What is the best iSCSI initiator for macOS 10.12?

Price: globalSAN - $89, ATTO - $249

Usefulness:

globalSAN

simple but works well enough

GUI automatically performs iscsi discovery once the SAN/Target server is defined

Be sure that you select only the specific target(s) that you are supposed/allowed to use as some Targets

discovered may be used/in use by other iSCSI clients (Initiators)

Works out of Preferences; can select "auto-connect" but is not required; best to eject before shutdown

CLI support is OK, somewhat limited when compared to Open-SCSI related utiliity implementations

such as "iscsiadm" (Linux V6, Solaris V1)

Initiator currently doesn't have any SMART smarts if you use "smartctl"

CLI ("gsutil") is located in "/opt/local/bin" which may require PATH settings if used often enough

CLI is NOT required to perform the iSCSI attachment procedures, but allows (advanced) users more options on

how to use the product

A "How to use iSCSI Targets on Mac computers" pseudo-guide from Synology is available (note that OS X

version displayed is somewhat old)

Synology Target is attached as a Volume (which you name in Preferences)

Initial connection to selected target may automatically bring up "diskutil" to "allow" you to format the Target;

make sure that you have the correct/allowed Target before proceeding!

Offers 14-day free trial

ATTO

Haven't used it because of cost; didn't find any "trial version" available

Documentation implies more extensive options

There are some others which if you look at Internet postings are somewhat questionable as to use/currenency. One from GitHub, "iscsi-osx/iSCSIinitiator", (free) requires disabling System Integrity Protection as their application is not (Apple) signed. This process requires booting from Recovery OS. Read and understand all of the requirements and implications before using.

Hi!

We are running globalSAN iSCSI Software since 4 years on our OSX Server for Time Machine without any issues. Targets come from a Windows Server 2012 R2. We started with OSX Server 10.9 and now we are on 10.12.

Only "problem" i had in the beginning: If you turn on VSS on the Volume where the iSCSI-VHDX is located the target gets "corrupted" (dunno if its true) in macOS and is not usable until you create a new one. No problem for me, because i dont need VSS on that volume.

Reagrds!

SANmp and Xsan are FiberChannel based applications whereas globalSAN/iSANmp are ethernet based.

Whilst I cannot find iSANmp on the SNS web site, a 3rd party offering for it listed a $199 price - way more than for globalSAN ($89).

I mentioned that when using globalSAN that it automatically discovers ALL available iSCSI Targets and presents them in its Preferences interface - and - that users need to manually select which one to use - and - be very careful to choose the correct one.

One interesting note about Synology DiskStation level NAS/SAN servers (at least for the ds216 series) is that their configuration has an expliciit "allow/disallow multiple connections" for each defined Target so multiple connections to the same available Target can be managed at the iSCSI server level. Of course, if multiple connections are enabled, then the iSCSI user(s) are responsible for whatever happens to the Target data.

Since the original question was about (client) iSCSI Initiator rather than file sharing (MP) I did not include information about the other SNS products including Xtarget which is an iSCSI server application).

For what its worth I get the impression that GlobalSan from Studio Network Solutions supports connecting to a SAN via iSCSI but also supports using Apple's XSAN software to allow multiple users to connect to the same iSCSI target.

Normally only one computer should connect to an individual iSCSI target so the above is worth knowing.

Note: SNS also provide their own equivalents to XSAN called SANmp or another called iSANmp.

And why Apple does not make their own iSCSI initiator?

Note limitation of FREE version: iSCSI targets/LUNs that can be conneted to - 1.

OK for simple one-Target, one-LUN environments. Not much use for multiple Targets or multiple LUNs. That requires paid ($29.95) version. The free version is marked as "trial", but I have not seen any mention of valid time period. It may be that time is not limited.

kernsafe free iSCSI initiator for Apple Mac OS

http://www.kernsafe.com/product/macos-iscsi-initiator.aspx