Discussion on:

DIY SAN: Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces and iSCSI target

Nice article, John, but I do have a few questions:
1. In order to use this feature must I create the "Software RAID" in the Storage Pool wizard as shown above, or could I have already created an array with a hardware RAID controller which I will utilize as an iSCSI target?
2. When presenting a disk as an iSCSI target will it always create it as a VHD? I assume that this is to avoid any issues with SCSI reservations, so that the host and the iSCSI consumer don't both try to do things at the file-level, correct?
3. Most commercial iSCSI SAN vendors recommend having iSCSI traffic being on a separate network than production network traffic along with other considerations (jumbo-frames, flow-control, etc). Is there a way to segment the iSCSI traffic on the host presenting the iSCSI targets?

Thanks!

Thanks Astro, here are some thoughts:
1. Storage Spaces works best when each physical disk is presented. Let Storage Spaces do the the RAID work. Only pre-create a RAID volume using the controller if that is the only way to use the controller. In that scenario, create RAID-0 volumes in the controller, one for each physical disk.
2. In this Microsoft solution, the iSCSI volume presented to the Hyper-V host(s)is actually and always a VHD on the iSCSI Target server.
3. Regarding a separate iSCSI network, I covered in this in the article and this is achieved by having a iSCSI NIC or NIC Team on a different subnet than the data network. When you setup the iSCSI client on the host, use the IP address of the iSCSI Target that is on the iSCSI NIC, this keeps the storage traffic on its own NIC.

Good luck,

John

Sorry, I read that but it just didn't click with me at the time. Mea culpa.

So I would have two NICs/teams on the storage server and only have iSCSI traffic on the one network/vlan. Let's say 10.1.0.0/24 is for my servers' regular traffic and 10.254.1.0/24 is my iSCSI network.
Is there a way to prevent a server from connecting to the iSCSI target via 10.1.0.0? I would want to make sure that traffic remains separate from any "Accidental" connections another admin may attempt.
With most other MS Server products (DNS, DHCP, Clustering) you can select which IPs should be utilized for this service in the MMC, and I'd figure this is similar, but I'm curious.
Thanks again!

Can you share your knowledge and understanding of where the difference is between Windows Storage Server 2012 and any other edition of Windows Server 2012 which includes iSCSI target functionality?

I am confused - if there is iSCSI target in the general purpose Win Server what may be the reason to have a separate "Storage" edition?

Thanks

Hi Ascar, there is no functional difference between Windows Server 2012 with storage features enabled and Windows 'storage server'. The general edition has the same storage features that are found on a storage appliance. Hardware OEMs may pre-configure servers optimized for storage role and use Windows Storage Server name, read more here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj643303.aspx