The following basic procedure must be performed when setting
up a host server for use as an iSCSI initiator with SAN Volume Controller VDisks.
The specific steps vary depending on the particular host type and
operating system that is involved.
To configure a host, first select a software-based iSCSI initiator
or a hardware-based iSCSI initiator. For example, the software-based
iSCSI initiator can be a Microsoft® Windows® iSCSI software initiator,
and the hardware-based iSCSI initiator can be an iSCSI host bus adapter
inside the host server.
To set up your host server for use as an iSCSI software-based
initiator with SAN Volume Controller VDisks,
perform the following steps:
- Set up your SAN Volume Controller cluster
for iSCSI.
- Select a set of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses for the clustered
Ethernet ports on the node that are in the I/O groups that will use
the iSCSI VDisks.
- Configure the clustered Ethernet ports on each node
in the cluster with the svctask cfgportip command.
- Verify that you have configured the clustered Ethernet
ports correctly by reviewing the output of the svcinfo
lsportip command and svcinfo lsclusterip command.
- Set up your host server.
- Ensure that you have configured your IP interfaces on
the server.
- Install the software for the iSCSI software-based initiator on the server.
- Create VDisks on the SAN Volume Controller cluster
with the svctask mkhost command.
- Create a host object SAN Volume Controller server
that describes the iSCSI server initiator to which the VDisks are
to be mapped using the svctask mkvdisk command.
- Map the VDisk to the host object in the SAN Volume Controller with
the svctask mkvdiskhostmap command.
- On the host server, run the configuration methods for the
iSCSI so that the host server iSCSI initiator logs in to the SAN Volume Controller cluster
and discovers the SAN Volume Controller VDisks.
After this action, the host creates host devices for the VDisks.
- The VDisks that are presented to the host can now be used
by the applications.
The details for setting up each host server type are described
in related topics.
Be aware of the following considerations:
- AIX® does not support iSCSI
with IPv6.
- Each connection between a host initiator and a SAN Volume Controller clustered
Ethernet port can use IPv4 or IPv6 (where supported). Concurrent use
of both IPv4 and IPv6 for the same initiator to the SAN Volume Controller clustered
Ethernet port is not supported.