StarWind iSCSI Target for Promise VTrak 15200 iSCSI Array

[lance]

I get an error when attempting to create a new disk within Virtual Server 2005 that Ñthe file could not be writtenÒ. Yet I can write other files to the StarWind iSCSI drive. I checked permissions and all seem fine. What am I missing? Again, read and write with Windows Explorer is fine. Is it ok to use StarWind as a target for a Promise iSCSI hardware Target that the StarWind server is connecting to with the StarPort Initiator?



HereÒs the config:

StarWind Server

Windows 2003 Server

192.168.1.120 for host

192.168.19.20 for iSCSI connection to Promise iSCSI array (192.168.19.10)

Using 192.168.19.10 as Target IP for StarPort Initiator



Virtual Server 2005

Windows 2003 Server

192.168.1.122 for host

192.168.19.22 for iSCSI connection to StarWind iSCSI disk

Using 192.168.19.20 as Target IP for StarPort Initiator

[Val (staff)]

Lance,

It's a bit unusual usage wrapping an iSCSI target with an other initiator/target pair.
For what purpose do you need such a configuration?
Why not to connect your Virtul PC machine directly to the Promise iSCSI hardware Target?

[lance]

The Promise array can not be cut into logical drives. It is limited to physical drives creating containers. So if I create a 14 drive RAID50 container, that's all I get. Unless I take physical drives away from that container to create another container. So the unit is like a DAS in terms of it's functionality. It's mean't to be pretty much directly connected to a server or two for a cluster.

The problem that I had was that the Promise iSCSI array had a 3TB volume created which used 1024 byte sectors. We deleted that volume and created two 1.5TB volumes which used 512 byte sectors. Virtual Server works fine. Most all apps look for 512 byte sectors so that is something we all need to watch out for as those volumes keep growing.

[Val (staff)]

Lance,
So the problem was StarPort and StarWind support only 512 bytes sectors.

Do you mean you use the hardware iSCSI target volumes directly from Virtual Server 2005 or with StarPort/StarWind wrapper?