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1. iSCSI initiator Service always reverts to manual startup.

   Hello,

   I have an issue that I am not finding much help with on the internet and I was wondering if you have heard or experienced the same issue before.

   here is my environment in a nutshell:

   4 X Hyper-V hosts 2012R2 cluster 1
   4 X Hyper-V hosts 2012R2 cluster 2
   2 X Dell Compellent SAN Storage with ISCSI
   2 X DPM servers with iSCSI access to storage (2012 R2)
   1 X SCVMM R2 (2012 R2)

   on all of those systems without exceptions, every time I set the “Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service” to Automatic start and start the service, all work ok until the server is rebooted, after the reboot the Service will show the Start Up Type as “Manual” and the service is stopped, I manually start the service, set it to start automatically, yet on the next reboot the same story again and again.
   This happens on all the servers all the time.

   Have you heard of that issue before?

   Thank you in advance for your time

   Joseph

   Reply

2. Thank you Joseph,

   Let’s start by the following 3 primary questions:

   1- All WS2012R2 are fully updated and patched?
   2- Did you check if Dell Compellent SAN model that you are using has DSM for Microsoft MPIO?
   3- When connecting through the iSCSI initiator, did you follow the following best practices:
   – In Discovery TAB, you add the Target IP address.
   – In Targets TAB, Refresh, then select the desired target, click on Properties, Add Session, Select both (Add this connection to the list of Favorites Targets and Enable Multi-Path), next click on Advanced, and then set the Local Adapter to “Microsoft iSCSI Initiator”, the Initiator IP to “Local dedicated iSCSI NIC on the Host” and finally the target portal IP to “SAN iSCSI IP address”.

   Let me know how it works.

   Good luck!

   Cheers,
   /Charbel

   Reply

   • Hello Charbel and sorry for being late responding, I was dealing with some urgent blades matters and I also was creating a new cluster to ensure all the above best practices are in place, and they all are, however the problem still persist: reboot a host and the Microsoft iSCSI initiator service is not started and set to manual.

     Any other ideas?

     Thanks

     Reply

3. Hello Joseph,

   What kind of blade servers are you using?
   Is their any error log showing in the Event Viewer?
   Would be possible to update all the NICs with the latest driver/firmware?

   Waiting for your feedback.

   Cheers,

   Reply

4. Charbel,

   The problem is across the board, on Dell M620 Blades (M1000e Chassis) and on Dell R720 rack servers, all NICs and firmware’s are up to date. The blades use Broadcom NIC’s and Rack servers use Intel Cards.

   Reply

5. Hello Joseph,

   I want to isolate the Compellent iSCSI SAN from this issue.
   Could you please create a new test cluster but this time use Windows Server 2012R2 as an iSCSI target, and then build the cluster.

   Let me know how it works.

   Cheers,

   Reply

   • Believe it or not, I am almost embarrassed to say, but the issue was traced to a group policy that forced the service to switch to manual on reboots….
     Our security team applied the policy based on Microsoft Hyper-V best practices.

     Ah Well.. thanks very much for your help on this , and will be back for more advise

     Reply

     • Thank you for the feedback.

       LoL GPOs stuff:)

       Good luck!

       /Cheers,

       Reply

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