Vmware - Configuration iSCSI on Dell 650xs and ME5024 [many screens]

More images (screens) comming soon...

Storage:

NIC:

VMK:

vSwitch

(14 more screens comming soon)

Two 25GB/s links UP

On only one link 25GB/s transfer drop from 2GB/s to 200MB/s (source and target ME5024)

That's all.. screens Please help.

Hello YoungAdmin,

Thank you for your post.  I would let you know that Initial Deployment is not supported on the forum. 

We have Deployment Services you can contract if needed if you contact Sales to get a quote.

Performance tuning is also not supported. Anyone in the community is welcome to share their experience.

I'll share a few observations:

Jumbo frames depends on the usage, sometimes good or bad

     Performance is based on configuration of storage and testing methods 

When one of the links to the disk array is disconnected the performance drops dramatically

     That will happen. disk groups/volumes only live on 1 controller at a time

With direct connect, you are setup fine

     Best way to setup and configure the hosts for VMWare is to install VMware then vCenter then configure iSCSI

interface is much easier to use

Supplemental:

Best Practices guide for all settings including MPIO?  https://dell.to/3ZEL9OJ

You may already have these links but I want to provide them for you:

PowerEdge R650xs support page : https://dell.to/3ZOgDlh

Dell EMC PowerVault ME5024 support page : https://dell.to/3iLGPMK

Thanks for the reply and links.
In response, I will add that this is not Initial Deployment, but only testing the environment to assess the possibilities and rules for replacing the operation of the production environment. I want to know how much I can gain and build from such equipment.If the test results turn out to be unsatisfactory, the equipment will go to the lab and not for production.
The production environment is advanced, but here I have simplified the limits of possibility and performance for testing purposes.
Of course I count on comments and responses from the community

Countering your answers:
It seems to me that the controllers in this disk array are not Active-Active, but I could be wrong. However, if they are Active-Passive, then on one 25Gb/s link, we can theoretically get about 3100 GB/s of transfer - that's what my CristalDiskMark tests show (I got similar values when copying from a partition to a 2Gb/s (write) to partition where the source and destination are the same location, i.e. the disk array, so there is simultaneous reading and writing). Going forward…. In view of the above, why does the transfer drop so drastically after switching to the spare controller, if we still have one link with a bandwidth of up to 25Gb/s?
However, if these controllers work in Active-Active mode, then in theory I should get a minimum of 5GB/s ....(with multipath) and in the case of link loss, half as much. Or more likely… one of the parameters is set incorrectly.
Let me remind you that in my simple tests, the loss of a link and "automatic reconnection" to the second one was associated with a decrease in speed not by 50% but by 90%.

What do you mean by using "Jumbo frames depends on the usage, sometimes good or bad"? Can you expand on that?
ComboFrames in my case showed an increase in speed: MTU=1500 gave 2200 MB/s R/W and MTU=9800 3000MB/s

Based on this documentation: Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series and VMware vSphere
Physical port selection
In a system configured to use all FC or all iSCSI, but where only two ports are needed, use ports 0 and 2 or ports 1 and 3 to ensure better I/O balance on the front end. This is because ports 0 and 1 share a converged network controller chip, and ports 2 and 3 share a separate converged network controller chip.

Does the same apply to my test setup and will changing the ports improve performance?

Hi @YoungAdmin,

The downside of jumbo frame is that it must be supported by all interfaces (all network components in the data path). Any other than that, I don't see any issues. But you mentioned that your MTU is already at 9800, that's  jumbo frame enabled. 

When there are 2 controllers installed, redundancy settings is set automatically to Active-Active, page 7. https://dell.to/3QRM8XR