So What is iSCSI?
iSCSI stands for Internet SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
For those who are new to these devices
iSCSI is a technology designed to carry SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) commands and data across an IP network. It enables a server (initiator) to send SCSI commands and data to a storage device (target) over a TCP/IP based network (standard LAN technology) in IP packets. The storage simply appears as another local drive and can be managed in the usual way in disk management allowing you to easily partition and format the drive for use just as if you had added a really large disk to your machine.
We have ISCSI devices from 4 disk units to 48 disk units including some designed especially for the SME market and others specifically for enterprise environments. iSCSI works at block level not file level making this technology particularly efficient and suitible for a wide range of applications.
By allowing SCSI commands to travel through IP networks, high-speed IP networking technology can carry data from storage units to servers anywhere throughout a corporate network. Also referred to as IP storage. The iSCSI protocol is among the key technologies expected to help bring about rapid development of the storage area network (SAN) market, by increasing the capabilities and performance of storage data transmission and can enable location-independent data storage and retrieval.
So How hard is it to setup and use an iSCSI storage device?
Well in short this is very simple. Microsoft as well as the open source community have provided free iSCSI initiators for you to download and install and from Windows 2003 Server and Vista onwards the initiator is already in your windows control panel. The storage device itself of course needs to have been configured and allocated a name and password as well as a static IP address, whilst the itiators just require the IP and login details of your storage box. Once the host and target have found each other, the storage simply appears as another local drive and can be managed in the usual way in disk management allowing you to easily partition and format the drive for use just as if you had added a really large disk to your machine.
