How to install and configure iSCSI initiator on Windows Servers

This article is translated from the blog article posted by EMC China Field Team.

The article demonstrates how to prepare your environment for Windows Server by configuring the iSCSI Initiator (Windows Server 2003/2008/2012) and iSCSI cmdlets commands (Windows Server 2012/Server Core).

Windows Server 2003

1.     Download Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18986

2.     Once installed click on Start > Programs > Microsoft iSCSI Initiator

              

3.     Select the Discovery tab, click on the Add button

4.     Type your iSCSI Target IP or host into the IP address or DNS name input box, keep the default port 3260

              

5.     (If necessary) Click on the Advanced tab and configure CHAP logon information

              

6.     Select the Targets tab, click on the new target from the Targets selection list.

7.     Click on the “Log on...” button

8.     Select the “Automatically restore this connection when the system boots” check box

              

9.     (If necessary) Click on the Advanced button and configure CHAP logon information

10.  Save all changes

11.  Open Computer Management

12.  Select Disk Management from the Storage

13.  You should see a disk in the right pane that labeled as "Unknown" and "Not Initialized".

              

Note: In my demo it’s LUNZ and the status is “Unreadable”. LUNZ is used to send to the host the first LUN before you have configured LUNs and Storage Groups on CLARiiON/VNX.

14.  Right click on the disk and select Initialize Disk, then follow the partition wizard and format the disk.

Windows Server 2008

Window 2008 and higher have a built in iSCSI initiator, so you don’t need to install it by yourself.

1.     Launch Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > iSCSI Initiator

              

2.     Select Yes to start the Microsoft iSCSI service

              

3.     Re-launch iSCSI initiator, then follow the steps in Windows 2003 section

Windows Server 2012

In Windows Server 2012, iSCSI Software Initiator also comes as a built-in feature.In this release Microsoft has developed a brand new UI integrated with Server Manager, along with 20+ cmdlets for easy management.

Note: A cmdlet is a lightweight command that is used in the Windows PowerShell environment. To get a list of all the cmdletscommands about iSCSI Initiator, use the following command. You can refer to Microsoft TechNet Library for the descriptions and syntax for these commands.

         

1.     Launch Server Manager > Tools > iSCSI Initiator or Control Panel > Administrative Tools > iSCSI Initiator

              
              

2.     Select Yes to start the Microsoft iSCSI service

3.     Re-launch iSCSI initiator, then follow the steps in Windows 2003 section

Note: The Windows Firewall rule for the iSCSI Initiator Service must be enabled for incoming/outgoing traffic.

You can also use Windows PowerShell to enable the iSCSI initiator, for example, under Windows Server Core. To do this, you would use the following two commands to start the Microsoft iSCSI Services and changes its service startup type to Automatic:

Start-Service msiscsi

Set-Service msiscsi-startuptype "automatic"

1.     To list available firewall rules related to the MSiSCSIservice, use the following command:

> Get-NetFirewallServiceFilter -Service msiscsi| Get-NetFirewallRule | Select DisplayGroup,DisplayName,Enabled

              

2.     Connecting to available iSCSI Targets:

> Get-IscsiTarget | Connect-IscsiTarget

              

3.     Listing iSCSI Connections and sessions:

Get-iSCSIConnection

Get-iSCSISession

4.     Listing all Windows disks for a specific iSCSI session:

Get-iSCSISession | Get-Disk

              

5.     Listing the iSCSI IQN for the iSCSI Initiator

(Get-InitiatorPort).NodeAddress

              

6.     Configuring sessions to persist across reboots:

Get-iSCSITarget | Connect-IscsiTarget–IsPersistent $False would prevent the new connection from persisting across reboots.

Note: Connections are persistent by default unless overridden by specifying –IsPersistent $False

For an existing session, if the session is not persistent, it can be made persistent by piping the session to the Register-iSCSISession cmdlet.

Get-IscsiSession | Register-IscsiSession

7.     Connecting to an iSCSI Target when using CHAP Secrets

Get-iScsiTarget | Connect-iScsitarget–AuthenticationType ONEWAYCHAP –ChapUserName - ChapSecret