I know that this is a new topic for Open-E users, but wondering if anyone out there could share some tips on setting up the DSS as an iSCSI target for VMWare.

I have already got this functioning at a basic level in a test environment so I know the basics of the setting up the iSCSI initiator in ESX, but this *very* new stuff for me so just had some questions on best practices, etc.

What we have hardware-wise is the DSS running the latest release in an Intel-based server; the storage server has the built in dual-port GigE NICs and an additional Intel Pro/1000 dual-port NIC. The ESX servers are also Intel-based with the same NIC config. We are booting ESX from a straight SATA drive so will be using the DSS NAS to store the VMs. We want to use VMWare HA.

So I guess the main questions are:

How to best configure the network (assuming a dedicated GigE switch with link aggregation for the SAN traffic) to get the best throughput.

How to set up iSCSI volumes and targets for best results with VMWare (from a performance and HA perspective.) (I have already switched the iSCSI setup to use FileMode I/O.)

Thanks for any guidance!

- Max, Realware LLC