Configure iSCSI with Solaris 10 to a Dell PowerVault
The other day I had to allocate some SAN Space from a Dell PowerVault MD3000i to a Solaris 10 server, and was amazed that not only do DELL consider Solaris an unsupported platform for connecting to their devices, but the general level of documentation around iSCSI and Dell is pretty low.
So I've decided to document what I did to set it up.
This guide will presume that you have already configured the Virtual Disk, and allocated it to this machine via the DELL SAN Configuration Tool. Additionally, the below steps were for a Solaris Sun Fire V120 running Solaris 10 (120011-14), so your mileage may vary.
Configure your Network Interface
To use your SAN correctly, you should place your SAN connection on a separate network to your normal network traffic. This not only helps keep things secure and separate, but cuts out network congestion you want to avoid so that your SAN response times are fast.
If you aren't using a separate network connection, then jump to the next step.
Step 1 - Pre-config
Start by determining the interface you are going to configure for the SAN. In this example, mine will be eri1 (the primary interface is eri0). Also determine the IP you will be allocating to this machine for that interface and a hostname for this interface. We will use 192.168.1.11 and server123i.
Next, you will need to configure a couple of files with the settings for this interface.
Step 2 - Create /etc/hostname.interface
Create a new file called /etc/hostname.eri1 and the only thing to be in this file, is the hostname you determined above (server123i).
# cat /etc/hostname.eri1
server123i
Step 3 - Add entry to /etc/hosts
Add a new entry to /etc/hosts mapping your new hostname, to it's IP.
# grep server123i /etc/hosts
192.168.1.11 server123i
Step 4 - Add entry to /etc/netmasks
Add a new entry to /etc/netmasks to store the correct netmask for this IP address range.
# grep -v '^#' /etc/netmasks
10.0.1.0 255.255.255.0
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
Step 5 - Restart networking service
Restart the networking service to have Solaris reload the settings for the interface.
# svcadm restart network/physical
Step 6 - Check your interface is now available
If all went well, you will now have your interface, eri1 configured with the IP you specified, and in the UP state.
# ifconfig eri1
eri1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
inet 192.168.1.11 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
ether 0:f:4d:a4:c4:9e
Configure iSCSI on Solaris
This bit isn't too difficult, but there are some extra steps as we have to work around the DELL PowerVault not working 100% as it should, with Solaris.
Step 1 - Enable Solaris iSCSI Initiator
First we need to check if the iSCSI Initiator service is running. If it isn't, then we need to enable it.
# svcs -a |grep iscsi
disabled Jun_22 svc:/network/iscsi_initiator:default
disabled Jun_22 svc:/system/iscsitgt:default
# svcadm enable svc:/network/iscsi_initiator
# svcs -a |grep iscsi
online 15:10:00 svc:/system/iscsitgt:default
online 15:15:10 svc:/network/iscsi_initiator:default
Step 2 - Add Discovery Address
Next, we need to tell iSCSI Initiator where our SAN is (Discovery Address). In our example, we will use 192.168.11.1 on port 3260.
# iscsiadm add discovery-address 192.168.11.1:3260
Step 3 - Enable iSCSI Discovery
At this point, if we were to do this with Auto Discovery (SendTargets Discovery) with iSCSI, we would just have to do iscsiadm modify discovery -t enable and our disk and SAN would automatically be found, and the Virtual Disk created as a Device (/dev/rdsk).
However, as this doesn't work, we have to use Statically Assigned Targets. To do this, we first need to get a list of all targets we can see.
# iscsiadm list target -v
Target: iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.md3000i.8a4badb0ba454aa1000000004c1f8e4a
...
IP address (Local): 192.168.11.1:32812
IP address (Peer): 192.168.11.1:3260
Now that you have the target, you can add this address into the iSCSI Static Config. Note: at the end of the target name in the below, you need to add a comma, followed by the IP Address.
iscsiadm add static-config iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.md3000i.8a4badb0ba454aa1000000004c1f8e4a,192.168.11.1
Step 4 - Configure DELL PowerVault SAN
After we have done this, if you haven't previously, now is a good time to go and configure the Virtual Disk and Server on the DELL SAN Configuration Tool, otherwise the next steps will fail.
Once this is done, move onto the next step.
Step 5 - Enable Static Discovery
Now that you have Solaris configured and the SAN configured, you now need to turn on Static Discovery. To do this:
iscsiadm modify discovery -s enable
Once this is done, you should take a look at dmesg and you will notice that you have some messages towards the end about your disks coming online.
iscsi: [ID 240218 kern.notice] NOTICE: iscsi session(40) <target> online
scsi: [ID 799468 kern.info] sd2 at iscsi0: name <target>,0, bus address <target>,0
genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] sd2 is /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,0
scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,0 (sd2):
Corrupt label; wrong magic number
genunix: [ID 408114 kern.info] /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,0 (sd2) online
scsi: [ID 799468 kern.info] sd3 at iscsi0: name 0000<target>F,31, bus address 0000<target>,31
genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] sd3 is /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,31
scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,31 (sd3):
Corrupt label; wrong magic number
genunix: [ID 408114 kern.info] /iscsi/disk@0000<target>,31 (sd3) online
The above shows two things. It shows that your disk has come online (,0) and that the DELL Universal Xport has come online (,31). The error messages about 'Corrupt label; wrong magic number' are safe to ignore, as our disk hasn't been formatted.
To see more details about the disks that have been mounted, you can get this by using the command iscsiadm list target -S. This will tell you the /dev/rdsk nodes associated with your disk(s), among a few other details.
Step 6 - Finishing Up - Partition and Format
Now that you have your disk showing up, you can simply use format and newfs (or however you wish), and use this disk for your need. This disk with work the same as a physical disk attached to the system.
Credits for some of the points in here to the following articles, I have simply tried to join it all into one article.
