Technical Report

PS Series Deployment:
Configuring and Deploying the Dell EqualLogic
Multi-Path I/O Device Specific Module with
Microsoft Windows
Abstract
This Technical Report describes how to deploy
and configure the Dell™ EqualLogic™ MPIO DSM
for Windows® Server to enable multi-path I/O for
high availability access to a Dell EqualLogic PS
Series Storage Array. Best practices are
included for 10 Gb networks and Windows®
Server disk alignment.

TR1036
V4.0
Copyright © 2013 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.
EqualLogic is a registered trademark of Dell Inc.
Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc.
All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of
their respective owners.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Dell Inc. will not be held liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions
contained herein. The information in this document is subject to change.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell
is strictly prohibited.

Authored By:
[email protected]
July 2013

WWW.DELL.COM/PSseries
Preface
PS Series arrays optimize resources by automating performance and network load
balancing. Additionally, PS Series arrays offer all-inclusive array management software,
host software, and free firmware updates.

Audience
The information in this guide is intended for Windows® Server administrators.

Related Documentation
For detailed information about PS Series arrays, groups, volumes, array software, and
host software, log in to the Documentation page at the customer support site.

Dell Online Services

You can learn about Dell products and services using this procedure:

1. Visit http://www.dell.com or the URL specified in any Dell product information.

2. Use the locale menu or click on the link that specifies your country or region.

Dell EqualLogic Storage Solutions

To learn more about Dell EqualLogic products and new releases being planned, visit
the Dell EqualLogic TechCenter site: http://delltechcenter.com/page/EqualLogic. Here
you can also find articles, demos, online discussions, technical documentation, and
more details about the benefits of our product family.

For an updated Dell EqualLogic compatibility list please visit the following URL:
https://eqlsupport.dell.com/support/download.aspx?id=6442454231&langtype=1033

iii
Table of Contents
Revision Information ............................................................................................................................. v
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................1
MPIO .......................................................................................................................................................1
Microsoft Multi-Path I/O ............................................................................................................. 2
Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM ........................................................................................................ 3
Getting Started.......................................................................................................................................... 4
10Gb Networking with PS Series Storage Arrays ........................................................... 4
Installing, Configuring and Managing the Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM ...................... 5
Configuring the MPIO DSM ....................................................................................................... 6
Connecting to Volumes .................................................................................................................... 13
Discovery of Target Portal ....................................................................................................... 13
Connect to PS Series Target ................................................................................................... 14
Make the PS Series Volume Available to the Server ................................................... 15
Verify MPIO ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Log off a volume with MPIO................................................................................................... 17
Summary ................................................................................................................................................... 18
Appendix A: Using Hardware Initiators ..................................................................................... 19
Appendix B: Tips, Troubleshooting and Hotfixes ................................................................ 20
Managing Connections in Large Environments.......................................................... 20
Appendix C: Using Diskpart to Optimize Disk Partitions on PS Series Volumes .. 21
Technical Support and Customer Service ...............................................................................22

iv
Revision Information
The following table describes the release history of this Technical Report.

Report Date Document Revision

1.0 February 2008 Initial Release

2.0 June 2009 Host Integration ToolsV3.2 updates

®
3.0 February 2011 Windows Server 2008 R2, 10 Gb support, and Host Integration Tools v3.5.1
updates
®
4.0 June 2013 Added support for HIT v4.5 and Windows 2012

The following table shows the software and firmware used for the preparation of this Technical
Report.

