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Previous files missing from a clustered(shared) iscsi target
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:19 pm
by isuelt
We're using the free version of Starwind iSCSI and we setup a clustered iSCSI target and connected to 2 different Windows 7 PCs. Days later after a disconnect the files copied by PC1 can't be seen by PC2. So, We disconnect/reconnect both PCs and restart the server but we still cannot see the files that PC1 had copied to the iSCSI target, though the target does show there is space being used. There of 310GB only 53GB is available, but the drive looks empty.
Can anyone shed some insight on this?
Re: Previous files missing from a clustered(shared) iscsi target
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:18 pm
by JRutski
I'm assuming that these Windows 7 PCs are not clustered? Is the volume formatted as NTFS? if that is the case, NTFS is NOT a clustering file system, and it simply will not work. See this thread:
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... t1392.html
There are 3rd party products that get around this...but a simple iSCSI connection will NOT work for 2 systems that are NOT clustered.
Clustered Shared Volumes is available, but only for use when storing Hyper-V VMs.
Re: Previous files missing from a clustered(shared) iscsi target
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:30 pm
by isuelt
Ok. So a shared file system in iSCSI is more entailed. Is there anyway to get the files to show up that were previously there and appear to be still taking up space?
Re: Previous files missing from a clustered(shared) iscsi target
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:58 am
by anton (staff)
1) Use cluster-aware file system (non-NTFS, SANbolic from MelioFS or SFS from DataPlow)
2) Use distributed lock manager on top of NTFS (I know only about MetaSAN from Tiger Tech)
3) Disconnect initiators and connect them one-by-one
Both 1) and 2) cost money and 3) is ugly...
So I suggest to configure CIFS/SMB or NFS file share on top of an iSCSI volume. It's free and everything could be clustered to avoid single point of failure.
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/configu ... or-smb-nas
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/configu ... or-nfs-nas
isuelt wrote:Ok. So a shared file system in iSCSI is more entailed. Is there anyway to get the files to show up that were previously there and appear to be still taking up space?