Create NAS/SAN storage with openfiler, work with VMware ESXi as sharedstorage

- Download the openfiler installation ISO , download link

I have downloaded the Installation ISO image (x86/64).

Basically we need to create open filer as a virtual machine with say 20 GB thin provisioning, and attach another disk/datastore to the virtual machine to configure it as SAN.

- Download and install  the Installation ISO image (x86/64) as a virtual machine, noting fancy here just do a normal installation.

- Once rebooted you get a web interface to login on port 446, https://< ip > :446/

- Login with username: openfiler, and password: password

Network access configuration:

set up network access configuration, enter the Network/Host , who are allowed to access.

System --> Network Access Configuration

[caption id="attachment_683" align="alignnone" width="300"] Network Access Config[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_682" align="alignnone" width="300"] Network Access Config[/caption]

Create a new physical volume

Volumes --> Block devices

[caption id="attachment_684" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Click on Edit devices on the hard disk where we going to create new physical volume, this is the extra hard drive we added to the virtual machine at the beginning. (/dev/sdb)



[caption id="attachment_685" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Select Physical volume as your partition type ( assuming that you are not using RAID), and set the mode to Primary, click create.

[caption id="attachment_686" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Create new Volume Group

Let us create a volume group for the physical volumes

Volumes --> Volume groups , enter a group name and select the physical drive and click Add volume

[caption id="attachment_687" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create volume group[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_688" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create volume group[/caption]

Create the Volume

Volume --> Add Volume

Enter Volume Name , Description, required space and select File System block.

[caption id="attachment_689" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Volume[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_690" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Volume[/caption]

Now Enable and Add  iSCSI Target

Services --> iSCSI Target Enable, Start

[caption id="attachment_691" align="alignnone" width="300"] Start iSCSI target[/caption]

Volumes --> iSCSI Targets --> Target Configuration --> Add new iSCSI Target

[caption id="attachment_703" align="alignnone" width="300"] Add new iSCSI target[/caption]

Setup the LUN Mapping and allow access to iSCSI target

[caption id="attachment_704" align="alignnone" width="300"] Setup LUN Mapping[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_705" align="alignnone" width="300"] Allow access to iSCSI target[/caption]

Now the open filer is ready to use.

In VMware ESXi

Create new VMKernel network adapter to use for iSCSI connection

[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_707" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_709" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

Click on storage adapter --> Add new

[caption id="attachment_710" align="alignnone" width="300"] Add storage adapter[/caption]

Click on properties, add the VMkernel switch and the discover the iSCSI target.

[caption id="attachment_711" align="alignnone" width="256"] Add VMKernel to iSCSI adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_712" align="alignnone" width="256"] Dynamic discovery[/caption]

Now your ESXi will show the openfiler as a datastore :)

[caption id="attachment_713" align="alignnone" width="300"] Openfiler datastore[/caption]

More information about Openfiler:

http://www.openfiler.com/products