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vineshs86

Q: Is it possible to configure SNS GlobalSAN and Xtarget with Apple XSAN over iSCSI?

Here is a detailed break down of my setup and step by step -

 

THE SETUP:

 

1 x Mac Pro with Xtarget + GlobalSAN iSCSI initiators (Licensed)

3 x iMacs with GlobalSAN iSCSI initiators (trial ENDING 5TH DEC)


All are OSX 10.8 / Mountain Lion Server

XSAN is enabled on all machines

 

As advised - I have created 2 networks.

 

With the Mac pro, I have 2 ethernet ports.

 

With the iMacs, there is only 1 port, so I have duplicated the connection (as per Jason's suggestion)

 

I have manually configured the IP's so the 2 networks are:

 

- 192.168.0.*        (iSCSI)

- 192.160.20.*      (Metadata)

 

 

THE XTARGET MACHINE (Mac Pro):


I have placed the startup disk in the second bay beneath the optical drive.

 

The 4 HDD bays are filled with 2TB WD BLACK drives.

 

As the drives had been initially formatted, I did "erase free space" on all of the drives as suggested.

 

This caused one of the drives to fail and prevent boot up, so it's been removed leaving only 3 x 2TB drives.

 

     On the GlobalSAN prefs pane, I have set the following:

 

          UNDER XTARGET TAB:

 

                 - Allow incoming iSCSI connections

                 - Selected the 3 x 2TB drives as LUNs - status 'Online'

 

          UNDER INITIATOR TAB:

 

                 - I have selected 'Local Xtarget Server'

                 - Under connections I have:

                      - 127.0.0.1  status 'Offline'

 

                 I have also added my 2 ethernet connections:

                      - 192.168.0.4   status 'Online'

                      - 192.168.20.4 status 'Online'

 

                (.4 is the manually assigned IP for the Xtarget machine)

 

                I have left the rest of the settings as default.

 

I can see that this mounts the iSCSI drives onto the desktop of the Mac Pro.

 

 

MDC1 - iMac


On MDC1 - I have OSX Server installed (Mountain Lion Server)

 

The GlobalSAN initiator is set to the portal of the Xtarget server.

 

I can see that this mounts the iSCSI drives onto the desktop of the iMac

 

     XSAN Admin:


     - I am able to configure my cluster of machines on as part of a SAN, with 2 iMacs as MDCs, the Xtarget machine and another iMac as clients.

 

     - Once the SAN is created, I am asked if I'd like to create a volume.

 

     - I select the kind of volume I like to create then proceed to the pane the allows me to assign LUNs to affinity tags.

 

          - THIS IS WHERE I GET STUCK -- I cannot see any LUN's visible to assign to any affinity tags.

 

 

Is there something that I have missed out or done in error with regards to the process detailed above?

 

Please advise.

Xsan, OS X Server

Posted on Dec 3, 2013 9:49 AM

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Q: Is it possible to configure SNS GlobalSAN and Xtarget with Apple XSAN over iSCSI?

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  • by Strontium90,

    Strontium90 Strontium90 Dec 3, 2013 5:31 PM in response to vineshs86
    Level 5 (4,077 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Dec 3, 2013 5:31 PM in response to vineshs86

    Wow.  You are a wild man.  Holy smoke.

     

    So I am not sure why or where you are coming from on this attempt.  If you are building an iSCSI storage network you do not need XSan running. If you are trying to build an Xsan you need Fibre Channel, not iSCSI. 

     

    Now, that being said, you *might* be able to get the LUNs recognized by forcing LUN labels on the volumes.  But holy cow, you better have a really good backup as you are breaking every known rule of Xsan in the process.

     

    Can you give an overview of what your objective is?  What problem are you trying to solve here?

  • by Blaidd Drwg,

    Blaidd Drwg Blaidd Drwg Dec 6, 2013 12:59 PM in response to vineshs86
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 12:59 PM in response to vineshs86

    You said the LUNs "mount on the desktop". That means you've already formatted them... presumably with HFS+ or some other Mac compatible filesystem. Because of that, Xsan Admin won't show them as available LUNs. You will have to nuke the old filesystem metadata before you can use them with Xsan Admin. See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1370. Once you've done that, you'll have to label the LUNs before you can add them to a volume.