Iscsi; Iscsi Initiators; Create An Iscsi Target - Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-Bay NAS Administration Manual

6. iSCSI

6. iSCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a widely used protocol for controlling hard drives.
Internet SCSI (iSCSI) uses the SCSI protocol on network volumes. In the iSCSI paradigm,
the controller is known as the initiator and the network volume is the target.
Because SCSI offers greater speed than network file systems such as SMB and NFS,
consider creating iSCSI targets for users with unique applications. For example, a PC on the
network used for editing audio or video can take advantage of the faster protocol. Using an
iSCSI target as opposed to standard direct-attached storage provides a centralized pool of
storage that is easier to manage.
Professional versions of Windows have iSCSI built into the operating system. Third-party
software is also available for Macs. When an initiator is paired with a target, the target volume
must be formatted for the operating system, similar to standard SCSI hard drives. For
example, a Windows initiator can format the target as NTFS and a Mac initiator can use
HFS+.
WSS 2012 can also act as a name server for multiple iSCSI targets on the network. Targets
register with the server, allowing initiators to connect to one device rather than search for
multiple targets on the network. The WSS 2012 feature that manages iSCSI targets is called
Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS). Your Seagate server can manage the naming for
iSCSI targets created on its own pool of storage as well as other Windows and Linux servers
on the network.

iSCSI Initiators

An iSCSI initiator is the server or computer that writes data to the iSCSI target. An initiator
can search for and connect to a target on the network. It is also possible for a target to
associate itself with an initiator.
An iSCSI initiator has an iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) that can be useful when identifying the
computer that is using the target. To find the initiator's IQN on Windows only:
• Open a Windows PowerShell command window and type the cmdlet iscsisli. The IQN
displays inside square brackets as a prompt
Or
• Search for iSCSI Initiator and launch it. The IQN is displayed as an initiator name on the
iSCSI Initiator Properties Window Configuration tab:
iqn.nnnn-nn.com.microsoft:seagate-ddddd

Create an iSCSI target

To create an iSCSI virtual disk and an iSCSI target on your server:
Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-Bay NAS Administration Guide 19