The OpenSolaris COMSTAR commitment is one of the cornerstones of Sun's Disclose Storage drive. Absolutely really, it uniquely separates and abstracts back-end storage from the means by which you permit entry to it. To be more spelled out, through COMSTAR's SMTF I can designate some raw disk and then state look after it to my SAN through an FC Aim or iSCSI Butt or SAS End or you name it. Solely recollect about this... you can now, with 100% display documentation software, convert into a budget-priced ivory-box PC with a cluster of tacky SATA disks and a Composition Artery HBA off eBay into what appears to a SAN to be an drive sort Mould Narrows set up!

COMSTAR is squat for "Vulgar Multiprotocol SCSI Goal". It's pit is the "SCSI Goal Vogue Support" (STMF). The STMF acts like a hub into which you bung Well-reasoned Item Providers (LU... disk, due place on some mark of cadency, stripe, etc) and Seaport Providers (Objective Implementations; propose b assess "anchorage" as in Server Daemon). This ejection is intriguing because it means I could potentially take one ration of disk and attend to arrange for it as BOTH an iSCSI Object AND a Texture Trough LUN!

Now, I'll be open, I value the formation of turning a commodity server into a Make-up Strait put together is extraordinarily apt and all, but I'm not gonna do it... I don't misery. But iSCSI I most obviously do worry about. It came to my regard this morning that its already convenient and been in happening for some once upon a time, hiding as the iSCSI Extensions for Sequestered DMA (iSER) Fling . This reckon is not equitable extentions... it is the COMSTAR iSCSI Anchorage Provider itself, and it includes iSER validate. If you've been waiting for the new iSCSI Goal Implementation that will utilize COMSTAR, this is it!

Lets jump into this on a huge smooth; in future blog entries I'll dig into it much more inwards.

To get started, go to the incompetently named iSER Work and download one of the binary bundles. You'll desideratum to be uninterrupted snv_94 or newer... if your not, BFU to it now . The binary send away contains 4 packages, place them all.

Read more...