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Deployment requirements for iSCSI vVols in a VI workload domain

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Review the recommended network design and infrastructure requirements to deploy iSCSI vVols in a VMware Cloud Foundation VI workload domain. You need a fully configured ONTAP AFF or ASA storage system, a completed VCF management domain, and an existing VI workload domain.

Infrastructure requirements

Make sure the following components and configurations are in place.

  • An ONTAP AFF or ASA storage system with physical data ports on Ethernet switches dedicated to storage traffic.

  • The VCF management domain deployment is complete and the vSphere client is accessible.

  • A VI workload domain has been previously deployed.

You should configure fully redundant network designs for iSCSI. The following diagram illustrates an example of a redundant configuration. It provides fault tolerance for storage systems, switches, networks adapters, and host systems. For additional information, refer to the NetApp SAN configuration reference.

NVMe-tcp network design

 

For multipathing and failover across multiple paths, create a minimum of two LIFs per storage node in separate Ethernet networks for all SVMs in iSCSI configurations.

Note In situations where multiple VMkernel adapters are configured on the same IP network, use software iSCSI port binding on the ESXi hosts to ensure that load balancing across the adapters occurs. Refer to KB article Considerations for using software iSCSI port binding in ESX/ESXi.

What's next?

After reviewing the deployment requirements, create the SVM and LIFs.