Multiple iSCSI connections

Article ID: 150

Last updated: 27 Feb, 2012

Symptom: My iSCSI targets report that I am having corruption

Problem: With iSCSI you cannot have multiple connections to the same LUN, iSCSI Target works block based - not file based. Meaning that a changes made by one person is not seen by another person working on the same target/volume.

Solution: In order to have more connections in the same time to the same Target you would require special SAN file system.
iSCSI Target works block based - not file based. Meaning that a changes made by one person is not seen by another person working on the same target/volume.

To control this you need so called SAN File System programs. Examples are listed below:
MelioFS:
http://www.sanbolic.com/melio.htm
IBM:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/sanergy/
http://www.ibm.qassociates.co.uk/storage-software-totalstorage-san-filesystem.htm
SGI:
http://www.sgi.com/products/storage/tech/file_systems.html
PolyServe
http://www.polyserve.com/
DataPlow SFS
http://www.dataplow.com

Alternately, you may use MetaSAN software (http://www.tiger-technology.com/metasan/), which is cross-platform Storage Area Network (SAN) management software.

SAN file system solutions are very expensive. The easiest way to share the data on iSCSI Target is to create network share and get clients to connect to the network share and not directly to the target.
In case clients read only from the target and need to access recent data (written from single host only) they can logout and login new session in the initiator. So they will see recent data.