Configuring iSCSI for vSphere 5

Configuring a software iSCSI initiator for ESXi 5.0 is a relatively simple operation. This quick guide assumes that you have already configured an iSCSI target and published it on the network.

For inspiration, have a look at this VMware KB

Create a new vSwitch (Configuration -> Networking -> Add Networking) and add a VMkernel. Configure it with an IP address. 

Go to Storage adapters and click "Add" to add a software iSCSI adapter if it does not exist already.

Once added, right click the software initiator and choose "properties". 

Go to Network Configuration tab and click "Add".

Choose the vSwitch/VMkernel that you created above.

Go ot Dynamic Discovery tab and click "Add" to add an iSCSI target

You will be prompted to input IP address of the iSCSI target, just leave port 3260 as default unless you have configured it differently on your target.

Go to Configuration -> Storage and click "Add storage". Click DISK/LUN and next. If everything has been done correctly, you be able to see your published iSCSI target and can then add and format it with the new VMFS5 file system, uh lala!

iSCSI on a Windows box with Starwind

If you want to run shared storage in e.g. a test setup, then Starwind's iSCSI application can be recommended. Earlier, I have tried Openfiler (iSCSI in a linux distro VM) which works fine, It's not too complicated to configure, but still it's much easier with Starwind iSCSI in a Windows environment. The application is free but there's a 2 TB storage limit.

Download Starwind Free here.

Starwind installation guide. It's easy to install, just go next next done. Load the serial key, connect to the localhost (user: test, pw: test), add a new device, and then follow install guide page pp 5.

For a guide on how to configure iSCSI in ESX 3 and 4, click here

A typical test setup could be one physcial host with 8 GB of memory and one quad core cpu. Check vm-help.com for a list of compatible whitebox ESX hardware.

From ESX 4 it's possible to run ESX as a VM within an ESX. Even VMotion will work (go to vcritical.com for a demonstration). And if you have a VM with an iSCSI target running on it, then you have a full enterprise setup running on one box.