Enabling iSER in Starwind VSAN Free

[MikeHam77]

Hi,

how can I enable iSer in Starwind VSAN Free? I have Mellanox Connectx-4 card and
when Im adding IP addresses to StarWind.cfg ( <iSerListen value=""/> ) and restart StarWind Virtual SAN service, nothing happens.
iSER remains disabled and iSerListen value goes back to default setting.
What I'm doing wrong?

[Boris (staff)]

Make sure you install the proper drivers from http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_d ... section=34 for iSER to be able to operate.

[MikeHam77]

Thanks for reply, I installed WinOF-2 drivers and the card itself is working ok in Windows.
Get-NetAdapterRdma also shows that RDMA is enabled for both interfaces.

My configuration for Mellanox on node#1 looks like this:

1. interface (iSCSI Data) = 10.10.100.51
2. interface (iSCSI Sync) = 10.10.101.51

StarWind.cfg:
<iSerListen value="10.10.100.51,10.10.101.51"/>

Any ideas what to try next?

[Boris (staff)]

What does your StarWind Management Console report regarding iSER support?
To check that, select your server in the left pane, and in the right pane go to Configuration - Network.

[MikeHam77]

It says "Disabled" for Mellanox ports.

[MikeHam77]

I searched log files and found this error when tried to enable iSER on my first node (10.10.101.51):
ConnectPortal: Remote peer (10.10.101.52:3260) does not listen for iSER-assisted connections.

So my second node should already be listening iSER before activating the first one.
How is it even possible to do that
Do I need to shutdown whole server, edit starwind.cfg and start services at the same time on both nodes?

[Boris (staff)]

Make sure you have introduced the proper changes into the StarWind.cfg configuration file and restarted both StarWind services one by one making sure the devices have enough time to get synchronized between the service restarts.

[MikeHam77]

OK, I tried the following but no luck:

1. added my Mellanox IPs to StarWind.cfg:
Node1 = <iSerListen value="10.10.100.51,10.10.101.51"/>
Node2 = <iSerListen value="10.10.100.52,10.10.101.52"/>

2. Restarted "StarWind Virtual SAN" service from node1 and waited that nodes were syncronized.
Restarted "StarWind Virtual SAN" service from node2 and waited that nodes were syncronized.

3. Checked iSER status from Management Console, but it was still Disabled on both nodes
and also my changes to StarWind.cfg was gone and returned to default setting -> <iSerListen value=""/>

Are these settings in correct syntax, you set IP addresses here what iSER should listen?
Node1 = <iSerListen value="10.10.100.51,10.10.101.51"/>
Node2 = <iSerListen value="10.10.100.52,10.10.101.52"/>

When iSER settings are changed from GUI, is that the only setting it changes?

[Boris (staff)]

Changes need to be done in the config file when the StarWind service is stopped. If the service is running, all changes will be discarded when the service stops.

[MikeHam77]

Ah, of course Now I got iSER working and everything looks good.
Thank you very much for your help!

[Boris (staff)]

Great it worked for you finally.