12.5. iSCSI-based Storage Pools

Procedure 12.4. Creating an iSCSI target

1. Install the required packages

   Install the scsi-target-utils package and all dependencies

   # yum install scsi-target-utils

2. Start the tgtd service

   The tgtd service host physical machines SCSI targets and uses the iSCSI protocol to host physical machine targets. Start the tgtd service and make the service persistent after restarting with the chkconfig command.

   # service tgtd start
   # chkconfig tgtd on

3. Optional: Create LVM volumes

   LVM volumes are useful for iSCSI backing images. LVM snapshots and resizing can be beneficial for guest virtual machines. This example creates an LVM image named virtimage1 on a new volume group named virtstore on a RAID5 array for hosting guest virtual machines with iSCSI.

   1. Create the RAID array

      Creating software RAID5 arrays is covered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide.

   2. Create the LVM volume group

      Create a volume group named virtstore with the vgcreate command.

      # vgcreate virtstore /dev/md1

   3. Create a LVM logical volume

      Create a logical volume group named virtimage1 on the virtstore volume group with a size of 20GB using the lvcreate command.

      # lvcreate --size 20G -n virtimage1 virtstore

      The new logical volume, virtimage1, is ready to use for iSCSI.

4. Optional: Create file-based images

   File-based storage is sufficient for testing but is not recommended for production environments or any significant I/O activity. This optional procedure creates a file based imaged named virtimage2.img for an iSCSI target.

   1. Create a new directory for the image

      Create a new directory to store the image. The directory must have the correct SELinux contexts.

      # mkdir -p /var/lib/tgtd/virtualization

   2. Create the image file

      Create an image named virtimage2.img with a size of 10GB.

      # dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/lib/tgtd/virtualization/virtimage2.img bs=1M seek=10000 count=0

   3. Configure SELinux file contexts

      Configure the correct SELinux context for the new image and directory.

      # restorecon -R /var/lib/tgtd

      The new file-based image, virtimage2.img, is ready to use for iSCSI.

5. Create targets

   Targets can be created by adding a XML entry to the /etc/tgt/targets.conf file. The target attribute requires an iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN). The IQN is in the format:

   iqn.yyyy-mm.reversed domain name:optional identifier text

   Where:
   • yyyy-mm represents the year and month the device was started (for example: 2010-05);
   • reversed domain name is the host physical machines domain name in reverse (for example server1.example.com in an IQN would be com.example.server1); and
   • optional identifier text is any text string, without spaces, that assists the administrator in identifying devices or hardware.
   This example creates iSCSI targets for the two types of images created in the optional steps on server1.example.com with an optional identifier trial. Add the following to the /etc/tgt/targets.conf file.

   <target iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest>
      backing-store /dev/virtstore/virtimage1  #LUN 1
      backing-store /var/lib/tgtd/virtualization/virtimage2.img  #LUN 2
      write-cache off
   </target>
   

   Ensure that the /etc/tgt/targets.conf file contains the default-driver iscsi line to set the driver type as iSCSI. The driver uses iSCSI by default.

   Important

   This example creates a globally accessible target without access control. Refer to the scsi-target-utils for information on implementing secure access.

6. Restart the tgtd service

   Restart the tgtd service to reload the configuration changes.

   # service tgtd restart

7. iptables configuration

   Open port 3260 for iSCSI access with iptables.

   # iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 3260 -j ACCEPT
   # service iptables save
   # service iptables restart

8. Verify the new targets

   View the new targets to ensure the setup was successful with the tgt-admin --show command.

   # tgt-admin --show
   Target 1: iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest
   System information:
   Driver: iscsi
   State: ready
   I_T nexus information:
   LUN information:
   LUN: 0
       Type: controller
       SCSI ID: IET     00010000
       SCSI SN: beaf10
       Size: 0 MB
       Online: Yes
       Removable media: No
       Backing store type: rdwr
       Backing store path: None
   LUN: 1
       Type: disk
       SCSI ID: IET     00010001
       SCSI SN: beaf11
       Size: 20000 MB
       Online: Yes
       Removable media: No
       Backing store type: rdwr
       Backing store path: /dev/virtstore/virtimage1
   LUN: 2
       Type: disk
       SCSI ID: IET     00010002
       SCSI SN: beaf12
       Size: 10000 MB
       Online: Yes
       Removable media: No
       Backing store type: rdwr
       Backing store path: /var/lib/tgtd/virtualization/virtimage2.img
   Account information:
   ACL information:
   ALL
   

   Warning

   The ACL list is set to all. This allows all systems on the local network to access this device. It is recommended to set host physical machine access ACLs for production environments.

9. Optional: Test discovery

   Test whether the new iSCSI device is discoverable.

   # iscsiadm --mode discovery --type sendtargets --portal server1.example.com
   127.0.0.1:3260,1 iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest

10. Optional: Test attaching the device

    Attach the new device (iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest) to determine whether the device can be attached.

    # iscsiadm -d2 -m node --login
    scsiadm: Max file limits 1024 1024
    
    Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest, portal: 10.0.0.1,3260]
    Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest, portal: 10.0.0.1,3260] successful.

    Detach the device.

    # iscsiadm -d2 -m node --logout
    scsiadm: Max file limits 1024 1024
    
    Logging out of session [sid: 2, target: iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest, portal: 10.0.0.1,3260
    Logout of [sid: 2, target: iqn.2010-05.com.example.server1:iscsirhel6guest, portal: 10.0.0.1,3260] successful.