Why Qorestor ISCSI VTL
It is a carrier protocol for SCSI. SCSI commands are sent over IP networks by using iSCSI. It also facilitates data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances. iSCSI can be used to transmit data over LANs or WANs. In iSCSI, clients are called initiators and SCSI storage devices are targets. The protocol allows an initiator to send SCSI commands (CDBs) to the targets.
The fact that iSCSI runs on Ethernet and can be deployed without specialized hardware has made it very popular in clouds and cloud storage, so its usage has blossomed with the growth of the cloud. Today, iSCSI is the most popular way to run the SCSI protocol over Ethernet networks.
Steps
Create a VTL Container from Qorestor
Choose VTL container
- Option from 10GB till 800GB Tape
- Choose the Access protocol as iSCSI
- Qorestor by default creates 10 Drive and 60 Tapes which can be scalable up to 5000 as shown in the picture ( Note: The allocated space won’t be consumed until used – Thin provisioning
- yum install iscsi-initiator-utils -> Installs the iSCSI on the Linux OS
- Edit iscsid.conf file and uncomment the CHAP Setting and set default password
Username : iscsi_user Password : St0r@ge!iscsi
vi /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf
- iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p <Target IP Address> which displays the iqn number
Ex : <ipaddress>:3260,1 iqn.1984-05.com.quest:.1971355.netvaultvtl.10
- Run iscsi –show & lsscsi
( Verify OS and Qorestor to detect the medium changer and the drives)
- Launch Netvault and discover the newly created iSCSI VTL as a Tape library option from Netvault – Add Storage Devices
Conclusion
iSCSI is a low-cost alternative to Fibre Channel, which requires dedicated infrastructure except in FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet). Note that the performance of an iSCSI SAN deployment can be degraded if not operated on a dedicated network or subnet, The VTL container type is designed to work seamlessly with the iSCSI protocol.