Configure MPIO on Hyper-v

jmlnet · Wed May 08, 2013 1:57 am

I have a server 2012 hyper-v host directly connected via raid card to an external storage array. I have Starwind free installed on this hyper-v host. The host has 4 nics, one for hyper-v guests, 2 for iscsi, and one for management. The 2 for iscsi are each on their own subnet with jumbo frames enabled and only ip4 and ip6 bound.

I'm trying to connect a windows 8 *physical* machine to the iscsci targets on the host and use MPIO. However, this newbie to iscsi is stuck. I've installed MPIO on the Host but can't configure it because the host is not the initiator and everything I've found (including the Starwind MPIO doc) has you configure MPIO after you connect to the target. The win8 machine connects fine pursuant to the Starwind MPIO doc but there's no place to install or configure mpio on win8.

What am I missing? Am I to connect the host to the targets and then connect the win8 machine to the same targets?

Help and thanks,

John

toml · Thu May 09, 2013 12:05 am

I have looked at the same thing Windows 8 does not support MPIO.

Tom

jmlnet · Sat May 11, 2013 4:28 pm

Thank you, figured that out.

When you're using your hyper-v host to also manage your san, I guess the intended configuration is to connect the san via a server guest using mpio iscsi. Where I'm still lost is what to do when a client needs a really fast connection to the storage. Adapters are intel i350. Team the adapters on the client using the intel team software?

Sat May 11, 2013 7:18 pm

1) Do not connect from a client. Connect from hypervisor, configure a vSwitch and share connection.

2) Do not use NIC teaming (OS or vendor provided does not matter) with iSCSI. Stick with MPIO. There are few "exceptions" within Windows Server 2012 where Microsoft
had recently flexed out these "rule of thumb" requirements, see:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/a ... stion.aspx

But I'd still stay away from NIC teaming in block storage protocols concept (SMB and NFS are indeed different).

jmlnet wrote:Thank you, figured that out. When you're using your hyper-v host to also manage your san, I guess the intended configuration is to connect the san via a server guest using mpio iscsi. Where I'm still lost is what to do when a client needs a really fast connection to the storage. Adapters are intel i350. Team the adapters on the client using the intel team software?

jmlnet · Sat May 11, 2013 11:57 pm

Thank you very much for the replies.

Sun May 12, 2013 10:58 am

Not at all! Please keep us updated about your progress. Thanks!