Presenting Iscsi Hosts As Virtual Fibre Channel Hosts; Initiator Identification; Initiator Presentation Modes - HP Cisco MDS 9216 - Fabric Switch Configuration Manual

Configuring iSCSI
S e n d d o c u m e n t a t i o n c o m m e n t s t o m d s f e e d b a c k - d o c @ c i s c o . c o m

Presenting iSCSI Hosts as Virtual Fibre Channel Hosts

The IPS module or MPS-14/2 module connects to the Fibre Channel storage devices on behalf of the
iSCSI host to send commands and transfer data to and from the storage devices. These modules use a
virtual Fibre Channel N port to access the Fibre Channel storage devices on behalf of the iSCSI host.
iSCSI hosts are identified by either iSCSI qualified name (IQN) or IP address.

Initiator Identification

iSCSI hosts can be identified by the IPS module or MPS-14/2 module using the following:
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You can configure the iSCSI initiator identification mode on each IPS port and all the iSCSI hosts
terminating on the IPS port will be identified according to that configuration. The default mode is to
identify the initiator by name.
To specify the initiator identification mode using Fabric Manager, follow these steps:
Step 1 Choose Interfaces > FC Logical from the Physical Attributes pane.
You see the interfaces configuration in the Information pane.
Step 2 Select the iSCSI tab.
You see the iSCSI interfaces configuration.
Step 3 Right-click on the Initiator ID Mode field for the iSCSI interface that you want to modify and select
name or ipaddress from the drop-down menu.
Step 4 Click Apply Changes to save this change.

Initiator Presentation Modes

Two modes are available to present iSCSI hosts in the Fibre Channel fabric: transparent initiator mode
and proxy initiator mode.
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Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide
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iSCSI qualified name (IQN)
An iSCSI initiator is identified based on the iSCSI node name it provides in the iSCSI login. This
mode can be useful if an iSCSI host has multiple IP addresses and you want to provide the same
service independent of the IP address used by the host. An initiator with multiple IP addresses
(multiple network interface cards—NICs) has one virtual N port on each IPS port to which it logs in.
IP address
An iSCSI initiator is identified based on the IP address of the iSCSI host. This mode is useful if an
iSCSI host has multiple IP addresses and you want to provide different service-based on the IP
address used by the host. It is also easier to get the IP address of a host compared to getting the iSCSI
node name. A virtual N port is created for each IP address it uses to log in to iSCSI targets. If the
host using one IP address logs in to multiple IPS ports, each IPS port will create one virtual N port
for that IP address.
In transparent initiator mode, each iSCSI host is presented as one virtual Fibre Channel host. The
benefit of transparent mode is it allows a finer-level of Fibre Channel access control configuration
(similar to managing a "real" Fibre Channel host). Because of the one-to-one mapping from iSCSI
to Fibre Channel, each host can have different zoning or LUN access control on the Fibre Channel
storage device.
Chapter 50 Configuring iSCSI
OL-16184-01, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.x