Windows Server TechCenter >
Windows Server Forums
>
Hyper-V
>
Sharing pNIC for iSCSI used by Clustered Hyper-v Servers with VM
Sharing pNIC for iSCSI used by Clustered Hyper-v Servers with VM
- I have a two-node Hyper-V cluster. I have 6 NICs in each node used for the following: Cluster/CSV Network, iSCSI Network, Live Migration Network, Host Management Network, SQLOnly NIC, and NIC for VMs. All works great. Now, I am building a new SQL 2008 VM to be used for Sharepoint 2007. I created the VM and installed Server OS. I assigned the SQLOnly NIC for this VM so SQL will have its own network connection for performance reasons. Here is where it gets tricky... the iSCSI Network NIC that is being used by each Hyper-V host needs to be also used by this new SQL VM as I plan to store my Sharepoint DB/logs/tempdb on disks that are on my Startwind iSCSI host server. Using the Virtual Network Manager, I created a new network and selected the check box for "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter". This took the existing physical iSCSI NIC and modified its settings to only have the Microsoft Virtual Network Switch Protocol selected and created a new virtual NIC that had the existing IP address configuration used orginally by the host. I then went into the VM settings and added a new (second) NIC and connected it to the iSCSI virtual NIC. This appeared to work and I could still ping the Starwind server from the host, but when I went to start the SQL VM it would not start. Then, all of my other VMs began failing and shutting down. I had to back off all of my changes and restart both Hyper-V hosts to get things working again. What did I do wrong? How can I get the VM to use both an external NIC for client traffic and a second NIC for iSCSI traffic and use the MS iSCSI Initiator within this VM without causing issues for the Hyper-V hosts?
Answers
- Hello,
In order to get a NIC to be shared while still allowing the host system to the NIC, you need to select "allow management operating system to share this network adapter". I've used this for large iSCSI volumes in some cases. That said, you could consider mapping the iSCSI volume to the host system and using a fixed VHD, which I think would give you better performance than direct VM to iSCSI.
Thanks,
Nathan Lasnoski- Marked As Answer bymlmill Monday, October 12, 2009 7:06 PM
All Replies
- Hello,
In order to get a NIC to be shared while still allowing the host system to the NIC, you need to select "allow management operating system to share this network adapter". I've used this for large iSCSI volumes in some cases. That said, you could consider mapping the iSCSI volume to the host system and using a fixed VHD, which I think would give you better performance than direct VM to iSCSI.
Thanks,
Nathan Lasnoski- Marked As Answer bymlmill Monday, October 12, 2009 7:06 PM
