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KB ID: 5356

Product: TS5010 Series | TS6000 Series | TS5020 Series | TS71210 Series | TS3010 Series | TS3020 Series | TS3030 Series | TS Essentials Series 2025

How to configure Software iSCSI Initiator in ESXi 6.5 Host that Contains a Single NIC

Last Updated: 08/08/2025

 

Note: We will be using the new HTML5 host client for configuring ESXi 6.5.
1.  Access and login the client by URL – https:///ui   
2.  Click the “Networking” tab
3.  Select “VMkernel NICs” TAB > “Add VMkernel NIC”
 
4. Name the new port group. This should be something easily recognizable.  Also assign an IP address and subnet mask to the VMkernel.  Then click Create.
 
5. Results after created VMkernel NIC.

 

6. At Networking > Virtual switches TAB > vSwitch0, the vSwitch topology should look like below, for example:

7.  Enable the iSCSI software adapter:  
Select Storage > Adapters TAB > Configure iSCSi > click Enabled

8. Click the “Add dynamic target” button in the Dynamic targets section. Type in the IP address for the TeraStation. Leave the port number at the default of 3260 and click Save configuration.

9.  Again, go back to Storage > Adapters TAB > Configure iSCSi. Under Static Targets section, you should see the connected iSCSI target listed. Then you can just exit the Configuration iSCSI settings.
 
If this is not the case, please check your previous settings and iSCSI connection and make sure that everything has been setup properly.

Important:
TS3010, 3020, 5010 FW update starting from Version 4.88
The default values for the iSCSI volume advanced settings "HeaderDigest" and "DataDigest" has been changed from “None” to “CRC32”
Therefore both "HeaderDigest" and "DataDigest" settings also needs to be enabled from the ESXi iSCSI initiator side. Otherwise iSCSI connection will not success.

For VCenter web client users, both settings can be found at iSCSI Software Storage Adapter > Advanced Options

For standalone ESXi hosts, you can set iSCSI parameters for software iSCSI by using ESXCLI.

Example:
esxcli iscsi adapter param set --adapter=vmhba64 --key=DataDigest --value=preferred
esxcli iscsi adapter param set --adapter=vmhba64 --key=HeaderDigest --value=preferred

Reference VMware KB:
Configuring Advanced Parameters for iSCSI

Listing and Setting iSCSI Parameters with ESXCLI
 

10. At the same Storage > Adapters TAB, click “Rescan”.

11. You should get a message at the bottom under "Recent Tasks" indicating that the "Rescan HBA" task is running. This can take 3-5 minutes. Please be patient.

12. When the rescan is complete, go to Storage > Devices TAB, click “Refresh”.
Then you should see the connected iSCSI devices listed. The number of devices should equal the number of iSCSI volumes created on the TeraStation.
If there is only one path to the target then the device status is "Degraded".
At this point iSCSI is working and connected. Now we'll create a partition to store data. In ESX, this is referred to as a "Datastore".

13. In the “Storage” section, go to “Datastores” and create a new datastore. Click “New datastore” and then “Create a new VMFS datastore”, and click Next.

14. You should see all the available volumes that were created on the TeraStation listed here. Enter a name for this datastore and select the volume you want to use to create the datastore, then click Next.

15. You can split a volume into multiple datastores, but it is recommended to subdivide the storage on the TeraStation and use the maximum space for each datastore.
VMFS 6 is the new filesystem of vSphere 6.5. If needed, select VMFS 6 from the drop-down menu and click Next.   (VMFS 5 filesystem is preselected by default)  

16. Verify that the information shown is correct, then click Finish.

17. Click YES if you understand that the iSCSI disk will be re-partitioned.

18. At the bottom of the screen under "Recent Tasks", you should see the "Create VMFS Datastore" task running. Depending on the size of the datastore, this could take several minutes.

19.Once the task is complete, the new datastore should be listed on the "Datastores" tab in the "Storage" section. At this point the datastore is ready for use.