On Mon, 14 Jul 2003, Roger B.A Klorese wrote: > > To which I replied (summarized): iSCSI has nothing to do with > > hardware. > > iSCSI is currently only spoken to rare and expensive hardware: Ethernet disk > targets.
I disagree, and I (try) to back up my claims below. > > and I proceeded to yammer about how iSCSI is a protocol that > > essentially > > provides a block device over ethernet. My choice of the word "nothing" > > is wrong. What I meant to say is that the actual storage mechanism > > *underneath* the iSCSI provider is irrelevant, and that *no*, a user > > doesn't need to go out and acquire (typically) expensive hardware that > > speaks iSCSI, the user could buy cheap IDE drives and use his or her > > cheap, general-purpose machine running Linux to provide the iSCSI > > connectivity. > > But that cheap, general-purpose machine is a few hundred dollars of hardware > that nobody would buy in the scenario you describe unless they were going to > talk iSCSI to the IDE drives. We won't see widespread acceptance of iSCSI > storage by the misers among us (like me) until you can get an iSCSI drive > for the same price as an IDE drive... Or, at least, till you can get SATA > drives for the same price as IDE and can connect them externally. Didn't you *just say* that "iSCSI is currently only spoken to rare and expensive hardware". Are IDE drives "rare" and "expensive"? Seriously. If you are building a storage system for networked storage, you already have: - a computer - some drives - networking Let's see. To add iSCSI to the mix you need: - a compiler Holy Cow! Where might you find one of those, cheaply? > That's the point: not what can be done, but what can be done easily and at > no incremental cost. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding things about how iSCSI works, you really only need: - (2) Linux boxes with the appropriate software - a scsi block device (possibly emulated scsi via ide-scsi) This is the "actual" storage. Only one machine need actual storage. >From the README: http://www.cs.uml.edu/~mbrown/iSCSI/ http://www.cs.uml.edu/~mbrown/iSCSI/README " To use these modules you need to have 2 machines running linux 2.4.x connected together via some TCP/IP network. (using 1 machine and running both the target and client on localhost probably works but is untested). 1 machine should have a SCSI adapter installed with a SCSI device (disk) preferably using SCSI Id 0. This machine is henceforth referred to as the "target" machine. The other machine is henceforth reffered to as the "client" machine. *DO NOT USE A TARGET SCSI DEVICE CONTAINING IMPORTANT DATA* You have been warned. " I repeat: iSCSI does not require "expensive" and/or "rare" hardware. It normally would without kernel support on the host/server/target machine (target being the terminology used above). -- No more monkey ducks, jumping on the bed! Jon Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> C and Python Code Gardener ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email sponsored by: Parasoft Error proof Web apps, automate testing & more. Download & eval WebKing and get a free book. www.parasoft.com/bulletproofapps1 _______________________________________________ courier-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users
