There are a number of iSCSI related esxcli commands, all accessed using the ‘esxcli iscsi’ namespace:
~ # esxcli iscsi
Usage: esxcli iscsi {cmd} [cmd options]
Available Namespaces:
adapter Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapters
networkportal Operations that can be performed on iSCSI Network Portal (iSCSI vmknic)
physicalnetworkportal Operations that can be performed on iSCSI Physical Network Portal (vmnic)
session Operations that can be performed on iSCSI sessions
ibftboot Operations that can be performed on iSCSI IBFT boot table
logicalnetworkportal Operations that can be performed on iSCSI Logical Network Portal (vmknic)
plugin Operations that can be performed on iSCSI management plugins
software Operations that can be performed on software iSCSI
I’ve written about iSCSI port binding previously, and included several esxcli commands related to configuring iSCSI so won’t cover that ground again here. Instead I’ll be looking at the commands I didn’t cover in that post. I’ll start by looking at the host’s iSCSI adapters:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi adapter list Adapter Driver State UID Description ------- --------- ------ ------------------------------------- ---------------------- vmhba33 iscsi_vmk online iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esxi1-47be1f31 iSCSI Software Adapter
It’s clear from the output that this host is using the iSCSI Software Adapter. To display more information on a given adapter you can run:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi adapter get --adapter vmhba33 vmhba33 Name: iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esxi1-47be1f31 Alias: Vendor: VMware Model: iSCSI Software Adapter Description: iSCSI Software Adapter Serial Number: Hardware Version: Asic Version: Firmware Version: Option Rom Version: Driver Name: iscsi_vmk Driver Version: TCP Protocol Supported: false Bidirectional Transfers Supported: false Maximum Cdb Length: 64 Can Be NIC: false Is NIC: false Is Initiator: true Is Target: false Using TCP Offload Engine: false Using ISCSI Offload Engine: false
As this is a software adapter, some of the fields will not display information, however, if this was a hardware adapter you would expect to see details on Firmware and Driver versions etc. You can use the ‘set’ option to change the name and alias of the adapter. For example:
# esxcli iscsi adapter set --adapter vmhba33 --alias SoftwareAdapter
There are a number of other namespaces relating to the iSCSI adapter:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi adapter
Usage: esxcli iscsi adapter {cmd} [cmd options]
Available Namespaces:
auth Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapter authentications
discovery Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapter discovery
target Operations that can be performed on iSCSI targets
capabilities Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapter capabilities
firmware Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapter firmware
param Operations that can be performed on iSCSI adapter parameters
In relation to troubleshooting its worth paying attention to the ‘auth’, ‘discovery’ and ‘target’ namespaces in particular. You can list the chap settings with:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi adapter auth chap get -A vmhba33 Direction: uni Name: Level: prohibited
To list the configured iSCSI targets you can run:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi adapter target list Adapter Target Max Connections Alias Discovery Method Last Error ------- ------------------------------------------ --------------- ----- ---------------- ---------- vmhba33 iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:tsn.a75226350df7 0 SENDTARGETS No Error
Moving away from the adapter related commands, a useful command for troubleshooting is the ‘sessions’ namespace. This will output established sessions to the host’s configured targets. For example:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi session list vmhba33,iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:tsn.a75226350df7,00023d000001 Adapter: vmhba33 Target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:tsn.a75226350df7 ISID: 00023d000001 TargetPortalGroupTag: 1 AuthenticationMethod: none DataPduInOrder: true DataSequenceInOrder: true DefaultTime2Retain: 0 DefaultTime2Wait: 2 ErrorRecoveryLevel: 0 FirstBurstLength: Irrelevant ImmediateData: false InitialR2T: true MaxBurstLength: 262144 MaxConnections: 1 MaxOutstandingR2T: 1 TSIH: 2816
Finally, you can view the network settings/vmk used by iSCSI on the host by running:
/etc/init.d # esxcli iscsi networkportal list vmhba33 Adapter: vmhba33 Vmknic: vmk2 MAC Address: 00:0c:29:e8:41:0a MAC Address Valid: true IPv4: 192.168.88.140 IPv4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 IPv6: MTU: 1500 Vlan Supported: true Vlan ID: 0 Reserved Ports: 63488~65536 TOE: false TSO: true TCP Checksum: false Link Up: true Current Speed: 1000 Rx Packets: 52986 Tx Packets: 17763 NIC Driver: e1000 NIC Driver Version: 8.0.3.1-NAPI NIC Firmware Version: N/A Compliant Status: compliant NonCompliant Message: NonCompliant Remedy: Vswitch: vSwitch2 PortGroup: iSCSI-1 VswitchUuid: PortGroupKey: PortKey: Duplex: Path Status: active