Is iSCSI over DCB supported on m630 blade server with intel x520 NIC?

[JRend2]

Hi,

we have a m1000e blade center with m630 blades.

Each of them is equipped with Integrated NIC: Intel Ethernet 10G 2P X520-k bNDC

the blade center chassis has two MXL switches in a stack. The iSCSI uplink ports are connected to ToR switch stack over LAG. The ToR stack consist of two Dell N4032F switches.

PS6210 storage array is connected to these ToR switches.

The MXL switches will have both LAN and iSCSI traffic, therefore I was looking into option to allow DCB.

Are there any steps to allow iSCSI over DCB?

Does this NIC support iSCSI priority TLVs at all?

PS:

a) host runs ESXi 5.5

b) I didn't find Intel cards in Dell Storage compatibility Matrix for iSCSI over DCB.

c) what is shown on MXL-stack port towards blade server:

MXL-stack# show interfaces te0/1 pfc detail

Interface TenGigabitEthernet 0/1

Admin mode is on Admin is enabled Remote is disabled Local is enabled, Priority list is 4 Oper status is internally propagated PFC DCBX Oper status is Down Reason: Waiting for Peer State Machine Type is Symmetric TLV Tx Status is enabled PFC Link Delay 65535 pause quntams Application Priority TLV Parameters : -------------------------------------- FCOE TLV Tx Status is enabled ISCSI TLV Tx Status is enabled Local FCOE PriorityMap is 0x8 Local ISCSI PriorityMap is 0x10

0 Input TLV pkts, 26199 Output TLV pkts, 0 Error pkts, 0 Pause Tx pkts, 0 Pause Rx pkts

0 Input Appln Priority TLV pkts, 0 Output Appln Priority TLV pkts, 0 Error Appln Priority TLV Pkts

[st4]

Hi jrendos,

Let me check on this,

rgds,

wb

[JRend2]

dell storage compatibility matrix 2015:

http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/20438558/download http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/20438558/download

EqualLogic SAN over DCB Solution for VMware ESXi 5.1 (2044431)

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2044431 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2044431

Based on the above KB article the steps (on a host Converged Network Adapter side) should be:

• Enable iSCSI Offload or iSCSI HBA mode.
• Select DCB Willing or Accept DCB Settings from Switch (or similar setting) to enable DCB willing mode.
• Install appropriate iSCSI Offload/HBA VMware drivers provided by the vendor and located on the http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php VMware Hardware Compatibility List.

I was searching the NIC firmware options during boot for enabling DCB or iSCSI offload, unfortunately I couldn't find any of them.

[st4]

Hi Jrendos,

Have you tried checking with Dell* as this is onboard NIc on the system.

rgds,

wb

[JRend2]

Hi,

Yes, I have. I posted the same question on Dell's community forum at the same time. Unfortunately without any reply until now.

Jan.