WHITE PAPER

The 2010 Guide to iSCSI Storage

The Essential Guide to iSCSI Storage and Why You Should Convert Your Windows
Server 2008 R2 Into Shared Storage on Your Existing Ethernet / IP Network
 Introduction

“
This guide provides an overview of why you should consider using iSCSI storage in your IT environ-
ment. Helping answer the question; why implement iSCSI storage when you can also select from
iSCSI storage
NAS (Network Attached Storage / also know as your file servers), DAS (Direct Attached Storage,
is already in i.e. local hard disks), or FC (Fiber Channel)?
use by many
companies Building your own iSCSI SAN using off the shelf hardware and freely available iSCSI storage soft-
from SMBs to ware is a fairly easy task. But why bother with an iSCSI SAN at all? With an iSCSI SAN you can do
many common tasks far easier and faster than with conventional file servers and direct attached
the Fortune

”
disks. A SAN gives you “shared storage” on your network, meaning that you can centrally manage
500s. all of your storage from one device as opposed to managing storage on each application server.
Shared storage has many advantages, including enabling simplified backups when using snap-
shots, and allows replication between storage devices, for offsiting data, to be done at a far lower
cost than with host based replication.

This whitepaper details what iSCSI is, demystifies some common misconceptions you may have
about iSCSI, and outlines why iSCSI could be the best choice over FC, DAS or NAS. Furthermore,
using off the shelf server hardware and iSCSI storage software available as free or paid editions
enables you to build your own SAN and lowers the cost of entry for budget challenged IT depart-
ments, without limiting functionality and scalability. iSCSI storage is already in use by many
companies from SMBs to the Fortune 500s.

Questions we will answer for you:

1. What is iSCSI and why should you care?
2. What iSCSI means to those who consider networked storage to be too expensive?
3. What you need to implement a SAN that works over your Ethernet?
4. How does an iSCSI SAN compare to a Fibre Channel SAN in cost and performance?

