Mosaic IT Directors Series

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

Table of Contents

Overview __________________________________________________________________ 3
Internet SCSI ______________________________________________________________ 3
SCSI ______________________________________________________________________ 4
Fibre Channel/SAN _________________________________________________________ 4
NAS ______________________________________________________________________ 4
How iSCSI Works __________________________________________________________ 5
iSCSI in the Enterprise ______________________________________________________ 6
Where iSCSI Fits In The Enterprise ___________________________________________ 7
Why iSCSI?________________________________________________________________ 8
About Mosaic Technology ____________________________________________________ 9

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

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iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

Overview
Over the last two decades, computers evolved from simple productivity tools
into the core infrastructure of the entire global economy. That rise to
prominence is reflected in the increasing focus of IT in all business processes
and in evolving oversight regulatory mandates which require stringent
controls around data handling and access.
Business information and data repositories have become indispensable to the
success of any business. Today, workers require information access in order
to do their jobs effectively. As a result, the need to provide access to a
dramatically increasing information/data set is an essential element of
corporate planning and long-term success.
Storage sits at the center of information access. It has gotten faster, smaller,
and -- on a gigabyte basis cheaper. It has also evolved into a major
management challenge in terms of building effective and efficient (cost and
performance) storage systems.
In response to this challenge Technology evolved from SCSI to NASs and
SANs. Now iSCSI offers an additional storage option. One that promises
simplified management and implementation at reduced costs.
This guide is an introduction to iSCSI as a technology and an enterprise level
storage solution.

Internet SCSI
Internet Protocol (IP) is the most widely used standard anywhere. The
technology is well understood. Its easy to implement and is affordable. Most
corporate data traffic uses a common IP networkexcept for storage data.
Access to high performance storage data traditionally requires directattached devices or a Fibre Channel (FC) storage network.
Internet SCSI (iSCSI) transports traditional high performance block-based
storage data over a common IP network. Which means - it can be used in
remote mirroring, remote backup and similar applications since an IP
network has no distance limitations.
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As iSCSI begins to achieve widespread market adoption, barriers to

implementing and managing networked storage can be removed by
incorporating IP networking into a storage network.

SCSI
Most servers access storage devices through the Small Computer Systems
Interface (SCSI) standard, moving blocks of data among computer
systems. But its limitations became clear as demand for storage capacity
grew.
SCSIs built-in limitations on distance, number of devices supported and
exclusive ownership of a server to its respective SCSI storage device
prohibited the creation and sharing of a common pool of storage.

Fibre Channel/SAN
Creating a shared storage environment is best done with networked storage.
Fibre Channel (FC) is the basis for building a Storage Area Network (SAN)
and popular because it offers:
high performance,
support for longer distances than SCSI,
ability to transport block-level data, and
capability to scale to large network configurations.
Although no longer proprietary, FC based storage networks do have some
baggage:
complexity,
cost
difficult to install and manage.

NAS
Another method of networking storage is to attach the storage device directly
to an existing Ethernet network in a Network Attached Storage (NAS)
configuration. NAS is typically a simpler and lower cost than a SAN.
It leverages the benefits of using an IP network, such as support for
significantly longer distances. However, NAS is slower than FC SAN. Data
transport is managed at file level not the block level. This significantly
slows data access in transactional or database applications. Issues of
scalability, centralization and management of a single pool of storage
increase as the number of NAS systems deployed in a site increases.
A new solution was needed that offered the low cost and ease of deployment
of NAS systems and the functionality of SAN. Thats where iSCSI plays.

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

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How iSCSI Works

Internet SCSI (iSCSI) enables server host applications to perform traditional
block-level transactions over
a common IP network. Its
built on two of the most
commonly understood
protocols: SCSI and Ethernet,
the dominant standards for
storage and networking.
Using an ordinary IP network,
iSCSI transports block-level
data between an iSCSI initiator
on a server and an iSCSI target
on a storage device.

Communication between computing and

storage platforms with iSCSI

The iSCSI protocol encapsulates SCSI commands and assembles the data in
packets for the TCP/IP layer. Packets are sent over the network using a
point-to-point connection. Upon arrival, the protocol translates data back to
SCSI. Security is provided through iSCSI authentication and virtual private
networks (VPNs), as needed.
When an iSCSI initiator connects to an iSCSI target, the operating system
sees the storage as a local SCSI device that can be formatted as usual. The
process is transparent to applications, file systems, and operating systems.
By consolidating storage with an iSCSI SAN, different platforms can share the
same storage, greatly improving utilization and efficiency. Multi-protocol
switches let iSCSI and Fibre
Channel SANs co-exist
To access iSCSI storage, a
server needs an iSCSI initiator
connected to a network. An
initiator can be an iSCSI driver
with a standard network card,
or a card with a TCP offload
engine (TOE) to reduce CPU
utilization. HBAs are available
that offload both TCP and
iSCSI.
On the target side, storage
devices also implement the
iSCSI protocol stack.

iSCSI processing can be off-loaded to

dedicated intelligent HBAs.

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

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With the advent of Gigabit Ethernet, iSCSI can deliver performance

approaching a Fibre Channel SAN. Recent advances in 10GB Ethernet
promise to make iSCSI a high performance solution capable of meeting and
or exceeding other storage solutions performance levels.

