2.7 Accessing iSCSI Targets on NetWare Servers from Linux Initiators

You can configure access to a NetWare server functioning as an iSCSI target from Linux initiators. To do this, you must first configure your NetWare server to be an iSCSI target as explained in Section 2.4, Configuring iSCSI Targets. Linux partition types (ext2, ext3, reiser) instead of NSS partitions can be created on the iSCSI target LUN.

This section covers the following information to help you configure access to NetWare iSCSI targets from Linux initiators:

2.7.1 Configuring LDAP Access Control for Linux Initiators

The information in this section assumes you have LDAP access control to your iSCSI target enabled. If you have disabled LDAP access control to your iSCSI target, skip to Section 2.7.2, Ensuring the open-iSCSI Package Is Installed.

To configure LDAP access control from a Linux initiator to your iSCSI target:

  1. Create an iSCSI Initiator object in LDAP for each Linux server you want to function as an iSCSI initiator.

  2. Edit the /etc/initiatorname.iscsi file and add the LDAP distinguished name of the iSCSI Initiator objects you created above.

    For example, in the /etc/intiatorname.iscsi file, find the line that appears similar to

    InitiatorName=iqn.1987-05.com.cisco:01.988fe4ed1d87
    

    In the line above, remove the text after the colon (:) and replace it with the distinguished name of an iSCSI Initiator object. The line should now appear similar to the following example:

    InitiatorName=iqn.1987-05.com.cisco:cn=LinuxIntiator,o=Novell
    

    where LinuxInitiator is the name of the iSCSI Initiator object you created above.

  3. Make the iSCSI Initiator objects you created above trustees of the iSCSI Target object.

See Configuring Access Control to iSCSI Targets for more information on enabling, disabling, and configuring iSCSI target access control.

2.7.2 Ensuring the open-iSCSI Package Is Installed

The open-iSCSI package is included on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installation media. To see if the package is installed, search for the iscsid.conf file in the /etc/iscsi directory. If the iscsid.conf is not present, install the package using Linux console commands, or in YaST, select Network Services > iSCSI Initiator, then click Continue to allow the open-iscsi package to be installed.

Continue with Section 2.7.3, Configuring the Linux iSCSI Initiator.

2.7.3 Configuring the Linux iSCSI Initiator

After installing the open-iSCSI package, you must configure the iSCSI initiator on Linux. You can do this in YaST by going to Network Services > iSCSI Initiator, then configuring the discovery. For information, see Using YaST for the iSCSI Initiator Configuration in the SLES 10 SP2 Installation and Administration Guide. For more information about using open-iSCSI on Linux, see the Open iSCSI Project.

You need to know the IP address of the iSCSI target server and the IQN (Internet Qualified Name) of the iSCSI target device. You can find the IQN by entering iscsitar targets at the server console of the iSCSI target server. For example:

iqn.1984-08.com.novell:80804566-51e6-d811-b869-0007e913505a

You can alternately set up the initiator manually by editing the iSCSI configuration file (iscsid.conf) to add the necessary information. The iscsid.conf configuration file contains instructions on the kinds of configuration information that can be added to the file.

2.7.4 Connecting to the iSCSI Target

To cause the Linux initiator server to connect to the NetWare iSCSI target server, enter /etc/init.d/open-iscsi start at the Linux console.

A message should appear indicating that the server has discovered new hardware. To verify that the Linux initiator has connected to the target, enter iscsi-ls at the initiator server console.

If you are connecting to an iSCSI target that already has NSS partitions and pools created on it, you may not be able to access those NSS partitions and pools until you either reboot the Linux initiator server or run the evms_activate command at the Linux server console. This is required for each Linux initiator server that will access the iSCSI target.