[2] www.starwindsoftware.com
What is iSCSI?
SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) has been a standard
protocol for decades, which enables computers to commu-
nicate with storage devices. As system interconnects move
from the classical bus structure to a network structure, SCSI
commands must be mapped to network transport protocols.
Today’s IP Gigabit networks meet the performance require-
ments of to seamlessly transport SCSI commands between
applicaiton servers to centralized storage.
The iSCSI protocol enables the transfer of SCSI packets over
a TCP/IP (Ethernet)network. iSCSI is an interoperable solu-
tion which enables the use of existing TCP/IP infrastructure
and addresses distance limitations (iSCSI can also be used
over the Internet). This means the disk drives in your SAN are
presented over your existing Ethernet network to server ap-
plications as though the disks are local to your physical server
hardware.
Don’t confuse this with traditional SCSI disks; in fact, iSCSI
storage is typically implemented with affordable SATA or SAS
disks. iSCSI presents block based storage just as you get with
your internal disk drives, whereas a NAS is nothing more than
a plain file server which presents storage as file shares. A
common scenario is to use a portion of your iSCSI SAN stor-
age as back-end disks for file servers (NAS), consolidating
both application data
and file shares into one
iSCSI allows any IT appliance.
administrator to easily
deploy a true SAN over With iSCSI storage you
an IP network. can use any IP switches
and routers, and the
client machines (your
servers) can use a software driver called an “initiator” instead
of the more costly FC HBAs (Host Based Adapters). For older
servers with lower powered CPU’s you can use an iSCSI HBA
which is still lower cost than a FC HBA. Both StarWind Soft-
ware and Microsoft provide freely downloadable software
iSCSI Initiators. Microsoft has eagerly endorsed iSCSI technol-
ogy for Windows, helping to promote iSCSI awareness.
The concept of using an IP network for block based storage
causes many people to incorrectly assume storage traffic will
clutter their LAN, or that IP networking may not provide the
necessary performance your applications require. While it is
true that many early iSCSI vendors were shipping products
that were not up to the job of enterprise class applications
such as Microsoft Exchange, VMware and SQL Server, there
[3] www.starwindsoftware.com
is also a well established base of vendors that are shipping
iSCSI storage into SMBs and enterprise customers. Keep read-
ing to learn the truth about iSCSI.
iSCSI Storage is often referred to as an “iSCSI Array” or “iSCSI
Target”. The official terminology uses “Target” to refer to the
storage side and “Initiator” for the client side driver. The Initia-
tor allows application servers and workstations to access the
Target (the iSCSI storage).
Benefits of iSCSI
The iSCSI protocol provides numerous benefits for SANs
compared to using Fiber Channel, a few key points are sum-
marized below:
• iSCSI uses familiar networking standards: Ethernet and
TCP/IP. Most IT administrators are already familiar with
TCP/IP, unlike the more complex skills required for FC
storage.
• Total storage costs are reduced: iSCSI SANs are easier to
install and maintain than FC, lowering installation and
maintenance expenses. iSCSI reduces the necessity of
hiring or outsourcing storage administration.
• Replication works over a standard IP network: iSCSI repli-
cation eliminates distance limitations and costs associ-
ated with FC routers.
• Reduces complexity by eliminating Fibre Channel
switches and cabling: Using standard Ethernet switches
simplifies everything as most organizations already have
in house IP networking skills.
• iSCSI scales to 10 Gigabit: For enterprise applications
that require high transactional performance 10GigE is
available, thus expanding iSCSI Storage Networks perfor-
mance to equal the performance of Metro and Wide Area
Networks.
Long Distance Storage
iSCSI’s use of IP Networking means long distance is no longer
an issue for backing up remote sites or performing disaster
recovery. With the use of Secure Internet Protocol (IPSec) and
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to provide authentication and pri-
vacy iSCSI over a public network is a viable method to extend
the corporate network without incurring high costs.
10 Gigabit Ethernet provides enough bandwidth and
reliability to transfer large amounts of data over long distance
IP networks.
Who Can Use iSCSI
Any company that places a high value on their data can ben-
efit from an iSCSI SAN. Including:
• Any IT shop with limited resources and limited budgets.
iSCSI is a proven technology that costs significantly less
than Fiber Channel, and provides superior data protec-
tion and cost reductions over traditional direct attached
disks (also refered to as DAS).
• iSCSI is fully supported by VMware and many other vir-
tual machine vendors: in most cases an iSCSI SAN is the
best choice for server virtualization projects.
• Designers and testing and development teams that
require immediate and fast access to data and backup
sets, without waiting for delays with traditional tape
based backups.
• When data is required in real time across geographically
distributed organizations iSCSI makes the best sense
due to the low cost and ease of use of IP Networking.
• Organizations that host other people’s data such as
Application Service Providers (ASPs), Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) or Storage Service Providers (SSPs) can
all benefit from a reduced TCO footprint when using iSCSI
storage.
• Anywhere remote data replication or disaster recovery is
a requirement: Typically as organizations start to expand
i.e. a new office is opened or a new company is acquired
in another state, the costs associated with traditional
data protection such as tape off-siting and data center
hosting costs can be significantly reduced by leveraging
remote sites and iSCSI.
• Even the smallest companies can seek a postitive ROI
when using iSCSI storage to backup straight to disk
before going to tape, essentially retaining weeks or even
months of backups for protection against data loss and
for legal/compliancy requirements. Thus reducing the
dependency on backup tape.
Mixed Storage Environment - iSCSI and FC
It’s important to mention that iSCSI storage can work in a
[4] www.starwindsoftware.com
mixed protocol environment. For example if you have a need
