RPN-SAN : VMWare ESXi This documentation covers the versions 5.0/5.1/5.5/6.0 of VMWare ESXi Configuration of VMWare ESXi for the usage of the RPN Activation of SSH Start the vSphere client; (1) click the Configuration tab, (2) click Security Profile in the Software panel. In the Services section, click Properties. ( 1 ) Select SSH; (2 ) click options; (3) Select “Start and stop manually”; (4) Manually launch the service Configuration of ESXi to access the RPN network In the ESXi interface Go to “Configuration” > “Network configuration (1), then click on “Properties” Create a new VMKernel named “RPN” linked to the RPN interface To continue select “Assign IP automatically” and validate the windows Network will go down because the MAC address is not correct. Set the MTU 9000 Go to Configuration → Network settings → Properties… (of vSwitch1) Select the vSwitch (1) and change it (2) Enter the MTU 9000 and save the changes Attention: If the MTUs are not matching, there is a risk that it will not work Prepare your ESXi Edit the configuration file of ESXi vi /etc/vmware/esx.conf Find the number of the child in the RPN portgroup (in this example: 0001) /net/vmkernelnic/child[0001]/portgroup = "RPN" Find the MAC of the network card connected to the RPN (in this example: XX:YY:ZZ:AA:BB:CC) /net/pnic/child[0001]/mac = "XX:YY:ZZ:AA:BB:CC” Replace the MAC of the VMKernel RPN (see the number of the child) with the MAC of the network card connected to the RPN /net/vmkernelnic/child[0001]/mac = "XX:YY:ZZ:AA:BB:CC” Reboot the ESXi to take the changes into effect Find your RPN gateway Add to route the subnet of the RPN the IP of its gateway esxcfg-route -a 10.90.0.0/15 [PUT HERE YOUR RPN GATEWAY] Attention : You need to add the route to /etc/rc.local to keep it after a reboot For the version ESXi 5.1 the file is located at /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh Ping the RPN-SAN # ping san-1.rpn.online.net PING 10.90.254.2 (10.90.254.2): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 10.90.254.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=61 time=0.241 ms 64 bytes from 10.90.254.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=61 time=0.241 ms The ping has to work, if not there is a problem. In the ESXi interface Go to the configuration tab, then select “Storage controller” (1), then “Add” (2) Select “Software iSCSI Adapter” then click OK Then click on Software Adapter (normally named vmhba32) (1), then click on Properties (2) Go to the tab Dynamic discovery (1), then click on “Add” (2)… Enter the address of the RPN server in the textbox “iSCSI Server” (the address is available in your management console) Click on “OK” and Accept the proposed rescanning. The IET disk will appear in the panel at the bottom Now go to Configuration → Storage (1) → Add storage (2) Select “Disk/LUN” Select your directory, then click on “Next” Your SAN is now mounted and usable in ESXi! If VMFS5 causes problems, choose VMFS3 for your target.