Dell PowerVault MD3220i Deployment Manual

Also see for PowerVault MD3200i Series: Manual Update Rack Installation Instructions User guide Support Matrix

Dell PowerVault MD3220i Deployment Manual Manual pdf 6 page image

Dell PowerVault MD32xxi Configuration Guide for VMware ESX4.1 Server SoftwarePage 4MPIO – With ESX4.1 and vSphere4, customers can benefit from Multi-Path I/O from the ESX4.1 server andthe SAN. This allows for multiple connections to be concurrently used to allow for greater bandwidth.This is especially important for the PowerVault SAN as each PowerVault member has multiple connectionsand now ESX4.1 can take full advantage of these connections.Third Party MPIO Support – With ESX4.1 and vSphere4, VMware has provided an architecture thatenables storage vendors to provide new and advanced intelligent integration.Supported Hardware and SoftwareHardware RequirementsRefer to the following VMware website for a complete up-to-date list of the prerequisites for installingVMware ESX server.http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_esx_get_start.pdfSupported Operating Systems for MD32xxi arrayESX4.1 is the only supported VMware OS for MD32xxi.Architectural SetupAs a best practice, Dell recommends using a separate Gigabit Ethernet network switch to handle iSCSI storagetraffic. Each server is connected to two switches. Each switch has a path to the MD32XXi via two dual-portcontrollers. In this base HA configuration, the servers, switches, and MD32XXi ports share the same subnet. TheNIC ports serving iSCSI traffic on the ESX servers are teamed in order to re-route traffic in the event of an adapterfailure.Considerations When Using iSCSI Software or Hardware Initiators for ESX4.1on the MD32xxi Storage ArrayTaking advantage of all of these new features requires some new steps to be taken by ESX administrators.Configuration is done via either GUI or CLI inside the ESX4.1 server. The remainder of this whitepaperfocuses on installation and configuration of an iSCSI software initiator connection to a PowerVault SeriesSAN. Each of these commands can be found inside the VMWARE ISCSI SAN CONFIGURATION Guide and wherenames and IP Addresses are used, they will be different for each environment. This serves as an exampleand demonstration of how to configure a new vSphere4 ESX4.1 server correctly and connect it to thePowerVault SAN.The following assumptions are made for this example:1. Running ESX4.12. Running latest Dell PowerVault MD32xxi firmware