In this post, we’ll configure the iSCSI connectivity to the back-end storage on the EMC SAN. I’m sure there are several, and potentially better, methods to configure iSCSI on Server Core 2008 R2, but these are the steps I took and I have not had any problems with back-end storage connectivity. If the process can be improved, please let me know.

Here is the link to the previous post:

Part 1 – Creating a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Failover Cluster: Install Hyper-V and Failover Clustering

Configuring connectivity to iSCSI LUNs on Server 2008 R2:

1. Login to the server and configure an IP Address on the NIC attached to the iSCSI network and ping the iSCSI target.

2. Execute the command iscsicpl.exe. When prompted to start the iSCSI Service, click Yes.

3. When the iSCSI Initiator Properties window appears, click the Target tab, and within the Quick Connect section, enter the IP address of this iSCSI target and click Quick Connect.

4. On the Quick Connect window, the discovered iSCSI target will be displayed, click Done.

5. When returned to the iSCSI Initiator Properties window, click the Discovery tab. Ensure all iSCSI targets are listed.

6. Click the Volumes and Devices tab and then click Auto Configure. Any iSCSI LUNs to which the Hyper-V hosts have access should be displayed.

Next, we need to use diskpart to bring the disks online and create partitions. On the back-end storage, I created two 300GB LUNs for my Cluster Shared Volumes.

7. At the command prompt,execute the command diskpart and then list disks.

8. To bring a disk online, enter the commands:
select disk <disk number>
online disk
Repeat for each disk

9. To ensure the disks are not in a “read-only” state, execute the command attributes disk clear readonly. Enter the following commands to create and format an NTFS partition:

create partition primary align=64
format fs=ntfs quick

10. Verify the disks can be accessed by the remaining Hyper-V hosts.