Adaptec iSA1500 User Guide - Page 21

Introduction to iSCSI and IPSANs Storage pooling becomes a very powerful tool when used with SANs. Storage pools can be created and expanded using all the storage available on an Adaptec storage enclosure. The SAN is not restricted by the amount of storage physically attached to a single machine. This means that storage can be managed much more efficiently-instead of having one machine filled to capacity and another almost empty, the available capacity can be distributed to the servers that actually need it. What's an SLP Scope? An iSCSI target is a defined storage space within the iSCSI subsystem and is part of the entire field of storage space available. By default, all initiators (servers) are part of the Default scope, which contains all iSCSI targets. By default, all initiators can see and access all iSCSI targets. (See the Default Scope Figure below.) Target Default Scope Initiator (Server) Target Named Scope Initiator (Server) Target Target Target Target Assigned to Scope You can control which targets a server can see by assigning servers to named scopes and assigning specific targets to those scopes. (See the Named Scope Figure above.) Narrowing the field of targets allows initiators to discover targets more quickly. This is especially helpful if you are setting up a large IPSAN. Before you begin to set up your IPSAN, divide the servers into groups and assign scope names to those groups. Most often, servers are grouped by function or department, but can be sorted any way that is meaningful to you. (For instance, all servers in the Sales department could be assigned to a scope named Sales.) iSCSI requires the use of Service Location Protocols (SLP) to assign iSCSI targets to SLP scopes. For more information, see Managing SLP Scopes on page 6-38. 2-4