Vendor Model Software Revision

® ®
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, 2012 2008 R2, 2012 SP1
® ®
Microsoft Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 2.08 or higher

Dell™ EqualLogic™ PS Series Firmware v5.2.5 and later

Dell™ EqualLogic™ Host Integration Tools v4.5 and later

The following table lists the documents referred to in this Technical Report. All PS Series

Vendor Document Title

Dell™ PS Series Documentation
EqualLogic™  Installation and Setup - English
 Hardware Maintenance - English
Dell™ Technical Reports
EqualLogic™  PS Series Best Practices Deploying Windows® Server 2008 with PS Series
SANS
Dell™ Host Integration Toolkit for Microsoft® Documentation
EqualLogic™  Host Integration Tools for Microsoft® Release Notes
 Host Integration Tools for Microsoft® Fix List
 Host Integration Tools for Microsoft® User Guide

v
Introduction
In today's technology-driven world, data is one of the most valuable assets in any
business organization. Increasingly, organizations are requiring that their data be
available 24 x 7. Continuous availability of data is critical to all businesses today. A data
outage of any duration and size can result in a tremendous loss of revenue - perhaps
thousands or even millions of dollars. High availability is commonly achieved by using
fault tolerant and redundant components. For example, multiple servers may be used
for redundancy, RAID or even failover clustering on the servers, but this type of
protection alone isn’t enough as it relies on a storage area network (SAN) for its data.
So, to ensure high availability, access to shared storage must be readily available and
protected against failure. As SANs become populated with more and more data, the
potential loss of access to data storage components becomes problematic. This is why
many businesses today consider MPIO a must.

MPIO
Microsoft® Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) framework uses redundant physical (or virtual)
connections to deliver high availability to shared storage. Having multiple host
connections, switches and SAN interfaces all help to eliminate single points of failure.
Using MPIO, servers can send multiple I/O streams to SAN volumes concurrently.
MPIO routes I/O over redundant paths that connect servers to storage and also
manages these paths so that requests can be re-routed through another path in the
event of a failure in one of the components along the way. MPIO also provides
increased redundancy and can improve performance of application data hosted on the
SAN. See Figure1 and Table1.

Figure 1: Basic MPIO Configuration and Components

1
Table 1: MPIO Component Description
1 The eqldsm.sys kernel mode driver performs I/O path selection and error handling1
2 The EHCMservice.exe user mode service that manages iSCSI sessions1
3 Two or more 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet NICs or HBAs
4 Two or more redundant physical paths to redundant network switches
5 Two or more redundant physical paths provide a network switch interlink (ISL)
6 Two or more redundant physical paths from the network switches are connected
to the separate redundant controllers in each Member in a PS Series Group.
7 Each Member in the Group has at least two physical paths to the network switches
that are connected to separate redundant controllers.
1: This component is available when the DELL EqualLogic MPIO DSM is installed

Microsoft Multi-Path I/O

Microsoft MPIO enables storage vendors to develop multi-path modules that contain
specific information about their storage hardware. This ultimately results in more
efficient and intelligent use and connectivity to the SAN hardware. These vendor-
developed plug-ins are referred to as Device Specific Modules (DSM). Dell has
developed a Device Specific Module that plugs in to the Microsoft MPIO framework
and is used to optimize Windows Server usage of Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage
arrays, Figure 2.
Figure 2: Dell™ EqualLogic™ MPIO DSM is a driver component in the I/O Stack and
leverages the Microsoft® MPIO Framework.

Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM is easy to install and is included as part of the Host
Integration Tool Kit. The Host Integration Tool Kit is included at no extra cost with the
purchase of a PS Series array and can be downloaded from
https://eqlsupport.dell.com.

2
Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM
The Dell EqualLogic Multi-Path I/O DSM is designed to deliver:
 Automatic connection management
 Automatic path failure detection and path failover
 Automatic load balancing across multiple paths
 Support for multiple connections to a single iSCSI target (volume)
 Increased bandwidth
 Reduced network latency
 Easy installation and management
 Automatically throttle down connections when a storage pool reaches 90% of
maximum allowable connections

The Dell EqualLogic DSM consists of two components:

1. A driver component in the I/O Stack that works in conjunction with the
Microsoft MPIO driver to route I/O to the desired path. This is the Dell
EqualLogic DSM for Microsoft Windows. This selects the best path for each I/O
by using knowledge about how the volume is laid out on the PS Series Group.
See Figure 2

2. A Microsoft Windows Server service, (EqualLogic Host Connection Manager –

EHCM) that manages connections. The service periodically retrieves the current
volume layout from the PS Series Group. It also monitors the iSCSI sessions and
SAN topology and will reconfigure the iSCSI session mesh when necessary. See
Figure 3
Together, these components allow administrators to easily install and configure multi-
path I/O for iSCSI networks. The DSM components, along with a redundant iSCSI
hardware configuration create the infrastructure needed for a completely fault tolerant
and efficient MPIO solution.

