MSA 1040/2040 simple iSCSI network

[Panzer_1]

Hi.

I am looking for a very simple virtualization solution. Will the following combination work, and will it be supported?

2x Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V, Cluster Shared Volume on MSA 1040/2040 directly  attached (without iSCSI switches)

I cannot find any documentation on this or a similar solution.

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

Well... you will have LAN switches... for LAN connectivity so theoretically you will have iSCSI switches (Possibly not the best type, but none-the-less usable).

Without an network infrastructure, you can't truly have a shared connection to the MSA.  Theoretically, what you want to do should work, but your paths will be different per host.  Since MSCS uses disk signatures (or at least they used to)... the path should not matter.  In other operating systems, different pathing could break the operation.

But since you have a LAN(or should have a LAN)... you already have the very basic requirements for "shared storage" connectivity... you just need some extra ports to connect to.

The MSA2040 has up to 4 ports per controller.  At a minimum, you need to connect 1 port per controller, preferably 2 per controller or more.  There is also a management port per controller.

[Gian Luigi De Lorenzo_1]

Will it work the same simple configuration with VMware vSphere, I mean directly attached server to storage via iSCSI without any switch in between?

Thank you Gianluigi