Technical Tip

QUESTION

How can I set up a Solaris 10 logical domain which uses an iSCSI  storage backend?

ANSWER

1. On the iSCSI SAN, export a device to the Solaris system.

To experiment, you can create a ZFS emulated volume on another Solaris system, then set the shareiscsi property to on, for example:-
# zfs  create  hpf/iscsivols
# zfs  create  -V  10G  -s  hpf/iscsivols/iscsivolsparse
Creates an emulated volume iscsivolsparse of size 10G using the sparse option -s.

# zfs  set  shareiscsi=on  hpf/iscsivols/iscsivolsparse
Sets the shareiscsi property to on.

# iscsitadm  list  target
Target: hpf/iscsivols/iscsivolsparse
    iSCSI Name: iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:afec6845-9217-e313-9af7-cbc214a2eb9b
    Connections: 0

Lists the shared iscsi targets.

2. (Optional) On the iSCSI Solaris server, use iscsitadm to control access if required, and perform general iSCSI admin tasks.
See the man page for iscsitadm for examples and details.

3. Once the iSCSI volume is shared, perform the following commands on the logical domain Control Domain system:-
# iscsiadm  add discovery-address  192.168.200.41:3260
The address is that of the iscsi server.

# iscsiadm modify discovery --sendtargets  enable
# devfsadm -i iscsi
# format
Searching for disks...done
c1t2d0: configured with capacity of 10.00GB
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c0t0d0 <SEAGATE-ST9146802SS-S229 cyl 33916 alt 2 hd 8 sec 1056>
          /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@2/sd@0,0
       1. c0t1d0 <SEAGATE-ST9146802SS-S229 cyl 33916 alt 2 hd 8 sec 1056>
          /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@2/sd@1,0
       2. c1t2d0 <SUN-SOLARIS-1 cyl 32766 alt 2 hd 4 sec 160>
          /iscsi/disk@0000iqn.1986-03.com.sun%3A02%3Aafec6845-9217-e313-9af7-cbc214a2eb9b0001,0

The iscsi disk can be seen as disk number 2 in the format menu (highlighted), so select it:-
Specify disk (enter its number): 2
selecting c1t2d0
[disk formatted]
Disk not labeled.  Label it now? y
FORMAT MENU:
        disk       - select a disk
        type       - select (define) a disk type
        partition  - select (define) a partition table
etc..       
format> pa
...
partition> pr
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 32766 + 2 (reserved cylinders)
Part      Tag            Flag         Cylinders         Size                    Blocks
  0       root            wm           0                        0         (0/0/0)            0
  1       swap           wu            0                        0         (0/0/0)            0
  2     backup          wu           0 - 32765     10.00GB (32766/0/0) 20970240
  3 unassigned        wm         0                        0         (0/0/0)            0
  4 unassigned        wm         0                        0         (0/0/0)            0
  5 unassigned        wm         0                        0         (0/0/0)            0
  6        usr              wm          0 - 32765      10.00GB (32766/0/0) 20970240
  7 unassigned        wm           0                      0         (0/0/0)            0

partition>

The format command has seen the disk as blank with no Sun label, and has created a default label suitable for our purposes.
Quit from format

Now create the virtual disk from the iSCSI disk:-
# ldm  add-vdsdev  /dev/dsk/c1t2d0s2  iscsidisk1@primary-vds
/dev/dsk/c1t2d0s2 is the device name the system created for the iscsi disk slice 2.
You have to use slice 2 to export a whole disk.

Now the disk can be used within an existing or new domain, for example, configuring a new domain hpfiscsi:-
# ldm   add-domain   hpfiscsi
# ldm   add-mau   1  hpfiscsi
# ldm   add-vcpu  4  hpfiscsi
# ldm   add-memory   2G   hpfiscsi
# ldm  add-vnet  vnet0  primary-vsw0  hpfiscsi
#  ldm  add-vdisk   hpfiscsidisk iscsidisk1@primary-vds0 hpfiscsi
Above assigns the iSCSI disk to the new domain as disk hpfiscsidisk.
# ldm  set-var  auto-boot\?=true  hpfiscsi
# ldm  set-var  boot-device=hpfiscsidisk  hpfiscsi
# ldm  bind-domain  hpfiscsi
# ldm start  hpfiscsi

Use ldm list hpfiscsi to discover the telnet port for the new domain, then login and commence the install..
iSCSI devices used in this way can also be assigned to existing LDOMs to provide additional disk resources.
However, guest domains can access iSCSI exported devices directly just like any other "normal" Solaris system.

For more information on Logical Domains why not attend our 1-day Logical Domains Administration
course?

How do I set up and configure a Zone in Solaris 10?

ANSWER


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