Server as an iSCSI target
 

I would like to connect DAS storage on a server to other servers via
iSCSI and TOE cards and I am a little confused about options I may or
may not have in doing this. From what I am seeing this is not readily
available in the windows environment or utilizing TOE cards like the
Intel Pro 1000 T IP Storage adapter, which looks to me like an
initiator only. Am I way off?

Below are items I have been looking at. Maybe someone who has done
this before can shed light on what I am missing or misunderstanding or
other options available? Sorry in advance for the length of the post.


Microsoft has released an initiator driver but no target enabling
software. Windows Storage Server 2003 can not yet be an iSCSI target.
Even if it did I would have to buy a new storage server from an OEM
to accomplish this.

The UNH-iSCSI project has target and initiator software for a Linux
server but I'm not sure if the target can use it with a toe card or
just a plain nic.

Wasabi StorageBuilder for iSCSI looks like a Debian based software
that will make an embedded iSCSI target.

A Novell Netware 6.5 server can be configured as an iSCSI target, but
again it looks to me like without TOE card support. Novell recommends
dual processors.

I guess the storage server doesn't need TOE if it has fast processors
and/or SMP. Is it unrealistic to expect to have a Windows server
which can fulfill several roles including hosting an iSCSI target?


Thanks for your help.

In article , idunnojack2003
@yahoo.com says...

I would like to connect DAS storage on a server to other servers via
iSCSI and TOE cards and I am a little confused about options I may or
may not have in doing this. From what I am seeing this is not readily
available in the windows environment or utilizing TOE cards like the
Intel Pro 1000 T IP Storage adapter, which looks to me like an
initiator only. Am I way off?

Below are items I have been looking at. Maybe someone who has done
this before can shed light on what I am missing or misunderstanding or
other options available? Sorry in advance for the length of the post.


Microsoft has released an initiator driver but no target enabling
software. Windows Storage Server 2003 can not yet be an iSCSI target.
Even if it did I would have to buy a new storage server from an OEM
to accomplish this.

The UNH-iSCSI project has target and initiator software for a Linux
server but I'm not sure if the target can use it with a toe card or
just a plain nic.

Wasabi StorageBuilder for iSCSI looks like a Debian based software
that will make an embedded iSCSI target.

A Novell Netware 6.5 server can be configured as an iSCSI target, but
again it looks to me like without TOE card support. Novell recommends
dual processors.

I guess the storage server doesn't need TOE if it has fast processors
and/or SMP. Is it unrealistic to expect to have a Windows server
which can fulfill several roles including hosting an iSCSI target?


the only way i can think of to connect DAS storage as an iSCSI target
would be if the DAS was fibre channel DAS & you used an iSCSI bridge,
currently the only was i know of to distribute iSCSI, on a "zoned" off
portion of it to deliver this storage through the bridge, over the LAN
to your iSCSI clients

or you could probably use a Linux program to turn a server & it's DAS
into an iSCSI target but this is something that i am not familiar with


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Andy wrote:
In article ,
idunnojack2003 @yahoo.com says...

I guess the storage server doesn't need TOE if it has fast processors
and/or SMP. Is it unrealistic to expect to have a Windows server
which can fulfill several roles including hosting an iSCSI target?


the only way i can think of to connect DAS storage as an iSCSI target
would be if the DAS was fibre channel DAS & you used an iSCSI bridge,
currently the only was i know of to distribute iSCSI, on a "zoned" off
portion of it to deliver this storage through the bridge, over the LAN
to your iSCSI clients

or you could probably use a Linux program to turn a server & it's DAS
into an iSCSI target but this is something that i am not familiar with


DataCore (www.datacore.com) and FalconStor (www.falconstor.com) can both
take any disk attached to a standard x86 server and serve it ups as FC or
iSCSI targets.

--
Nik Simpson

In article ,
idunno wrote:

Wasabi StorageBuilder for iSCSI looks like a Debian based software
that will make an embedded iSCSI target.

No. Wasabi StorageBuilder is based on NetBSD. There's no Linux in
there at all.

--
Thor Lancelot Simon
But as he knew no bad language, he had called him all the names of common
objects that he could think of, and had screamed: "You lamp! You towel! You
plate!" and so on. --Sigmund Freud

"Nik Simpson" wrote in message ...
Andy wrote:
In article ,
idunnojack2003 @yahoo.com says...

I guess the storage server doesn't need TOE if it has fast processors
and/or SMP. Is it unrealistic to expect to have a Windows server
which can fulfill several roles including hosting an iSCSI target?


the only way i can think of to connect DAS storage as an iSCSI target
would be if the DAS was fibre channel DAS & you used an iSCSI bridge,
currently the only was i know of to distribute iSCSI, on a "zoned" off
portion of it to deliver this storage through the bridge, over the LAN
to your iSCSI clients

or you could probably use a Linux program to turn a server & it's DAS
into an iSCSI target but this is something that i am not familiar with


DataCore (www.datacore.com) and FalconStor (www.falconstor.com) can both
take any disk attached to a standard x86 server and serve it ups as FC or
iSCSI targets.

Thanks for the responses. Very helpful. Too bad the LSI Logic
iMegaRAID line is not intended to be a retail type card that could
replace my trusty eXtremeRAID cards. Looks like DataCore & FalconStor
seem to hame solutions more up my alley.