for additional storage and already own a FC SAN which you
don’t plan to replace, then iSCSI may be the most rational
decision for A) new virtual machine deployments B) applica-
tion servers that are not SAN attached but have out grown
their direct attached disks C) as an iSCSI disk-to-disk backup
appliance or D) a pure VTL (virtual tape library).
For organizations already invested in FC as primary storage
which require lower cost Tier 2 storage, using iSCSI for the low-
er cost tiers will provide significant cost savings over FC. It’s a
growing trend within the industry to implement iSCSI storage
in mixed protocol environment, where existing FC storage may
be legacy but still under warranty, or the performance of FC is
required for extremely I/O intensive applications such as high
transactional databases with many hits per second, leaving
iSCSI as the ideal choice for many applications from Microsoft
Exchange, SQL Server to VMware or Hyper-V.
Performance
One of the main advantages of iSCSI is speed. iSCSI storage is
Ethernet-based so IT Administrators only require basic IP net-
working knowledge, as opposed to more specialized FC net-
working skills. There is a common misconception that FC pro-
vides better performance, yet with correct sizing to determine
the appropriate speed and number of disks needed in each
RAID group to achieve the required IOPs (i/o’s per second) to
sustain optimal application performance, iSCSI has proven to
be capable of meeting the performance requirements of some
of the most demanding applications in the enterprise. Plus FC
storage is significantly more expensive, requiring proprietary
FC HBAs (Host Based Adapters) on client machines as well
as more expensive FC network switches. Also, managing and
maintaining a FC SAN requires administrators to learn new
skills in FC networking. While the price is significantly higher
for FC, the performance is not 300% better. Ultimately, what
everyone has begun to realize is that while Fibre Channel
bandwidth is theoretically higher, bottlenecks in performance
become non-issues with correct sizing of a SANs disks (num-
ber of spindles per RAID group and speed of drives) and the
appropriate number of IP network connections (multi-pathing)
between your application servers and the iSCSI Storage.
IP Networking
iSCSI storage allows you to use existing IP switches and rout-
ers, and the client machines (your application servers) can use
basic software called an “initiator” instead of more expensive
FC HBA cards. For older application servers with lower pow-
ered CPU’s you can use an iSCSI HBA which is still affordable
unlike the FC HBA counterpart. For instance, Microsoft offers
a freely downloadable software iSCSI Initiator and all new
versions of Microsoft Windows include the Microsoft iSCSI
Initiator. Microsoft has eagerly endorsed iSCSI technology for
Windows, helping to promote iSCSI awareness. Linux based
iSCSI initiators are also freely available.
One misconception of iSCSI is that it puts traffic onto the
corporate network. This is not true, as iSCSI storage can be
configured as a true SAN by placing the iSCSI servers on a seg-
mented network, either by using physically separate switches
/ host ports or by configuring VLANs on existing Gigabit Eth-
ernet switches. Also, using jumbo frames can improve perfor-
mance by 15% or more.
To make sure that your IP network is utilized correctly, you
should use a dedicated NIC port on your application servers
to connect to dedicated IP switches which are only used for
iSCSI traffic. This will ensure that you don’t overwhelm your
LAN. This is the cornerstone of a SAN which is by definition a
separate network for storage. For further redundancy on your
SAN network you can use two separate switches in a criss-
cross fashion, this requires either dual NICs or two available
Ethernet ports on your application servers.
To clarify a common point of confusion an iSCSI HBA is not the
same as an iSCSI offload or TOE (TCP Offload Engine) NIC. An
iSCSI HBA is a dedicated hardware based initiator (which may
also include an Ethernet port with TOE). TOE NICs and iSCSI
offload NICs still require a software based initiator such as
the freely available Microsoft Initiator or the more advanced
StarPort Initiator from StarWind Software.
Sizing Disks
Sizing disks involves selecting the correct speed drives and
the right number of drives per RAID group to achieve the
required IOPs (i/o operations per second) for your applica-
tions. How you decide to carve up a RAID group, many LUNs
spread across a single RAID group vs. each LUN on a separate
RAID group is a function of the performance your applications
require.
Security
Now a little about iSCSI security which is achieved by the
design of iSCSI enabling IT administrators to specify the client
machines (Initiators) that are able to connect to the iSCSI stor-
age server (the iSCSI Target). CHAP (Challenge Handshake Au-
thentication Protocol) is used to provide authentication with
iSCSI storage devices. Because CHAP identifiers are changed
[5] www.starwindsoftware.com
frequently and because authentication can be requested by
the SAN at any time, CHAP provides a high level of security,
even more so than Password Authentication Procedures (PAP).
iSCSI Initiators provide an authentication capability to pre-
vent unauthorized servers from accessing storage. Deploying
the iSCSI SAN in a secure data-center environment usually
provides sufficient security for most environments. If the SAN
extends over a campus or a metropolitan area, you can also
implement IPSec protection.
Virtual Machines and Server Consolidation
Now that vendors such as VMware fully support iSCSI stor-
age, IT shops can be confident that an iSCSI SAN may indeed
be the best choice for a virtual server environment. In most
cases an iSCSI SAN that is correctly sized for your applications
performance requirements will deliver the needed throughput
to ensure application performance and availability. That being
said, even FC, when poorly sized may not perform as required.
When using virtual machines such as with VMware or Hyper-V,
shared storage greatly simplifies and leverages the flexibility
and portability benefits that come with not having your ap-
plication server tied to a single piece of hardware. Utilizing
features like VMware’s VMotion, VCB, DRS and VMware HA
or Microsoft Hyper-V’s Live Migration which are key drivers of
any virtualization implementation. Shared storage is not an