Figure 3: Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM automatically manages iSCSI sessions and
routes I/O directly to the Member which will be servicing it

DATA

DATA I/O
VOLUME

TABLE DATA I/O DATA

DATA I/O

DATA

3
Multiple I/O streams are concurrently routed through the host’s iSCSI sessions directly
to the PS Series Member which will be servicing them. Using the Dell EqualLogic MPIO
DSM, the best path for each I/O is selected by using knowledge about the volume
layout on the PS Series Group. The Dell EqualLogic DSM automatically manages these
iSCSI sessions.

Getting Started
Before getting started with installing the Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Toolkit to
setup and configure the Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM and enable MPIO on the servers, it
is a good idea to plan the networking configuration.
 It is recommended to dedicate more than one network interface on servers to
iSCSI SAN traffic
 Best practice is to separate the iSCSI SAN traffic from LAN network. This is
especially true when implementing 10Gb and 1Gb infrastructures.
 It is recommended to consult the following two documents before getting
started.
EqualLogic Configuration Guide
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/19852516/download.aspx
EqualLogic PS Series Arrays: Optimizing Your SAN Environment for High Availability
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/20371245/download.aspx

10Gb Networking with PS Series Storage Arrays

10 Gigabit Ethernet is designed to handle ten times the throughput as Gigabit Ethernet.
If planned and configured properly, great throughput and performance increases can
be expected on the iSCSI SAN. Ideally, all networking components from the server,
through the network switch and to the SAN should support a 10Gb infrastructure and
have Jumbo Frames enabled. This helps to prevent potential bottlenecks along the
network path. When planning a 10Gb SAN infrastructure, best practice is to restrict
management access to 1Gb interfaces, so that the 10Gb NICS can be dedicated to SAN
traffic. These settings can be confirmed through the EqualLogic Group Manager GUI.
See Figure 4.
Lastly, as a best practice when mixing 1Gb and 10Gb EqualLogic arrays, dedicate a
Storage Pool to 10Gb EqualLogic PS Series members, so that volumes aren’t potentially
cross-striped across 1Gb and 10Gb arrays - which would not take advantage of a truly
optimized 10Gb solution. If a Storage Pool crosses 1Gb and 10Gb members than the
performance potentially will be limited by the 1Gb member(s). The storage group’s
dedicated 10Gb storage pool and the firmware’s network load balancer, in conjunction
with the server’s EqualLogic MPIO DSM and EHCM Service will ensure that the 10Gb
iSCSI connections are always optimally routed to the proper 10Gb member of the
storage group - even in a multi-member group comprised of both 10Gb and 1Gb
arrays.

4
 Figure 4: Dell EqualLogic PS Series Group Manager

From the EqualLogic Group Manager, highlight the Member on the left. From the
Status tab, click on Rear View and mouse over the corresponding network interfaces
to confirm Jumbo Frames. Lastly, modify IP Settings to confirm restriction of
management traffic to 1Gb management network interface.

Installing, Configuring and Managing the Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM

The Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM is included with the Host Integration Tool Kit v3.0.0
and later. For this document, Host Integration Tools v4.5 will be used as a reference.
For more installation guidelines, please refer to the Host Integration Tools for Microsoft
User Guide and Release Notes at https://eqlsupport.dell.com.
The following section assumes that access control to PS Series volumes has been
configured with CHAP authentication, multiple redundant NIC IP addresses, or a
unique iSCSI initiator name. Volume access control can be added to volumes through
the PS Series Group Manager, either at the time of volume creation or thereafter.
A single ACL record for each host is typically sufficient for enabling volume
connections from the MPIO DSM. When using IP addresses in the ACL, add an ACL
record for each interface the host will use to connect to the volume.

