Richard D. Jones

Product Manager, Storage Services

rjones@novell.com

Novell® iSCSI
Building Affordable SAN Solutions

Agenda

iSCSI: The inexpensive SAN

NetWare® iSCSI

Linux iSCSI

Windows iSCSI

Cool Solutions

3rd Party iSCSI arrays

FAQ and Q & A

iSCSI – 2 Years Old Now

iSCSI is a new Internet standard which defines how industry standard SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) storage protocols are run over industry standard TCP/IP.

V1.0 was ratified on February 11, 2003

This was Internet Draft version 20 of the specification:

“SCSI protocols are request/response application protocols with a common standardized architecture model and basic command set as well as standardized command sets for different device classes (disks, tapes, media-changers, etc.)”

“iSCSI is a transport protocol for SCSI that works on top of TCP/IP. The iSCSI protocol aims to be fully compliant with the standardized SCSI architectural model.”

iSCSI SAN Fundamentals

File System

SCSI Protocol

TCP/IP

SCSI Protocol

TCP/IP

Hard Disks

Server

Standard LAN Adapter

Standard Ethernet Adapter

Standard Ethernet Switch

SCSI “Initiator”

SCSI “Target” or Disk Server

A simple iSCSI SAN

Read Block Request

SCSI Block Request

iSCSI Packet

SCSI Block Request

iSCSI Packet

SCSI Disk Request

The Solution: An inexpensive SAN

iSCSI on Gigabit Ethernet Hardware is a fraction of the cost of a full Fibre Channel SAN solution.

Reseller feed-back: about 9 times less expensive for the same amount of storage!

Estimates had been 4 to 10 times less

Not as performant as Fibre Channel

Reseller feed-back: Can't tell the difference

Use existing servers as your shared storage.

DAS servers converted into iSCSI Storage Arrays.

No new hardware costs incurred.

iSCSI Value

SAN Deployment using iSCSI Solutions

Storage Frames (FC, SCSI, or ATA)

~$20,000 to $1,000,000 ea

Gigabit Ethernet Switches

~$10,000 ea.

Servers.

Gigabit Ethernet Built-in

Standard LAN infrastructure

No training - $0.00

4 to 10 times less expensive than

Fiber Channel

NetWare iSCSI

Novell iSCSI Solution

Support the NetWare Product Line

NetWare 5.1 and above

Ensure NetWare works with open standards and standard Storage Solutions

Ensure customer base has leading edge solutions.

Offer direct and indirect SAN benefits to customers who typically would not purchase expensive Fibre Channel SANs

Prepare the way for ‘Fluid Computing’ models

Key to Blade & Grid Computing

NetWare iSCSI

Initiator Software stack

Web download for NW5.1 and NW6

http://download.novell.com/pages/PublicSearch.jsp

Choose “iSCSI Initiator for NW5.1 and NW6” under “choose a Product”

Included in NetWare 6.5

Target Software stack

Included in NetWare 6.5 only

Management interface - Browser

NetWare Remote Manager

iManager™

Management interface - Browser

Add target Wizard

Management interface - Browser

Target Added

Management interface - Browser

Management interface - Cont.

iSCSI Hardware HBAs and NetWare

ISCSI HardWare Adapters

Qlogic iSCSI HBA for NetWare

Justify iSCSI HBA:

Reserve CPU cycles for Applications

Tests show 8% reduction

Depend on HW vendor not SW vendor

Customer reports of software stack performance have been all favorable

Many SW stacks outperform HBAs

Estimates are that at most 10% of iSCSI SANs employ HBAs (Sep04 Storage Magazine)

Novell iSCSI Disk Server

An inexpensive way to turn your existing direct attached storage (DAS) server hardware into a flexible and manageable SAN solution for your Net Services

NetWare 6.5 only

Integrated with LDAP for Directory based management

Simplifies “LUN masking” in a familiar rights and access control management system

Enterprise Wide management

Security of TCP/IP (IPSec)

Internet Capable

iSCSI Disk Server

Leveraging existing direct attached storage systems to build a SAN

Gig Ethernet Switch

iSCSI Disk Servers (Targets)

Web & Applications Servers with iSCSI Initiators

Gig Ethernet

SCSI

Management interface - Browser

Novell iSCSI + LDAP Strategy

Target and LUN objects represented in Directory

Initiator objects represented in Directory

Directory used to associate Initiators to Targets and LUNs

Target enforces the Directory associations

Only those Initiators specified can attach

All others; connection rejected

LUN masking
with eDirectory™ enabled iSCSI

Linux iSCSI

SLES iSCSI

Initiator Software stack

Included in SLES 8 SP3

Included in SLES 9

Cisco OpenSource initiator for 2.6 kernel (version linux-iscsi-4.0.1-88.11)

Use YAST to install (install/remove software)

These initiators are commercially supported in the distributions.

