Thanks jsut re-reading them all again as I'm starting to get a better understaning, one point in the Dell Deployment Guide is
"Configuring hardware initiators from within VMware® ESXi5.0 Server™ is not supported on the MD platform"
Another point I've just read from http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1025644 is
Additional recommendations when configuring software iSCSI initiator on an ESX/ESXi host:
- Use two or more dedicated network cards for iSCSI.
- These network cards should be configured on the same network segment as the storage processors on your iSCSI array to avoid routing.
- If possible connect the iSCSI network cards to different physical switches for additional redundancy.
- VMware recommends using port binding (also known as a 1:1 mapping) to ensure iSCSI paths can be correctly multipathed by the host. This configuration is covered in the iSCSI SAN Configuration guides.
- If you are using different networks for your iSCSI vmkernel ports then they need to be on separate vSwitches
I'm setting up a new test host now to get this worked out and all the above posts have been helpful, thanks.