Accessing iSCSI targets from VMware vSphere

You can access iSCSI targets from Linux, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere. Refer to "Accessing iSCSI targets" in the Storage User Guide for more details on access from Linux and Microsoft Hyper-V. The following section describes the VMware vSphere scenario for evaluation.

Before using Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure volumes with VMware vSphere, you need to configure it properly to work with ALUA Active/Passive storage arrays. It is recommended that you change the default path policy to RR policy with the command:

# esxcli storage nmp satp set -s VMW_SATP_ALUA -P VMW_PSP_RR

Now you can reboot the host and create datastores from Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure volumes exported via iSCSI. Log in to the VMware ESXi web panel and do the following:

  1. In the Navigator, go to the Storage > Adapters tab and click Software iSCSI.

  2. In the Configure iSCSI window, select Enabled. In the Dynamic targets section, click Add dynamic target and enter the IP addresses of your nodes.

    You can see the IP addresses in the admin panel. On the Infrastructure > Nodes screen, click the required node name. Then, go to the Network tab and copy the public network IP.

  3. Click Save configuration.

  4. Proceed to the Devices tab and click Refresh. The newly added disk will appear in the list of devices.

  5. Select the disk and click New datastore. In the wizard that appears, enter a name for the datastore and select partitioning options. Click Finish to partition the disk.

    Partitioning the disk will erase all data from it.

  6. The ready-to-use disk will appear in the list of datastores. Select it and click Database browser to view its contents and upload files, so that you could proceed to check its accessibility.