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Configuring iSCSI for Synology NAS and VMware vSphere

 

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Installing a NAS in your home lab is a great way to up your game at home. There are a lot of options available these days ranging from a few hundred dollars like the Synology DS216 2 bay NAS, to the massive DS2415+. If you have multiple hosts in your lab, then you’re almost out of excuses for not having a NAS. I recently picked up a DS1815+ to use as an iSCSI target for my vSphere lab as well as a home NAS and I couldn’t be happier. The performance on this unit is good and I have access to features normally found in an enterprise environment. Additionally, configuring iSCSI between the NAS and my ESXi hosts was a breeze. Here’s how I did it.

Configure the Synology NAS

  • Log in to your Synology NAS and open Storage Manager.
  • Select iSCSI Target from the left-hand menu.

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  • Click Create.

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  • Give the target a name like VMware.
  • Click Next.

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  • We’ll ignore CHAP (Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol) for the time being since this is just a home lab setup.
  • Click Next.
  • If there aren’t any iSCSI LUN’s created yet, we can create one here.

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  • You can choose to create a file-level LUN or a block-level LUN. For more information on the different types of LUNs click here. Make your selection and give the LUN a name.
  • Click Next.

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  • Choose an existing disk group or create a new one.
  • Click Next.

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  • Size your LUN according to your needs. You can always expand it later.
  • Click Next.

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  • Review the details and click Apply.

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  • If you’re going to be presenting the LUN to multiple hosts, then select the newly created iSCSI Target and click Edit.

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  • Click on Advanced.
  • Check “Allow multiple sessions from one or more iSCSI initiators.”
  • Click OK.

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Your Synology NAS is now configured as an iSCSI target. Let’s move on to setting up our ESXi hosts.

Configure your ESXi Hosts

  • Log in to your vSphere Web Client.
  • Select a host and click on the manage tab.
  • Click on Storage.
  • Select Storage Adapters.
  • Click on the Green Plus sign to add a new adapter.

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  • Select Software iSCSI adapter unless your hardware supports iSCSI offload.

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  • Click OK.

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  • Select the new iSCSI adapter, click Targets and Dynamic Discovery.image
  • Verify the ESXi host has discovered the Synology iSCSI Target.

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  • If your Synology iSCSI target isn’t discovered automatically, just click on Static Discovery and add it manually.

 

  • Click on Storage Devices and rescan storage. Scan for new Storage Devices and VMFS Volumes.
  • Click the refresh storage information button.

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  • Now we can see the iSCSI volume!

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  • Repeat these steps for any other ESXi hosts.
  • Right click an ESXi host or cluster and create a new Datastore.

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  • Click Next.

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  • Select VMFS.
  • Click Next.

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  • Name the Datastore.
  • Select a host.
  • Select the Synology volume.
  • Click Next.

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  • Use the full capacity of the LUN.
  • Click Next.

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  • Review your configuration and click Finish.

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  • And with that, we’re ready to start using our Datastore and Migrating VM’s there.

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Matt Bradford

5 Comments

  1. After setting it up, how would you store the VMs in this datastore?

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