5
For volumes connecting to cluster configurations, additional steps are needed to
assure proper connection. Select the Enable shared access to the iSCSI target from
multiple initiators box in the volume settings and add an ACL record for each cluster
host adapter connecting to the volume. Additionally, there are some specific
configuration changes needed, including registry changes, to assure that each host in
the cluster is using persistent reservations. Please refer to the latest version of Release
Notes for Host Integration Tools for Microsoft for more information. This
documentation is available at https://eqlsupport.dell.com.

Configuring the MPIO DSM

This section assumes the EqualLogic Host Integration Tools for Microsoft has been
installed. In this section, we will cover:
 Using the Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager to Configure MPIO
 Default Load Balancing Policies
Launch the Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager application. This is installed as
part of the Host Integration Tools for Microsoft.

Select Settings at the bottom left of the application and click on MPIO Settings in the
left hand object tree.

6
This will open the MPIO settings configuration view. See Table 2 below for all the MPIO
settings options.

Configure MPIO settings for a selected range of hosts. Select the subnets or individual
adapters to include for MPIO and click Include (these should be subnets and adapters
for SAN traffic only). Optionally set the minimum adapter speed to match the network
configuration. This will ensure that the MPIO DSM directs iSCSI traffic only through the
desired network interfaces. See the next section for details on Default Load Balancing
Policy and Max sessions for per volume. Click Save when finished.

7
Table 2: Auto-Snapshot Manager MPIO Settings Options
Network Connections - The IP range for subnets that are intended to be used
Included for MPIO. (should be SAN only subnets)

Network Connections - The IP range for subnets that are intended to be

Excluded excluded for MPIO.

Fail Over policy The default load balancing policy to use for MPIO
sessions. (Recommend using Least Queue Depth)

Max sessions per volume The max number of session connections permitted per
slice volume per member. This number represents the # of
connections a volume will make to each member or
array in the storage pool.
Max sessions per entire The max number of session connections permitted for
volume a volume. This value must be greater than or equal to
the max sessions per volume slice.

Use MPIO for snapshots Optionally include or exclude MPIO for connections to
snapshots.

Minimum adapter speed Slowest acceptable NIC speed to be used by MPIO

Default Load Balancing Policy

When the Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM is enabled, the default load balancing policy is
Least Queue Depth. When the MPIO DSM is disabled, the default load balancing policy
is Fail Over Only. Generally, it is recommended to accept the default load balancing
policy because it is optimized to run with EqualLogic PS Series SANs.
The three supported options are:
 Fail Over Only: One connection is used for all data until it times out or fails, and
then one of the other available paths is chosen. If this load balancing scheme is
selected, the MPIO DSM will not manage connections to the target.
 Round Robin: Data is sent out to each available connection in a rotating
sequence, effectively utilizing all available ports fully.
 Least Queue Depth: Data is sent out to each available connection, with
preference given to the connection which is least busy at the time the I/O is
requested.

Additional unsupported options include Round Robin with Subset, Weighted Paths, and
Least Blocks. These options are not available through the Remote Setup Wizard and
will return an error message if they are selected using the iSCSI Initiator Properties for
the target.

