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VMware vSphere: Set Default Path Selection Policy (PSP) for iSCSI or Fiber Channel

Last Updated: 1/11/13

Our vSphere ESX hosts always default to FIXED Path selection for datastores when connecting to our HP iSCSI SAN. I wanted to change the default to Round Robin (RR). Here is the solution:

--ESXi 4.x (SSH)--
This command shows the current default policy:
esxcli nmp satp list

This changes the default (at least for my device type):
esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp --satp="VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA" --psp="VMW_PSP_RR"

Then view the list again to confirm the change:
esxcli nmp satp list

More info here:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_vcli.pdf  (Page 90)

I ran this command from the service console on ESX 4.0. There will be no "official" service console in the new versions so you will need to use the vSphere CLI: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/vcli41/ZHcqYmRoaCpiZHdlZQ==


--ESXi 5.x (SSH)--
This command shows the current default policy:
esxcli storage nmp satp list

This changes the default (at least for my device type):
esxcli storage nmp satp set --satp="VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA" --default-psp="VMW_PSP_RR"

Then view the list again to confirm the change:
esxcli storage nmp satp list



Description of vSphere CLI:
The vSphere CLI command set allows you to run common system administration commands against ESX/ESXi systems from any machine with network access to those systems. You can run most vSphere CLI commands against a vCenter Server system and target any ESX/ESXi system that the vCenter Server system manages. vSphere CLI commands are especially useful for ESXi hosts because ESXi does not include a service console.

If you do not like the concept of the vSphere CLI than you can enable the unsupported tech console. In ESX 4.1 go to: Configuration > Security Profile > Propeties and enable local and remote tech support console (you have to disable these later or else you will have an exclamation mark on your ESX 4.1 host forever! --or you can change a config option to suppress the warning.)




Keywords: VMware, vSphere, Set Default Path Selection Policy, PSP, iSCSI, Fiber Channel, cli, vsphere cli