iscsitarget

[Thoro]

Hi

I'd really like to try iscsitarget on the goflexnet and would like to see how it performs!

If someone already tested it please leave me the result, if not a iscsitarget for the pluglinux would be really cool

thanks to whoever can make one / provide one

(searched the whole forum for iscsi and only got 1 result -> my own post ^^)

[kmihelich]

I use the iscsi initiator on my Dockstar to connect to a target on my laptop. I haven't tried the target function because I don't need it on the plug side, but I'm sure it works just fine. I believe our latest kernel has the iscsi modules enabled, and you'll also need to compile the open-iscsi package yourself. Or just let me know and I can add it later today to the repo.

At some point I'll write up a wiki page on it, but really I haven't seen any requests or mentions from anyone about iscsi so I haven't done anything extra.

[Thoro]

Would be great if you could add it!! (How can i test if the modules are enabled?)

I just thought about it, that it should be faster if directly routes the commands through and doesn't have to deal with ntfs etc. But that's just an idea and I wanted to test it

About the compiling etc stuff I don't really have an idea ^^

[kmihelich]

The way iscsi works is it exports block-level control of devices from the target (server) to the initiator (client). What this would mean for you, is that if you exported an NTFS drive on your plug as a target, another computer (including a Windows box too with the proper drivers) could mount that drive natively and use it. Though in that case it would be analogous to just plugging the drive into that computer to begin with, since iscsi targets can only be used by one computer at a time.

The way I use it, is on my faster computer I have exported a 30 gig file as a target. My plug attaches to that, and sees it as just a new scsi disk (/dev/sdb). You then partition and format just like you would a normal drive. I have this mounted, and a full Arch Linux ARM install there, which I chroot into for doing package building for Arch Linux ARM. Since there isn't the overhead and bottlenecking that I was getting with a USB hard drive, things move pretty quickly, basically at native drive speed for that computer - regular SATA speeds.

I'll get the open-iscsi package into the repo later today.

[Thoro]

Yeah, exactly what I want ^^

I only need it on one PC, it should be kind of a remote backup

How can i then install it? with pacman? do you have a guide? (i'm a linux noob )

[kmihelich]

I'll work together some materials for you to use to get started and let you know.

[kmihelich]

The open-iscsi package should be available in the repo shortly, pacman -Sy open-iscsi

Now, open-iscsi is just an initiator (client) software package, it's not the target (server) stuff. I don't have anything built for doing iscsi targets on plugs since you achieve the exact same result by just plugging in the usb drive to the computer that is going to be the initiator. If you want to do something like I did, using a target from a faster computer to get faster disk I/O for disk-intensive operations performed on a plug than you would get over usb, you can follow this tutorial here:

http://www.howtoforge.com/using-iscsi-o ... and-target

That will guide you through setting up a target using an actual device or a (optionally sparse) file. It also has a section below for setting up open-iscsi on ubuntu, which is the exact same procedure you would follow for getting it set up on a plug (minus apt-get stuff, of course). This is the guide I used for getting my setup going.

If you have a separate dedicated (or even VM) computer (of the x86 kind) that you want to use for a NAS, the openfiler project (http://www.openfiler.com/) gives you a great interface for setting up iscsi targets through a web interface.

[Thoro]

first of all thanks for the guide and for putting open-iscsi onto the repo!

But that's not what I want - I really want a iscsi target (like openfiler) on the goflex net

It's needed for a remote backup, the server and the backupdrive should be separated (different buildings) and I now have the goflex net to my hand - I can also do that stuff with just SMB but the 8 MB/s with NTFS a rather slow and I thought that with iscsi it would be faster since the Windows Server would take over the NTFS handling and would just send the commands over network

So is there even a real iscsi-target software ? (i think it's called IET - http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/)

please don't say I should buy a NAS, or a second server or such stuff --> too expensive - and I already have the goflex net and the drives

why I don't use the pogoplug is because the customer doesn't like the way it behaves and how it's configured I can't change their mind so I need to do it with pluglinux

[kmihelich]

There is an iscsitarget package in the AUR, but it's been orphaned and is out of date. I'll add it to my todo list to get incorporated into the upcoming release of Arch Linux ARM.

[Thoro]

Thank you VERY much!!

I'll be waiting