{{ $t('productDocDetail.updateTime') }}: 2026-01-05

Description

HCI supports adding iSCSI storage as external storage, allowing the datastore of virtual machines to be placed on iSCSI storage. iSCSI is used as external shared storage, and virtual machines whose datastore is shared storage can implement the HA function.

Precautions

1. The volume will be formatted when adding an iSCSI virtual datastore to HCI. Before adding, please confirm that other nodes do not use the volume.
2. Before adding iSCSI external storage, you need to click Scan for New Disk and then click New.
3. It is forbidden to use thin provisioning/dynamic allocation for disk overcommitment on the external storage used by HCI.
4. If ATS is not supported, the multipath policy supports only the primary-secondary mode.

Prerequisites

1. The interface on the HCI node can communicate with iSCSI and the storage server.
2. The storage must support hardware acceleration or ATS. Otherwise, it cannot be added to HCI. If ATS is not supported, contact Sangfor technical support for a service pack.

• To check whether ATS is supported, run the following command. If "good" is not returned, ATS is not supported.

sg_raw -s 1024 -i /dev/zero /dev/mapper/3664489f0fe6145f0b2f409926658f7ef 89 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00

• After HCI is upgraded to 6.9.0 or later, if a host in the HCI cluster is not restarted, the file system to which the cluster is mounted remains in the source version, and the compare and write operations are performed in SCSI-2 mode.

Steps

21. Configure the IP address of the storage interface on the HCI node so it can communicate with the iSCSI storage server normally.
22. Configure the iSCSI storage and map the LUN to the HCI node. You need to check the IQN of the HCI.

23. Navigate to Storage > Other Datastore in the console, and click iSCSI Server.

24. Add an iSCSI server, and configure the server's IP address, interface, and related authentication information. After configuration, click Detect Target.

25. Click iSCSI Targets, then click Start of a target that was detected.

26. Complete the Authentication on the Target Authentication window, select This Device Authenticates Target (Mutual CHAP) as needed, and click Save. The Authentication status of the target will be changed to Authenticated.

 

27. Click New and select iSCSI.

28. Select iSCSI, then select the corresponding volume to add. After adding, you need to configure the accessible nodes to be all the nodes in the current cluster.

29. Specify the Name, enable Space Reclamation and set the Block Size (refers to the actual storage space that is freed up after files are deleted) as needed, select Add this datastore to VM backup repositories as well and set Max Backup Repository/Total Capacity as needed, and click OK.

30. Enter the admin password to confirm the operation and click OK.

31. Click the name of the added iSCSI storage. If multipathing is configured, you can manage storage paths on the Nodes and Paths tab. In particular, you can view the mounting status, connection status, adapter status, hostname, IP address, I/O read/write count, I/O read/write speed, and path, and edit the multipathing policy. The following table describes the multipathing policies that are supported currently.

Primary-Secondary	The system will decide which path to use according to the priorities of all the configured paths among which one path is the primary path and the others are secondary paths. When the configured paths have different priorities, the path with the highest priority is the primary path and is preferred for use. If it fails, a secondary path will be used. When the primary path recovers, it is used again only if its priority is still the highest.
Preferred Path	Among all the configured paths, only one path is the preferred path and is used when it is available. When the preferred path fails, one of the other paths is used. When the preferred path recovers, it is used again.
Load Balance-Round Robin	After transferring a specified number of I/O requests on a current path, the system selects another path for use.
Load Balance-Response Time	Among all available paths, the path with the shortest processing time is used. Processing time = Outstanding I/O requests/Relative throughput
Load Balance-Least Connections	The system records the number of I/O requests being processed by a current path using the least number of connections algorithm. When there is a new I/O, the system selects an optimal path that has the least number of outstanding I/O requests.
Group by Priority	Paths are grouped by priority. The primary-secondary path policy is applied to paths in different groups, and a load balance policy is applied to all paths in a group.
Group by Serial Number	Paths are grouped by serial number. The primary-secondary path policy is applied to paths in different groups, and a load balance policy is applied to all paths in a group.
Group by Name	Paths are grouped by name. The primary-secondary path policy is applied to paths in different groups, and a load balance policy is applied to all paths in a group.

32. Click the name of the added iSCSI storage, go to Datastore > Edit to enable or disable Space Reclamation, set the Block Size, and select or deselect the Connected Nodes.