A. I recently had a client who tried to use iSCSI to connect Server Core to SAN storage but couldn't get it to work without the iSCSI Initiator Control Panel applet. You can use the Iscsicli command-line interface to manage iSCSI. The first thing you need to do is enable iSCSI service and set it to start automatically, as you’ll see in the following code and corresponding output. (See also, "Boot Directly from an iSCSI SAN" and "Make the Most of Your SAN with iSCSI.")
The first command I entered was:
Users\john>sc config msiscsi start= auto
The output was:
\[SC\] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS
Then I entered:
Users\john>net start msiscsi
The output was:
The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service service is starting. The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service service was started successfully.
Then, you use the Iscsicli command-line interface to connect to an iSCSI Target and list the available targets. The command I entered was:
Users\john>iscsicli QAddTargetPortal 192.168.1.31
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000 The operation completed successfully.
Next I entered:
Users\john>iscsicli ListTargets
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000Targets List: quorum data The operation completed successfully.
You can then connect to a target using the following code as an example:
Users\john>iscsicli qlogintarget data
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000 Session Id is 0xfffffa800626e018-0x4000013700000006 Connection Id is 0xfffffa800626e018-0x5 The operation completed successfully.
The following code checked to make sure the operation was successful:
Users\john>iscsicli reporttargetmappings
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000Total of 1 mappings returned Session Id : fffffa800626e018-4000013700000006 Target Name : data Initiator : Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0 Initiator Scsi Device : \\.\Scsi4: Initiator Bus : 0 Initiator Target Id : 0 Target Lun: 0x0 <--> OS Lun: 0x0
The operation completed successfully.
You log out by using the logouttarget switch with the session ID, as the following sample code shows:
Users\john>iscsicli logouttarget fffffa800626e018-4000013700000006
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000The operation completed successfully.
To confirm the operation was successful, I entered the following code:
Users\john>iscsicli reporttargetmappings
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000No Mappings The operation completed successfully.
The mappings obtained through the qlogintarget command aren’t persistent and will be lost at reboot. If you want a persistent connection, use the perssitenlogintarget switch, as the following code shows:
Users\john>iscsicli persistentlogintarget data T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000The operation completed successfully.
To confirm that the operation was successful, I entered:
Users\john>iscsicli listpersistenttargets
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000Total of 1 peristent targets Target Name : data Address and Socket : 192.168.1.31 3260 Session Type : Data Initiator Name : Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0 Port Number : ++Security Flags : 0x0 ++Version : 0 ++Information Specified: 0x20 ++Login Flags : 0x8 ++Username :
The operation completed successfully.
Entering T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0 specifies all the required switches. To remove a persistent target, apply the information obtained from the listpersistentargets command, using the following code as an example:
Users\john>iscsicli removepersistenttarget Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0 data * 192.168.1.31 3260
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000The operation completed successfully.
To confirm the success of the operation, I entered:
Users\john>iscsicli listpersistenttargets
The output was:
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000 Total of 0 peristent targets The operation completed successfully.
You'll notice that I passed the initiator name first, then the target name, the port number (which is *), and last of all the iSCSI target server IP address and socket.
Using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator CLI
