Document or advice on how to verify iSCSI?

[wallewek]

What is the best way to verify StarWind VSAN iSCSI configuration and statuses? Sometimes I have a feeling things aren't what they should be, but it's hard to be sure. Is it enough that the Management Console isn't complaining?

Between the iSCSI Initiator Properties, Targets, Discovery, Favorite targets, devices, MPIO settings and so on, there's a lot to get right or wrong, and some of those tools can muck things up even just by accident if you use them wrong.

The best document I've found, the one I used to set things up, was the technical paper "StarWind Virtual SAN Installation and Configuration on HyperConverged 2 Nodes with Hyper-v Cluster". I just now tried to find a link to it, but I can't find it online. Unfortunately, it is written purely from the viewpoint of initial configuration, not verification, and that definitely makes the latter more challenging.

-- kenw

[yaroslav (staff)]

Here is this document I believe https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resour ... rver-2016/.
Just go through it and check if your setup matches the picture in that guide.

I have the logs from your setup so I can do a quick check of iSCSI connections and Heartbeat connections (they are the most troublesome ones). Speaking of everything else, you can just go through the guide and compare the configuration you have versus the technical paper.
Here is the checklist I used. I might have missed something though. Here are 3 important documents: StarWind VSAN Best Practices https://www.starwindsoftware.com/best-p ... practices/, StarWind VSAN RAID settings recommendations https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware. ... ssd-disks/, StarWind VSAN system requirements https://www.starwindsoftware.com/system-requirements. If your setup meets the requirements, all should be fine.
1. Are all the features and roles installed?
a. WS updates?
b. Hyper-V
c. Failover Cluster
d. MPIO
i. Is MPIO enabled?
e. 2 or more NICs for iSCSI? Go to StarWind cfg file:
<iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces value=”0”/> -> <iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces value=”1”/>
2. Networking
a. Are the recent drivers installed?
b. See if all nodes are in the domain.
c. Networks for iSCSI/HB and Synchronization are in different subnets
d. No teaming on NICs (but management).
e. Are connections displayed right in iSCSI Initiatoriop
i. Discovery tab (loopback Partner -> Initiator)
ii. Are all the targets discovered right? See the Favorite targets tab
1) Least queue depth for devices; both paths active
2) Failover only for witness; only loopback active
a) Partner witness is not connected.
f. See if JUMBO frames are enabled and have equal values (avoid setting Jumbo frames for x722 or Broadcom NICs, please - they do not work for certain old drivers)
3. StarWind VSAN Version
4. Are StarWind VSAN devices replicated right?
5. Failover cluster
a. Are the devices named properly?
b. See if the witness works as a Cluster witness.
c. Networking
i. Enable cluster communication over sync
ii. Sync should not be used for live migration (Only iSCSI and management can be used) Sync has to be unchecked only if the iSCSI is 10Gbps+

Let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

[wallewek]

That you for that checklist, Yaroslav.

The documentation you suggested, https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resour ... rver-2016/ is impressive. It looks like a great deal of work went into it, and it covers much more than the one I mentioned. Thank you for that suggestion!

--- kenw

[yaroslav (staff)]

Hi,

You are always welcome! Do not hesitate to contact us if any assistance is required.