January 22, 2018October 30, 2026 by harlan

Install and Tune the Dell EqualLogic MEM (Multipathing Extension Module) on ESXi

The Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module (MEM) gives VMware ESXi hosts smarter iSCSI multipathing to EqualLogic SANs. Here’s how I installed it and raised the session limits to get more iSCSI paths per volume.

1. Install the MEM VIB

Copy the zipped VIB (for example, dell-eql-mem-esx5-1.2.0.365964.zip) to a datastore your host can reach using SCP. Then SSH to the host and install it, adjusting the path to match your datastore:

esxcli software vib install --depot /vmfs/volumes/*****/dell-eql-mem-esx5-1.2.0.365964.zip

You’ll see a result similar to this (from an older version):

Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-host-connection-mgr_1.1.1-268843, Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-hostprofile_1.1.0-212190, Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-routed-psp_1.1.1-262227

2. Check the Current MEM Parameters

esxcli equallogic param list

Name            Value  Max    Min  Description
--------------- ------ ------ ---- ---------------------------------------------
TotalSessions   512    1024   64   Max number of sessions per host.
VolumeSessions  12     12     1    Max number of sessions per volume.
MemberSessions  4      4      1    Max number of sessions per member per volume.
MinAdapterSpeed 1000   10000  10   Minimum adapter speed for iSCSI multipathing.

3. Raise Volume and Member Sessions

By default, member sessions are probably set to 2 and volume sessions to 4 or 6. Set them to the maximums:

esxcli equallogic param set -n=VolumeSessions -v=12
esxcli equallogic param set -n=MemberSessions -v=4

Then rescan the software iSCSI adapter. You should see about three times as many paths to each volume.

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