This article is going to focus on how to configure the NFS VAAI Plugin for Isilon when used with VMware vSphere 5.<\/p>\n
Requirements Installation<\/strong> The expected process is as follows:<\/p>\n In fact there is a little bit more to do.\u00a0 Enabling the vCenter for Isilon Service doesn’t have any requirements that I’m aware of, other than to run the command, but loading the plugin and configuring authentication can be tricky.<\/p>\n Loading the plugin<\/strong> I wasn’t able to push the extension to the hosts using VMware Update Manager.<\/p>\n I have only been successful in manually installing the extension on my ESXi hosts, but that isn’t that straightforward either.<\/p>\n I uploaded the VAAI plugin files named “VMW-ESX-5.0.0-isilon_nas_vaai_plugin-1.0-834058.zip<\/strong>” and “VMW-ESX-5.0.0-isilon_nas_vaai_plugin-1.0-offline_bundle-834058.zip<\/strong>” to my datastore and attempted to load both of them. No dice.\u00a0 Not until I extracted the vib (isilon_nas_vaai_plugin.vib<\/strong>) did I see success. The installation command (with the vib loaded in my local datastore1) is: Configuring authentication<\/strong> To configure authentication, run the following command: Information required includes the SmartConnect zone name, user account, and password that will be used to connect to the cluster. When running this the first time, I got an error.<\/p>\n Internal Error S7, please contact EMC Isilon Support for details Ok… Where do I start?<\/p>\n I added the datastore to my ESXi host…<\/p>\n Still no success.<\/p>\n Internal Error S7, please contact EMC Isilon Support for details Same error, but I knew I could “reach” the cluster, as I had it mounted… Then I tried the command again…<\/p>\n There it was… What was the difference?<\/p>\n Remember that when connecting to an Isilon cluster using the SmartConnect zone name, different IP addresses can be used when I request is sent to the SmartConnect service IP?<\/p>\n My cluster has 3 IP addresses.<\/p>\n When ESXi connects to an NFS mount, the IP address of the NFS mount (using a name or IP) is then added to the NFS Client’s settings in the ESXi firewall.<\/p>\n Looking at my NFS Client settings I found that only 2 of my node IP addresses had been added.\u00a0 Without adding a lot of redundancy to this post I’ll share that the primary requirement is that all of the IP addresses of the SmartConnect zone being connected to, must be in the NFS Client “allowed connections” list. Something else I found, was that if I rebooted my ESXi, when the Isilon NFS share is mounted, if the IP that is returned by SmartConnect isn’t already in the “allowed connections” list, it is added and the datastore is still mounted.<\/p>\n So my datastore is mounted, the Isilon NAS VAAI plugin is configured, I should be good to go… I look at my storage, and I see…<\/p>\n Hardware Acceleration is not supported. What have I done wrong?<\/p>\n Well, the release notes state that no reboot is required after installing the plugin.\u00a0 After a reboot, I saw success.<\/p>\n Summing it up<\/strong> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, I don’t believe it is a requirement to have the datastores mounted beforehand (after a conversation with Larry Orloff<\/a><\/strong>), but the requirement for all the IP addresses of the SmartConnect zone being present in the “allowed connections” and a host reboot were consistently required.<\/p>\n I reached out to the folks that developed the plugin with a couple more questions about automating this process.\u00a0 In speaking with them, unfortunately in 1.0, the auth_gen process requires interactive inputs, and does not accept parameters.\u00a0 I’ve requested that functionality be added.\u00a0 Not sure if\/when it will, but I’m optimistic it will at some point.<\/p>\n Things to note There is an ECN thread where a user reported an issue with some vSphere 5.0.0 hosts, regarding the plugin not behaving properly.
\n<\/strong>Here are the basic technical requirements to get the plugin working:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nuntil upgraded to 5.0 Update 2<\/span><\/li>\n
\nThe installation process is not 100% straight forward according to the Release Notes<\/a><\/strong>, which require a support.emc.com<\/a><\/strong> login to get to.\u00a0 I’ll try to provide a little clarification here.<\/p>\n\n
\nFor starters, after downloading the Isilon NAS VAAI Plugin (VMW-ESX-5.0.0-isilon_nas_vaai_plugin-1.0-offline_bundle-834058.zip<\/strong>), adding it to VMware Update Manager, and creating a baseline, I noticed that despite the fact that the plugin had not been installed on my hosts, it appeared to have been.<\/p>\n![\"vaai-01\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/vaai-01.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n*Note whether EMC_bootbank_isilon_nas_vaai_plugin_1.0-0.vib is extracted from the offline bundle, or isilon_nas_vaai_plugin.vib extracted from the other, the vib that gets installed is still named EMC_bootbank_isilon_nas_vaai_plugin_1.0-0.vib.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"vaai-02\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/vaai-021.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nesxcli software vib install -v=”\/vmfs\/volumes\/datastore1\/isilon_nas_vaai_plugin.vib”
\n<\/strong>*Note the Release Notes state a requirement to set software to CommunitySupported, this is not required as the Isilon NAS VAAI plugin is signed as VMwareAccepted<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nAfter the vib is installed, authenticating to the Isilon cluster is required.<\/p>\n
\n\/usr\/lib\/vmware\/nas_plugins\/isi_plugin_credential\/auth_gen<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n*Note: The Release Notes do not mention requiring the SmartConnect zone name.\u00a0 I brought this up to the team during the Alpha release, with the argument of having multiple Isilon clusters in a single environment, and the lack of a specified SmartConnect zone would require all clusters being connected to, to have the same credentials.\u00a0 I’m not certain if I had anything to do with the addition, but I’m glad to see it made it into the 1.0 release.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"vaai-03\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-03.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n, addr is https:\/\/mavericks.vlab.jasemccarty.com:8080\/platform\/1\/cluster\/external-ips
\nfailed to connect to https:\/\/mavericks.vlab.jasemccarty.com:8080\/platform\/1\/cluster\/external-ips, with status 7.
\nplease check if the host you are trying to reach is a valid Isilon Storage cluster, ensure that Apache service is up
\nInternal error FM001, please contactEMC Isilon Support<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"vaai-04\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-04a.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n, addr is https:\/\/mavericks.vlab.jasemccarty.com:8080\/platform\/1\/cluster\/external-ips
\nfailed to connect to https:\/\/mavericks.vlab.jasemccarty.com:8080\/platform\/1\/cluster\/external-ips, with status 7.
\nplease check if the host you are trying to reach is a valid Isilon Storage cluster, ensure that Apache service is up
\nInternal error FM001, please contactEMC Isilon Support<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"vaai-05\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-05.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"vaai-06\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-06.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"vaai-07\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-07.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n*If all of the IP addresses are not listed, auth_gen will need to be run several times until the process is executed against an IP that is allowed<\/em><\/p>\n![\"vaai-08\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-08.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"vaai-09\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/vaai-09.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTo get the Isilon NAS VAAI Plugin working, I would suggest the following steps:<\/p>\n\n
Enable the Isilon Service for vCenter<\/del>
\n (isi services isi_vc_d enable<\/strong>) <\/del>It doesn’t appear this is required<\/li>\n
\n(esxcli software vib install -v=”\/path\/to\/plugin\/isi_nas_vaai_plugin.vib”<\/strong>)<\/li>\n
\n(\/usr\/lib\/vmware\/nas_plugins\/isi_plugin_credential\/auth_gen<\/strong>)<\/li>\n
\n<\/strong>I have been using the plugin with vSphere 5.1 without issue.<\/p>\n
\nThat thread can be found here: https:\/\/community.emc.com\/message\/711444<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n