Setup Guide

Recommended Configuration for iSCSI

Consider the following recommendations when setting up an iSCSI SAN infrastructure.

● External hosts can be attached via ISCSI to a PowerStore cluster via either the embedded 4-port card or via a SLIC:

○ Hosts connected via the first two ports of the 4-port card, will be connected using ToR switches (also used for

PowerStore internal communication). With this configuration, it is recommended to use a dedicated VLAN, and if not

possible, use a separate subnet/network for iSCSI storage.

○ For hosts connected using any other iSCSI port (that is, not the first two ports), use either dedicated iSCSI switches or a

dedicated VLAN for iSCSI storage.

● The PowerStore cluster can be shipped with various extension modules for iSCSI. If your PowerStore cluster contains more

than one extension I/O module per node, distribute the connections among all I/O modules for highest availability and

performance.

● You can connect the host to 1-4 appliances. It is recommended to connect the host to as many appliances as possible to

allow volume migration to and from all appliances.

● iSCSI switch recommendations

○ Use nonblocking switches

○ Use enterprise grade switch

○ Utilize at minimum 10GbE interfaces

● It is recommended to use dedicated NICs or iSCSI HBAs for PowerStore cluster iSCSI and not to partition the iSCSI

interface (that is, disable NIC Partitioning - NPAR).

● Enable the TCP Offloading Engine (TOE) on the host iSCSI interfaces, to offload the TCP packet encapsulation from the

host's CPU to the NIC or iSCSI HBA, and free up CPU cycles.

● When using PowerStore iSCSI, it is recommended to use interfaces individually rather than using NIC Teaming (Link

Aggregation), to combine multiple interfaces into a single virtual interface.

● In PowerStore only single network subnet is supported for the iSCSI target portals and routing is not supported.

● If Jumbo Frames are required for iSCSI traffic or management traffic (Vvol), make sure that all ports (servers, switches and

system) are configured with the same MTU value.

NOTE: VMware requires setting Jumbo Frames at the virtual switch and VMKERNEL level.

NOTE: Refer to your iSCSI switch user manual for instructions on the implementations.

The following diagram describes a simple iSCSI connectivity with a single PowerStore appliance:

1. Host

2. PowerStore Appliance

3. ToR/iSCSI Switch

4. Node

Best Practices for Storage Connectivity