Tag Archives: iSCSI

PowerCLI

PowerCLI – Setup Host networking and storage ready for ISCSI LUNs

Networking, Storage, VMware, , , , , , ,

So I am no scripting master, my PowerShell knowledge is still something I want to expand. During an install last week I had a number of hosts to setup from scratch, so I decided to do this via PowerCLI, as a lot of the tasks were repetitive. Setting up the vSwitch networking and iSCSI configuration for each host

For those of you new to scripting, I’ve included screenshots to accompany the commands so you can see whats going on in the GUI.

Note: the full code without the breaks is at the end of this post

#Setup which host to target 
$VMhost = 'hostname'

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veeam 2014 logo color tag

How to setup Veeam Direct SAN Backup over iSCSI – Unleash the Speed!

Storage, VMware, , ,

On twitter Rick Vanover posted this link, which intrigued me, giving your Veeam Server access to the VMware VMFS volumes for quicker backups. Sounds dangerous, or maybe it isn’t!

So I tried it, and I managed to cut my test backup times from 24 minutes to 12 minutes! Also the snapshots are removed from the VMs within seconds.

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1. Setup iSCSI initiator on your Windows Veeam server, and get the IQN info. Setup your NIC’s in the correct VLAN for the iSCSI access and with an appropriate IP address.

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2. On the storage device, allow access to the necessary volumes from your Veeam server. If possible, set it for read only access! (Here’s me setting up access for a Nimble Device).

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3. In the iSCSI initiator dialog box, add in the iSCSI discovery IP, and ensure all your volumes show.

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4. ****The Important bit**** Open disk part and enter the following “automount disable”

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5. Open up computer management and you should see that you now have disks showing from the Storage Array, for me, I had to click these to “Online” otherwise Direct SAN access wouldn’t work.

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6. Within Veeam I then changed my Backup Proxy settings to only use “Direct SAN” mode so that I could test it and ensure it was working.

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7. Run a backup and enjoy faster results, here’s my before and after shots (the second run I ran “Active Full” as the job is set to do reversed incremental).

Before;

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After;

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Dean (twitter)

Nimble Storage Array 660x495

Nimble Storage – How to configure a device in 4 steps (Using the GUI Tool)

Storage, , , , ,

So the last time I used a Nimble Device, I had to configure it (quite easily) using the CLI first due to connectivity constraints at the customers site.

However here is how to configure a Nimble in 4 easy steps ready for production use.

So unbox, rack and cable up your Nimble device to the network, then;

1. Load the “Nimble Setup Manager” which can be downloaded from Nimbles website. Search for your Nimble on the Network (Obviously be in the same VLAN!).

– Click on your Array and then Next

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2. Enter your basic network settings and click next.

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4. Accept the EULA, and you are done, you can now connect to you Nimble and setup the Production side of things, which is basically the same as this article.

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Nice and short

Dean

Nimble Storage Array 660x495

Nimble Storage – How to configure a device from scratch (Using the CLI)

Storage, VMware, ,

The other day, I posted about how to setup a volume on a Nimble Storage device, so this post is a bit backwards, as now we look at setting up a device from scratch using the CLI first rather than the Nimble Discovery tool. Lets get started;

1. Rack your device, cable it up, and power it on.

2. Connect the proprietary cable, and then your Null Modem cable to the serial port.

3. Putty or what have you using a baud of 115200

4. Login;

Username = admin

Password = admin

type “Setup” and enter to start the CLI based setup

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