Adaptec iSA1500 User Guide - Page 20

How does iSCSI Work?, What are Storage Pools and Logical Volumes?, Controlling Access

Page 20 highlights

Introduction to iSCSI and IPSANs How does iSCSI Work? iSCSI communicates over IP networks through the use of iSCSI initiators and targets. iSCSI is bi-directional, so the same protocol is used for both requests for data and responses to requests. The initiator always initiates a command or data sequence. iSCSI Initiator iSCSI Request iSCSI Target Storage Enclosure Server iSCSI Response Because iSCSI is IP-based, data can be transferred across Ethernet networks without the restrictions of SCSI cabling. That is, an iSCSI initiator may be in a server in Europe, with the corresponding iSCSI target in North America. iSCSI protocol technology includes levels of security, authentication, and encryption. See Chapter 5, Controlling Access and Adding Security for more information. What are Storage Pools and Logical Volumes? A storage pool is a disk drive or collection of disk drives which can be divided into iSCSI targets. Targets created from storage pools appear to the operating system as logical volumes, or single, virtual drives, even though they comprise multiple physical drives. You can easily increase the size of a logical volume by increasing the amount of storage that is assigned to it from the storage pool. You can also increase the size of the storage pool, if necessary, to help you manage the size of your logical volumes. Both these management tasks can be carried out without server downtime. 2-3

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2-3
Introduction to iSCSI and IPSANs
How does iSCSI Work?
iSCSI communicates over IP networks through the use of iSCSI
initiators and targets. iSCSI is bi-directional, so the same protocol is
used for both requests for data and responses to requests.
The initiator always initiates a command or data sequence.
Because iSCSI is IP-based, data can be transferred across Ethernet
networks without the restrictions of SCSI cabling. That is, an iSCSI
initiator may be in a server in Europe, with the corresponding
iSCSI target in North America.
iSCSI protocol technology includes levels of security,
authentication, and encryption. See
Chapter 5,
Controlling Access
and Adding Security
for more information.
What are Storage Pools and Logical Volumes?
A
storage pool
is a disk drive or collection of disk drives which can
be divided into iSCSI targets. Targets created from storage pools
appear to the operating system as logical volumes, or single,
virtual drives, even though they comprise multiple physical drives.
You can easily increase the size of a logical volume by increasing
the amount of storage that is assigned to it from the storage pool.
You can also increase the size of the storage pool, if necessary, to
help you manage the size of your logical volumes. Both these
management tasks can be carried out without server downtime.
Server
iSCSI Initiator
iSCSI Request
iSCSI Target
iSCSI Response
Storage Enclosure