Can't find StarWind Server by scanning

[Zamar25]

We wanted to try iSCSI to exchange data btw several PCs and our server. First I wanted to test it in a small office like setting on a single PC. So on a host Win7 PC I setup a VMWare Workstation 7, added a Win7 64bit Virtual Machine to it, connected the VM to a vmdk drive with Win7 guest system on it. I setup shared drives between 2 machines, and made sure both can connect on LAN to each other and with Internet OK.

Then I installed StarWind 5.5 trial on both host and the guest machines. When I tried to add a new host on the VM Guest via StarWind Console by using Scan Servers button, both host and guest servers where found, and I added them. However, on the host PC the same command can't find a local server despite its running. I switched Off Windows Firewall and Dr. Web Firewall, no change. Only after I started StarWind Target on the VM guest and restarted StarWind Service on host, the host found both servers. However, when I tried it again without the VM running, the host Console again can't find the host server by Scan, even if I restart the service. Only by starting the VM again I can make the host find its own Starwind server, running on the same host.

What can cause this, and how to fix? Any irregularities with Windows Network Setup can cause this? Any Security Policies - none was changed from default win7 install. As I said, network with the VM is working OK, the VM's Virtual Network Adapter is connected to a router in Bridge config. Any ideas?

[anton (staff)]

telnet to IP:3260 (iSCSI) and IP:3261 (control). If failed check your firewall and/or routing settings.

[Zamar25]

At the same time we wanted to try using a Cluster File System to exchange data btw the host and guest and keep synchronized all drives connected to the same target image. So I followed your site Guide to install a metaSAN Manager & Arbitrator 4.5 trial for SAN network. There is a problem with this as well. When I start metaSAN on the host, it mounts and makes accessible all drives as Private on my PC, except one bigger 2Tb (512 bites/sector) drive with 3 partitions. This drive is also mounted but not accessible from the PC or anywhere, and not listed in metaSAN Console Applet. I checked drive status using metaSAN Command Prompt Utility, and none is restricted, and that one isn't listed. Also, all mounted volumes lost their Labels and listed in Win Explorer as Local Drive #: . I tried to change any options in metaSAN Control Panel - nothing helps. All volumes are formatted as Regular NTFS Primary (not GPT), and the one not recognized doesn't have OS installed. The metaSAN log just reads "Drive disconnected" - no reasons given. If I switch to Maintenance Mode in metaSAN, and turn Off its service, the drive becomes accessible, but none show correct labels, until metaSAN is uninstalled.

Since metaSAN guys don't answer any questions on their forum, and your company has solid experience in using metaSAN with StarWind and good command with prospective customers, can you suggest, how to fix this? Or suggest a qualified metaSAN forum to answer such questions?

[Zamar25]

telnet to IP:3260 (iSCSI) and IP:3261 (control). If failed check your firewall and/or routing settings.

I just tried, and can Telnet to both ports. Port 3260 opens a black screen in Console (don't know how to get out of it), and port 3261 opens StarWind Alcohol Edition iSCSI Target v12.1 screen in Console. So both ports work OK.

[anton (staff)]

That's the problem. Alcohol edition is a very stripped down version of StarWind iSCSI SAN. Uninstall it (AE) for now or configure StarWind to use different set of ports (just make sure they are not in use by someone else). For now default 3260/3261 are USED BY OTHER TARGET.

telnet to IP:3260 (iSCSI) and IP:3261 (control). If failed check your firewall and/or routing settings.

I just tried, and can Telnet to both ports. Port 3260 opens a black screen in Console (don't know how to get out of it), and port 3261 opens StarWind Alcohol Edition iSCSI Target v12.1 screen in Console. So both ports work OK.

[anton (staff)]

1) Start with fixing your configuration (see below about Alcohol edition co-existing on the same host. It's a complete STOPPER). After you'll make sure StarWind & hypervisor are both OK you can proceed with clustered file system stuff. Doing what you do now is tuning electronic device with multiple handles at the same time. Always considered as being extremely bad engineering practice.

