Unbinding physical network cards from the iSCSI VMKernel using the command line

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to unbind physical network cards from the iSCSI VMKernel.

You may want to unbind physical network cards from the iSCSI VMKernel, if:

• You do not have enough physical uplinks to support your environment.
• You accidentally bound the wrong adapter to the iSCSI software adapter.
• A configuration change requires you to change the physical uplinks associated with your software iSCSI adapter.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Resolution

To modify your software iSCSI Port Bindings:

1. Migrate or shutdown all your virtual machines.
2. Put the host in maintenance mode.
3. Connect to the console of the host.
4. Run this command to disable the software iSCSI initiator:
   
   ESXi 5.x: # esxcli iscsi software set -e false
   ESX/ESXi 4.x: # esxcfg-swiscsi –d
   
   
5. Reboot the host.
6. Connect to the console of the host again and run this command to enable the software iSCSI initiator:
   
   ESXi 5.x: # esxcli iscsi software set -e true
   ESX/ESXi 4.x: # esxcfg-swiscsi –e
   
   
7. Run this command for each vmk interface to be removed:
   
   ESXi 5.x: # esxcli iscsi networkportal remove -n vmk_interface -A vmhba_device
   ESX/ESXi 4.x: # esxcli swiscsi nic remove –n vmk_interface –d vmhba_device
   
   Where
   
   vmk_interface is the vmk interface to be removed.
   vmhba_device is the VMHBA device name.
   
   For example:
   
   ESXi 5.x: # esxcli iscsi networkportal remove -n vmk0 -A vmhba33
   ESX/ESXi 4.x: # esxcli swiscsi nic remove –n vmk0 –d vmhba33
   
   Note: To identify the vmk interfaces to be removed, run this command on the VMHBA device of your software iSCSI device:
   
   ESXi 5.x: # esxcli iscsi networkportal list -A vmhba_device
   ESX/ESXi 4.x: # esxcli swiscsi nic list –d vmhba_device
   
   
8. Reconnect the vSphere Client to the ESX host.
9. Delete the vSwitch associated with storage.
10. Create a new vSwitch for storage.
11. Create an iSCSI port group and associate the appropriate uplinks with the new port group.

Additional Information

To disable the iSCSI adapter using the vSphere Web Client, see Disable Software iSCSI Adapter in the vSphere Web Client in the VMware vSphere 5.5 Documentation.

コマンド ラインを使用した iSCSI VMKernel からの物理ネットワーク カードのバインド解除