MSA 2060 With ISCSI.

[CSCUH]

Hi there,

we would like to know if we can use the HPE MSA 2060 with the iSCSI SFP+ 10Gb/s transceivers to allow it to connect to our ISCSI network switches. which

How does the MSA handle failover using ISCSI? Does it support LACP?

Sorry for the basic questions I can't seem to find this in the manual.

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. HPE MSA 2060 Storage Array

2. HPE MSA 1060/2060/2062 Installation Guide

If the above information is helpful, then please click on "Thumbs Up/Kudo" icon.

Thank you for being a HPE community member.

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. You may also refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[ArunKKR]

Hi,

I believe that you have either HPE MSA 2060 10GbE iSCSI LFF Storage model (Product number: R0Q75A) or HPE MSA 2060 10GbE iSCSI SFF Storage (Product number: R0Q76A).
You should be able to connect the MSA to ethernet network switch with 10GbE ports either through DAC (Direct attached cables) or using SFP modules.

MSA has 2 controllers A and B. Each controller has a Pool A/B under it.
The optimized path for Pool A volumes would be through controller A iscsi host ports.
Similarly the optimized path for Pool B volumes would be through controller B iscsi host ports

If one of the controller fails, the second controller will take over the load.
If any of the host port paths fail, the load will be handled by the other working paths.

Refer to the pages 37/38 of the MSA installation guide at the below web link for cabling information:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00105314en_us&docLocale=en_USe 

Do not use link aggregation techniques with iSCSI. Instead, use MPIO on host server operating system.

The recommended multi path path selection policy with MSA is round robin.

[Moderator edit: Updated the broken link]

[jmwoo]

Hello.
I am trying to use the msa 2060 iscsi.
The msa controller I have is 4 ports. However, I want to connect and use only 2 ports.
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------
Refer to the pages 37/38 of the MSA installation guide at the below web link for cabling information:
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00105314en_us&docLocale=en_USe
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
If you use the 2-port connection method on the 4-port controller in the link you provided, does the redundant configuration not work?
The current error message is as follows.
A failure of Controller A will impact connectivity to this host. You must physically connect this host through a port on Controller B.

A failure of controller {A} will impact connectivity to this host. You must physically connect this host through a port on Controller {B}

I think there is probably a problem with the connection.
Thanks in advance and thank you for your reply.

[Moderator edit: Updated the broken link.]

[sbhat09]

Hello @jmwoo,

If you are using 2/4 ports from your MSA, choose 1 port (identical) from each controllers.

If you are using single controller (I guess so because you told 'controller', not 'system'/'controllers'), you will get that error anyway. You can ignore and proceed. However, single controller is not recommended.

Regards,
Srinivas Bhat

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!
Note: All of my comments are my own and are not any official representation of HPE.

[jmwoo]

Thank you for answer.

Now let me get back to you on the matter.
I am using mc(4port) 2EA(A,B).
I am connecting in the order of mc(2EA) - switch (2EA) - server (n).
The mc I am using is a 4 port, but I am using a 2 port cable connection method.
Is there no way to use only 2port from 4port's mc?
Do I have to use the cable connection described in the guide? If only 2 ports cannot be used, does it mean that all 4 ports must be connected for normal operation?

Thanks again for the reply.

[JonPaul · Accepted solution]

@jmwoo 
Figure 29 in the guide shows a highly redundant confguration using a 1060, 2 switches, 2 servers.
On the MSA you can use as few or as many host ports as you want but each port you add can increase the redundancy or the througput.
For example: if you only connect port A1 (Top controller right most port), you can have access to all volumes on the MSA but if the A controller is powered off or faults, you will lose access.
To increase the fault tolerance you can then connect port B1 (Bottom controller left most port), you will now have access to your volumes when the A controller is powered off. This is an increase to the availability. It has a side benefit of also enabling the optimized path to volumes in the B pool.
You can then connect port A2 (Top controller 2nd to right most port) at this point you are adding a second Path to the A controller, this is an increase of redundancy of a array host port, cable or switch port fault.  This also will allow the host multipath software to load balance across the ports for volumes from pool A (Optimized paths)
Adding port B2 also increases redundancy for a failover and load-balancing for volumes from Pool B.
so on and so on.  The choice is your as to how much redundancy you need and if you need load-balancing.  With a single server you probably will not need load balancing as the initiator can't go faster than a single target port, but you might want the redundancy for an accidental cable malfunction (i.e. what does this cable go to?)
For most multipath software instances creating more than 8 paths can be an issue as failover can take a while as it tries each path and recovery can also be problemmatic as it takes time for the host OS to bring each path back online.
Hope this helps

[GabDerilo08]

Hi @ArunKKR ,

Regarding: "Instead, use MPIO on host server operating system."

"The recommended multi-path path selection policy with MSA is round robin"

How do you enable this or configure this? 

We had a recent test where we removed connections from ports 1A and 2A from the MSA and the Data Store in the 3 ESXi Servers was lost. 

[ArunKKR]

Hi,

The issue that you have mentioned does not seem to be multipath related.

The default PSP in vmware is MRU.

Steps to change PSP in vmware is listed in the below vmware advisory:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-AE95818C-0782-429B-9526-DF12673A63C7.html

Update the firmware of MSA controllers to latest version IN110P002 (if not done already ) and test the behaviour again.

[GabDerilo08]

Thank you ArunKKR, Firmwares are up to date, but We'll change multipathing settings to Round robin.

Additionally for the HA, 

At the SMU, since the "Redundant" icon on the Volumes is X, could it also be the reason for losing the Data store connection when testing the high availability features?

[ArunKKR]

Hi,

Yes. It should be the reason for losing connectivity.

The redundant status should report green check mark.

There should be iscsi sessions from controller A host port and controller B host port to the server iscsi IP address.

You could probably first test the vmkping to controller A and B host port IPs.

Verify the iscsi sessions from ESXI end using below command in ESXi SSH session:

esxcli iscsi session list