Server Virtualization Series: Speaking iSCSI with Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V (Part 7 of 20 ) by Keith Mayer

  • Article

I realize this one is definitely out of order, but I just realized today that I did not create a post for a Parts 7 and 9 in the series.

I’m sure most folks are familiar with iSCSI storage and may have even configured a Windows Server to connect to the iSCSI storage at some point. If you have not had a chance to work with iSCSI or perhaps didn’t know that Windows Server 2012 could be an iSCSI storage array, then this post is definitely for you. Keith Mayer walks through the steps needed to configure Windows Server 2012 to connect to iSCSI storage and also covers MultiPath IO for redundancy. I am including a brief snippet of Keith’s post below, but if you want to read the entire article, you will need to go directly to Keith’s post.

Windows Server 2012 and our completely FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 certainly have some really cost effective new storage options, with Storage Spaces and Hyper-V over SMB 3.0. However, many IT Pros have already invested in iSCSI shared storage and, as a result, many Hyper-V deployments also need to be able to leverage these existing storage investments.

iSCSI? No problem! Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 include native support for a software iSCSI initiator as well as MPIO ( Multipath IO ) for resiliency and load balancing of storage IO over multiple network paths.

In this article, we’ll walk through the process of connecting Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 to common iSCSI storage arrays. Because most of my IT Pro friends are running Hyper-V either on Windows Server 2012 Server Core or Hyper-V Server 2012, both options without a local console GUI, I’ll be providing my examples below in PowerShell.

NOTE: In this article, I make the assumption that your iSCSI storage array is already configured and that your Hyper-V host is already physically attached and zoned into your iSCSI storage network.

  • Don’t have an iSCSI Storage Array? Did you know that Windows Server 2012 includes an iSCSI Target role that, along with Failover Clustering, allows it to become a cost-effective and highly-available iSCSI Storage Array? Walk through the process of getting this configured in the following Step-by-Step Guide:
    DO IT: Step-by-Step: Build a Windows Server 2012 Storage Server
Let’s Get Things “Started” …

A software iSCSI initiator is installed by default on Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 as the MSiSCSI service. However, the MSiSCSI service isn't set to automatically startup, so we can start the MSiSCSI service with the following PowerShell command lines:

Set-Service –Name MSiSCSI –StartupType Automatic

Start-Service MSiSCSI

After running the above cmdlets, you can check on the status of the MSiSCSI service with the following command line:

Get-Service –Name MSiSCSI

…

Harold Wong