how to create iscsi volume for datastore use in esxi

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epicurean

Active Member
Sep 29, 2014
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I have created a Z2 pool and a ZFS file system in Napp it (VM in esxi).
How do I enable it as a iscsi device for use as a datastore?
There were very clear instructions for synology which I could follow, but my newbie brain cannot figure out how to do so in napp it.

When I click to show unhide iscsi, and "set" property, I get an error about "iscsi target service" must be online. But I cannot figure out from the any of the Napp It menus

Much thanks
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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You must first enable the Comstar and Target service in menu Services > Comstar

Then you can enable an iSCSI target as a filesystem property in menu ZFS Filesystems
(or use the whole Comstar feature set in menu Comstar ex for Chap authentication)

That said, I much prefer NFS for ESXi storage
(and share in parallel via SMB to use Windows "previous versions for backup/copy/clone)
 

epicurean

Active Member
Sep 29, 2014
785
80
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You must first enable the Comstar and Target service in menu Services > Comstar

Then you can enable an iSCSI target as a filesystem property in menu ZFS Filesystems
(or use the whole Comstar feature set in menu Comstar ex for Chap authentication)

That said, I much prefer NFS for ESXi storage
(and share in parallel via SMB to use Windows "previous versions for backup/copy/clone)
Hi Gea,
If I use NFS, would the same datastore be presented to all my esxi servers , just like iscsi?
 

dswartz

Active Member
Jul 14, 2011
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There is no cluster issue with NFS. i.e. you can mount the datastore to as many esxi servers as you wish.
 

BoredSysadmin

Not affiliated with Maxell
Mar 2, 2019
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Hi Gea,
If I use NFS, would the same datastore be presented to all my esxi servers , just like iscsi?
Yes, absolutely.

Thirdly about NFS much easier to manage, about the same performance, but in some cases, like Freenas, for example, could offer "hardware" acceleration with iSCSI, but not with NFS (some $$$ SAN arrays, like NetApp FASxxxx, offer same with NFS)
This is not that big of the deal but could help a lot with cloning of images and few other things.
More info on the awesome Duncan's blog: vStorage APIs for Array Integration aka VAAI - Yellow Bricks

Not sure if Napp-It does it or not. rtfm :)
 
Last edited:

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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For NFS, start with permissions set recursively to everyone@=modify, place all VMs onto one NFS filesystem and share in parallel via SMB for previous versions and copy/clone/backup.
 

epicurean

Active Member
Sep 29, 2014
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For NFS, start with permissions set recursively to everyone@=modify, place all VMs onto one NFS filesystem and share in parallel via SMB for previous versions and copy/clone/backup.

Hi Gea,
Thanks again. Isn't the permissions for the NFS already be default allows everyone@modify?

If not, where do I change that?
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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If you create a filesystem in napp-it. permissions is set to everyone@=modify with inheritance enabled to files and folders and ZFS properties aclinheritance/aclmode=pass-through.

If you just set nfs share=on, everything is fine

but:
If there is a chmod command to Unix permissions, inheritance is disabled as classic Unix permissions do not support them. Any newly created files afterwards may be only accessable by the creating user. Especially when you share via SMB and NFS this may become a problem.

Access via NFS happens either by the uid of the accessing process/user or user nobody (depends on client OS) while access via SMB is by the authenticated user.

How to solve if permissions are screwed up
- reset permissions recursively to everyone@ either via Windows/SMB or napp-it in the ACL on folders menu > reset ACL

In the same menu you can set aclmode to restricted what means you cannot modify permissions via chmod or NFS.