RE: iSCSI: Wrapping up SendTargets

["Jim Hafner" <hafner@almaden.ibm.com>]

Folks,

I think this thread is wandering off the field.

The question is the issue of SendTargets.  Let's remind ourselves of the
original purpose of this proposed protocol: namely, it's designed for a
storage box that contains one or more iSCSI target devices to report about
ITSELF, about what's in it!  This includes both a list of the iSCSI targets
it has PLUS the session coordination (via tags) of the various
IPaddress/tcpport combos it supports.

In other words, it's job is to report about itself!  The use of (unicast)
SLP as an alternative to SendTargets was focused exactly on the same
question: I ask a single box to tell me about itself.   This function lies
between the two extremes of (a) static configuration of initiators and (b)
centralized management via iSNS style services.

Somehow, someway, we need to define a protocol for a box to "tell us about
itself" in the absense of the centralized management infrastructure.  That
seems critical to me.  Even if I want to do static configuration, the guy
doing the configuration needs a way to get at the guts of each new box
he/she rolls into the environment.

The choices are, it seems, that *every* box would need to support at least
one of:
a) SendTargets
b) modified SLP
c) iSNS

What's the consensus on the protocol we aim for to solve this middle ground
discovery problem?
Jim Hafner