A Host Group is a logical grouping of hosts that share the same access permissions to storage objects, such as LUNs, VMFS Datastores, or NFS Filesystems. By configuring a Host Group, an administrator can simplify the management of multiple hosts and ensure consistent access to the storage resources. Some of the benefits of using a Host Group are:

• Provides multiple hosts access to the same VMFS Datastores: A VMFS Datastore is a block-based storage object that is formatted with the VMware File System (VMFS) and used to store virtual machine files. A VMFS Datastore can be shared by multiple hosts that are part of a VMware cluster. By adding these hosts to a Host Group and assigning the VMFS Datastore to the Host Group, the administrator can ensure that all the hosts have the same access permissions and can access the virtual machines on the Datastore.
• Provides multiple hosts access to the same LUNs: A LUN is a block-based storage object that is presented to a host as a SCSI device. A LUN can be shared by multiple hosts that have the same operating system and use a cluster-aware file system. By adding these hosts to a Host Group and assigning the LUN to the Host Group, the administrator can ensure that all the hosts have the same access permissions and can access the data on the LUN.

References:

• Dell EMC Unity: Host Configuration
• Dell EMC Unity: VMware ESXi Hosts and Clusters

Two actions that are recommended according to best practices when connecting iSCSI host to a Dell Unity XT system are to ensure that the interfaces are on separate subnets and to use a private network for iSCSI interfaces. These actions can improve the performance, security, and availability of the iSCSI network. Having interfaces on separate subnets can prevent broadcast storms, reduce network congestion, and enable multipathing. Using a private network for iSCSI interfaces can isolate the iSCSI traffic from other network traffic, reduce the risk of interference or attacks, and simplify the network configuration. Manually registering host on storage array and using standard NIC for iSCSI are not recommended actions, as they can introduce errors, inefficiencies, and limitations.

References: [Dell EMC Unity: iSCSI Configuration], [Dell EMC Unity: Best Practices Guide]

The correct sequence of steps to provision storage for SMB NAS clients is:

• Group hard drives into storage pools. This allows you to create a pool of storage resources that can be allocated to different types of storage objects, such as NAS servers, file systems, and LUNs.You can create different pools based on the performance and capacity requirements of your applications1
• Create a NAS server for an existing pool. A NAS server is a logical entity that provides file-level access to clients using SMB, NFS, or FTP/SFTP protocols. You need to create a NAS server before you can create file systems and shares.You can specify the pool, network settings, domain membership, and other properties for the NAS server2
• Create file systems and file system shares based on the supported NAS protocol. A file system is a logical container that stores files and folders on a NAS server. A file system share is a logical representation of a file system that can be accessed by clients using a specific protocol. For SMB NAS clients, you need to create SMB file system shares that support the SMB protocol.You can configure the share name, permissions, access policies, and other settings for the SMB share3
• Map the shared file system to the client. This allows the client to access the files and folders on the SMB share using a drive letter or a UNC path.You can use the Windows Explorer or the net use command to map the shared file system to the client4