8
Volume Session Connections
The number of connections per target (volume) depends on the number of arrays in
the storage pool and the number of NIC’s being used for MPIO. The two controlling
settings for target connections are:
 Max sessions per entire volume
 Max sessions per volume slice (pieces of the volume)
By default, the max number of sessions per entire volume is set to 6 and the max
number of sessions per volume slice is set to 2. Refer to Table 2 for descriptions of
these settings.
This is based on the number of arrays in the storage pool where the volume resides.
Volume slice refers to the ‘slice’ (or piece) of the volume on the member storage array.
Each volume will load balance across the arrays in the storage pool and each array will
host a ‘slice’ of the volume. The number of session connections per volume can be
calculated based on the following equations.
2 sessions per volume slice * 1 members = 2 sessions per entire volume
2 sessions per volume slice * 2 members = 4 sessions per entire volume
2 sessions per volume slice * 3 members = 6 sessions per entire volume
Note: These calculations will change slightly with single port 10Gb PS array controllers.
In this case the sessions per volume slice will default to 1.
These settings can be modified via Auto-Snapshot Manager in the MPIO Settings
window, per the instructions on the previous page.
This figure represents a volume distributed across 3 members with 2 iSCSI sessions per
slice balanced across the NICs. Slices are pieces of the volume and are split across the
members appropriately in accordance with the capacity of the members.

Server

Nic1 Nic2

iSCSI Sessions

Volume1 120GB
Slice3 20GB
Slice1 50GB Slice2 50GB
Member3

Member1 Member2

Pool

9
Microsoft® iSCSI Initiator
This section describes the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator interface, including the Dell
EqualLogic MPIO tab.
Launch the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. See Table 3 on the next page for more
information on each tab displayed.

10
Table 3: Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Tabs and descriptions

Tab Name Available Options…

Discovery Add / Remove and Configure iSCSI Portal Settings

Targets Connect / Disconnect and view Properties of iSCSI Targets
Favorite Targets View and configure persistent volume connections
Volumes and
Configure drive letter bindings to a particular volume
Devices
RADIUS Add and configure a RADIUS Server for RADIUS authentication

Configuration
 Change IQN Name

 Set CHAP credentials

 Configure IPSec settings

 Generate reports of all connected targets/devices on

system
Dell EqualLogic
MPIO  View subnets included/excluded for MPIO

 Launch Auto-Snapshot Manager, to change MPIO

Settings.

The Dell EqualLogic MPIO Tab has been added to the Microsoft® iSCSI Initiator
properties window by the Host Integration Tools for Microsoft® setup.

11
Both the included and excluded subnets are visible for MPIO as well as all iSCSI MPIO
iSCSI Sessions. Note the even distribution of iSCSI sessions to each volume across each
NIC. Finally, the scroll bar allows the ability to examine the MPIO status at a specific
point in time.
Please refer to Table 4 for more information on this tab.
Table 4: Dell EqualLogic MPIO Tab Information
The IP address of the source device. This is the NIC or HBA installed in
Source IP
the computer that accesses an iSCSI target.
The name of the iSCSI volume that is the target of the iSCSI session.
Target When MPIO is configured, a listing will be shown for each active session
to the same volume.

Target IP The IP address of the PS Series array’s Ethernet port

Path
The elapsed time during which this path is connected.
Uptime
Indicates whether the sessions are actively managed. The text color also
Managed indicates this. Sessions colored in blue are managed while sessions
colored black are not.

12
Connecting to Volumes
If Auto-Snapshot Manager was used to configure PS Group access from the host then
the Discover Target Portal Step can be skipped as Auto-Snapshot Manager will do this
automatically. Please refer to the Auto-Snapshot Manager User Guide for more
information about setting PS Group Access. To configure the Target Portal manually,
please follow the steps in the next section.

Discovery of Target Portal

Now that MPIO is installed and configured, this section will step through connecting to
a volume.

In the Discovery tab, click Discover Portal. Previous to this step, access control for PS
Series volumes should have been already configured with CHAP authentication,
multiple redundant NIC IP addresses, or a unique iSCSI initiator name. Volume access
controls are configured through the PS Group Manager, either at the time of volume
creation or thereafter.

13
Add the PS Group Portal to the Initiator List

In the Discover Target Portal dialogue box, enter the PS Group IP address and port.
Consult the networking team for anything other than the default port number. Click
OK to complete. The PS Group IP should now be listed in the Target Portals list.

Connect to PS Series Target

Now that the iSCSI portal has been configured, click on the Targets tab in the initiator
and Refresh the targets list.

