VMFS Datastores failing to create on StarWind VSAN storage

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olopez
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2021 1:58 am

Sun Mar 28, 2021 2:30 am

Hello everyone, I'm a new user and currently setting up a demo for my group to experiment with but I'm coming up against an odd issue that didn't occur during my small scale tests before.

I've provisioned two Starwind 8 servers using Windows 2019 CORE for storage, my compute side is two ESXi 6.5 servers in a cluster. I would like to create VMFS datastores using StarWind.
I have it to the point that both of my ESXi servers can "see" the target IQN however when I attempt to make a VMFS datastore my ESXi servers both kick back with "Cannot change the host configuration" and fails.

To test I've made a connection using iscsi initiator on a spare Windows 2019 VM and I was able to connect (through the management address) and create a usable NTFS drive.
I attempted to create the VMFS datastore using the same management address instead of the iSCSI again just to test and it wouldn't bind. I'm a bit perplexed as to what could be causing this, has anyone come across an issue like this before?

I've gone through what I believe are all of the recommendations and specifications, virtual disks are set to 512 block size as 4096 wouldn't even show in the discovery pool on my ESXi servers. I've attempted to use L1 and L2 (again none at all), JumboFrames are on all ISCSI and SYNC interfaces for ESXi and Starwind boxes.
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Tue Mar 30, 2021 1:13 pm

Hello,

Welcome to StarWind Forum! Make sure that you are not using any CHAPs or Access Rights. Also, please try reinstalling ESXi or readd iSCSI IPs in Dynamic Discovery.
timol74395
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2021 9:49 am

Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:02 am

olopez wrote:Hello everyone, I'm a new user and currently setting up a demo for my group to experiment with but I'm coming up against an odd issue that didn't occur during my small scale tests before.

I've provisioned two Starwind 8 servers using Windows 2019 CORE for storage, my compute side is two ESXi 6.5 servers in a cluster. I would like to create VMFS datastores using StarWind.
I have it to the point that both of my ESXi servers can "see" the target IQN however when I attempt to make a VMFS datastore my ESXi servers both kick back with "Cannot change the host configuration" and fails.

To test I've made a connection using iscsi initiator on a spare Windows 2019 VM and I was able to connect (through the management address) and create a usable NTFS drive.
I attempted to create the VMFS datastore using the same management address instead of the iSCSI again just to test and it wouldn't bind. I'm a bit perplexed as to what could be causing this, has anyone come across an issue like this before?

I've gone through what I believe are all of the recommendations and specifications, virtual disks are set to 512 block size as 4096 wouldn't even show in the discovery pool on my ESXi servers. I've attempted to use L1 and L2 (again none at all), JumboFrames are on all ISCSI and SYNC interfaces for ESXi and Starwind boxes.
Hi buddy, did you get way out with this yet?

Regards,
Kevin J. Hodge
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anton (staff)
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Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:42 am

This issue has nothing to do with StarWind itself. Previous versions of VMware vSphere / ESXi didn't support emulated 512 and native 4K blocks, it was native 512 only. New versions don't have this problem anymore.

Official statement could be found here:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2091600

"Do current GA versions of vSphere and VSAN support 4K Native drives?

Yes, starting vSphere 6.7/7.x and vSAN 6.7/7.x, we support 4K Native Hard Disk Drives.
vSphere & vSAN will continue to expose 512n VMDKs to Guest OS as part of this support.
VMFS 6 datastore is required for vSphere deployments and no RDM support is available with 4KN HDDs at this time."
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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anton (staff)
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Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:44 am

== thread closed ==
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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