Connecting iSCSI Initiators
When managing your gateway, you work with volumes or virtual tape library (VTL) devices that are exposed as Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) targets. For Volume Gateways, the iSCSI targets are volumes. For Tape Gateways, the targets are VTL devices. As part of this work, you do such tasks as connecting to those targets, customizing iSCSI settings, connecting from a Red Hat Linux client, and configuring Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP).
Topics
The iSCSI standard is an Internet Protocol (IP)–based storage networking standard for initiating and managing connections between IP-based storage devices and clients. The following list defines some of the terms that are used to describe the iSCSI connection and the components involved.
- iSCSI initiator
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The client component of an iSCSI network. The initiator sends requests to the iSCSI target. Initiators can be implemented in software or hardware. Storage Gateway only supports software initiators.
- iSCSI target
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The server component of the iSCSI network that receives and responds to requests from initiators. Each of your volumes is exposed as an iSCSI target. Connect only one iSCSI initiator to each iSCSI target.
- Microsoft iSCSI initiator
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The software program on Microsoft Windows computers that allows you to connect a client computer (that is, the computer running the application whose data you want to write to the gateway) to an external iSCSI-based array (that is, the gateway). The connection is made using the host computer's Ethernet network adapter card. The Microsoft iSCSI initiator has been validated with Storage Gateway on Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019. The initiator is built into these operating systems.
- Red Hat iSCSI initiator
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The
iscsi-initiator-utilsResource Package Manager (RPM) package provides you with an iSCSI initiator implemented in software for Red Hat Linux. The package includes a server daemon for the iSCSI protocol.
Each type of gateway can connect to iSCSI devices, and you can customize those connections, as described following.