2) The whole idea of doing what you want is entirely broken. Use SANs where you *have* to use SANs. And where they are going to bring benefits compared to NAS or DAS. But not just as a shared folder replacement. For shared content stick with CIFS/NFS or whatever. Using SAN with cluster file system is EXPENSIVE. And not always faster (unless you move HUGE amounts of data and both local and remote caches get full nearly immediately). Mostly b/c network redirector design is better for small/moderate file accesses and so-called pulsating network traffic nature. SAN is good for loaded channel. And SMB stuff comes for free with your OS. So you add extra complexity w/o adding much of the benefits. Very bad value for money. Re-think what you do.

At the same time we wanted to try using a Cluster File System to exchange data btw the host and guest and keep synchronized all drives connected to the same target image. So I followed your site Guide to install a metaSAN Manager & Arbitrator 4.5 trial for SAN network. There is a problem with this as well. When I start metaSAN on the host, it mounts and makes accessible all drives as Private on my PC, except one bigger 2Gb drive with 3 partitions. This drive is also mounted but not accessible from the PC or anywhere, and not listed in metaSAN Console Applet. I checked drive status using metaSAN Command Prompt Utility, and none is restricted, and that one isn't listed. Also, all mounted volumes lost their Labels and listed in Win Explorer as Local Drive #: . I tried to change any options in metaSAN Control Panel - nothing helps. All volumes are formatted as Regular NTFS Primary (not GPT), and the one not recognized doesn't have OS installed. The metaSAN log just reads "Drive disconnected" - no reasons given. If I switch to Maintenance Mode in metaSAN, and turn Off its service, the drive becomes accessible, but none show correct labels, until metaSAN is uninstalled.

Since metaSAN guys don't answer any questions on their forum, and your company has solid experience in using metaSAN with StarWind and good command with prospective customers, can you suggest, how to fix this? Or suggest a qualified metaSAN forum to answer such questions?

[Zamar25]

Thanks Anton!

As I said, just trying to use various approaches in data service setup at the beginner level. Where can we get a normal StarWind Target to try instead of that one? Any trial link - we didn't setup own internet server yet with company mail?

Would you recommend any links to get a better idea on selecting appropriate network type for our task? We are a small product design company with several design workstations that are to be connected to a common server where all design data will be stored and accessed from so that the team can work with it in parallel in CAD packages without saving it locally on each workstation. We would also need to exchange design data via secure internet with our partners.

[anton (staff)]

1) I guess you need to start from here:

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/downloads

Cannot give you direct download link as a) I don't have one b) my sales staff members are going to burn me with napalm for doing this...

2) On your place I'd start with two node VMware ESX or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervistor cluster for VMotion / Live Migration (hardware downtime, upgrades, OS crashes etc), two node SAN to feed shared storage to hypervisor (StarWind if you can afford or any other setup you can go with if on extremely low budget), file server virtualized and file server VM movable between two physical hypervisor nodes (so your shared folders never go away). So SAN does SAN job (high availability, replication on the block level, de-duplication, shared storage etc), hypervisors do hypervisor job (keeping VM always running, does not matter what underlying hardware and software does) and file server services inside VM doing file server job (converting slice of disk -> local file system -> shared folder for network access).

Thanks Anton!

As I said, just trying to use various approaches in data service setup at the beginner level. Where can we get a normal StarWind Target to try instead of that one? Any trial link - we didn't setup own internet server yet with company mail?

Would you recommend any links to get a better idea on selecting appropriate network type for our task? We are a small product design company with several design workstations that are to be connected to a common server where all design data will be stored and accessed from so that the team can work with it in parallel in CAD packages without saving it locally on each workstation. We would also need to exchange design data via secure internet with our partners.

[Zamar25]

Thanks Anton! Will try to study your suggestion in slow motion... What particular file servers would you recommend for Virtualized and Movable? What's the benefit to have such file server structure? Reserve the right to ask more questions of course.

Why your installer served the PC with 2 servers at once: regular and AE? It seems I fixed it for now.

[anton (staff)]

1) Windows itself should work fine. Just convert to NAS storage originally managed by SAN. So virtual machine (server) migrates from one physical node to the other and SAN storage it converts to NAS stays where it is. Benefit is huge: you have ZERO downtime for NAS.

2) Our installer does not install AE version of StarWind. It's what came to your PC with Alcohol installation.

