iSCSI HBA with VMWare

[ksnook3]

Can someone tell me how to setup the iSCSI offload HBAs with VC. I set the HBA in a server profile with a functioning network from the SUS but nothing appears in VMWare. I'm a little unsure about the drivers to load on ESXi (5.1) - HP seem to offer a confusing array of drivers so can someone confirm which drivers I'm suppoed to use?

However, I'm sure the problem lies in another place. The HBAs are not allocated bandwidth and show as "Not mapped". Any suggestions?

[Casper42]

iSCSI Offload adapters (assuming 553 or 554 Emulex adapter here) are in a different section in the profile, not the normal network section.

So you need to remove the iSCSI networks from the Ethernet Networks section, make sure you have no FCoE adapters configured in the profile (delete them if you do) and then go into the iSCSI section and add 2 lines and use those to connect the iSCSI VLAN.  Unless you already have it this way, you will need to have the associated server DOWN when you hit Apply.

After that, the FlexHBA should get reconfigured by VC on boot to iSCSI mode and you will get the adapters showing up in the HBA section (not the Network Adapters section) on the next boot.

As far as the drivers, its not hard.  Its called be2iscsi.  This is already included in HP OEM VMware ESXi downloads and also mentioned very clearly on page 12 of the latest VMware Recipe on the HP Site:

http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/recipes/HP-VMware-Recipe.pdf

Keep in mind that you will need to configure the IP Address, Gateway, netmask, iSCSI Target, etc etc etc either in the Emulex BIOS during boot, or load the Emulex OneConnect plugin into vSphere and then configure it online using that tool.

Here is an HP iSCSI Cookbook link, not sure if its the latest, that I found with a quick Google search:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02533991/c02533991.pdf

There is a whole section on VMware.

Hope that helps and please post back either way to let us know if this resolved your issue or you still need help.