Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module Installation and User’s Guide Version 1.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents About This Manual.......................................................................................................................... 5 Revision History..................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1 Overview.....................................................................................................................................
A Sample Configuration Commands................................................................................................26 Configuring a 4-Port NIC Using the VMware Software iSCSI Initiator........................................................................26 Index.......................................................................................................................................................................
Preface About This Manual PS Series arrays optimize resources by automating performance and network load balancing. Additionally, PS Series arrays offer allinclusive array management software, host software, and free firmware updates. Audience The information in this guide is intended for administrators responsible for managing VMware vSphere environments attached to a PS Series group. Dell Online Services To learn more about Dell EqualLogic products, visit the PS Series support site.
1 Overview VMware vSphere provides the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA), which enables you to configure multipathing for high availability and increased performance.
Figure 1. Dell EqualLogic MEM Logical Path Configuration Table 1. EqualLogic MEM Logical Path Configuration Details describes the components shown in Figure 1. Dell EqualLogic MEM Logical Path Configuration. Table 1.
1. Calculating the optimal number of sessions to maximize the bandwidth between the host and the member. This calculation takes into account the speed of available host adapters and network interface cards (NICs) on each member hosting part of the volume. The algorithm does not create unnecessary sessions when no performance benefit results.
2 Installing Dell EqualLogic MEM This section contains installation information about the Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module (MEM).
Task Action Description 3 Decide on VMkernel ports. Each port must be mapped to a single network port. 4 Create VMkernel ports. Create VMkernel ports for the iSCSI initiator to use. Create one VMkernel port per physical NIC used for iSCSI multipathing. If you have multiple VMkernel ports sharing an uplink, EHCM uses only one of them, and the excess VMkernel ports are ignored. 5 Remove extra uplinks.
Configuring Your Network for the Dell EqualLogic MEM To configure your vSwitch for the Dell EqualLogic MEM , use the following syntax: setup.pl --configure --bestpractices --server=hostname [--username=username] [--password=password] --nics=NIC1,NIC2,... --ips=IP1,IP2,...
Parameter Description Default --chapuser CHAP user name that you use for connecting volumes on the PS Series group IP. CHAP credentials are assigned to the Send Targets discovery address that the --groupip parameter specifies. none --chapsecret CHAP secret that you use for connecting volumes on the PS Series group IP. none --vlan-id Sets the VLAN identification for the vSwitch configured for iSCSI.
Installing Dell EqualLogic MEM on Your VMware ESXi Host The Dell EqualLogic MEM is packaged as an offline bundle containing a VMware Infrastructure Bundle (VIB). The bundle can be installed using one of the following methods: • • • VMware vCenter Update Manager (vUM) setup.pl Script1 vSphere CLI 1Strawberry Perl version 5.24 or later is required. For network configuration, see Configuring Your Network for the Dell EqualLogic MEM . To modify the EHCM configuration, see Sample Configuration Commands.
For example: #/etc/init.d/hostd start hostd started. 3. Add import command rules. For example: #esxcli import equalRule add 4. Reboot the system. For more information about importing to PowerStore arrays, see the Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide. Installing MEM Using the setup.pl Script You can use the installation script setup.pl for all install, upgrade, and uninstall operations. • • If you are using vSphere ESXi version 6.7, install vSphere CLI version 6.5 or higher.
The following message appears: Clean install of Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module. Before install_package call Bundle being installed: /home/vi-admin/myName/dell-eql-mem-esx6-.zip Copying /home/dell-eql-memesx6-.zip Do you wish to install the bundle [yes]: 8. Type yes to continue. The following message appears: The install operation may take several minutes. Please do not interrupt it.
Enabling PowerStore Import Capability To enable the capability to import EqualLogic storage to a PowerStore array, run the following commands on the host: 1. Stop hostd. For example: #/etc/init.d/hostd stop Terminating watchdog process with PID 67143 hostd stopped. 2. Start hostd. For example: #/etc/init.d/hostd start hostd started. 3. Add import command rules. For example: #esxcli import equalRule add 4. Reboot the system.
dell-eql-hostprofile dell-eql-routed-psp 1.5.0-356034 1.5.0-356034 Dell Dell VMwareAccepted VMwareAccepted 2019-07-17 2019-07-17 To properly remove MEM, all three VIBs must be uninstalled.
Using the MEM with AutoDeploy The Dell EqualLogic MEM supports the AutoDeploy feature in ESXi that allows building images for automatically deploying ESXi hosts. To add the MEM to the boot image, perform the following additional steps while preparing the image profile using the PowerCLI: NOTE: MEM AutoDeploy is not supported if the import to PowerStore functionality is enabled. 1. Import the MEM offline bundle using the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot command.
