Connecting to PetaSAN from Windows

Server 2016/2012 R2 using MPIO

Version 1.0
Revision History

Date Version Description

30-8-2017 1.0 Initial version

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Contents

1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Pre-requisites ............................................................................................................................................ 3
3. Creating our disk in PetaSAN .................................................................................................................... 3
4. MPIO Installation ...................................................................................................................................... 5
5. ISCSI Initiator ............................................................................................................................................. 7
5.1 Target discovery .................................................................................................................................. 8
5.2 Session connections .......................................................................................................................... 11
5.2.1 Path 1 session............................................................................................................................. 11
5.2.2 Path 2 session............................................................................................................................. 14
5.2.3 Path 3 session............................................................................................................................. 15
5.2.4 Path 4 session............................................................................................................................. 16
5.3 Reviewing Connections ..................................................................................................................... 17
6. Formatting our disk ................................................................................................................................. 18

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1. Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to show how to connect to a PetaSAN disk from Windows 2016 / 2012 R2
using MPIO and CHAP based authentication.

2. Pre-requisites

This guide assumes the reader has followed the Quick Start guide and has deployed a working PetaSAN
cluster. We will be using the same subnet assignments as given in the Quick Start example.
Our Windows Server 2016 / 2012 R2 needs to have interfaces on both iSCSI 1 and iSCSI 2 networks. For
this demonstration, the IP addresses will be:
ISCSI 1IP: 10.0.2.51
ISCSI 2 IP: 10.0.3.51

3. Creating our disk in PetaSAN

In “Add Disk” create a 100 TB named “VM Data Storage” with 4 paths on both subnets.

We will secure the disk by enabling “Password Authentication” and specifying a username and
password. This uses the iSCSI CHAP authentication protocol.

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We can also further protect the disk by a entering a comma separated list of Client IQNs that are
allowed to connect. However in our example, using CHAP authentication will suffice.

 Note: Windows will give an error if the password length specified is less than 12 or more than 16
characters.

Once done, our disk will be added to the “Disk List” page

Notice that under the “Active Paths” column, the number of paths available is listed as 4. Click on it to
view the virtual IP addresses.

We need to take note of the IP addresses, we will be specifying them when connecting to our disk.

 Note: the Assigned Node column lists the nodes currently serving the active paths. Since we are
using virtual IPs, this assignment is dynamic. If a node fails, its path will be transparently
assigned to another node.
Since our Windows server has addresses 10.0.2.51 & 10.0.3.51 our path connections will be as follows:
Path Initiator IP Target disk IP Subnet
1 10.0.2.51 10.0.2.100 ISCSI 1
2 10.0.3.51 10.0.3.100 ISCSI 2
3 10.0.2.51 10.0.2.101 ISCSI 1
4 10.0.3.51 10.0.3.101 ISCSI 2
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4. MPIO Installation

To use MPIO from Windows Server, we need to first add the MPIO feature using Server Manager

At the end of the Wizard, click “Yes” to reboot

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After rebooting go to “Server Manager” ->“Tools” click “MPIO”

In the MPIO Properties, select the second tab labeled “Discover Multi-Paths”. Check the “Add support to
ISCSI devices” and click the Add button. Then reboot the system again.

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5. ISCSI Initiator

Once MPIO is setup, we are ready to connect to our ISCSI disk.

From Server Manager -> Tools Click iSCSI Initiator

If this is the first time accessing the iSCSI Initiator, confirm we would like to run the iSCSI service by
clicking Yes. This service is responsible for automatically connecting to our iSCSI disks on computer
startups as well as re-connecting automatically after any connection failures.

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5.1 Target discovery

In the iSCSI Initiator Properties window select the “Discovery” tab.

Click on “Discover Portal” button and enter the first ip address of the iSCSI disk we created in PetaSAN,
in our case this would be 10.0.2.100:

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If all goes well, our Windows client has now discovered our target disk, but has not connected to it yet.
Next select the first tab labeled “Target”, we should see our PetaSAN disk listed with its iqn name. The
iqn name is composed of our base prefix (which by default is “iqn-2016-05.com.petasan:” and is
configurable In the PetaSAN Cluster Management application) followed by the disk id.

Select the disk and click on the “Properties..” button

 Note: Do not click the “Connect” button, as this will setup a single path connection.

This will open the “Properties” window for our discovered but yet to be connected iSCSI disk.

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To view the available paths for our disk, select the “Portal Groups” tab

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5.2 Session connections

To connect to our different paths, we need to add connection sessions. Each session is a separate login
from our client initiator to our iSCSI target disk over a specific path. In PetaSAN, the different paths for
our disk are actually virtual ips clustered across different physical machines.
Select the “Sessions” tab

5.2.1 Path 1 session

Click on “Add session”

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In the “Connect To Target” dialog, check “Enable multi-path” box and click on the “Advanced..” button.
In “Local adapter:” select “Microsoft iSCSI Initiator”
In “Initiator IP:” this is the client ip we will connect from, for our first path this is 10.0.2.51
In “Target portal IP:” this is the ip of the first path 10.0.2.100
Since we have created a secure disk in PetaSAN, check the “Enable CHAP log-in” and type the username
and password we specified when we created our disk.
The settings for our first session should be as follows:

Click “OK”

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Click “Ok” again
If all goes well, we are now connected with our first session

We need to repeat the same steps for our remaining paths as will be shown in the next sections.

 Note: when repeating the steps for paths 2 to 4, take special note of the different initiator and
target ips for each path.

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5.2.2 Path 2 session

“Initiator IP:” 10.0.3.51

“Target portal IP:” 10.0.3.100
Remaining settings are the same as path 1.

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5.2.3 Path 3 session

“Initiator IP:” 10.0.2.51

“Target portal IP:” 10.0.2.101
Remaining settings are the same as path 1.

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5.2.4 Path 4 session

“Initiator IP:” 10.0.3.51

“Target portal IP:” 10.0.3.101
Remaining settings are the same as path 1.

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5.3 Reviewing Connections

Review the 4 different sessions; make sure each session is associated with the correct path number

Click on “Devices…” then “MPIO…” double check that Windows set each path as “Active” and set a
“Load balance policy” to “Round Robin”.

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6. Formatting our disk

To format the disk, go to “Server Manager” -> “File and Storage Services” -> “Disks”

 Note: When preparing the disk for use in a clustered scenario where multiple Windows machines
access the disk concurrently ( example: when using Clustered Shared Volumes with Hyper-V or
with Scale Out File Server ) , this step is done from the first machine only.

First bring the disk online:

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Then initialize the disk to create the partition table and boot record

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Now click “New Volume…” to format the disk as NTFS.

This will open the “New Volume Wizard”, go through all steps accepting the default values. This will
format the disk as NTFS and assign a drive letter to it.

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Congratulations! We have successfully prepared our 100 TB 4 Active paths disk.

 Note: Don’t forget that PetaSAN uses cloud technology which allows us to over-commit storage.
We need to regularly check the PetaSAN Dashboard and find out how much physical storage has
actually been used and add physical disks as necessary. As far as Windows is concerned, the 100
TB disk is fully available from day one and will not warn us if its usage is approaching the
physical storage available, it is actually oblivious to this.

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