how I can make this work?

I have followed this guide so far:

How to configure OpenFiler v2.3 iSCSI Storage for use with VMware ESX. | TechHead.co.uk

and various people have commented about setting subnet masks to 255.255.255.255, this didnt work

Other people mentioned editing intiators.deny and this also didnt work...

So any other ideas? This is starting to annoy me, and I would like to set up a proper home ESX lab but I'd like to have a SAN to test with too.

Any help would be appreciated, also, if there is any alternative which is a bit more user-friendly???

Thanks!!

 

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You could have a crack using StarWind iSCSI software iSCSI SAN Software and Storage Virtualization Solutions

They used to do various free small scale versions etc.. but it was very user friendly and easy to setup compared to the other freeware iSCSI solutions I played around with.

 

I have compiled some notes on setup and linking iSCSI using OpenFiler in my ESXi 4.0 lab and would be implemented this some. I would get back to you with more updates.

Also have a watch through this video over and over again.

YouTube - ‪iSCSI Target with Openfiler and 2 way CHAP Authentication‬‏

 

Thanks for the vid. It was pretty much what I had already done, the only thing I haven't tried yet is setting up CHAPS, I can't see that this will make a difference, it shows up when i search for the iscsi SANs, i can manually add it by name as a static iscsi (sorry cant remember all the correct terms, havent got it in front of me)

But when I look at the iscsi software adapter, it wont discover any LUNS

 

Sounds odd but try it with FileIO and not BlockIO also try connecting your laptop and setup the iSCSI on that to test if it works, failing that give us more details on your lab setup and settings :P

 

Will try changing to FileIO now, see if that makes a difference. Also going to try StarWind iSCSI now too, to see if that works. I have just bought 2 Dell PowerEdge servers to make my home lab so will be better than trying with the feeble setup I have at the moment, which might explain half my problem.
Will report back...

 

Happy to say that StarWind has done the job yay! So I will set this up as my home SAN now. I am using iSCSI at home, to test, I take it in a production environment this is not used then? If i was connecting over fibre channel, how would I configure the storage adapters to connect to a LUN?

 

I've never had a problem with openfiler. Have you enabled iSCSI on the hosts? Opened TCP port 3260? COnfigured your targets and mapped your LUNs? Run discovery on the adapters you're using for iSCSI?

 

enabled the software iscsi interface... check...
checked firewall in vsphere (no other firewalls in the way)... check...

Went through the setup of the LUN maps in openfiler, the storage adapter discovered the IP address of the openfiler OK, but it just wouldnt show up as a LUN!

Dont know why it didnt work, dont think i did anything wrong really, I'm sure its down to my crappy setup anyway...

I am going to be scrapping any ESX i have so far anyway, as they were only virtual machines in workstation. When my servers turn up I am just going to start from scratch, and setup a SAN from the off...

 

I would definitely have a look over on my site for some alternatives, I have run performance tests against a few of the free NAS\SAN solutions out there and none of them have been too difficult to set up.

I am in the process of documenting how to configure Openfiler 2.99 and Open-E DSS so check back soon.

 

For testing purposes I really liked Starwind, was nice and easy to set up and they had some good step by step guides available as well for various setups (different OS's etc..).

 

Please have a look at my blog post below demonstrating how to configure both Openfiler and ESXi to use iSCSI volumes.

Configuring Openfiler 2.99 and ESXi to use iSCSI Storage « Everything Virtual

 

Cheers will take a look

And yes I agree, Starwind was easy to set up, specially when I actually read the manual...

Looking forward to my servers turning up now to start testing properly woo hoo! Although on a more annoying note, I've just had one of my HDDs fail so am trying to recover the files from it... arghh

 

Glad to hear you have found an alternative and got iSCSI working. Well as mentioned above in a post by Zeb might want to check your storage adapters as well as subnet are in the same range as the one presented via OpenFiler.

Anyhow, enjoy and which servers did you order? Is it the ones from HP with a cashback of £110? Cheerio and keep us posted on your lab setup and progress

 

No, bought 2 Dell PowerEdge 2850's! Probably a bit excessive for a home set up but they were cheap on ebay, had them upgraded to a better spec as well, 2 CPUs and 8gb RAM in each, planning to set them up just as two ESX hosts. I was considering doing a self build with a 6 core AMD, 16gb RAM whitebox type thing, but I would then need to create two ESX VMs in that, and probably get some wrong part which wasn't compatible, so thought I'd cut the hassle and just look for something which I knew should work from the off.

So planning on using my current server (just a normal PC with server 2003 installed, loads of disks and 4gb RAM) as the storage area, might create a 2008 64-bit vCenter server VM on it as well, to see if I can install ESX 4.1 instead of 4.0, however I am pretty sure the servers won't run 64-bit VMs so couldn't create the vCenter on them, unless I stick with esx/vcenter 4.0, which I am using at the moment (if that makes sense).

 

Just saw this as it's cool and take it you got a good deal from Ebay. Well keep us posted and watch out for the noise and your electric bill as I take it the servers wouldn't be running 24 x 7 hours etc.

 

Hey

so far so good with my two test servers, good being able to play with them and fiddle with things knowing its not that big a deal if you screw everything up. Also think I have gained some valuable experience already for when we start virtualising in work...

problem I have at the moment (see my other thread in this category) is i think a bad disk has destroyed my vCenter installation, plus my 100mb switch is a bit of a bottle neck for things like vmotion - it still works, just a bit slow . I have just got an LSI raid card to go in my PC (which contains all my disks) so going to put my SAN on that instead, should at least rule out this happening again...

And you are spot on with the noise factor and power usage etc, I think they have 700w PSU, 6(!) fans in each, so dont leave them on all the time, although did have to leave one on for a day or 2 recently - couldn't really hear it with the door closed though

This was when I just had the one plugged in...

Dell PowerEdge 2850 booting up - YouTube

 

We have quite a few 2950's at work and they are very similar noise wise when starting up. Have found HP servers much noiser though, so Dell's aren't a bad option for home I guess.

I noted Tron Legacy playing in the background, good soundtrack that, I really liked it.

 

Microsoft released their iSCSI Target finally, you could give that a go

 

Is that different to the microsoft iscsi thing which you install to use starwind? Sorry a bit of a n00b on this side of things

on a separate note - just got myself a 24 port gigabit switch (dell powerconnect) for £10.51!!! good old ebay