iSCSI target solution

[Oli_L]

We are currently in a test phase of installing and configuring esx 3.0.1 infrastruture. Our current SAN solution does not support iSCSI which is the intented solution for our storage and therefore we have to upgrade our SAN. This will take a couple of months as the upgrade is fairly complex

Anyway, in the interim I need to set up a temporary iSCSI target to demonstrate HA DRS VMotion etc so we can plan what will work for us after our SAN upgrade

can anyone recommend a supported (if possible) iSCSI target solution.

We have a netware environment - I have seen the following solutions - can anyone say whether they have had any luck working with these..

Novell iSCSI for netware

iSCSI on Linux

Windows 2003 Enterprise R2 release

It will only be a temporary solutions for say 3 months but I would like any suggestions people may have

TIA

Oli

[tbrown]

You can make an iSCSI container on top of a ZFS partition nice way to manage your LUNs.

[atdude]

Correction (on my last post) -

I have had good luck with Nimbus MySan, but that was ONLY for connecting VMs (running on the ESX server) that were using Microsoft's iSCSI initiator.

I have NOT tried connecting the ESX server itself to the Nimbus/MySAN therefore I cannot say that I have been able to configure it.

Apologies for the confusion.

[doubleH]

After reading the thread friday afternoon i decided to make this my weekend project. I have 1 esx 3.0.1 host at home. I built a fedora core 6 virtual machine (cause i don't have another pc laying around) installed the iet 0.4.14 and was able to connect from my winxp pc using the microsoft iscsi initiator no problems. Then i tried to access the target from esx and again no issues. To bad i couldn't post files because i created a nice pdf that i would share documenting what i did if anyone was interested. If there is interest let me know and i'll through it up on my webserver at home.

Once i get another pc i'll put fedora 6 on it, build a 2nd esx host and hopefully get vmotion/drs/ha working.

[BrianRTS]

I'll take a copy of that PDF!

Thanks

[doubleH]

here it is...

http://www.doubleH.ca/docs/

i just noticed that 0.4.15 of the IET has just been released. will have to try that when i get some time.

[Anton_Kolomyeyt]

IET + Open iSCSI seems to be an excellent choice for the Linux guys. Latest builds are rock stable (unless you use really broken network hardware...) and performance is very close to the wire speed.

The ones who want (or need) to stick with Windows iSCSI target are welcomed to write to info@rocketdivision.com asking for free NFR StarWind (target) and StarPort (initiator) license(s).

Happy clustering!

[ Guys, since 2005 quite a lot of things have been changed. So we don't offer NFRs any more... Rather there's a free version of StarWind iSCSI target with clustering support enabled So you don't need

to ask anything. Just go to www.starwindsoftware.com and fill StarWind Free download form. And get your free iSCSI target and the key Good luck and happy clustering and VMotion-ing! ]

Regards,

Anton Kolomyeytsev

CEO, Rocket Division Software

[estradar]

Thanks

Anton

[Han]

Anton,

Can you give some more info on the NFR license. Is this a time bombed eval version? Which edition is coverd by the NFR license?

Han.

P.S. Your anti-spam system is not working. HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found

The ones who want (or need) to stick with Windows

iSCSI target are welcomed to write to

info@rocketdivision.com asking for free NFR StarWind

(target) and StarPort (initiator) license(s).

Message was edited by:

Han

[Anton_Kolomyeyt]

Sure! No time bombed versions. Just an ordinary StarWind Server or StarWind Professional Server we sell for $400 and $1000 AFAIR. You pick up the one and qty you need for your experiments.

Is spam issue sorted out already? Looks like you've managed to register and get the key, isn't it?

-a

Anton,

Can you give some more info on the NFR license. Is

this a time bombed eval version? Which edition is

coverd by the NFR license?

Han.

P.S. Your anti-spam system is not working. HTTP Error

404 - File or directory not found

The ones who want (or need) to stick with Windows

iSCSI target are welcomed to write to

info@rocketdivision.com asking for free NFR

StarWind

(target) and StarPort (initiator) license(s).

Message was edited by:

Han

No time bombed versions. Just an ordinary StarWind Server or StarWind Professional Server we sell for $400 and $1000 AFAIR. You pick up the one and qty you need for tests.

Is spam issue sorted out already? Looks like you've managed to register and get the key, isn't it?

-a

[Anton_Kolomyeyt]

You're welcomed! If you'd have any suggestions or positive/negative expericence - please let us know. Thanks!

-a

Thanks

Anton

[Bakeer]

Sure! No time bombed versions. Just an ordinary

StarWind Server or StarWind Professional Server we

sell for $400 and $1000 AFAIR. You pick up the one

and qty you need for your experiments.

Is spam issue sorted out already? Looks like you've

managed to register and get the key, isn't it?

-a

Anton,

Can you give some more info on the NFR license. Is

this a time bombed eval version? Which edition is

coverd by the NFR license?

Han.

P.S. Your anti-spam system is not working. HTTP

Error

404 - File or directory not found

The ones who want (or need) to stick with

Windows

iSCSI target are welcomed to write to

info@rocketdivision.com asking for free NFR

StarWind

(target) and StarPort (initiator) license(s).

Message was edited by:

Han

No time bombed versions. Just an ordinary StarWind

Server or StarWind Professional Server we sell for

$400 and $1000 AFAIR. You pick up the one and qty you

need for tests.

Is spam issue sorted out already? Looks like you've

managed to register and get the key, isn't it?

-a

Hi Anton,

I have registered on the web site and they sent me a link via email for evaluation copy.

is this time limited evaluation, and how long it lasts.

Thanks

[SWerntz]

Great job on this document. You may want to add a section on building a physical machine and sharing the disk. This is a good way to set up a "poor mans SAN" forhome and Lab testing. I have used this type of config with 3 X ESX 3.0.1 Servers in a cluster config. I got VMotion, DRS and HA to work.

Thanks for spending the time putting this together. I would be happy to help edit a vesion with a section on ESX conectivity.

-Scott-