iSCSI and WIN2000
Does anyone have an iSCSI driver that I can add to my Win2000 system that would perform block level accesses on a remote system?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Cisco has their new iSCSI based SN5420 router. It requires an iSCSI driver on each host for access. Performance may be an issue for now using iSCSI until there are more NIC vendors incorporating the IP stack in hardware (called a TOE, or TCP/IP Offload Engine). Check this URL for more info on the implementation of iSCSI using the SN5420 router: http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/sn5000/sn5420/swconfig/confsc.htm

iSCSI standards are still being implemented. Interoperability may be an issue for those implementing now. If you stay with a single vendor for now you should have good success. I would recommend iSCSI only for customers who have VERY robust networks in place. Switched Gigabit Ethernet is the minimum standard. Things will get much nicer for iSCSI when 10 Gigabit Ethernet and TOE engines are around.

Chris


This was first published in June 2001