option when implementing this type of strategy, it is a require-
ment. For assistance with designing your storage with virtual
servers please contact your SAN vendor or you can look at
StarWind’s Essential Guide for VMware High Availability with
Shared Storage. Using shared storage makes it significantly
easier to manage, provision and protect virtual machines. This
combined with server consolidation make up the bulk of the
ROI associated with any virtualization implementation, cost
effective shared storage options are the glue that helps main-
tain this ROI, preventing IT departments from watching these
saved dollars evaporate at the expense of a FC SAN.
Data Protection: Leveraging Replication
and Snapshots
Replication (sometimes referred to as mirroring) and snap-
shots are two of the more powerful benefits of a SAN. A
feature of replication is CDP (Constant Data Protection) which
allows near real time data protection between storage de-
vices located either remotely (between offices) or locally for
backup and disaster recovery plans. Snapshots allow you to
easily create a full copy of your data, or create a backup of just
the changed data since the last full copy. Some SAN vendors
separate snaps from clones as separate paid options, so take
note of how your SAN vendor prices each option as other ven-
dors provide all features included with the base price.
Replication allows you to set up a redundant iSCSI server to
protect data, CDP allows recovery of current data as opposed
to restoring an older file that may be a few hours out of date.
Since iSCSI processes all data on the iSCSI server there is no
overhead on your application servers when performing backup
tasks using an iSCSI server snapshot and using replication
features.
Where Does Tape Fit in?
What if you don’t need to reinvent your entire storage meth-
odology, what if you are getting by, and you just need a better
way to manage backups? iSCSI is a perfect solution here since
you can perform backups from your application and file serv-
ers direct to iSCSI instead of going straight to tape. For extra
data protection you can still backup to tape after going to
iSCSI, i.e. disk-to-disk-to-tape.
Also, many iSCSI vendors provide a VTL (Virtual Tape Library)
option so your backup software agents see the iSCSI storage
as though it is a tape library, thus requiring no changes to
your backup software. To backup without the VTL option your
backup software must be capable of backing up straight to
disk, usually this entails an additional paid option unless you
already own the feature.
Backing up to iSCSI storage requires fewer tape backups,
provides more efficient restores (restoring from iSCSI is many
times faster than restoring from tape), and your backup win-
dows will be significantly reduced. How much data you decide
to keep on disk is a function of your data protection strategy,
typically a minimum of 4 weeks of backups should be kept
on disk, to as many as a year. The cost of disks needs to be
balanced with the value of your data and the current costs of
backing up straight to tape and trucking the tapes offsite.
What about DAS and NAS?
With DAS (Direct Attached Storage, also known as local at-
tached disks) the utilization rate is typically only 30-70%, leav-
ing a lot of wasted storage space. Managing storage spread
across multiple servers is not an ideal situation, especially if
you need to add more storage capacity. If you use or plan to
use virtual machines such as VMware or Hyper-V then shared
storage is essential to leveraging the full benefits of virtual
machines such as VMware’s VMotion capabilities to live mi-
grate servers between physical machines. iSCSI storage helps
[6] www.starwindsoftware.com
consolidate storage, providing easier management as well as
faster and simpler expansion through one single management
point. Also, Thin Provisioning is a key feature of higher end
SANs, allowing you to provision more storage than is physi-
cally available, thus allowing you to add disks on the fly as
storage demand grows, without reconfiguring your application
servers.
NAS storage (file servers) can be used in conjunction with
iSCSI storage, to provide a file server for your desktops and
workstations. This way desktops can connect to a file server
which connects to iSCSI storage in the back end, eliminating
the need to use a client side initiator on desktops, and all your
applications such as SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange can
connect directly to your iSCSI storage.
Boot From SAN
For organizations interested in eliminating local hard disks
entirely (including the disks where the operating system is
installed) it is also possible to boot servers and desktops
directly from iSCSI storage, typically referred to as “boot from
SAN”. Using an iSCSI boot capable NIC, an iSCSI HBA or iSCSI
Boot software you can boot your entire Windows or Linux OS
from iSCSI storage. Boot from SAN greatly simplifies provision-
ing and disaster recovery for servers where virtual machines
are not a good fit, either due to financial constraints or for
applications that require a dedicated physical machine.
Selecting an iSCSI Solution
There are many iSCSI vendors today with an assortment of
products available to provide iSCSI storage. The critical factors
to consider when selecting iSCSI storage is the performance of
the appliance and the feature set required to manage the stor-
age. Some vendors charge high prices for enterprise features
such as snapshots and replication, while other vendors may
include all features but charge a significantly higher entry
fee, with costly proprietary vendor lock-ins for future storage
expansion. And beware of low end all-in-one hardware, these
devices usually have limited performance due to low powered
CPUs, limited NIC ports and limited software management
capabilities.
One of the easiest ways to implement iSCSI storage is to build
your own storage server using a standard off the shelf server
(HP, IBM, Dell, etc) and install iSCSI Target Software such the
Free version of StarWind Server v4.1 for Microsoft Windows,
which gives you plenty of flexibility for use as primary storage
for application servers such as Exchange or virtual machines
such as Hyper-V and VMware ESX, for Tier-2 storage for less
critical applications and file servers, for pure disk-to-disk
backup or even as a dedicated VTL (virtual tape library). The
Free edition of StarWind allows you to manage a capacity of up
to 2TB.

