Hello,   The problem with iSCSI optimization is that it tracks connections.  However the array moves connections periodically as you noticed.  The switch fw doesn't understand that.  So with each move it tracks the new session and keeps the old.   The buffer allocated for this is rather small.  Depending on FW versions on the switches that could be as little as 256 connections.  Over time that buffer is overrun.  On older switch firmware that caused it to block any new iSCSI connections on port 3260.   So turning it off is the best option.   Re: Trunk. ISCSI traffic typically is bursty, so when you look at the traffic history it might not appear bad, because it gets averaged out over time.  So I would add at least two more ports to be safe.  Regards,   Don 
I have a Windows 2008 R2 vm connected to a PS group (6210xs and 6000). I have 4 iscsi LUNs for Windows data volumes, two on the 6210 and two on the 6000. The vm lun is on the 6210. We set up the 6210 back around the beginning of the year, and all of the data volumes were set up with MPIO 5 or 6 months ago. This morning, one of the 2 data volumes on the 6210 disappeared. Windows Disk Mgmt did not show it online or offline, but the windows iscsi initiator showed the lun as connected. I disconnected the lun and reconnected it, and the volume immediately came back online and was fully accessible. The EQ monitor had an info message for the disconnection with "protocol error in packet received from initiator" at the end of the message. 2 seconds later, the lun reconnected. This sounds like a windows initiator problem rather than an EQ problem, but I thought I'd check here anyway. It's interesting that it only happened to 1 volume out of 4. This volume has been connected since May with no problems up until today, and I haven't made any config changes since May. Both of the multipathed vnics are vmxnet3 with all of the same settings (jumbo frames enabled, offloading disabled, specific numbers for Rx rings, etc) Any ideas on any settings I should check or modify, particularly with the vnics?  I'll probably post this on technet, too. Thanks. Tim
protocol error in packet received from initiator