Setting iSCSI Login Timeout Values On ESXi Hosts:
When using VMware vSphere 5.5 software iSCSI initiator to attach to a Dell EqualLogic PS
Series group, the iSCSI option: Login Timeout value defaults to 5 seconds. Dell EqualLogic has observed that in large configurations and under certain workloads this 5 second timeout is not long enough to process the large number of iSCSI login requests that occur after a network failure, switch reboot, or controller failover.
VMware patch ESXi500-201112001 enables editing of the iSCSI option: Login Timeout value on the ESXi 5.0 host. Dell recommends that you apply this patch on any host that is still at 5.0 version and increase this value to 60 seconds. Doing so ensures that there is sufficient time for all iSCSI logins to occur, regardless of the size of the environment.
Once you’ve applied the patch, you can update the timeout in one of two ways:
Using the Advanced Properties of the iSCSI Software Adapter in the vSphere Client GUI.
Entering the following vSphere CLI command:
esxcli iscsi adapter param set -A
Note: After updating the timeout value, you will have to reboot the server for the changes to take effect.