Once you download and install StarWind iSCSI Server soft-

ware, it should take you no more than 15 to 20 minutes to get
started. StarWind can be installed on any x86 server running
64-bit or 32-bit Microsoft Windows, allowing you to select your
preferred hardware vendor (i.e. Dell, HP, IBM, or any white
box server ) or to repurpose any existing server that may have
become available after consolidation or implementation of
VMware or Hyper-V virtualization environments. StarWind is
also available in paid editions that support replication, CDP,
snapshots and VTL functionality.
Figure 3: Creating a new virtual disk in StarWind with Encryp-
tion enabled.

Figure 1: StarWind central management console interface,

showing two active devices. A device in StarWind contains data
such as primary storage or snapshots.

Figure 4: Configuring snapshots in StarWind, using the option

to auto-snap every 30 minutes.

Figure 2: Adding a new client connection to StarWind. Note the

option to enable CHAP authentication for security.

[7] www.starwindsoftware.com
StarWind specifics
In large I/O environments adding more NIC ports to the
StarWind server will allow even more data throughput. Unlike
many dedicated SAN vendors, a StarWind SAN allows you
to grow NIC ports without purchasing new dedicated SAN
hardware.
Also, ensure you are using a 1GigE network for all SAN traffic.
Anything slower will likely not provide enough network band-
width for most applications.
On Windows clients (your application servers) the free Mi-
crosoft iSCSI Initiator or the free and more advanced StarPort
NOTE: This diagram illustrates segmenting the iSCSI network (the SAN) from the corporate LAN. Two IP switches are used
for redundancy.
[8] www.starwindsoftware.com
Initiator is used to enable the client machine to connect to
your new SAN. StarWind has also been validated with Linux
and UNIX iSCSI initiators, iSCSI HBAs from Adaptec and QLogic
and hardware iSCSI accelerators from Alacritech.
Multi-pathing will provide redundancy or NIC teaming to im-
prove data flow. Multi-pathing with StarWind is achieved using
industry standard MPIO capabilities. If you are using StarWind
as a backup to disk appliance and you only have a single
backup server you can get away with a simpler direct connec-
tion and eliminate a switch all together.
Summary
Storage Virtualization has rapidly become a standard tech-
nology for use in software development, testing, and server
consolidation scenarios. A growing trend is for organizations
to further leverage storage virtualization to achieve superior
results using iSCSI over an IP network.
Related Links
To download a fully functional FREE edition of the StarWind
iSCSI Server for Microsoft Windows or for more information
from StarWind Software about the solution outlined in this
paper visit: www.starwindsoftware.com.

iSCSI technology is proven with many customer installations,

providing low cost high performance alternatives to legacy
Fibre Channel SANs, Direct Attached storage or Network
Attached Storage. iSCSI runs over Ethernet on off the shelf
hardware, and provides enhanced features for virtual server
environments.

iSCSI storage provides the benefits of enterprise class func-

tionality previously only available with more costly FC storage,
with the low costs preciously associated with DAS. iSCSI is
also an ideal complement to existing FC infrastructure. iSCSI
is a particularly appealing choice for SMB’s as it does not
require specialized equipment or training, making for a simple
solution that is highly affordable.

This guide is meant to be a brief introduction to iSCSI and

how it compares to other storage solutions. Please refer to
the Build a SAN Guide, and consult your sales rep for further
assistance.

Turn Any Server Into a SAN.
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ABOUT STARWIND
Since 2003, StarWind has been the storage solution of choice for thousands of global customers in over 50
countries, from SMBs, to governments, and to Fortune 1000 clients. StarWind has pioneered the iSCSI / IP
SAN industry with its storage virtualization software that converts any Windows Server into a reliable and
scalable shared storage.
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express written permission of StarWind Software, Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact
StarWind. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. StarWind Enterprise Server is a
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