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Does anyone know how to add a NAS that is attached via esata (using ISCSI) to an ESX5.1 Hypervisor ?

Thanks,

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    This doesn't make sense. If it's attached physically via eSATA, it's not iSCSI and if it's iSCSI or eSATA, it's not NAS, it's either SAN or DAS respectively.
    – MDMarra
    Jan 16, 2013 at 20:33
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    Please provide the made/model of the storage unit you are attempting to connect to your ESXi system.
    – ewwhite
    Jan 16, 2013 at 20:46
  • Sorry for the lack of information. I have a QNAP TS-412 which is named as a NAS but has 2xGig ports and 2xESATA ports. The box supports SMB, NFS and ISCSI. Im trying to attach the device to my ESX5 box directly via esata and to my network using the gig ports. The network side is working fine.
    – RickD
    Jan 16, 2013 at 20:49
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    Ah, whow. Talk of someone not reading documentation. The eSata port on those things is not meant to attach to another computer, but to additional discs. Just checking. You DEFINITELY can not attach a computer via eSata using ISCSI - that is a mixture telling me "go and read computers 101". ISCSI - the I is IP, that is a network protocol, eSata is a SATA port, that is not a network card at all. That is like saying "I want to attach a rocket booster to my mercedes so I get faster into orbit". Mixing technologies regardless of use case.
    – TomTom
    Jan 16, 2013 at 21:07
  • We have some TS-412's. They're nice devices, but their iSCSI sucks. Even the slightest IO load makes the CPU peg at 100% and the unit becomes basically unusable. It's OK for testing stuff out and in a lab with a small budget, but I wouldn't ever use one in production. Jan 16, 2013 at 21:12

3 Answers 3

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I have quite a few TS-412's and yes, you can connect them to ESXi or Hyper-V (or any iSCSI initator for that matter), but I strongly advise against it:

  1. The iSCSI protocol is quite a heavy protocol, and the TS-412's have a very low powered CPU (they are, after all, a NAS). With one or two guests powered up, even slight I/O within the guest VM makes the TS-412 peg its processor at 100%
  2. ESXi and TS-412 both support NFS. Use that instead. It's not as heavy of a protocol and doesn't have the same impact on the poor TS-412 as iSCSI does
  3. To actually do these two things, there are literally a hundred tutorials out on the internet. Once you find one, and you get stuck, then feel free to ask a more specific question.
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    I assume he is here because 1g is too slow, he wants the nic speed of esata and none of the tutorials cover how to get iscsi working on the esata port ;)
    – TomTom
    Jan 16, 2013 at 21:23
  • Tom Tom youve made you point ;-) Thanks for the response Mark Henderson would you suggest NFS or SMB with the TS-412s ?
    – RickD
    Jan 16, 2013 at 21:26
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    @felix001 - again, you might want to brush up on your ESXi documentation. It does not support SMB, so NFS is your only choice. Jan 16, 2013 at 21:32
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The documentation for that device states on page 572 what the eSata port is for.

First, eSata is not a network port - and IScsi is a network protocol. Regardless what you want, you wont run iSCSI over it.

Second, it is a master side port - to attach additional hard discs, not to connect upstream. Yes, all those dreams of fast performance just went out. Your car also won't fly you to the moon - wrong technology.

You can add (eSata) enclosures or dis there, but that is it. You HAVE to use the 1G network ports for ISCSI.

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Are you talking about directly connecting the storage to the hypervisor host and sharing out the NAS as a volume via iSCSI?

If that's the case instead of doing that you can configure the esata device as a passthrough to the VM guests. Here's a video walkthrough courtesy of youtube. Google "esxi storage passthrough esata" for more.

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  • THat would be nice except that the eSata port on those things is not meant to attach to a computer and that he wants to do that using ISCSI over ESata.
    – TomTom
    Jan 16, 2013 at 21:09
  • fwiw this answer was posted before the OP had posted anything even remotely informational. Jan 16, 2013 at 21:18

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