Thanks Anton! Will try to study your suggestion in slow motion... What particular file servers would you recommend for Virtualized and Movable? What's the benefit to have such file server structure? Reserve the right to ask more questions of course.

Why your installer served the PC with 2 servers at once: regular and AE? It seems I fixed it for now.

[Zamar25]

1) Start with fixing your configuration (see in the forum about Alcohol edition co-existing on the same host. It's a complete STOPPER).

Now when this part seems to be resolved, would you be so kind to comment on this issue http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... tml#p12449, what I can do to fix it? Just want to try metaSAN working with StarWind in Win7 64bit, since without it drives mounted on different PCs aren't synchronized. I reinstalled it again, and it just don't see the 2Gb local drive, while also making all its volumes unaccessible locally on the same PC where metaSAN is installed (even in maintenance mode with metaSAN service turned Off).

[anton (staff)]

I'm not a MetaSAN specialist so somebody of our techies will try to solve this issue out for you tomorrow morning.

P.S. Did you get any response from MetaSAN support so far? Just for my information...

1) Start with fixing your configuration (see in the forum about Alcohol edition co-existing on the same host. It's a complete STOPPER).

Now when this part seems to be resolved, would you be so kind to comment on this issue http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... tml#p12449, what I can do to fix it? Just want to try metaSAN working with StarWind in Win7 64bit, since without it drives mounted on different PCs aren't synchronized. I reinstalled it again, and it just don't see the 2Gb local drive, while also making all its volumes unaccessible locally on the same PC where metaSAN is installed (even in maintenance mode with metaSAN service turned Off).

[Zamar25]

Its hard to even register on their forums. No movement there. It's even harder to find a forum, where metaSAN is discussed in depth. They posted a long list of known bugs in 4.5 Release Notes http://www.tiger-technology.com/downloa ... _Notes.pdf, but this issue is not on the list.

I don't think, its a trial license limitation, since metaSAN during installation offers a list of volumes to attach to SAN, and none of volumes on this Samsung 2Tb HD is offered. Only after the program is installed and PC rebooted, it asks about a license / activation. Its a "green" 5400rpm drive model, can it be a problem?

What happens when several clients are connected to the target without a moderator? I noticed, only one client actually updates target disk. So, where other clients write files to, when they are copied to the Target? Where to find these files locally once the client is disconnected from the target? I think you should clarify it in your FAQ, since its a typical question that can be rephrased: "Is it possible to use StarWind with several clients without a Moderator - what exactly will happen"?

[anton (staff)]

For now I'd recommend to look at their special iSCSI edition rather then generic MetaSAN and try calling support on phone. Guys are renewing our MetaSAN licenses to check what could be wrong.

The question you're asking has been asked many many times. And many many times answered. Please check this thread:

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... t1392.html

Its hard to even register on their forums. No movement there. It's even harder to find a forum, where metaSAN is discussed in depth. They posted a long list of known bugs in 4.5 Release Notes http://www.tiger-technology.com/downloa ... _Notes.pdf, but this issue is not on the list.

I don't think, its a trial license limitation, since metaSAN during installation offers a list of volumes to attach to SAN, and none of volumes on this Samsung 2Gb HD are offered. Only after the program is installed and PC rebooted, it asks about a license / activation. Its a "green" 5400rpm drive model, can it be a problem?

What happens when several clients are connected to the target without a moderator? I noticed, only one client actually updates target disk. So, where other clients write files to, when they are copied to the Target? Where to find these files locally once the client is disconnected from the target? I think you should clarify it in your FAQ, since its a typical question that can be rephrased: "Is it possible to use StarWind with several clients without a Moderator - what exactly will happen"?

[Zamar25]

Looking at that link you suggested, does the term "distributed caches" imply that in iSCSI connection each Initiator saves locally a copy of data that was ever written to each Target during current session? Once the session is closed, that local file copy is then discarded at local disk being dismounted? If that's correct, in what folder to find that copy before the session is closed (or traces of it by a file recovery package after its closed)? Is the local iSCSI Volume mounted by Initiator on a free space of an existing locally Volume, or in unformatted space on a local drive when such space exists?