Highlight the target of choice from the list and click Connect.

14
To make this iSCSI connection persistent after a reboot, select the checkbox ‘Add this
connection to the list of Favorite Targets’. The connection will then be added to the
‘Favorite Targets’ tab of the iSCSI Initiator properties. To use CHAP credentials, click
Advanced, enter the CHAP authentication information and click OK. Select ‘Enable
multi-path’ and click OK.

Make the PS Series Volume Available to the Server

Next, make the disk available to the server through Server Manager’s Disk
Management. Right-click on Disk Management and select Re-Scan. After Re-Scan,
right-click the disk to set it Online.

Now, use Server Manager / Disk Management, to format the volume as NTFS and
assign a Drive Letter.

Optionally bind the newly available PS Series volume to a drive letter using the iSCSI
Initiator properties however the volume must first be a Favorite Target. To configure a
Favorite Target, see the Connect to PS Series Target section above. When connecting
to the target, select the checkbox to Add this connection to the list of Favorite
Targets.

From the Favorite Targets tab, either manually add the drive letter via the Add button,
or choose Auto Configure to configure all available devices. Optionally remove a
device or clear the entire list with the Remove and Clear buttons.

15
Verify MPIO
There are two common places to look to verify volume session connections to the
array.
1. Microsoft iSCSI Initiator’s Dell EqualLogic MPIO Tab

2. From Server Manager / Disk Management,

a. Right-click the target disk and select ‘Properties’. The MPIO Tab will
display the MPIO Policy for the selected PS Series volume, as well as the
multiple paths to the volume. The example below shows the Dell
EqualLogic MPIO DSM’s Load Balancing Policy “Least Queue Depth” is
enabled and that there are multiple (4) connection paths to the volume.
Note: The session connections in the initiator’s Dell EqualLogic MPIO tab will take a
minute or two to show up after logging into the volume.

16
 iSCSI Initiator Disk Management

Log off a volume with MPIO

From the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator’s Favorite Targets tab, highlight each favorite target
and Remove it. The Windows server will no longer try to re-connect to the target
volume on startup.

Then, from the Targets tab, highlight the target and click Disconnect to logoff each
volume. This will disconnect the target volume from the Windows server.

17
Summary

The Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage array supports multiple iSCSI SAN connections
for performance and reliability. MPIO provides multiple paths from servers to storage,
delivering fault tolerance, high availability, and improved performance. The Dell
EqualLogic MPIO DSM simplifies MPIO setup and configuration in a Microsoft Windows
server environment by automatically managing multiple iSCSI sessions and also
optimizes the operation of a Dell EqualLogic PS Series array by using knowledge about
volume layouts on a PS Series group and routing I/O directly to the Dell EqualLogic PS
Series arrays that will be servicing requests. Additionally, the Dell EqualLogic MPIO
DSM will provide a Windows® server transparent redundancy in its iSCSI connections
to a PS Series SAN.

The Host Integration Tools for Microsoft and documentation are available by logging
onto the support website at https://eqlsupport.dell.com/EqualLogic.

18
Appendix A: Using Hardware Initiators
In addition to the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator, the Dell EqualLogic DSM supports hardware
initiators. At the time of this document, the Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM supports the
QLogic HBAs and iSCSI Offload for Broadcom CNA’s. For information on these
hardware initiators please reference the EqualLogic Configuration Guide. When using
the Broadcom adapters with iSCSI Offload functionality, there are two methods to
connect to iSCSI storage through the adapter:
1) Using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator, as described in this document.
2) Using the iSCSI functionality implemented within the adapter hardware itself. The
Dell EqualLogic EHCM service will automatically prefer the hardware implementation if
it is enabled and configured and iSCSI sessions will be established using these
interfaces instead of the iSCSI software interfaces. To use the Microsoft iSCSI software
initiator instead, disable the iSCSI Offload functionality within the Broadcom Advanced
Control Suite (BACS).
The Multi-Path I/O DSM connection manager uses temporary CHAP credentials to
create additional iSCSI sessions to each target. As of this report, QLogic iSCSI HBAs do
not support the use of CHAP credentials for these sessions. Therefore, one of the
following must be done for each target to use MPIO in these configurations:
 Create a single access control record with the iSCSI initiator name of the
host computer.

