Setting up iSCSI on ESXi 7 with vCenter 7

New iSCSI ESXi Configuration

1. In vCenter, select the “host” tab in the top left.
2. From the list of hosts on the left, select a host and click on “Configure” tab.
3. Select “Virtual switches” on the left.
4. Click on “Add Networking” button in the top right.

5. Select “VMkernel Network Adapter” and click Next.

6. Select “New standard switch”.
7. Set “MTU (Bytes)” to “9000” and click Next.
8. Click the plus to add adapters

9. Select the adapter you want to add and click OK.

10. Continue step #9 and 10 until all adapters for iSCSI have been added.
11. When all adapters have been added and show up under “Active adapters”, click Next.
12. This next screen sets up the first initial network using this new vSwitch.

a. Network Label: iSCSI-A
b. VLAN ID: if adapters are trunked, set to correct vlan ID
c. MTU: Get MTU from switch 9000
d. Click Next

13. Select “Use static IPv4 settings” and populate the “IPv4 address” and “Subnet mask”. Gateway and DNS will be retrieved from the default ESXi host settings.
14. Click Next.
15. Review the settings and if good, click Finish.
16. Expand your new vSwitch; in my example it is vSwitch1.

17. Click on “Add Networking” next to vSwitch1
18. Select “VMkernel Network Adapter” and click Next.
19. The option for “Select an existing standard switch” should automatically be selected and contain the vSwitch name that holds your iSCSI NICs.
20. Click Next.
21. This next screen sets up the second network.

a. Network Label: iSCSI-A
b. VLAN ID: if adapters are trunked, set to correct vlan ID, otherwise leave at default
c. MTU: Get MTU from switch 9000
d. Click Next.

22. Select “Use static IPv4 settings” and populate the “IPv4 address” and “Subnet mask”. Gateway and DNS will be retrieved from the default ESXi host settings.
23. Click Next
24. Review the settings and if good, click Finish.
25. Beside “iSCSI-A”, click the 3 dots and select “Edit Settings”.
26. On the left select “Teaming and failover”.
27. Under “Failover order”, check “Override”.
28. The first NIC will be the “Active adapter”, all other NICs will be moved to “Unused adapters”.

a. Select the unused NIC and use the “down arrow” to move it under the “Unused adapters” section.

29. Click OK when done.
30. Repeat for the other iSCSI networks, making sure only one unique NIC (not active on any other iSCSI network) is under “Active adapters” and the other are moved to be under “Unused adapters”.
31. Click OK when done.

Adding iSCSI Software Adapter to ESXi

1. Select the host.
2. Click on “Configure” tab.
3. Select “Storage Adapters”.
4. (if it doesn’t exist) Click on “Add Software Adapter” button.

5. Select “Add software iSCSI adapter” and click OK.
6. Now we need to isolate the iSCSI software adapter to only use the iSCSI networks we previously setup.

a. Select the iSCSI Software Adapter and click on the “Network Port Binding” tab.
b. Click on the “Add” button.
c. Select all iSCSI port groups that will be used for iSCSI network communication that were previously setup (e.g. iSCSI-A and iSCSI-B) and click OK.
d. Click on “Rescan Adaptor” then on “Rescan Storage” and click OK.

7. Repeat steps 1-6 on any remaining hosts.

Adding iSCSI LUN to ESXi

1. Select the host.
2. Click on “Configure” tab.
3. Select “Storage Adapters”.
4. Select the iSCSI Storage Adapter.
5. Select the “Dynamic Discovery” tab below.
6. Click on the “Add” button.
7. Type in the FQDN or IP address of your NAS server and click OK.
8. At the top, click on “Rescan Adapter, then “Rescan Storage” and click OK.
9. Repeat steps 1-8 on the other hosts.
10. Click on “Actions”, “Storage” then click on “New Datastore”.
11. Select “VMFS”, click Next.
12. Name your datastore. (e.g. iSCSI-Production1)
13. Select an available LUN and click Next.
14. Select VMFS format version. (e.g. VMFS 6)
15. If all default settings are correct, click Next.
16. Review and click Finish.