Cisco DS-X9530-SF1-K9 - Supervisor-1 Module - Control Processor Configuration Manual page 772

About 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 .
Figure 35-1 Transporting iSCSI Requests and Responses for Transparent iSCSI Routing
IP host A
iscsi
Each iSCSI host that requires access to storage through the IPS module or MPS-14/2 module needs to
have a compatible iSCSI driver installed. (The Cisco.com website at
http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/sn5420-scsi
iSCSI protocol, the iSCSI driver allows an iSCSI host to transport SCSI requests and responses over an
IP network. From the host operating system perspective, the iSCSI driver appears to be a SCSI transport
driver similar to a Fibre Channel driver in the host.
The IPS module or MPS-14/2 module provides transparent SCSI routing. IP hosts using the iSCSI
protocol can transparently access targets on the Fibre Channel network.
of a typical configuration of iSCSI hosts connected to an IPS module or MPS-14/2 module via the IP
network access Fibre Channel storage on the Fibre Channel SAN.
The IPS module or MPS-14/2 module create a separate iSCSI SAN view and Fibre Channel SAN view.
For the iSCSI SAN view, the IPS module or MPS-14/2 module create iSCSI virtual targets and then maps
them to physical Fibre Channel targets available in the Fibre Channel SAN. They present the Fibre
Channel targets to IP hosts as if the physical iSCSI targets were attached to the IP network (see
Figure
Figure 35-2 iSCSI SAN View—iSCSI virtual targets
iSCSI iSCSI
For the Fibre Channel SAN view, the IPS module or MPS-14/2 module presents iSCSI hosts as a virtual
Fibre Channel host. The storage devices communicate with the virtual Fibre Channel host similar to
communications performed with real Fibre Channel hosts (see
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Configuration Guide
35-2
IP
network
A
Transporting iSCSI requests
and responses over an IP
network
Routing SCSI requests
and responses
(Through the IPS module)
35-2).
MDS
IP
Network
Virtual iSCSI
Target T-3
Switch 1
Fibre
Channel
SAN
C
Transporting FCP requests
and responses between a Cisco
MDS switch and a storage array
B
provides a list of compatible drivers). Using the
Fibre
Channel
SAN
Target T-3
Chapter 35 Configuring iSCSI
Intelligent
storage array
Figure 35-1 provides an example
Figure 35-3).
OL-6973-03, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x