VMware ESXi on 1850 and AX100i

Post back how this works out for you.   These sans never seemed to get high marks on performance.

 We only use one network card on some of our MD3000i's,  and I always wondered about the AX100i.... 

Your implementation would be a typical iSCSi san implementation for sure.

These sans never seemed to get high marks on performance.

As a note on that; when using multiple virtual machines I'd very highly recommend raid 10 to (partially) help offset the slow performance of the AX100.

First of i want to thank you for taking the time to answer my post.

You'd have to check the processor(s) in the 1850 to verify if they support x64 and VT. I think they will, but I'm not 100% sure.

   I called dell and checked my service tag they told me that they do not support this configuration but they know it has been successfully implemented.

To have 2 servers share disk access on any EMC SAN, they need to have access to the same storage processor or processors.   What does this mean?   So both servers connect to SPA, both connect to SPB, or both connect to both (SPA and SPB).  SPA and SPB i am asuming are ethernet connections to the AX100i?   If you have only 2 NICs in each server (so you can only dedicate 1 to iSCSI), you'll want a dedicated Gbit switch or VLAN with SPA0 and SPB0 and 1 NIC per server. Set the IP addresses of SPA0 and SPB0 to the same subnet in Navisphere Express, but obviously a different subnet than your regular (management) network. Should i install another NIC on the servers and dedicate two to ISCSI?    You create a VMkernel switch on each ESXi server and give it a NIC (probably vmnic1). Assign it an IP on your iSCSI subnet (needs to be different than your regular network IP subnet). (each server would obviously have it's own IP) so  regular network 192.168.0.1   ax100i would be 192.168.1.1   server 1 192.168.1.2     server 2 192.168.1.3   Now you go to the storage adapters and enable the iSCSI initiator. Go to dynamic discovery and add 1 of the 2 iSCSI IPs of the array (e.g. SPA0). Click close.  When you say storage adapters enable iscsi initiator this would be through the management interface on esxi server1 192.168.1.2   Now go to the connections section in Navisphere Express. You should see the server connecting, but no name or IP on it yet.  Where would navisphere be that would be on the AX100i 192.168.1.1?   Check the server and click modify. Specify the server's name and it's (management) IP address (not the iSCSI IP). (this is referred to as registering the server with the array).  So then the servers management IP would be 192.168.0.10 and the Iscsi would be 192.168.1.2. Now you can create a virtual disk (keep it below 2TB due to ESX/ESXi's limitations) and assign it to this server. There is already allocated space on the ax100i 192.168.1.1 will i need to reformat this?       Go back to the storage adapters (in the VIC) and tell it to rescan. Once finished you should be able to see the virtual disk in the bottom section.  This is done on the 192.168.0.1 Server 1?     Go to storage and select to add a disk. Select to add a disk/lun and select the newly assigned/created disk. Follow the wizard (pay attention to the block size and the limit of individual files that coincide with the block size choice you make) and you'll have a disk available. So i would make a disk for each virtual machine?  or do i create on Disk/lun for multiple VM's? Now on the 2nd server you do the same steps for the VMkernel, iSCSI initiator, registering the server and assigning the disk (in Navisphere). Now tell the iSCSI initiator to rescan. After this you'll see the disk in the storage section on the 2nd server.   This is a basic iSCSI (switch) setup.   Post here if you have more questions.

After i install ESXi i get a dump and go into debug mode. Any advice? Exception type 14 in world 2389:sfcbd@0x6738a7

thanks

In bios on the host?    Are there settings for enabling virtualization?  I have seen that dump esxi before.   It may also require match pair'd ram on some systems as well.  I have seen windows run on ram configurations that esx won't.

I see no setting for enabling virtualization. Called dell and they said no BIOS setting for VT. I tried to match the RAM no luck with that. I am still fishing for a solution on this site and VMware community have not received any solutions yet.

I am really weak here as I have never installed it.  The hosts always came with it on there.

I could not find anything stating the 1850 was officially supported in 3.5,  but I can see why not either.

Fishing here,  but does the esx version have to be the proper physical processor count?   I mean,  like on my hosts it states 2 Processors clearly on all my ESX stuff.