SLES iSCSI

Target Software stack (none are commercially supported)

For 2.6 Kernel Open source available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/unh-iscsi/

University of New Hampshire

Is intended for testing and initiator development only

For 2.4 kernel Open source available at:

http://www.ardistech.com/iscsi/ (Ardis)

http://linux-iscsi.sourceforge.net/ (Cisco)

http://unh-iscsi.sourceforge.net/ (UNH)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/intel-iscsi (Intel)

SLES iSCSI initiator Management

Iscsid module - Manages iSCSI connections

Command line parameters:

-b bindingfile Specify an alternative bindings file instead of /var/iscsi/bindings, which is the default.

-d Turns on debug mode. Each occurence of -d will increment the debug level by one. The default is zero (off).

-f configfile Specify an alternative configuration file instead of /etc/iscsi.conf, which is the default.

-l basedir Specify the base directory under which to build a tree of directories containing symlinks to SCSI device nodes, in a manner similar to the devfs Linux kernel option. Using these symlinks hides variations in the mapping from SCSI device nodes to SCSI device id numbers.

-m mode Specify the directory permission mode (in octal) to use when creating directories.

-n Avoid auto-backgrounding.

-v Print version and exit.

SLES iSCSI initiator Management

All persistent configurations are done in a set of files:

/etc/iscsi.conf

target address and LUN configuration

/etc/initiatorname.iscsi

persistent iSCSI InitiatorName

/var/run/iscsi.pid

the process id of the running daemon

/var/iscsi/bindings

persistent bus and target id bindings for iSCSI TargetNames

/proc/scsi/iscsi

information about iSCSI devices

/dev/iscsi

a directory tree containing symlinks to iSCSI device nodes.

SLES iSCSI initiator Management

Man pages on the web:

General config file information:

http://linux-iscsi.sourceforge.net/iscsid.8.html

Specific information for iscsi.conf config file:

http://linux-iscsi.sourceforge.net/iscsi.conf.5.html

iSCSI Hardware HBAs for SLES

qLogic HBA

Series 5 drivers for SLES 9 (v2.6 kernel)

Version 5.0

Series 3 drivers for SLES 8 (v2.4 kernel)

Version 3.21

SLES & OES iSCSI initiator
to NetWare Target

To connect a SLES initiator to a NetWare LDAP Target:

ConsoleOne® or iManager:

Create an iSCSI initiator object in eDirectory

Class of “iscsiInitiator”

Make your iSCSI initiator object a trustee of your NetWare iSCSI target object

To connect an OES Linux initiator to a NetWare LDAP Target:

ConsoleOne® or iManager:

Make your OES Server object a trustee of your NetWare iSCSI target object

SLES & OES iSCSI initiator
to NetWare Target

Linux iSCSI config files

/etc/iscsi.conf

DiscoveryAddress=<IPAddress of NW iscsi target>

FirstBurstLength=262144

MaxBurstLength=262144

MaxRecvDataSegmentLength=262144

/etc/initatorname.iscsi

InitiatorName=<iqn type name followed by a fully qualified name (either dot preceeded, delimited and terminated context or fully qualified) of iscsi initiator object or OES server object after the colon

InitiatorName=iqn.1984-08.com.novell:.suse1.Servers.Novell.

InitiatorName=iqn.1987-05.com.cisco:cn=suse1,ou=Servers,o=Novell

SLES & OES iSCSI initiator
to NetWare Target

Starting the Linux Initiator

/etc/init.d

./iscsi start

Other commands

stop, status, restart, debug

Set to run on bootup

chkconfig iscsi on

Status

iscsi -ls

sfdisk -l

Windows iSCSI

Windows iSCSI initiator
to NetWare Target

Information on Windows iSCSI initiator:

Microsoft Download Site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en

Enter “iscsi” in the keywords field to find the latest download of the initiator

The documentation is available to download or view from this page.

Windows iSCSI initiator
to NetWare Target

To connect a Windows initiator to a NetWare LDAP Target:

ConsoleOne or iManager:

Create an iSCSI initiator object in eDirectory

Class of “iscsiInitiator”

Use the windows machine name to name your object.

Create in the same container as your NetWare iSCSI target object.

