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This is a hypothetical scenario for my college project.

I am wondering what way to physically connect a VMWare ESXi 5 server to a SAN server.

In my scenario both computers have gigabit NIC's using CAT6 cable, the type of communication will be iSCSI.

Can my ESXi server directly connect to my SAN using a crossover cable? Or does my SAN need to connect to my network switch via a straight through cable?

Thanks for any help!

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The server could connect to the SAN using, well pretty much anything including RFC1149-style IP over Avian Carriers. Whether or not you should use a certain technology depends entirely on your needs and somewhat on the skill set of the administrators. – EEAA Feb 13 '12 at 14:37

closed as not a real question by EEAA, Evan Anderson, coredump, dyasny, MDMarra Feb 13 '12 at 20:19

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

iSCSI runs over TCP/IP which means all the normal rules of networking apply. A crossover cable would work fine.

That said, this does defeat many of the end goals of shared storage and ESXi. For example, no vMotion. As it's a homework thread, I'll let you investigate why.

Also, you remove the ability to allow other devices to see the SAN in the future.

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