3 Configuring the Dell EqualLogic MEM EHCM Configuration File The configuration file that stores configuration parameters is located on the ESXi host at /etc/cim/dell/ehcmd.conf. The preferred method of changing the configuration is through the vSphere CLI tools. The following table shows the parameters and applicable values. Each line in the file uses the format param=value. Table 5.
iSCSI Connection Count As the Dell EqualLogic group’s per-pool iSCSI connection count exceeds 90% of maximum, the PS Series array firmware communicates with any hosts or servers using the Dell EqualLogic MPIO plug-ins for VMware, Windows, or Linux, and request that they reduce their iSCSI connection count.
EqualLogic MEM Configuration Using Host Profiles In vSphere, Host Profiles are extended to support third-party providers. The Dell EqualLogic MEM contains such a Host Profile provider, which allows management of some MEM configuration parameters through the host profile framework.
4 Troubleshooting This chapter discusses topics related to troubleshooting the Dell EqualLogic MEM. Topics: • • • Log Files CLI Commands for Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Common Issues Log Files This section describes the log files used by the Dell EqualLogic MEM Table 6. Log Files Log File Name Description /var/log/equallogic/ehcmd.log Contains EHCMD log messages for ESXi /var/log/equallogic/ehcmcli.
Listing Adapters To view adapters, use the following vSphere CLI command syntax: esxcli equallogic adapters For example: $ esxcli equallogic adapters VMKernel: vmk1 Ip: 192.168.xxx.xx Status: Normal NIC: vmnic1 Speed: 1000 MAC: 00:1e:c9:b5:04:75 HBA: vmhba33 Vendor: VMware:iSCSI Software Adapter VMKernel: vmk2 Ip: 192.168.xxx.
To view VVol statistics, use the following vSphere CLI command syntax: esxcli equallogic vvolstat {detail | summary} For example, to view details of VVol statistics: $ esxcli equallogic vvolstat detail For example, to view a summary of VVol statistics: $ esxcli equallogic vvolstat summary DeviceId --------------257 101d20000030000 257 101d20000030000 101d20000100000 101d20000060000 101d20000040000 vVolName ----------PE Target-1 VVol PE Target-2 VVol VVol VVol VVol PathCount --------6 6 2 2 2 2 2 Reads -
Problem Possible Cause/Solution • • you will see only 2 sessions created to each volume in the pool, regardless of the number of VMkernel ports configured for iSCSI. The MEM has determined that creating additional iSCSI sessions will not improve performance. For example, doubling up on either array or host eth ports will not improve performance in most cases. Your hosts are exceeding PS group or pool session limits, and the multipath sessions are being automatically reduced by the storage array.
A Sample Configuration Commands This appendix provides examples of using the setup.pl script to configure networking for multipathing. Topics: • Configuring a 4-Port NIC Using the VMware Software iSCSI Initiator Configuring a 4-Port NIC Using the VMware Software iSCSI Initiator $./setup.pl --server=192.168.XXX.130 --vswitch=vSwitchISCSI --mtu=9000 --nics=vmnic2,vmnic3,vmnic4,vmnic5 --ips=192.168.XXX.132,192.168.XXX.133,192.168.XXX.64,192.168.XXX.65 --heartbeat=192.168.XXX.66 --netmask=255.255.0.
VM Network Management Network Switch Name vSwitchISCSI Num Ports 128 PortGroup Name iSCSI3 iSCSI2 iSCSI1 iSCSI0 StorageHeartbeat Switch Name Num Ports vSwitch1 128 PortGroup Name Private 0 0 0 1 Used Ports 10 vmnic0 vmnic0 Configured Ports 128 MTU 9000 Uplinks vmnic5, vmnic4, vmnic3,vmnic2 VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks 0 1 vmnic5 0 1 vmnic4 0 1 vmnic3 0 1 vmnic2 0 1 vmnic5,vmnic4,vmnic3,vmnic2 Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks 1 128 1500 VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks 0 0 Sample Configuration Comman
Index A P adapters listing 23 AutoDeploy 18 best practices for iSCSI networking 12 PowerStore import and MEM AutoDeploy 18 and removing MEM 16 enable import capability using vCenter 13 enable import capability using vSphere CLI 16 troubleshooting 24 PSP 6 C R configuration file 19 configuration parameters viewing 20 configuration values setting 20 round robin 11 B E EHCM 6, 19 ehcmd 19 EqualLogic Host Connection Manager, See EHCM S sessions listing 23 setup.
