EMC AX4-5i Hyper-V Cluster ISCSI Setup

That looks correct.

Things to check:

1. For Windows servers you need to disable TCP Delayed ACK - see KnowledgeBase article KB 39980

https://support.emc.com/kb/39980

2. For Windows servers to ensure that you have the iSCSI Initiator setup correctly, see KB 34447

https://support.emc.com/kb/34447

3. For general recommendations using iSCSI see KB 71615

https://support.emc.com/kb/71615

glen

Thank you Glen,

I think I may of got closer to getting this working..........

So it looks like my iscsi settings are fine and the MPIO in Windows is fine but i noticed when I had the disk i created presented to the server it was incredible slow and i mean really slow accessing the drive, copying etc...........

I then went into device manager where I right clicked the MPIO enable drive and the drive was set as "Round Robin"........I changed it to "Fail Over Only" and disk perforemence started working perfectly fine............So I tested and simulated a cable failure and disk operation failed over perfectly to the other cable\controller\nic (whatever we want to call it), this is great but I would like to run both iSCSI NICs distributing the load over the 2 NICs.

Any suggestions?

In order for one server to be able to distribute workload over both NIC's, you'd need to use a switch between the servers and the host.

You only have two iSCSI ports for each SP (SPA and SPB) and each LUN on the array is owned by only one SP at a time - either SPA or SPB.

The best practice for connection servers using iSCSI can be found here:

https://support.emc.com/kb/41172

This is a typical configuration if you have two hosts - this picture has more than the two SP ports for each SP, but the concept is the same. You need two subnets and the switch to be able to connect each NIC to each port.

glen

Thanks Glenn, as this is a lab I am testing I do have a HP ProCurve 2510G-24 Port I can stick in the middle.

Would creating two vlans for the 2 subnets work?

VLANs are preferred - easier to keep the paths separate. As you're using Windows servers, be sure to review this KB article.

https://support.emc.com/kb/34447

glen

Hi Glen,

This is my setup now, i thought I had it all working but when I came to setting up the Hyper-V Cluster the validation came back fine but when i try and MOVE the disk\CSV to the other server it just failed (see below)

Take a look at this KB article - it has an attachment - this will guide you through the setup of the host connecting to the array.

https://support.emc.com/kb/41172

Each host now has two NIC's, each on a separate subnet and with the switch in place, you can now connect each NIC to two ports - one on SPA and one on SPB for a total of 4 paths. So each host should have four paths:

NIC1 - SPA-0

NIC1 - SPB-0

NIC2 - SPA1

NIC2 - SPB1

In you diagram, host 1 has the second NIC as 172.31.2.2 - that should probably be 172.31.2.1

glen

Thanks, I'm unable to look at the KB, I keep getting:

Login Error
Your login attempt using single sign-on with an identity provider certificate has failed. Please contact your salesforce.com administrator for more information.

let me quickly jump in here.

As far as I know the AX-4 does not support ALUA (Failover mode 4), therefore it does not support Microsoft Native MPIO.

You will have to run Powerpath, which you can run in 2 ways

Powerpath unlicensed (free):

- you may only use one, and one only, Ethernet/IP port on the host

- this one Ethernet/IP will have one path to SP-A and one path to SP-B

Powerpath licensed:

- you may use more than one Ethernet port on the host

- you may use multiple paths

You will have to pick one... so if you stick to the layout/connectivity which is discussed in this post, you will need Powerpath with a license code installed.

For Powerpath unlicensed, you will need to change to 1 port on the host, as detailed above.

HTH,

Edwin.

The AX4 line came with a full PowerPath licence.See KB 10287

https://support.emc.com/kb/10287

For access to the KB articles, as long as you have a support.emc.com login, you should have access to the KB's. Try logging into support.emc.com and on the page that comes up, type in the search box the KB number 41172.

glen

@glen

I does, but not for /VE

As this discussion is about a Hyper-V cluster connecting to the AX4-5i, the license required would be Powerpath/VE, which will have to be purchased separately.

This is described in the article you mention

Rgds,

Edwin.