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iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 4:20 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
I have an iscsi target on my linux with 16TB and I can connect to the linux iscsi initiator and format with ext4. On my windows I can only open and format a iscsi disk of 8TB. When I connect to a iscsi target with 16TB the target throws a message of READ_CAPACITY_16. At this site http://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog ... sDiscovery I realize this is a bug of microsoft iscsi initiator.

Is that really a bug? Is there a hot fix to this bug of iscsi initiator?

Thanks! Felipe

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:58 pm
by anton (staff)
Sir are you using MSFT iSCSI initiator or StarWind iSCSI initiator (part of StarPort package)? For MSFT we really cannot help (we're not acquired by MSFT at least for now...) and for StarWind: what OS are you using @ client?

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 4:49 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
Hi, thanks for the answer,

I tryied to connect to my target using iscsi initiator starWind. After the screen iSCSI target selection the program keeps busy and doesn't connect to the target. The initiator can see my target and the target show some messages, but never finish the connection. Is there any place I can see the logs at the initiator?
Thanks.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 6:23 pm
by Alex (staff)
What do you use as a target? StarPort logs should be in the same folder where app is installed so check for *.log files in it (zip and send to us).

P.S. In general you can switch to MSFT one right away as they (MSFT) don't support monolithic SCSI ports like StarPort in production.
felipe.o.gutierrez wrote:Hi, thanks for the answer,

I tryied to connect to my target using iscsi initiator starWind. After the screen iSCSI target selection the program keeps busy and doesn't connect to the target. The initiator can see my target and the target show some messages, but never finish the connection. Is there any place I can see the logs at the initiator?
Thanks.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:05 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
I am trying to connect to the jscsi.org target. Do you think is that possible? I think so, because they use the same protocol.

What do you mean with monolithic SCSI ports? DO I have to disable some option?

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:02 am
by anton (staff)
Protocol is the same but implementations are quite different (ppl tend to treat spec quite flexibly). We've been running some tests against jSCSI core in the past but I'm not sure about the current stage of the things.

Monolithic SCSI port = design used by StarWind initiator. MSFT documents so-called "StorPort mini port" but actual full ports are not documented (and not supported as well).

The best way to go would be using MSFT initiator :) ...or send us StarPort log so we could know what's wrong and we cannot connect.
felipe.o.gutierrez wrote:I am trying to connect to the jscsi.org target. Do you think is that possible? I think so, because they use the same protocol.

What do you mean with monolithic SCSI ports? DO I have to disable some option?

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 7:18 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
ok Anton,
Looking at the starwind iscsi initiator logs folder "C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\iSCSI Initiator\logs" I can see this:

11/12 19:38:05 71c ntsrv: StariSCSI Service v5.5 (Build 20110316, WinXP x86)
11/12 19:38:05 71c Srv: No bound volumes found.
11/12 19:38:05 71c Srv: Service started.
11/12 20:38:02 618 ntsrv: SERVICE_CONTROL_INTERROGATE signal.

and

11/12 19:32:48 182c ntsrv: StariSCSI Service v5.5 (Build 20110316, WinXP x86)
11/12 19:32:48 182c Srv: No bound volumes found.
11/12 19:32:48 182c Srv: Service started.
11/12 19:37:20 1e50 ntsrv: SERVICE_CONTROL_SHUTDOWN signal.
11/12 19:37:20 1e50 Srv: Starting shutdown operations.
11/12 19:37:20 1c20 Event waiting aborted from external program or from driver.
11/12 19:37:20 1c20 WaitForNewEvent() returned NULL pointer!
11/12 19:37:20 182c Error calling pipe (bytes read = 0, last error = 230)
11/12 19:37:20 182c Srv: Shutdown completed.

Is this help? Where can I find other logs good for you?
I appreciated your help!
Felipe

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:01 pm
by Val (staff)
Hi Felipe,

could you send us Wireshark dumps of the network packets for cases when the iSCSI initiators try to mount the target?

This should shed some light on the problem...

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:24 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
ok, I will provide it. thanks!

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 4:56 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
I exported the wireshark log to the file http://ustore1.rnp.br/ustore/faces/publ ... e6134aad76.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:14 pm
by Val (staff)
Thank you!
From the log file I could see that the initiator completed a Descovery session with success.
Then it established a Normal session, but did not send any SCSI requests to the target, only periodical iSCSI pings.

It's a strange behavior of the initiator.

Does the MS iSCSI initiator work well with the same target?
Could you show us a Wireshark's log for a session with the MS initiator?

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:42 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
Here is ....

win iscsi 16T - http://ustore1.rnp.br/ustore/faces/publ ... b37b5da1c0
win iscsi 8T - http://ustore1.rnp.br/ustore/faces/publ ... ca2c3f301e
starwind 8T - http://ustore1.rnp.br:80/ustore/faces/p ... b34bd26caf

if you dont mind and have few time, could you explain to me the key points that you are analysing at the log? I will appreciate.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:36 pm
by Val (staff)
Thanks!
What is the Windows version of the initiator host?

If the MS initiator works OK, why do you need to use StarPort?

The target seems to have some issues in the iSCSI/SCSI protocols' implementations.
If the MS initiator does not work with it - it's because of the target which should be fixed.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:44 pm
by felipe.o.gutierrez
The target works very well until 8T with MS iscsi initiator. When I use 16T the MS iscsi initiator is sending READ_CAPACITY_16 I think I a wrong manner. I concluded it because if I try to open 16TB with open-iscsi at linux it works very well and I can format with ext4.
With starwind I cannot connect with any size of the target.

I also concluded it because of this http://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog ... s#comments.

I used windows Vista for this example, but I already tryed with Windows server 2008.

Re: iSCSI initiator for target with size 16TBytes

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:39 pm
by Val (staff)
The target emulates native 4K drives for 8T and 16T.

But MS supports native 4K drives only since WIndows 7 SP1.

If you need to use the target with Vista/Server 2008 - try to find a way to switch the target to emulate 512e drives.