MSA1510i - MS iSCSI Initiator problems

[Linus Lindström]

Hi,

I have a MSA1510i with firmware 1.30 (to support ESX 3.01). HP says that I need 1.32 firmware to support MS iSCSI Initiator 2.03.

Until yesterday I had everything working but then the MS Iniatior started to lose connection (every 10-20minutes). I tried to reinstall but didnt help. I tried to upgrade to iSCSI 2.05 but then I couldnt connect at all. I unistalled 2.05 and installed 2.03 again and now I cant connect with 2.03 at all. Any ideas? HP just says Upgrade the firmware to 1.32 to get iSCSI Initiator 2.03 working.. but I cant do that because of VMWare ESX 3.01 and I dont think it will help because I could connect with 2.03 before... but It stopped working since I tried 2.05.

Best regards
Linus

[Allan D'Souza]

Linus,

If you are planning to use ESX 3.01 you don't need Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. ESX 3.01 has it's own built in initiator. Do not use the Microsoft Initiator if you are plannng to run ESX.

On the other hand - If you want to run a pure Window's Server environment then use Microsoft's iSCSI Initiator. The supported version is still 2.03. When you install the Microsoft Initiator make sure you DO NOT select the 3rd checkbox for Multipath drivers from Microsoft. If you are not sure if you did or did not, just reinstall the initiator again and make sure the 3rd checkbox is not marked. This will uninstall the Microsoft MPIO and DSM driver. Use the HP supplied Software installation CD to install the correct MPIO and HP DSM.

Hope this helps,

regards,

Allan

[Linus Lindström]

Thanks for you reply.

But I want the disks available from a non-VMWare server and therefor I need to use the MS iSCSI Initiator?

What do I need the Microsoft MPIO and DSM driver for?

However, I successfully connected the disk again after a few re-installtions of the MS iSCSI Initiator. However after about 1 hour the disks disconnected again.

EventViewer ID 12 from PlugPlayManager:
"The device 'HP MSA1510i VOLUME SCSI Disk Device' (SCSI\Disk&Ven_HP______&Prod_MSA1510i_VOLUME_&Rev_1.30\1&2afd7d61&0&000002) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal."

And it continues to disconnect withing 10-60minutes over and over again.

// Linus

[Uwe Zessin]

> What do I need the Microsoft MPIO and DSM driver for?

The MSA1510i is an active/passive platform today and thus required a proprietary DSM.

[Linus Lindström]

Well, thnaks for your reply.

I havnt used the MPIO nor the DSM driver in my earlier installation and everything worked fine for 6 months .. before the problem i described started. However, from now I am not using the iSCSI SAN to VMWare and have installed local disks for the Windows shares...

Thanks anyway!

// Linus