This is a quick post on how to connect an ESXi Host with iSCSI storage using a NetApp SAN. We will be using ESXi 6.7, vCenter 6.7 and NetApp OnTap 9.3. The hardware is an HPE Proliant DL360 G10, NetApp FAS 2750 and Nexus 9k switches
This will be the traditional approach of having x2 iSCSI ports groups. Group A connects to switch 1 and SAN node 1 and Group B connects to switch 2 and SAN node 2.
First identify which ports you will be using for storage. VMware includes the Cisco CDP to help you identify which switch ports hosts are connected to
Then create a vSwitch to use for SAN node 1 and select the uplinks that apply to this. I use an MTU of 9000 but this is down to preference
Create your x2 port groups and label each one appropriately. You will need to assign them the same VLAN ID that the NetApp SAN node has assigned on the Nexus switches
Assign the correct physical adapters to each switch/port group. Ideally you should have these connected to two different physical NICs on the host. This is iSCSI so you cannot team these adapters (unless you are setting up LACP & distributed switches). We should have one active and one unused adapter.
Next create a VMkernel NIC in each port group. We need this so that we have an interface to communicate with the SAN interfaces. Give each one an IP and match the MTU to your switches
Open an SSH session to your hosts an ensure you can ping the SAN interface from your new VMkernel interface
Now we need to add our shared storage to vCenter. Open vCenter and right click on Storage then click Configure iSCSI
Enable iSCSI and add the IPs of the SAN interfaces under the Dynamic targets section and click Save configuration
We now need to configure the NetApp to connect to the host. First click Configure Storage again and copy the initiator from the Name & alias section
Login to the NetApp SAN
Click Storage> LUNs> Initiator Groups> Either create a new group or edit an existing one
Add the initiator you copied from ESXi to the comma separated list and click Save and close
You will see the initiators added
Rescan the storage
You should now see the NetApp disk appear