Make your iSCSI initiator object a trustee of your NetWare iSCSI target object

Issues: default burst sizes are not the same

See TID10091888 for details on how to configure burst size in the Windows initiator.

Cool Solutions

iSCSI to FibreChannel Router

Fibre Channel Storage Array

iSCSI on Ethernet

NW 6.5 Server running iSCSI Target

Fibre Channel

Data Consolidation & Migration

Gig Ethernet

Switch

Gig Ethernet

SCSI

Migrate and Consolidate data to iSCSI storage

Upgrade or convert data using extra iSCSI storage

Business Continuity

Low Cost Business Continuance Solution

Mirrored Data

Cluster 1

iSCSI

LAN (Web)

Internet Router

Mirrored Data

Cluster N

iSCSI

LAN (Web)

Internet Router

User workstation

Internet

(iSCSI and Web data)

Access all data via the Internet

using Novell Technologies

Inexpensive 2 node Cluster

Inexpensive 2 node cluster

Two servers with direct attached internal storage

Two onboard 1Gbps Ethernet NICs

Dual CPU 1GHz or faster

One Ethernet Switch

1Gbps capable

4 port would be fine

Ethernet Cables (1Gbps capable)

NetWare 6.5 Operating System

NetWare 6.5

Cluster node 1

NetWare 6.5

Cluster node 2

DOS partition

SYS partition

iSCSI partition

SBD partition

(created during

Clustering install)

NSS partition

POOL: SHARED

VOLUME: SHARED

NetWare 6.5

iSCSI Target

NetWare 6.5

iSCSI Target

iSCSI initiator

connect

iSCSI initiator

connect

Inexpensive 2 node cluster

DOS partition

SYS partition

iSCSI partition

SBD partition

(created during

Clustering install)

NSS partition

POOL: SHARED

VOLUME: SHARED

Raid 1 Mirroring of partition via iSCSI

Raid 1 Mirroring of partition via iSCSI

iSCSI Customers Success

Brainshare Session: BUS145

“Novell File System Factory Real World Implementations and best practices”

State of Georgia Court of Appeals

Migrated to iSCSI SAN

Used File System Factory to move users/storage

Automated migration

3rd Party iSCSI Arrays

Novell Certified 3rd Party Arrays

3rd Party iSCSI Storage devices supporting NetWare Initiators:

Novell Yes Tested and Approved Site:

http://developer.novell.com/yessearch/Search.jsp

Select “iSCSI Storage” from the “Hardware/Software” pulldown menu and search

Partners (self certified)

http://www.novell.com/partnerguide/s100011.html

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

Q: How fast is iSCSI?

A: Fibre Channel is at 2 Gbps, iSCSI on 1Gbps Ethernet is theoretically half the speed. However, the bottlenecks are typically always in the disk drives themselves (head seek times).

Q: Does iSCSI use a lot of CPU?

A: On NetWare, not as much as one would expect. About 40% in our heaviest load tests on a 2CPU 1GHz machine.

Q: Any rule of thumb for hardware and iSCSI?

A: A good rule of thumb is to have 1GHz of CPU per each 1 Gbps of Ethernet. Since iSCSI should be on its own dedicated LAN, a dual CPU machine with dual onboard 1Gbps NICs and 2GHz or better CPUs would be ample.

FAQ

Q: Can I get more performance?

A: Yes. NIC teaming (load balancing) through an Ethernet switch can effectively double your “pipe” between initators and targets.

Q: Performance Considerations?

A: PCI Buss interfaces have a maximum throughput of 1.4 Gbps per PCI bridge. You will want onboard NICs which connect directly to the main buss, or through dedicated PCI bridges. Select a server with no more than 2 PCI slots per PCI bridge (Yes they cost more $)

Q: Is SAN Multi-Path supported for redundancy?

A: Yes. Use NIC teaming (at the TCP/IP level) to achieve this feature.

FAQ

Q: Can NetWare iSCSI Targets be clustered?

A: Yes. Use a two node shared SCSI system (most hardware vendors offer these) with Novell Cluster services configured for the target service.

Q: So can a NetWare 6.5 server act as an iSCSI to FibreChannel bridge or gateway?

A: Yes. Simply install a FibreChannel card and create the iSCSI partition for the iSCSI target on the FibreChannel SAN. This configuration allows for LDAP LUN masking control of FibreChannel SAN based storage to iSCSI hosts.

Novell iSCSI - Building Affordable SANs

BrainShare Design Team

2001-11-27T10:29:21