iSCSI VLAN between VM and NAS

Solved
MWlaz
Comes here often

iSCSI VLAN between VM and NAS

I am a Windows Admin standing in for a NetAdmin and am in need of direction with setting up a VLAN between a virtual machine and physical NAS for iSCSI traffic.  The company I'm trying to help has an MX68 gateway, and MS210 switches and an ESXI host. 

 

My goal is to connect their backup server to a physical TrueNAS NAS so that they have the storage that they need to backup their devices properly.  They are a small company with no budget for additional hardware and nothing to use, otherwise, for a dedicated iSCSI network.  

 

I've created the VLAN in the MX.  The questions I have are:

 

The network doesn't have any VLANs now, it's flat and every port is set as a Trunk with access to all VLANs.  Am I right to assume that all switch ports need to be reconfigured to only allow access to Trunk/VLAN1, the default management network?

 

Should the port being used for iSCSI traffic to/from the TrueNAS server be configured as an Access port?

Should the port on the ESXi side be configured as an Access port or a Trunk with access to specific VLANS (management & iSCSI)?
In vCenter I need to add the VLAN that I'm using (VLAN6) to the switch, add 2nd NIC to the VM (for the iSCSI traffic) and apply the new VLAN network to it, right?

 

Anything more you can offer is appreciated.  If I missed steps please let me know.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

1 Accepted Solution
alemabrahao
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

If your network is flat and you only have VLAN 1, the ports can all be in access mode.
 
Now, if in the future you are thinking about expanding your network and working with VLANs, you should consider configuring the ports between MX and Switch as well as Switch and ESXI in trunk mode.
I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.

View solution in original post

3 Replies 3
alemabrahao
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

If your network is flat and you only have VLAN 1, the ports can all be in access mode.
 
Now, if in the future you are thinking about expanding your network and working with VLANs, you should consider configuring the ports between MX and Switch as well as Switch and ESXI in trunk mode.
I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Apart from great response by @alemabrahao above (nice and simple), you may also benefit by increasing the MTU on the VMWare NIC to 9000 bytes.   9000 byte frames are a common size for iSCSI.

 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-storage/GUID-0AB1E949-8A97-425B-96E1-DC1A2BC7D... 

MWlaz
Comes here often

Thank you @alemabrahao and @PhilipDAth.

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