A request: Could someone describe the basic protocol. Such as, What is an "Initiator" and what would an Initiator allow my OS to do? Would an Initiator allow my OS to mount a remote iSCSI device and assign it to a local drive letter/partition?

iSCSI terminology and how iSCSI can be used by an OS Section

This section is fine from a user perspective, though it could use a better title. However, the discussion about the initiator-target relationship is a gross oversimplification that is somewhat incorrect. A bit of discussion on having multiple initiators communicating with a single target is presented in the Storage Devices section. In SCSI (regardless of the transport mechanism), you MAY have multiple initiators. This is useful when clustering disk storage or using SCSI Reservations so that multiple servers can share a tape library ("SAN Storage Options" in backup software parlance). The burden of managing multiple initiators is generally placed on the software, drivers, or OS on the servers sharing the devices.

I will make changes soon if it is not edited. -- Cy jvb 18:17, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

TODO

  *Add blurbs about the use of iSNS, SLP, and CHAP and links to their articles. --Cy jvb 14:32, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RFE

The linked article on "Build your on iSCSI SAN" is not a howto or instructional paper of any kind. It's just plain advertisement for an iSCSI-based SAN-solution by Transtec. -- patrickb

  * Seconded and done. -- Cy jvb 17:53, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

NetBSD has an initiator?

NetBSD having an initiator would be news to me. Additionally, I can't find any evidence of this in their CVS tree. I also haven't seen any mention of this on the NetBSD mailing lists, or with Google.

--Jakllsch 20:34, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, NetBSD has an initiator I will add links to the initiator and target howtos in the artcile http://www.netbsd.org/Changes/#iscsi-target --[[User:Ke4qqq|ke4qqq}} 2357, 30 December 2006 (EDT)

NPOV?

There is a lot of listing of companies and there products on the page, some sections ignoring alternative vendors completely, eg under "iSCSI to Fibre Channel, SAS/SATA or SCSI" there is no mention of Broccade, McData, Crossroads, Bridgeworks, Paralan... in favor of Atto. Do we strip details of vendors, or try to expand to cover a fair selection of all vendors, and possibly there target markets (Atto favor digital video markets and have apple support, McData large SAN environments etc). --SHayter 01:05, 15 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Strip them. The iSCSI target vendor & product listing is getting out of hand and adds no value to the article. I had just removed the Atto advertisement from the Virtual Tape Library article as well. Atto information should mostly be confined in an Atto article. As always, Wikipedia is not an index - use Google and trade mags if you need to find vendors. I would like to see the Initiator listing preserved in some way (perhaps combining the OS support table with the bulleted list?). The initiator support list documents the history of the uptake of iSCSI support in the various operating systems. --Cy jvb 11:41, 15 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- I've thrown together a modified page at User:SHayter/iSCSI with all the major lumps ripped out, and I've updated the table slightly, though the details would have to be expanded within that table, if I can get a few people to agree, then I'll feel ok updating the main page. --SHayter 18:33, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  - Very nice. One nit: under "OS Support" the Mac entry is misleading because it implies no iSCSI support prior to 10.5. In fact there has been support since at least 10.3, by third parties. Paul Koning 21:59, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]