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What is ISCSI
I read an article which mentioned ISCSI, but it was pretty old. All the references online that I've found seem to be outdated, except for one vendor who is hyping it. Should I be aware of it as we look for a new storage solution?
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4 Answers
Hi Trent,
ISCSI is an abbreviation of Internet Small Computer System Interface, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities.
By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances.
It is a popular Storage Area Network (SAN) protocol, allowing organizations to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts (such as database and web servers) with the illusion of locally-attached disks.
Unlike traditional Fibre Channel, which requires special-purpose cabling, iSCSI can be run over long distances using existing network infrastructure.
Hi Trent,
ISCSI is an abbreviation of Internet Small Computer System Interface, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities.
By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances.
It is a popular Storage Area Network (SAN) protocol, allowing organizations to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts (such as database and web servers) with the illusion of locally-attached disks.
Unlike traditional Fibre Channel, which requires special-purpose cabling, iSCSI can be run over long distances using existing network infrastructure.
iSCSI is a protocol that allows SCSI commands to be send over Ethernet, utilizing existing Ethernet infrastructure, replacing Fiber Channel. Speeds are very comparable to Fiber Channel. This makes connecting SAN/NAS storage systems much easier and less expensive as you can use existing equipment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISCSI
Like Ryan said, iSCSI is a protocol that uses underlying Ethernet protocol to send SCSI commands to storage devices. The great thing about iSCSI (when compared to FC) is that it can use existing Ethernet infrastructure, which is good from the price perspective. Only thing you should be aware is that that true iSCSI HBA costs the same as FC HBA. iSCSI HBA has iSCSI and TCP offload engines, but if you don't need that amount of offloading, you can go with any network adapter that has TCP offload implemented, it will work just fine.
There are a lot of vendor whitepapers talking about Oracle, SQL, Exchange, VMware, etc working on iSCSI SAN. And it works flawlessly, so, don't be affraid to go this way.
Speeds that iSCSI supports are 1Gbps and 10Gbps (avoid 10Gbps because it's very expensive). FC supports 4Gbps and 8Gbps today.
Also, I would suggest that you take a look at ATA over Ethernet solutions (AoE). Vendor who use this protocol for their storage products is CORAID.
BTW., the vendor you mentioned as being one who is hyping iSCSI is Equallogic. But now all other vendors support it including EMC, IBM, HP, Hitachi, etc.
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