The primary benefits of iSCSI leveraging IP are clear:

no distance limitation
lower cost
well understood technology
easy to administer and manage
high availability (multiple connection paths)
better performance than NAS (block level access instead of file level)
maximum utilization of resources (share disk and tape devices across
a heterogeneous environment).
FC SANs may be faster and have greater adoption and more robust
management tools than iSCSI offers today. But, IP SANs are simpler and
more affordable to implement than traditional FC SANs. And, with the 10
GbE, iSCSI on the horizon, IP SANs will benefit from the faster transfer rates.
But iSCSI need not replace FC to fit in the enterprise.

iSCSI in the Enterprise

It would be prohibitively expensive to maintain all company data on instantly
available and immediately recoverable storage systems. Enterprises routinely
move less critical data to less available storage or archive it offline. But
business and regulatory compliance requirements are beginning to demand
rapid access to some of these archived records, which are no longer on
immediately available storage.
Availability of data -- once seen as a business differentiator by providing
better customer service or a greater ability to execute -- has moved into
must have territory. On-demand data access is now a standard
requirement of doing business. Add regulatory requirements mandating that
large amounts of information be readily available and storage issues are
compounded.
These business and compliance demands force companies to move data onto
higher performance systems. Yet, redundant systems, backup and restore
policies, snapshot or mirrored copies, and resources managing data are
wasted if less critical data is moved to these systems. Moving volumes of
data onto higher value storage is expensive and results in wasted resources.
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Data classification seeks to overcome this potential weakness by aligning

information with business needs. Categorizing data based on business needs
and using the resulting classifications as a roadmap for retaining and storing
information is a fundamental underpinning of information lifecycle
management. Data classification aligns business requirements to
infrastructure, so that infrastructure service delivery properly supports data
storage and management.
Data of more value should be supported with a higher service level of
protection, such as mirroring, automated snapshots and remote replication
for recovery. But the cost for this level of service is high. Less critical data
can be archived to slower media, such as tape, at a much lower cost. With a
hierarchy of storage devices in place, storage administrators can match the
level of service available to the requirements of the business application.
Most enterprises are segmenting their server and storage systems into three
or four categories, roughly; business-critical, business-essential, businessutility applications, and non-essential. Of course, these categories are
arbitrary and which applications are critical, essential and utility varies by the
enterprise.

Where iSCSI Fits In The Enterprise

On a price per port basis, connecting a server with Fibre Channel is high and
limits the number of
servers that attach to a
SAN. For most IT budgets,
storage and associated
costs eats up one-third to
one-half of total IT
spending. A tiered-storage
approach (matching
relative value of data to
associated storage cost)
can substantially reduce
costs.
Connecting highavailability servers can cost
considerably less with
iSCSI3. This lets an
enterprise increase the
number of servers
iSCSI integrates into virtually any
attached to a SAN. iSCSI is
environment
appealing for companies
with remote sites. It brings stranded servers into the storage network, and
consolidates backups. In a tiered-access strategy, iSCSI is a complementary
technology to Fibre Channel.
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iSCSI gives networked storage access to servers that might never have been
connected, if it were not for the significantly lower cost of connecting to a
SAN.
So, on one hand, an FC SAN is well suited for the high performance and
functionality needed for business critical data, and can justify the expense to
connect and maintain a select number of servers to a high performance
storage network.
On the other hand, iSCSI is a good fit for all types of data with greater
economies of scale, ease of use and the ability to bring more servers into the
SAN than would otherwise be possible.
For the enterprise, it is no longer a question of either FC or iSCSI. They are
enabling technologies that work hand-in-hand, as complementary
technologies that fit together, in a tiered enterprise.

Why iSCSI?
The price of storage hardware has been decreasing. However, the unchecked
demand for data and the associated increase in administrative costs work
against all other factors in reducing the total cost of ownership.
The compound annual growth rate for storage is 68%. Administrative costs
run seven times the cost of hardware. Until now midrange businesses could
choose inefficient direct-attached storage (DAS) or invest in complex and
often proprietary technologies. Theres no guarantee that hardware will work
together, and storage management remains cumbersome. iSCSI creates a
standard for networked storage that brings the benefits of consolidated
storage to a broad range of businesses.
Developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a response to
the need for interoperability in networked storage, iSCSI lets businesses
leverage existing skills and network infrastructure to create IP-based SANs
that deliver the performance of Fibre Channel, but at a fraction of the cost.
Benefits of iSCSI
Makes consolidated storage possible for a wide range of businesses.
Enables cost-effective, scalable, secure, and highly-available SANs.
Leverages existing management skills and network infrastructure.
Delivers performance comparable to Fibre Channel.
Provides interoperability using industry standards.
Implemented by the top system, storage, and network providers.
iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction
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With iSCSI, businesses can get a handle on storage administration expenses

without retrofitting their existing network infrastructure or investing in
hardware that quickly becomes obsolete. Enabling low cost, interoperable,
and high performance SANs, iSCSI is about to revolutionize the world of
networked storage.

About Mosaic Technology

For over 10 years Mosaic Technology has been bringing an objective and
unbiased view of technology to our customers. In the areas of storage,
backup, data management, and server technology we offer a cross section of
leading technologies. We know that one size does not fit all. We have long
term relationships with companies such as EMC, Quantum, and Hitachi that
enable us to give our customers solutions based on their specific needs
rather than trying to force fit a product.
Headquartered in Salem, NH Mosaic has offices in Bellevue, WA, New York,
and Connecticut. For more information call 603-898-5966. Or visit our
website at www.mosaictec.com .

iSCSI Basics: A Practical Introduction

www.mosaictec.com