esxi | Sayem's Blog

Openfiler is a network storage operating system which has the excellent integration capabilities for virtualization environment. To configure Openfiler in you VMware environment you can follow the below steps:

Download Openfiler ISO image from https://www.openfiler.com/community/download
Upload the ISO to you datastore

Create a new VM in your esxi host
In the configuration window select typical
Enter the name of this new VM and click next
Select the storage destination of your VM and click next
From Guest operating system list select Linux, Version – Other Linux 64-bit and click next
Accept the default network configuration and click next
For test purpose select the disk size to 20 GB and click next
Check Edit virtual machine settings before configuration and click Continue
Assign memory to 1GB
Click on CD/DVD drive, select Datastore ISO file and click on Browse, select the ISO
From the device status check Connect at power on
Click Ok
Now you can see a new VM has been created in your ESXI
Select the VM and from the getting started page click on Power on the Virtual Machine
Click on Console tab of you VM to complete the installation
On the Openfiler installation wizard, click next
Select the Language settings and click next
Click Yes on the warning dialog box
In the drive selection page accept the default settings and click next
Click yes on the warning page
Assign an IP or use DHCP for the time being
Select the time zone and click next
Assign a password and click next
Reboot the system, right click on Openfiler VM and click edit settings
Add a new Hard disk, this disk will be used as your storage
After rebooting the system will provide you a web URL
Open a web browser and enter that URL
The default user name and password is openfiler/password
Click on the Volumes tab and click on create new physical volume
Click the URL under edit disk column (the new disk that you have create as VM hard disk)
Select Mode as Primary, Partition Type as Physical Volume. Click on create button
Click on Volume Groups link from the right side of the page
Give a name of your volume group and select the physical volume and click on Add volume group button
Click Add volume link
From the Drop down select the volume group you have created and click on Change button
Create a new volume, select block(iSCSI, FC, etc) as File System, click on Create
Click on Services tab and enable iSCSI target, start the service
Click on Volume Tab, then click on iSCSI targets link from the right side of the page
Accept the default target name and click on Add
Click on LUN Mapping tab
From R/W Mode drop down select write-thru and click on Map button

Configure iSCSI target in ESXI

Select the ESXI server from you vSphere client
From the configuration tab goto Networking
Click Properties on vSwitch0
Click on Add
Select VMKernel as connection type
Assign a name – like IP Storage
Uncheck all check boxes and click next
Assign an IP or use DHCP
Click next and finish
Go to storage adapter link and click on Add
Select iSCSI and click ok
Select the iSCSI software adapter device and click on Properties
In the iSCSI initiator properties click on Dynamic discovery tab and click Add
Enter the IP address of your openfiler server as iSCSI server and click OK
Click Close
In the Rescan alert message, click Yes. After few seconds you will see that openfiler disk has been mounted
Click on Storage
Click on add storage link
Select Disk/LUN as storage type
Select the storage that you have mounted earlier
In the file system version window select VMFS-5
Click next
Assign a name of this datastore
Select Maximum capacity and click next
Click Finish