 Create a single access control record with an IP address range that includes
all of the host computer’s interfaces to be used for SAN.

 Create multiple access control records, one for each of the host computer's
interfaces to be used for the SAN, where each record contains a specific IP
addresses.

When using MPIO with a PS Series group running firmware prior to 5.0, CHAP
authentication must be enabled. If the PS Series group is not configured to use local
CHAP authentication, the server will receive login errors when attempting to create
MPIO sessions. Use the Group Manager GUI to enable local CHAP authentication:

1. Click Group Configuration and open the iSCSI tab to display the options for
iSCSI initiator authentication.

2. Check the box labeled: Consult locally defined CHAP accounts first.

19
Appendix B: Tips, Troubleshooting and Hotfixes
Dell recommends that all hardware and software be kept up-to-date with patches and
latest firmware and driver revisions. The latest version of the EqualLogic Compatibility
Matrix can be found at:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/2661.equallogic-compatibility-
matrix.aspx
For details on hotfixes and recommendations when using Windows Servers and MPIO
with Dell EqualLogic arrays, please consult the EqualLogic PS Series Arrays:
Optimizing Your SAN Environment for High Availability document at:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/20371245/download.aspx
The following Windows 2008 R2 MPIO hotfixes should be applied if not already:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982383
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522766
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460971
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2511962
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2718576

Managing Connections in Large Environments

Large cluster environments tend to push the maximum allowable connections to the
EqualLogic PS Series group when using the EqualLogic MPIO modules. There are a
number of ways to minimize and control connections including scaling down the Max
sessions per entire volume and Max sessions per volume slice. For additional
information and details see the EqualLogic PS Arrays: Scalability and Growth in
Virtual Environments technical report at:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/19992296.aspx

20
Appendix C: Using Diskpart to Optimize Disk Partitions on PS Series
Volumes
For optimal performance when working with PS Series group volumes accessed by
Windows hosts, it is recommended that disk partitions begin on sector boundaries that
are divisible by 64K (that is, evenly divisible by 65536 bytes or 128 sectors), matching
the default PS Series storage array RAID stripe segment size. This improves volume and
overall group performance. Windows typically writes data to disk in 64k chunks.

Earlier Windows Server versions previous to 2008 begin writing data at the 63rd sector.
To elaborate, this means the first 1k of the chunk is written into one sector and the
remaining 63k to the next and so on. So, during read and write operations to the disk,
multiple sectors must be accessed from the disk instead of one. This increases the
amount of I/O, thus negatively impacting performance.

Microsoft has addressed this starting with Windows Server 2008 by defaulting most
partitions to be created with 1 Mb boundaries. So, the following procedure is not
typically a concern when using Windows Server 2008 and later, as the 1 Mb default
works great for all performance and alignment scenarios that exist today.

To align disk sectors on a partition from Windows 2003, run DISKPART.EXE from a
command prompt.

Type, List Disk to display a list of available disks. Identify the desired disk number
from the list.
Type, Select Disk## . A message will be displayed that the disk is selected.
Type, Create Partition=Primary Align=64

Type, Exit to quit from the Diskpart utility.

21
Technical Support and Customer Service

Dell support service is available to answer questions about PS Series SAN arrays.

Contacting Dell

1. If you have an Express Service Code, have it ready.

The code helps the Dell automated support telephone system direct your call
more efficiently.

2. If you are a customer in the United States or Canada in need of technical

support,
call 1-800-945-3355. If not, go to Step 3.

3. Visit support.dell.com/equallogic.

4. Log in, or click “Create Account” to request a new support account.

5. At the top right, click “Contact Us,” and call the phone number or select the link
for the type
of support you need.

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