RE: Iscsi: Fault tolerance

["Merhar, Milan" <mmerhar@pirus.com>]

Sanjeev, 

I think that your clients will actually be accessing a file system 
your server has created on the raw volume accessed by iSCSI.  They do so 
by using a network file protocol - in the case of Microsoft products,
probably CIFS, connecting to the server which then in turn does 
block mode accesses to the iSCSI volume.

So, if the server goes away, the clients can no longer reach 
the files stored on the iSCSI device.  Of course, unlike 
a server with a direct-attached drive, in the situation you 
describe another server could step into the place of the first one, 
mounting the iSCSI volume and again offering shared file access to 
those clients. (In other words, you've got a NAS server accessing 
its storage over a SAN - an IP SAN.)

Depending on how the server "went away", there may be some startup 
transients bringing its replacement online, as the file system is 
verified, cleaned up, etc.  The transition is also not transparent
to the clients, as they will need to reconnect to this new server, 
with its different IP address, as well.

Hope this helps.

	- milan


Milan Merhar, Chief Scientist, Pirus Networks

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sanjeev Bhagat (TRIPACE/Zoetermeer) [mailto:sbhagat@tripace.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 2:18 PM
> To: 'Julian Satran'; ips@ece.cmu.edu
> Subject: RE: Iscsi: Fault tolerance
> 
> 
> Julian and all!!
> 
> The server connects to the iscsi target (Say just a disk) 
> with the help of
> an iSCSI initiator driver installed on the server. The NT 
> server thus shows
> an extra physical disk present on the server. The sys admin 
> then assigns the
> permission to other clients/users to share this target. The 
> clients can then
> access this this disk (iscsi target) or any sharable 
> directory on this disk
> (iscsi target)present on the server by connecting to the network.
> 
> Hope it is clear by now!! If it is not then please provide me 
> your contact
> number and I will try to explain you better.
> 
> I am sorry if there is any ambiguity but i cant find better words to
> explain.
> 
> Sanjeev
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Julian Satran [mailto:Julian_Satran@il.ibm.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 6:35 PM
> To: ips@ece.cmu.edu
> Subject: Re: Iscsi: Fault tolerance
> 
> 
> 
> How exactly will the clients use the initiator on the server?
> 
> Julo
> 
> "Sanjeev Bhagat (TRIPACE/Zoetermeer)" <sbhagat@tripace.com> 
> on 31-07-2001
> 18:57:41
> 
> Please respond to "Sanjeev Bhagat (TRIPACE/Zoetermeer)"
>       <sbhagat@tripace.com>
> 
> To:   "'IPS Reflector'" <ips@ece.cmu.edu>
> cc:
> Subject:  Iscsi: Fault tolerance
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi
> 
> Consider a case where the clients of a Windows NT server are 
> accessing the
> iSCSI target with iSCSI initiator driver installed  on the Windows NT
> server
> to access a ISCSI target on NET. So all the clients on this Windows NT
> server can share the iSCSI target of this server. In case the 
> server goes
> down , will the clients still be able to access the iSCSI Target??
> 
> I hope I have put my question peoperly. In case not then 
> please feel free
> to
> call me at +31 624685051
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Sanjeev Bhagat
> 
> Tripace Europe
> 
> 
>  - att1.htm
> 
>