Re: iSCSI?

[Michael Schmidt <mschmidt_(_at_)_fh-koblenz_(_dot_)_de>]

On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 01:00:41PM -0500, Christian J Hedemark wrote:
> Michael Schmidt asked:
> > Please excuse my ignorance, but what does iSCSI stand for?
> > What's the meaning of iSCSI?

As a substitute for all to whom it may concern:  
Thanks for all replies  :)

> It is a SCSI-over-Internet protocol, which allows you to put your disks out
> on the network and your filesystems are fooled into thinking that they are
> local SCSI disks.  
[...]

It has been only the i of iSCSI I thought of which special meaning 
this might have, SCSI itself is obvious and goes without saying.
So far so good.

> The only thing that would make iSCSI support in OpenBSD sweeter is if it
> were coupled with LVM to complete the package.  :-)  Right now if you want
> to run iSCSI you are likely stuck choosing between Linux, Solaris, and Win32
> (which all have LVM, though the Win32 LVM may require reboots I'm not sure,
> and the Solaris LVM is 3rd party commercial software from Veritas).

Now it gets interesting. Why the term iSCSI has been such an eye 
catcher for me is that among other points I'm specialized in SCSI.
I have written SCSI drivers and application software which both 
allow to use SCSI as something like a networking tool. 
This allowed me to connect several computers via the SCSI bus 
and let them send to each other. 

All the SCSI initiator and target mode stuff necessary for this 
has been written by myself and I have the rights which would 
allow to contribute it. 

But you (shall say all) should know that there can arise very 
complex situations in SCSI environments where there are several 
SCSI devices on the same bus which act as initiators and targets 
coming out of the same SCSI ID. A rare case, but it can happen. 
This brings up potential collisions of SCSI commands on the bus
which don't occur under normal circumstances. 
A certain time ago when testing my SCSI net drivers it showed 
that SCSI adaptor eproms had to be modified as the manufacturers 
thought only of normal scenarios (one initiator == adaptor, 
several targets).

Well, why so many words? It's only that I want to make clear 
that it's no easy task dealing with that stuff.

iSCSI for OpenBSD, is this something which is really wanted? 

Building iSCSI compared to using SCSI as networking-like-media 
may have many similarities.
Please let me think whether there is a way for contributing 
my SCSI stuff.

A nice day to all
Michael

-- 
Michael  Schmidt                 mschmidt_(_at_)_fh-koblenz_(_dot_)_de
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