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20 steps to connect openfiler to esx as iscsi storage

December 25, 2010 KIRTI RANJAN PARIDA Go to comments Leave a comment

Kirti Ranjan Parida

Openfiler is a Linux based small operating system that provides file-based network-attached storage and block-based storage area network and is free software. It can run with very minimal resource.Below I will show how we can take the benefit of openfiler to make SAN/NAS storage for our VMware ESX host. There are two types of openfiler installation. You can click on the installation link to see all details on how to help 1.Text Based Installation 2.Graphical Installation N:B:-Make sure you have not partitioned all the disk space.Make the OS partition to small size and keep rest as free space which later we will use as iSCSI LUN. At the time of installation or post installation you have to configure static IP address and necessary DNS configuration. Once your installation is done, after reboot you will get a screen like below where it will give the URL where you can access opnefiler from browser.

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N:B:- Configure static IP address and necessary DNS configuration before doing anything Step-1:Now open the URL given at openfiler startup screen using any browser to login to its web interface. For first time it will give a security warning like the picture shown below. Install and configure VNC in 8 easy steps No network adapters were detected while installing ESX 4 on VMware Workstation

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VMware Workstation 15 steps to create your own VMware vSphere LAB on your home computer 20 steps to connect openfiler to esx as iscsi storage Different Run levels in Linux and how to switch between them

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You just need to ignore the warning and proceed to the login page. You will get a login screen like given below.

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moving repository multiple svn normal

openfiler openssh password Perl port recover repositories root

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N:B:-Dont login using the root user credentials what you have provided during openfiler installation. Default username penfiler

Default Password:-password Once after successful login you will get a screen which will be containing all your openfiler server information

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Step-2:Go to volumes tab.If you are opening this for first time you will get a screen like below.

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You have to select create new volume group. Then you will get a screen like below.

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Step-3:Click on disk name (Here in my case its /dev/sdb) under Edit Disk which contains the free space we are going to use iSCSI storage. Now you will get a screen where you can make your physical volume.

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From Partition Type dropdown menu select Physical volume and click Create.It will create a physical volume. Step-4:Now click on Volume Groups on the right hand side. You will be presented a window like below.

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Here give some valid name for the volume group and select the physical volumes shown in the list in order to add to the volume group. Then click on Add volume group. Once volume group creation finishes you can see the volume group listed under volumes tab.

Step-5:Now volume group creation is done,So we have to configure LUN(Logical Unit Number).To do this click on Add Volume.

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Here give some volume name and slide the slider to allocate space to LUN.Choose Filesystem type as iSCSI and click on create . Step-6:Next action is to enable iSCSI service. For this open Services tab. You will find there are some service listed and have option to disable/enable the services. From here you have to enable iSCSI target server Service.it will be disabled by default.

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Step-7:Once iSCSI is enabled we need to share the volume to specific IP/Networks. To do this open System tab and on bottom you will find Network Access Configuration. Here provide the details of the ESX/ESXi server information and click on update.

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N:B:-Sometimes in Network Access Configuration if you will allow only host then the iSCSI volume may not be shown in storage volumes under vSphere client.To overcome this allow the whole network as shown in the second rule in Network Access Configuration. Step-8:Now you need to configure the iSCSI target and allow for the host.To do this goto Volumes tab.On right hand side you will find iSCSI Targets.From there goto Target Configuration as shown in figure below.

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You will see some long name under Target IQN.This is going to be your iSCSI target name.Click on Add to add the target. Step-9:Then go to LUN Mapping and click on Map to map the LUN to the iSCSI target.

Step-10:Next goto Network ACL on the same page.You will see the list of network/hostname present here are similar to what you gave in Network Access Configuration before and all will be deny by default.You have to allow them and click on Update.

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Now openfiler configuration is over.We have to attach the storage volume to our ESX/ESXi server. To do that login to the ESX /ESXi server using vSphere client. Step 11:In vSphere client Goto to Inventory > Configuration > Networking.

Now you need to add VMkernel to have features like vMotion and HA.To do that click on Add Networking. Select VMkernel and click Next.

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Step-12:-Now if you have more than one network adaptor you can create a new virtual switch but in my case I have only one so I choose use vSwitch0 which will handle the network traffic for VMkernel.Click Next to proceed.

Step-13:From the next screen you can choose the options to enable services like VMotion,FT etc. but as we are mainly focused on storage leave those part for now.

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Click next to proceed Step-14:Set an IP adress for the VMkernel

Click Next. Then click Finish to finish the process of creation of VMkernel. Step-15: Go to Configuration TAB and click on Storage Adapters.Click on iSCSI Software Adapter.

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Step-16: Click on Properties of iSCSI Software Adapter, then goto General > Configure and enable the software initiator checkbox.

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Step-17:Then click on Dynamic Discovery tab.Click on Add and then put your Openfiler IP address in iSCSCI Server field. In my case the IP is 192.168.1.5.

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Click OK and then click Close to close the Properties window.Now a pop-up will appear to rescan all host bus adapter.Click on Yes to rescan.

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Now you can see the storage device by selecting the iSCSI adapter as shown below.

Step-18:To create LUN goto Configuration > Storage > Add Storage.

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Step-19:Once you will click on Add Storage you will be prompted as below

Click Next.

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Select the iSCSI disk and click Next.You will be represented the disk layout.

Click Next to proceed.Now you will be prompted to put a datastore name.

Put any datastore name of your choice and click Next.

Select you block size from the dropdown list and click Next.

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Now your LUN is ready.Click on Finish. Step-20: Now automatically your Openfiler LUN will appear in datastore list.To view this go to Configuration>Storage.

N:B:-If your datastore is not appearing in the list just click on Rescan all to rescan the host bus adapter. Now you can definitely see your datastore.
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Virtualisation esx, esxi, iSC SI, logical volume, LUN, openfiler, physical volume, storage, virtualisation, vmware

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C om m e nts (3)

January 31, 2011 at 3:31 am | #1

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herbert

Hi, sorry for the intrusion. I have an openfiler with the iscsi setup as you mention on your site. But all the sudden I cant connect to the iscsi drive any more. What make it even worst is when I tried to remove the iscsi drive and try to add them back again, this time I am getting Incorrect metada error under LUN Mapping section and I cant proceed any further. I have no clue how I can fix it Do you think you can help me out or point me to the right direction for the answer. Thanks in advance.

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July 15, 2012 at 4:43 pm | #2

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Lars S

Step 13 I didnt get the storage to show up (as shown in step 17) before I enabled vmotion on the vmkernel port group by checking the vmotion checkbox.

De ce m be r 7, 2012 at 11:04 am | #3

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Eric

Unmap and remap your iscsi drive in openfiler, then reboot your host. I had the same problem and this resolve the issue

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