Cant see volumes

Constantin (staff) · Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:08 pm

Yesterday you sent us logs, but it`s not full, could you please send us full logs, attaching txt file.

soscvio · Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:17 pm

I zipped the whole logs folder and sent it again.

Constantin (staff) · Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:46 pm

According to logs to iSCSI successfully connects to StarWind, so this is a trouble of Windows. Please, refer to article at TechNet about Troubleshooting Disk Management. Please keep me updated.

scerazy · Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:52 pm

Did anything come out of this ever?

I have W2K8R2 host that connects to another 2 iSCSI arrays (EMC & Equalogic) via dual hardware iSCSI HBAs with NO problems

It will also connect to Starwind target, but the volume will never show in anything (exactly as soscvio)

Seb

Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:35 pm

Different HBAs - different firmwares - different issues. That one was resolved AFAIK.

Can you dump HBA and use software iSCSI initiator to connect?

scerazy wrote:Did anything come out of this ever?

I have W2K8R2 host that connects to another 2 iSCSI arrays (EMC & Equalogic) via dual hardware iSCSI HBAs with NO problems

It will also connect to Starwind target, but the volume will never show in anything (exactly as soscvio)

Seb

scerazy · Sat Dec 03, 2011 7:08 am

No, the issue is the same = can not see volumes!

Sorry, but why would I?

In my tests hardware HBA performed better than software iSCSI.

Do you say that SWT does not work with hardware HBA?

edit:
So it does seem that software ISCSI initiator works, but hardware HBA does not

Dell PowerEdge 2950 with dual onboard BCM5798C with Dell hardware iSCSI offload key

latest Dell BIOS 2.7, driver bxois.sys version 6.2.7.0 date 12/10/2010

But to be fair, I am shocked how well it performed (at least using ATTO Disk Benchmark) without any tweaks, using the c**p test setup I used (target being HP Micro server with Server Core on USB SSD, software RAID5 on 4 x Seagate 5900rpm drives, with desktop Intel adapter + Jumbo frames)

Seb

Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:24 pm

I did not say StarWind does not support iSCSI HBAs! We do of course. However less and less people tend to use them in favor of software iSCSI initiators (obvious reasons) so if you have an issue it's easier to troubleshoot it replacing iSCSI HBA with any modern 1 GbE or 10 GbE NIC with TCP and possibly iSCSI hardware offload.

scerazy wrote:No, the issue is the same = can not see volumes!

Sorry, but why would I?

In my tests hardware HBA performed better than software iSCSI.

Do you say that SWT does not work with hardware HBA?

edit:
So it does seem that software ISCSI initiator works, but hardware HBA does not

Dell PowerEdge 2950 with dual onboard BCM5798C with Dell hardware iSCSI offload key

latest Dell BIOS 2.7, driver bxois.sys version 6.2.7.0 date 12/10/2010

But to be fair, I am shocked how well it performed (at least using ATTO Disk Benchmark) without any tweaks, using the c**p test setup I used (target being HP Micro server with Server Core on USB SSD, software RAID5 on 4 x Seagate 5900rpm drives, with desktop Intel adapter + Jumbo frames)

Seb

Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:26 pm

... and in your case I'd make sure you do run the most recent firmware for iSCSI HBA and after then if you'd continue to face referenced issue please provide us with a complete StarWind log. Then we could probably be able to help

Thank you!

scerazy · Sun Dec 04, 2011 9:54 pm

I will tomorrow, as I already have the latest firmware I can have for this machine (as specified)

Onboard cards with iSCSI offload are rather difficult to replace... especially that they work fine with my other 2 Enterprise level boxes

Seb

Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:42 am

Dear scerazy,

What we can see in the logs that you have sent (BTW thank you, we appreciate that), is that you have created the Image File target couple of times and successfully connected to it with intiator that has iqn iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:hvhost.brookgreen.spgs.local. Could you please specify is this is correct iqn of your hardware initiator? Also I would like to ask you to clarify if you have setted up any ACL and how many connections you have tried to establish to this target (the target was created as Not-Clustered, so it should receive only one connection)?

scerazy · Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:12 pm

Correct target, correct iqn, only a single connection, no ACL of any kind

Connection with HBA is fine, volume not visible

Connection with iSCSI is fine, volume IS visible & usable

Seb

Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:00 am

I just have talked to our R&D department. According to them we need additional diagnostic information to resolve the issue. Unfortunately level 1 log do not provide required level of details, thus you need to enable level 3 logs, re-create the issue and then send this L3 log back to us.
You can enable L3 logs following way: go to %Program Files%/StarWind Software/StarWind/ and edit StarWind.cfg file. In the beginning of it you can find LogLevel=1 option, you need to change 1 to 3 and restart the service.
Then recreate the issue and send logs to us.

scerazy · Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:44 pm

New log supplied

Seb

Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:38 pm

Received it! Thanks.

The logs are passed to R&D. You will get answer from us ASAP.

scerazy · Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:12 am

Anything?

Seb