Better with multiple iSCSI targets on single IP address?

[rickardnobel]

If I have an iSCSI SAN which only has one IP address, but it is possible to create several iSCSI targets, perhaps per LUN, would that be a good idea?

Is it correct that it will from a iSCSI initiator it will be created a new TCP session for each target? So even if I have only one software iSCSI initiator and one IP address on the SAN, it could be different TCP sessions with different TCP queues and buffers?

And would that be of any use? As in, would that improve any performance or give any other benefit?

[MindaugasVaiciu]

Depending on your storage device, it could be possible to set several alias ip addresses.

But you would gain nothing without multipathing. If bandwidth is your problem use NIC teaming, etherchannel or LACP.

[rickardnobel]

Depending on your storage device, it could be possible to set several alias ip addresses.

Hello, and thank you for your reply.

My question is however more general, as I try to understand iSCSI. So, if only having one single IP address on both initiator and target, would there be any benefit for using multiple defined "targets" on the SAN?

[MindaugasVaiciu]

in general cirstumstances no

[rickardnobel]

in general cirstumstances no

Do you know if it is correct that a separate TCP session is setup for each target?

If I have say five LUNs between one target then a single TCP session is carrying all of them, could that not lead to logical slowdowns from full TCP buffers/queues/windows?