In this blog, I will exhibit you how to connect Openfiler NFS Storage shares and ultimate the usage of VMware vSphere Web Client to create NFS Datastores. How to configure Openfiler NFS Storage
Connect Openfiler NFS Storage
1- Open the VMware vSphere client type your ESX host IP Address, username, password and click on Login.
2- Select the Configuration tab > under hardware select Storage and click on Add Storage.
3- Select NFS (Network File System) and click next.
4- Type IP address of Openfiler Server, NFS folder path, A name for Datastore and click on next.
Connect OpenFiler iSCSI Storage, Openfiler to connect to ESXi Host as shared storage, to run some VMs
Connect Openfiler iSCSI Storage
1- Open up the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VIC). Select the ESXi server that you want to add the iSCSI storage too. Select the Configurations tab under the hardware menu, so select Storage Adapters and then click on Add.
2- Add Storage Adapter so, click ok.
3- Rescane iSCSI adapter, so click ok.
4- Now you can see an iSCSI software adapter has been created, click on it and then select properties.
5- In the iSCSI software adapter properties, select the Dynamic Discovery tab and then select the Add button.
6- Enter the IP address of our OpenFiler server/SAN in the iSCSI Server option (my openfiler server IP address is 10.0.0.100), and then click ok. (So it will take a few seconds), to detect the iSCSI Server/SAN.
7- Click Close.
8- To rescan iSCSI adapter and then click ok.
9- Now select the Configuration tab and select Storage and select Add Storage.
10- Under the storage tab select Disk/LUN and click on next.
Configure Openfiler iSCSI Storage. Openfiler provides an easy thanks to deploying and manage networked storage. Installing Openfiler leads to a strong networked storage solution that exports your data via a full suite of industry-standard storage networking protocols.
Configure Openfiler iSCSI Storage
1- Open web browser and type https://openfiler IP Address:446/ press Enter Type username and password and click Log in.
Default Username – openfiler
Default Password – password
2- After the login screen will appear which can show summary information of Openfiler.
3- Select Services tab > enable NFS Server, iSCSi target services and click on start.
4- Select system tab > select network setup to Verify network configuration settings.
5- In Network tab select Network Access Configuration and add a name, network/host and netmask and click update. I have added a subnet for 10.0.0.0/24. Now hosts in this subnet will be able to access this shared storage.
6- Select the Volumes tab and Click Block Devices under Volumes sections and select /dev/sdb SCSI.
Refresh the console once you have added additional disks in the appliance. You will be able to see that disks here in the Block Device section. In the below case, I have added an additional drive. Now you can use this disk to allocate datastores on ESXi hosts as shared storage.
7- Under Create a Partition, fill the required information and click on Create. It will create the volume on disk /dev/sdb as per the below image.
8- After creating volume.
Configure Volume Group for iSCSI Volumes to use as
Shared Storage in ESXi.
Earlier you created Physical Volumes using disks. Now
you have to create Volume Groups using these volumes.
9- Select Volume Groups under volumes Selection to create groups > Type Volume Group Name for iSCSI volumes > Select Physical Volume group to add which you want to use for this group. (/dev/sdc1) and click Add Volume Group.
Add Volume for iSCSI.
10- Select the Volumes tab and click add Volume.
11- Select Volumes Group for iSCSi, click on Change.
Create a Volume section. Type a volume name, volume description required Space (MB).
12- Select Filesystem / Volume type as block(iSCSI,FC,etc) to use this volume as iSCSI target. Click Create to proceed.
13- The below Volume information, we have created Volume’s name is iscsi-v01.
Repeat the same steps to create more iSCSI volumes as per your requirement.
Configure iSCSI Target in Openfiler.
14- Select Volumes Tab and under volume section select iSCSI Targets.
Select the Target Configuration. You will see Target IQN number, Click Add to make this as new iSCSI Target.
15- Select volume. select Network ACL tab and under access allow access to subnet you added for ESXi hosts. Click on Update, and it’s ready for access now. You are just a few clicks away before it can be used in ESXi.
Install Openfiler is an OS that gives file-based network-attached storage and block-based cargo area network, Openfiler may be a good choice to line up a storage appliance to supply shared storage with NFS or iSCSI.
To installing openfiler attend download latest openfiler software from Here download
Creating a virtual machine.
1- Launch VMware Workstation click Create a replacement Virtual Machine.
2- Select the option of the virtual machine you would like to create and click on next.
Note: Custom – this provides you a choice to create a virtual machine and choose its hardware compatibility. you’ll choose between Workstation 15.x, Workstation 14.x, and etc.
3- Select Hardware compatibility and click next.
4- Select your guest operating system (OS) You can install the OS using,
Installer disc image file (ISO) I am selecting .iso and Click on Browse and select the operating system you want to install and click Next.
5- Select a Guest operation system and click next.
6- Type a virtual machine name and specify a location for virtual machine files to be saved or leave it as default settings and click next.
7- Select the number of processors and click next.
8- Select the number of Memory for this virtual machine and click next.
9- Select Network Type and click Next.
10- Click next.
11- Click Next.
12- Select Create a new virtual disk option and click next.
13- Specify disk capacity of the virtual machine’s disk size
Select store the virtual disk as a single file or split the virtual disk into multiple files and click next.
14- Click Next.
15- Click finish.
16- Click on Power on this virtual machine.
Install Openfiler
17- Boot the virtual machine with the installation ISO and Press Enter to start the installation.
18- Click next.
19- Select languages and click next.
20- Would you like to initialize this disk, erasing all data click Yes.
21- Click next.
22- Click yes.
23- By default network, your network adapter will be configured for DHCP, recommenced to set that for manual and type your hostname and other settings
Under network devices click Edit.
24- Enable IPv4 > type IP Address and Netmask and click ok.
25- Type Gateway > Primary DNS and click next.
26- Select your time zone and click next.
27- Type Root password > Confirm password and click next.
28- Click next to start the installation.
29- Default running process.
30- Installation completed and click reboot.
31- After rebooting.
32-you can access web administration GUI console from the browser.
