Microsoft iSCSI Initiator

[Freeze]

Anyone here have any experience with the MS iSCSI Initiator? Specifically the CLI. I'm not partucularly thrilled with the provided user guide and am looking for something better (documentation wise). A quick search on Google didn't really turn up anything that caught my eye. I figured this particular forum would be best to ask. Or should I try the storage forum? Thanks!

 

[AFB]

I'll try to help.

Microsft iSCSI page
From Cisco

You might get better help in the hardware forum.

 

[Freeze]

Thanks for the info. I'm looking specifically for information pertaining to the Microsoft iSCSI initiator. I'm specifically attempting to get it to login to a target that has several IPs. I have been so far extremely unsuccessful. Once the initial SendTargets response comes back to the initiator, it basically ignores the remainder of the response. The only entry it even looks at is the first. I'll try High Tech. I believe this to be a rather techincal discussion of why this will or will not work. Thanks again.

 

[papani65]

Hello,

I have a query on Microst initiator and I am desperately in need of a quick reply. Please anybody knows an answer to my query please do reply.

The query is as follows:

An iSCSI target machine is multi homed and say, Ethernet0 is on 10.xx.xx.xx network and ethernet1 is on 200.xx.xx.xx network
I create iSCSI disks, iSCSI0 and iSCSI1 on this target machine.
Now, I try to connect to the iscsi target portal from a windows client that is NOT MULTI HOMED and is on 10.xx.xx.xx network( which is the ethernet0 of the target machine) , using windows iSCSI initiator.
I get connected to the target portal and all the iSCSI targets are discovered too.
When I try to logon to any of these iSCSI targets(iSCSI0, iSCSI1), I will be connected successfully.
Now, say, another windows client, who is on the 200.xx.xx.xx network(which is the ethernet1 of the target machine) tries to connect to the target portal, he successfully connects to the portal and discovers all the iscsi targets. But when tried to logon to any of these iSCSI targets ( iSCSI0 or iSCSI1), it gives "connection failed" error.

I know why this is happening too. Because, the CONF file that stores the portal & the iscsi target information is generated in such a way that it has both the portal information (10.xx.xx.xx and 200.xx.xx.xx) for each of these iSCSI disks, but the first entry is the ethernet0 value - in this case, that being 10.xx.xx.xx. and the second entry is 200.xx.xx.xx. So when the windows initiator tries to logon to the target, it only looks at the first entry & if it is on the same subnet as the client, it connects. Otherwise it fails. It doesn't try the second portal entry. This is the reason why the client who is on 200.xx.xx.xx subnet cannot logon to any of the iSCSI targets.

In Linux initiators, how this scenario is handled is, the initiator has a conf file - iSCSI.CONF in which, the user can specify all the parameters that are necessary for establishing a connection with the target. (I am using the IBM Linux initiator). One of the parameters that can be set/reset in this CONF file is "portalfailover". we can choose a particular iSCSI target and set or reset this field ("portalfailover) to "yes" or "no" depending on the user's requirement. By default, it is set to "yes" & so if the initiator fails to connect to the target on one IP, it will try the alternate IP and will be successful in the above said scenario.

So, my queryis, is there an equivalent of "portalfailover" parameter on the Microsoft iSCSI initiator & if so, where & how do I set/reset it?


Any help in this matter is highly appreciated.

Thanks,