Multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) reside on an ESX server (ESX1) and are stored on iSCSI.
Connecting a second (ESX2) to iSCSI seems to work fine as a VM is created and stored on iSCSI. However inactive systems on ESX1 have been changed from e.g. system.test to system.test (inaccessible).
At a certain moment system.test (inaccessible) suddenly changed to system.test again on ESX1 and everything seems to work fine again. However, the inactive systems on ESX2 were changed to system.test (inaccessible).
It appears that the iSCSI paths are alternately active and dead. If the paths are active on ESX1 then they are dead on ESX2 and vice versa.
Configuration tab > iSCSI adapter > Paths:
vs.
The iSCSI adapter on ESX2 has been identically configured as the one residing on ESX1. It is possible to create a VM on ESX2 and store it on iSCSI. However, at a certain moment the iSCSI paths are dead and the inactive VMs become inaccessible while the running ones keep running. The question is how this issue could be solved.
Best Answer
When you create the iscsi target on the storage device you need to specifically allow multiple simultaneous connections otherwise each time one link connects it will disconnect the other (as a precautionary measure).
Also, you are creating a cluster of some sort? You realise multiple VMs can't both access the same disk simultaneously under normal circumstances? This is not like network sharing.