HP StorageWorks 1510i Modular Smart Array installation and user guide (383070-002, July 2008)

Conﬁguring the

VMware iSCSI software initiator

NOTE:

Only iSCSI software initiators are supported by MSA1510i.

This section describes how to conﬁgure the VMware iSCSI initiator to connect to a dual-controller

MSA1510i in a multipathing environment. (For single-controller conﬁgurations, omit all steps shown for

multipath or dual-controller conﬁgurations.) The initiator is native to ESX.

While conﬁguring the iSCSI software initiator, you enable your initiator and set up the initiator’s target

addresses and CHAP parameters. See the following sections for more information.

After conﬁguring the iSCSI software initiator, perform a rescan, so that all LUNs to which the initiator

has access display on the list of storage devices available to your ESX Server. For more information,

see“Performing a Rescan” on page 74.

Naming requirements

Because storage area networks can become large and complex, all iSCSI initiators and targets that use

the network have unique and permanent iSCSI names and are assigned addresses for access. The iSCSI

name provides a correct identiﬁcation of a particular iSCSI device, an initiator or a target, regardless

of its physical location.

When conﬁguring your iSCSI initiators, make sure they have properly formatted names. The initiators

can use one of the following formats:

• IQN (iSCSI qualiﬁed name)—Can be up to 255 characters long and has the following format:

iqn.<year-mo>.<reversed_domain_name>:<unique_name>

where <year-mo> represents the year and month your domain name was registered,

<reversed_domain_name>istheofﬁcial domain name, reversed, and <unique name>is

any name you want to use, for example, the name of your server.

Example: iqn.1998-01.com.mycompany:myserver.

• EUI (extended unique identiﬁer) —Represents the eui. preﬁx followed by the 16-character name.

The name includes 24 bits for company name assigned by the IEEE and 40 bits for a unique

ID such as a serial number.

Discovery methods

To determine which storage resource on the network is available for access, the iSCSI initiators ESX Server

system uses these discovery methods:

• Dynamic Discovery —The initiator discovers iSCSI targets by sending a SendTargets request to

aspeciﬁed target address. To use this method, enter the address of the target device so that

the initiator can establish a discovery session with this target. The target device responds by

forwarding a list of additional targets that the initiator is allowed to access.

• Static Discovery—AfterthetargetdeviceusedintheSendTargetssessionsendsyouthelistof

available targets, they appear on the Static Discovery list. To this list, you can manually add any

additional targets, or remove targets you don’t need.

The static discovery method is available only with the hardware-initiated storage.

iSCSI security

Because iSCSI technology uses the IP networks to connect to remote targets, it is necessary to ensure

security of the connection. The IP protocol itself doesn’t protect the data it transports, and it doesn’t have

the capability to verify the legitimacy of initiators that access targets on the network. You need to take

speciﬁc measures to guarantee security across IP networks.

Conﬁguration