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New ESXI HA Cluster to Compellent 3020
Hi Everyone,
I have been tasked with building a new ESXI Cluster with a Compellent SCv3020 for storage. My issue is a complete lack of knowledge on the VMWare side, as we are a HyperV/SCVMM shop.
The last time I did one of these implementations it was ESXI 5.5 connected to an Equal Logic SAN. I remember connecting the servers to iSCSI via BIOS, then installing ESXI, etc. That was a non-HA setup for some reason.
I guess I have two questions at the moment:
1) Do I connect the new servers to Compellent via BIOS, or do I look after it via what appears to be ESXI software?
2) For HA, each ESXI server should have two physical iSCSI connections - one to switch 1 and one to switch 2 - is that still correct?
Sorry in advance. Real Newb when it comes to VMWare.
DELL-Charles R
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September 26th, 2023 20:56
Hello Adam,
While we can't assist directly in initial configurations as there are some Dell Professional services that can handle this task on your behalf, These would be a good place to start:
Dell EMC SC Series: Best Practices with VMware vSphere
https://dell.to/467Osk0
SCv3000 and SCv3020 Storage System Deployment Guide
https://dell.to/48ys30T
SC Series technical white papers and videos
https://dell.to/48vYehr
Support page for Dell Storage SCv3020
https://dell.to/46iPQ3i
We do have Deployment Services that can be contracted if you need. Contact Sales they could quote you for it.
Ooophelia
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November 10th, 2023 09:44
hi,
The connection to your Compellent SCv3020 storage should be managed through the VMware ESXi software, not via BIOS. VMware ESXi has a built-in software iSCSI initiator that you can use to connect to the iSCSI targets on your Compellent storage. To do this, you'll need to configure the networking for iSCSI in VMware, add the iSCSI Software Adapter, and then configure the adapter to connect to your Compellent storage.
For High Availability (HA), it is still recommended that each ESXi server have two physical iSCSI connections for redundancy, yes. This is to ensure that if one switch or connection goes down, the other can still maintain the connection to the storage. This is a part of best practices for designing a fault-tolerant infrastructure.
I would also highly recommend checking out VMware's documentation and Dell's documentation for the Compellent SCv3020. They provide a lot of detailed instructions and guidelines for setting up and configuring your environment.
Lastly, if you're transitioning from a Hyper-V environment to VMware, there might be a learning curve, but VMware's community and knowledge base are quite extensive, so don't hesitate to use them.
I hope this helps!