ISCSI Initiators

From CafeWiki

An iSCSI initiator is defined as the element in a storage configuration that "initiates a SCSI session, that is, sends a SCSI command". Once an iSCSI target is configured (refer to iSCSI Target Configuration) in Openfiler, it cannot be used by another system on the network until that system has a initiator configured.

Windows iSCSI

The steps to set up an iSCSI initiator in MS Windows are:

1. Obtain the MS iSCSI initiator software from Microsoft. The current version as of March 2009 is V2.08
2. Install the initiator software.
3. Start the iSCSI Initiator software and configure a connection to the Openfiler server:
   • Discovery tab: enter the IP address and port (default is 3260) of the Openfiler server
   • Targets tab: enter/select the LUN ID for the desired target and set the connection to be persistent
   • Set up authentication to correspond to the Openfiler settings (optional)
4. Verify that the target shows "connected" and close the ISCSI Initiator application.
5. Open the Disk Manager (Right Click My Computer | Manage| Disk Manager) and the OS should automatically detect the new disk and initialize it.
6. Format the disk (NTFS usually) and map the iSCSI target to a drive letter
7. Close the Disk Manager

Now you are good to go!

Mac OS iSCSI

On the Mac OS side, the pick of the litter for initiators seems to be the globalSAN iSCSI initiator for OS X

1. Download and install the globalSAN initiator
2. Open the initiator software from System Prefs | globalSAN iSCSI
3. Click "+" to add a new target
4. Enter the target ip address (the Openfiler box IP address) and target name
5. Check the "persistent" and "connected" check boxes
6. Select Connect
7. Select OK to initialize, the Disk Utility dialogue will open
8. In Disk Utility, format the new iSCSI disk

Once the format is complete the iSCSI disk will be available as an icon on the desktop and in Finder.

An iSCSI target is perfect for use as a Time Machine volume on the mac - the connection is fast and provides easy remote, automated backups of the macbook.

Linux iSCSI