Connectivity issues when you try to connect StorSimple to ESX Server

Symptoms

You may experience occasional connectivity issues when you try to connect a StorSimple volume to ESX Server. This problem occurs when Access Control Records (ACRs) are configured for ESX Server by using IP addresses.

This article discusses the details of this problem and the best practices to prevent it. This article applies to StorSimple v1.2.1, v2.0.1, and v2.1.1.

Cause

When an ACR is configured by using an IP address on an ESX server, IP address matching is performed before access to the StorSimple volumes is enabled. This means that only the connections that match the specific IP address can access the volumes. If the server in question has multiple IP addresses, but the ACRs are configured so that not all the paths to the network are included, the user may experience connectivity issues.

For example, assume that the host server has two IP addresses, 10.2.43.60 (iSCSI) and 10.2.43.61 (management). These can be used to connect to the respective StorSimple volumes. Then, the user creates an ACR and associates it with only one of these IP addresses—10.2.43.60, for example. In this scenario, there is a network path (for 10.2.43.61) for which no ACR is defined. If there's more than one network path to the server, the ACRs must be configured to include all those paths.

If a user has this configuration, he or she is likely to encounter connectivity issues. For example, if the user's initiator connection that uses the iSCSI IP address stops, and the initiator connects again by using the management IP address (with the virtual machine kernel enabled), the user can connect this time. However, the StorSimple volumes will not be exposed. Therefore, the volumes will disappear.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, configure the ACR to use iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) matching instead of an IP address. This makes sure that a connection that comes from any VM kernel port will have access to the volume.

This resolution requires a two-step process.

Step 1: Finding IQN on the ESX server

1. Shut down all the running VMs that are stored on the StorSimple volume.

2. Access your ESX server to extract the IQN of the ESX server iSCSI initiators. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Log on to your VSphere.

   2. Click Home, click Inventory, and then click Hosts and Clusters.

   3. On the navigation pane, select the ESX server. In the details pane, click the Configuration tab.

   4. Select Storage Adapters.

   5. Under iSCSI Software Adapter for the device, click vmhba##. In the details pane, click Properties.

   6. In the Properties pane, select the IQN that's displayed, and then copy it.

3. Repeat step 2 on all ESX servers.

The web user interface (UI) must also be configured. To do this, the IQN must be applied under the Access Control Record in the Web UI of the StorSimple appliance:

1. Log on to the StorSimple Web UI.

2. Click Configuration, click Security Settings, and then click Access Control Record.

3. For the Access Control Record that's specified for the ESX server that's mentioned in step 2 of the "Step 1: Finding IQN on the ESX server" section, click the edit icon.

4. In the IP address box, delete the IP address that includes an asterick (*), and then paste in the IQN box the IQN that you copied in step 2F of the "Step 1: Finding IQN on the ESX server" section.

5. Click the green check mark to save the Access Control Record.

Repeat these steps on all ESX servers.

Note The iSCSI connection from the ESX server must be disconnected and then reconnected.