ESXi 5.1 and Starwind 6.0 iSCSI

[elgwhoppo]

Hi all! I'm trying to set up a new lab with ESXi 5.1 and am having some problems with the iSCSI storage provided by the free Starwind iSCSI software.

First let me break down what's happening.

I have the starwind software loaded on a Windows Server 2003 R2 Sp2 server and am able to present and see the devices in the vSphere console. However, when I go to create a vmfs datastore on the device list is empty.

I'm selecting Virtual Hard Disk, deduplicated disk device, and this is what I'm seeing. Has ESXi 5.1 been successfully validated yet for Starwind 6?

[elgwhoppo]

FWIW I tried from a ESXi 5.0.0 host and got the same thing. I can connect to my HP VSA from these hosts via iSCSI, so I'm thinking this is some kind of an access problem on the starwind side. Do I need to set any specific permissions on the actual spdata file?

[elgwhoppo]

So I found the VMware KB on this particular issue: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013500.

The VMkernel log on the host (located at /var/log/vmkernel.log) shows the below grepped output when I run through the add storage wizard, so something definitely isn't right.

Code: Select all

2012-10-10T13:20:00.073Z cpu0:2603)ScsiScan: 1098: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0': Vendor: 'ROCKET  '  Model: 'DEDUP_DISK'  Rev: '0001'
2012-10-10T13:20:00.073Z cpu0:2603)ScsiScan: 1101: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0': Type: 0x0, ANSI rev: 5, TPGS: 0 (none)
2012-10-10T13:20:00.075Z cpu0:2603)ScsiScan: 1582: Add path: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
2012-10-10T13:20:00.117Z cpu0:2603)ScsiPath: 4541: Plugin 'NMP' claimed path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0'
2012-10-10T13:20:00.120Z cpu0:2603)vmw_psp_fixed: psp_fixedSelectPathToActivateInt:479: Changing active path from NONE to vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 for device "Unregistered Device".
2012-10-10T13:20:00.120Z cpu0:2603)VMWARE SCSI Id: Id for vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
2012-10-10T13:20:00.128Z cpu0:2603)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:00.182Z cpu0:2603)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:00.223Z cpu0:2603)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:00.281Z cpu0:2603)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:01.150Z cpu1:2710)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:01.230Z cpu0:2714)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:01.278Z cpu1:2152)ScsiUid: 273: Path 'vmhba1:C0:T1:L0' does not support VPD Device Id page.
2012-10-10T13:20:01.278Z cpu0:2154)ScsiUid: 273: Path 'vmhba1:C0:T0:L0' does not support VPD Device Id page.
2012-10-10T13:20:01.278Z cpu0:2154)VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
2012-10-10T13:20:01.278Z cpu0:2152)VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for vmhba1:C0:T1:L0
2012-10-10T13:20:01.285Z cpu0:2715)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:01.366Z cpu0:2715)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported
2012-10-10T13:20:01.382Z cpu0:2715)FSS: 4333: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0': Not supported

[elgwhoppo]

The VMware HCL just answered my question. It appears that Starwind isn't on the VMware HCL for anything version 5 yet.

[Anatoly (staff)]

Yes, we haven`t got the certification with fifth vSphere yet, but we are currently working hardly to get it.

Nevertheless I would like you to know that we have tested our solution with the latest ESX and everything worked well.

May I ask you to try to use Basic Image file instead of DD just to see if the datastore will be available?