How to enable RoCE and iSER in vSAN Free?

[ezoltan]

Hello community,

I have a 2-node vSAN Free cluster running on Microsoft Hyper-V 2025, with 2x 25Gb sync + 2x 25Gbps iSCSI + 4x 1Gbps SET Team for management and user access. The sync and iSCSI connections are direct back-to-back links, and I have the maximum size of jumbo frames allowed by the network cards enabled and successfully tested (PING -f).

The network cards, the BIOS and the OS are all configured for RoCEv2 and stats show it is active and it should work, should any service want to make use of it.

I want my vSAN to use RoCEv2, but from what Gemini tells me, I need to enable NetworkDirect in the StarWind.cfg file. It also recommended to enable iSER.

I cannot the NetworkDirect / RoCE directive(s) in the config file, nor can I find any documentation on this topic, and I don't want to just blindly mess with it based on an AI's gut feel.

Can anyone help me answer these questions please:

1. How do I make my vSAN use RoCE, and confirm it is actually being used?
2. How do I make my vSAN use iSER, and confirm it is actually being used?
3. Is there any benefit of enabaling iSER?

Thank you.

[yaroslav (staff)]

VSAN does not use RoCE v2 (unless NVMe-oF or iSER), and I doubt there's iSER support for VSAN Free. You will need to go Trial or NFR license (https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... g-options/). Note that none of them allows going back to free.
Speaking of iSER, I'd go for NVMe-oF instead (more efficient protocol than iSCSI). Join our beta program https://www.starwindsoftware.com/techni ... ew-program.