Kristian Toms Weblog: Kristian Toms Weblog

Recently I have moved to a new laptop and as such I had to take the time to re configure my mobile demonstrations in preparation for a number of customer presentations next week.  While I was configuring the Unified Storage Demonstration to work on a host based network I thought that I would try and configure the Mac as an iSCSI initiator. 

I had looked at this about a year ago and at the time struggled to find an iSCSI initiator for OS-X however Studio Network Solutions have taken the time to develop an iSCSI Initiator for Mac OS X and provide for free as part of there offering for Storage on Mac OS X.

To start to configure the demonstration I configured the Virtual Machine to be on a host based network. Currently I am running the demonstration on VMWare Fusion so the instructions are for Fusion below however I do intend to complete the same for VirtualBox at a later date. 

To start with I configured the Virtual Machine network interface to be on the host based network. To do this you will be utilising the network addressable on the vmnet1 device which is dedicated for host based networking. For reference the table below shows the vmnet device and its use:

Unified Storage Configuration

Configuring the Unified Storage System is a breeze when starting as a new appliance and you can find instructions if you require them here.  I on the other hand was reconfiguring the device onto a private network from a previous Bridged Mode configuration. As I had originally configured the appliance while sat on a DHCP network I decided to utilse the command line interface in the VM Console rather than trying to change my Mac network configuration.  This resulted in a very easy change once you understand the above device and thus  virtual switch configurations.

Once I had the networking back and functioning how I liked it I logged into the web interface to start the iSCSI target configuration.  As I have already configured the storage the next step was to configure the Lun to be shared.  This can be completed by following the steps below:

• Start the iSCSI service via Configuration - Services - iSCSI (Power Button)
• Configure the iSCSI service via Configuration - Services - iSCSI
  • Input a target name I used s7000.test
  • Complete the CHAP Authentication form (This is optional and as its local to my laptop I chose not to)
  • Once complete click apply
• Configure the LUN for sharing via Shares - LUNS + button
  • Choose the project if you have any defined other than default
  • Name the LUN
  • State the size of the LUN
  • Configure the Block Size (I left it at default)
  • I ticked sparse volume in the interest of space saving on the laptop
  • Click apply
• Once configured you can configure initiator access to the LUN via Shares LUN - Protocol (Ensure you have completed the Initiator configuration first)

Mac OS X iSCSI Initiator configuration

This was fairly easy to complete first install the driver from the dmg and let the Mac restart

• Once rebooted enter System Configuration - Global SAN iSCSI
• Add the IP address of the Unified Storage Simulator to the Portals list (I found this step necessary even though the initiator had discovered the LUNs automatically)
• Under preferences copy the iqn and use that to configure the LUN in the Unified Storage Simulator as per the last step.
• Now connect to the LUN via Targets and clicking on the LUN presented.
• Disk Util should now spring into life format the LUN as you would normally and you are free to use as a device

Some side notes of interest:

At present I would say I am seeing below par performance on the host based network I will research this and if I can solve this I will update in a later post.

I discovered the iSCSI initiator on the Apple website however it does not point to the latest version, I am also unsure as to whether this is the only option available at this time. 

I will also be using this method in my home based Open Storage project as a way of providing Time Machine for our laptop's on the Network.