pve-storage-iscsi.adoc

   1 [[storage_open_iscsi]]
   2 Open-iSCSI initiator
   3 --------------------
   4 ifdef::wiki[]
   5 :pve-toplevel:
   6 :title: Storage: iSCSI
   7 endif::wiki[]
   8
   9 Storage pool type: `iscsi`
  10
  11 iSCSI is a widely employed technology used to connect to storage
  12 servers. Almost all storage vendors support iSCSI. There are also open
  13 source iSCSI target solutions available,
  14 e.g. http://www.openmediavault.org/[OpenMediaVault], which is based on
  15 Debian.
  16
  17 To use this backend, you need to install the
  18 http://www.open-iscsi.org/[Open-iSCSI] (`open-iscsi`) package. This is a
  19 standard Debian package, but it is not installed by default to save
  20 resources.
  21
  22   # apt-get install open-iscsi
  23
  24 Low-level iscsi management task can be done using the `iscsiadm` tool.
  25
  26
  27 Configuration
  28 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  29
  30 The backend supports the common storage properties `content`, `nodes`,
  31 `disable`, and the following iSCSI specific properties:
  32
  33 portal::
  34
  35 iSCSI portal (IP or DNS name with optional port).
  36
  37 target::
  38
  39 iSCSI target.
  40
  41
  42 .Configuration Example (`/etc/pve/storage.cfg`)
  43 ----
  44 iscsi: mynas
  45      portal 10.10.10.1
  46      target iqn.2006-01.openfiler.com:tsn.dcb5aaaddd
  47      content none
  48 ----
  49
  50 TIP: If you want to use LVM on top of iSCSI, it make sense to set
  51 `content none`. That way it is not possible to create VMs using iSCSI
  52 LUNs directly.
  53
  54
  55 File naming conventions
  56 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  57
  58 The iSCSI protocol does not define an interface to allocate or delete
  59 data. Instead, that needs to be done on the target side and is vendor
  60 specific. The target simply exports them as numbered LUNs. So {pve}
  61 iSCSI volume names just encodes some information about the LUN as seen
  62 by the linux kernel.
  63
  64
  65 Storage Features
  66 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  67
  68 iSCSI is a block level type storage, and provides no management
  69 interface.  So it is usually best to export one big LUN, and setup LVM
  70 on top of that LUN. You can then use the LVM plugin to manage the
  71 storage on that iSCSI LUN.
  72
  73 .Storage features for backend `iscsi`
  74 [width="100%",cols="m,m,3*d",options="header"]
  75 |==============================================================================
  76 |Content types  |Image formats  |Shared |Snapshots |Clones
  77 |images none    |raw            |yes    |no        |no
  78 |==============================================================================
  79
  80
  81 Examples
  82 ~~~~~~~~
  83
  84 Scan a remote iSCSI portal, and returns a list of possible targets:
  85
  86  pvesm iscsiscan -portal <HOST[:PORT]>
  87
  88 ifdef::wiki[]
  89
  90 See Also
  91 ~~~~~~~~
  92
  93 * link:/wiki/Storage[Storage]
  94
  95 endif::wiki[]
  96
  97