Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere sets ESX or ESXi host timeouts and other values to ensure best performance and successful failover. The values that VSC sets are based on internal NetApp testing.
VSC sets the following values on an ESX or ESXi host:
ESX advanced configuration
- /VMFS/hardwareacceleratedlocking
- Set to 1.
NFS settings
- Net.TcpipHeapSize
- If you are using vSphere 5.0 or later, set to 32.
- For all other NFS configurations, set to 30.
- Net.TcpipHeapMax
- If you are using vSphere 5.5 or later, set to 512.
- If you are using vSphere 5.0 up to 5.5, set to 128.
- For all other NFS configurations, set to 120.
- NFS.MaxVolumes
- If you are using vSphere 5.0 or later, set to 256.
- For all other NFS configurations, set to 64.
- NFS41.MaxVolumes
- If you are using vSphere 6.0 or later, set to 256.
- NFS.MaxQueueDepth
- If you are using vSphere 5.0 or later, set to 64.
- NFS.HeartbeatMaxFailures
- Set to 10 for all NFS configurations.
- NFS.HeartbeatFrequency
- Set to 12 for all NFS configurations.
- NFS.HeartbeatTimeout
- Set to 5 for all NFS configurations.
FC/FCoE settings
- Path selection policy
- Set to RR (round robin) for ESX 4.0 or 4.1 and ESXi 5.x, FC paths with ALUA enabled. Set to FIXED for all other configurations.
Setting this value to RR helps provide load balancing across all active/optimized paths. The value FIXED is for older, non-ALUA configurations and helps prevent proxy I/O. In other words, it helps keep I/O from going to the other node of a high availability pair (HA) in an environment that has Data ONTAP operating in 7-mode.
- Disk.QFullSampleSize
- Set to 32 for all configurations.
This setting is available with ESXi 5.x and ESX 4.x. Setting this value helps prevent I/O errors.
Note: vSphere 5.1 handles Task Set Full (QFull) conditions differently from vSphere 4.x and 5.0.
For more information on QFull settings in vSphere 5.1, see knowledgebase article 1013944, which is online
at kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1013944.
- Disk.QFullThreshold
- Set to 8 for all configurations.
This setting is available with ESXi 5.0 and ESX 4.x. Setting this value helps prevent I/O errors.
Note: vSphere 5.1 handles Task Set Full (QFull) conditions differently from vSphere 4.x and 5.0.
For more information on QFull settings in vSphere 5.1, see knowledgebase article 1013944, which is online
at kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1013944.
- Emulex FC HBA timeouts
- For ESX 4.0 or 4.1 or ESXi 5.x, use the default value.
- QLogic FC HBA timeouts
- For ESX 4.0 or 4.1 or ESXi 5.x, use the default value.
iSCSI settings
- Path selection policy
- Set to RR (round robin) for all iSCSI paths.
Setting this value to RR helps provide load balancing across all active/optimized paths.
- Disk.QFullSampleSize
- Set to 32 for all configurations.
This setting is available with ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x. Setting this value helps prevent I/O errors.
Note: vSphere 5.1 handles Task Set Full (QFull) conditions differently from vSphere 4.x and 5.0.
For more information on QFull settings in vSphere 5.1, see knowledgebase article 1013944, which is online
at kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1013944.
- Disk.QFullThreshold
- Set to 8 for all configurations.
This setting is available with ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x. Setting this value helps prevent I/O errors.
Note: vSphere 5.1 handles Task Set Full (QFull) conditions differently from vSphere 4.x and 5.0.
For more information on QFull settings in vSphere 5.1, see knowledgebase article 1013944, which is online
at kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1013944.
- QLogic iSCSI HBA IP_ARP_Redirect
- Set to ON for all configurations.
- QLogic iSCSI HBA timeouts
- ql4xportdownretrycount (qla4022 driver), ka_timeout
(qla4xxx
driver), and KeepAliveTO timeout settings are set to 14 for iSCSI SAN booted ESX hosts, and set to 60 for non-SAN-boot configurations.
