Dell PowerVault MD3200i Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in User’s - Page 19

Networking Configuration for Software iSCSI Storage Networking configuration for software iSCSI involves creating an iSCSI VMkernel port and mapping it to a physical NIC that handles iSCSI traffic. Depending on the number of physical NICs you use for iSCSI traffic, the networking setup can be different: • If you have one physical NIC, create one VMkernel port on a vSwitch and map the port to the NIC. VMware recommends that you designate a separate network adapter entirely for iSCSI. No additional network configuration steps are required. • If you have two or more physical NICs for iSCSI, you can create multiple paths for the software iSCSI by using the port binding technique. With port binding, you create a separate VMkernel port for each physical NIC using 1:1 mapping. You can add all network adapter and VMkernel port pairs to a single vSwitch, as shown in Figure 11. Figure 11. Port Binding Single vSwitch Another alternative is to create a separate vSwitch for each network adapter and VMkernel port pair, as shown in Figure 12. Dell MD Storage Array vCenter Plug-in 19