DavidRing.ie

Part 1
Part 2

This is the third part in the series on configuring the VNXe via command line. Here I will detail the Steps involved in adding VMware ESXi hosts, presenting NFS datastores to these hosts and setting access rights.

• Add VMware ESXi Hosts
• Add VNXe NFS Volumes to VMware ESXi Hosts
• Setting Access Rights

Note: VMWare networking and Nexus port channels must be configured at this stage. See below for example NEXUS VPC configs.

Add VMware ESXi Hosts
Using the ESXi mgmt address to add two ESXi hosts as follows:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /virt/vmw/esx create -addr 192.168.105.10 -username root -passwd Password

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /virt/vmw/esx create -addr 192.168.105.11 -username root -passwd Password

Expected Output:
ID = 1005
ID = 1007
Operation completed with partial success.
The create, refresh, or set operation has started. It will continue to add or update ESX host information in the background.

It takes approximately ~2 minutes to add each host after receiving the output above. View details of ESXi hosts connected:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /remote/host show
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /virt/vmw/esx show
Output:
ESXi01 ID = 1005
Name = ESXi01
Address = 192.168.106.10,192.168.105.10,192.168.102.101
OS type = esx

ESXi02 ID = 1007
Name = ESXi02
Address = 192.168.106.11,192.168.105.11,192.168.102.102
OS type = esx

Three IP addresses are returned, in this case there is one IP address each for Mgmt, VMotion and NFS traffic. We are only concerned with applying access permissions at the NFS level. In this example the NFS addresses are 192.168.102.101&102.

Checking in the GUI we can confirm the hosts were added successfully:

Add VNXe NFS Volumes to VMware ESXi Hosts & Set Access
We firstly need to gather the Network File System (NFS) ID’s:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /stor/prov/vmware/nfs show
Output:
NFS_1: ID = app_1
Name = AMP-NFS-01

NFS_2: ID = app_2
Name = AMP-NFS-02

Add NFS Volumes APP_1&2 to hosts using the VNXe ID of the hosts (1005,1007) and assign root access to only the NFS Vmkernel address of the ESXi hosts:

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /stor/prov/vmware/nfs -id app_1 set -defAccess na -rootHosts 1005[192.168.102.101],1007[192.168.102.102]
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /stor/prov/vmware/nfs -id app_2 set -defAccess na -rootHosts 1005[192.168.102.101],1007[192.168.102.102]

Display the ESXi hosts connected to the VNXe NFS volumes and their respective access rights:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /stor/prov/vmware/nfs show -detail
Output:
NFS_1: ID = app_1
Name = AMP-NFS-01
Server = file_server_0
Storage pool = AMP-NFS
Size = 2199023255552 (2.0T)
Root hosts = 1005[192.168.102.101], 1007[192.168.102.102]

NFS_2: ID = app_2
Name = AMP-NFS-02
Server = file_server_0
Storage pool = AMP-NFS
Size = 2199023255552 (2.0T)
Root hosts = 1005[192.168.102.101], 1007[192.168.102.102]

Example Cisco Nexus VPC Configs with VNXe 10Gig Interfaces

NEXUS SWITCH ‘A’ VPC CONFIG :
interface Ethernet1/25
description VNXe3300-SPA-Port1-10Gbe
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 102
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
flowcontrol receive on
channel-group 41 mode active

interface port-channel42
description Port_Channel_To VNXe_SPB_10Gbe-Ports
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 102
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
flowcontrol receive on
no negotiate auto
vpc 42

NEXUS SWITCH ‘B’ VPC CONFIG:
interface Ethernet1/25
description VNXe3300-SPA-Port2-10Gbe
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 102
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
flowcontrol receive on
channel-group 41 mode active

interface port-channel42
description Port_Channel_To VNXe_SPB_10Gbe-Ports
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 102
spanning-tree port type edge trunk
flowcontrol receive on
vpc 42

Note the VNXe NFS interface ‘if_0’ must have the corresponding VLAN id configured:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password123# /net/if -id if_0 set -vlanId 102
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/admin -p Password#123 /net/if show
Output:
ID = if_0
Port = eth10_SPA
VLAN ID = 102