iSCSI: Case-sensitivity in iSCSI names

[Mark Bakke <mbakke@cisco.com>]

We are attempting to wrap up all of the issues surrounding
the creation and comparison of iSCSI initiator and target
names.  One of these is whether the names are case-sensitive.

The last naming & discovery draft stated that the names are
case-insensitive; this was to allow better transcribability
in cases where names were communicated outside the automated
discovery processes.

This comes at some expense, particularly since these names
are defined to allow UTF-8 encoding of international character
sets.  Initiators and targets would have to include code to
compare these sets.

To simplify implementation and interoperability, it has been
recommended that we make iSCSI names case-sensitive instead.

I am fine with doing this, and I think that we could even
get some of the usability back by adding these rules:

- iSCSI names MUST be case-sensitive, and compared strictly
  byte-for-byte.

- iSCSI names SHOULD be generated in a case-insensitive
  manner.

I'm not sure how to properly word the latter, but the intent
is that someone generating the names would not produce both:

  iqn.9.com.cisco.myiscsithing

and

  iqn.9.com.cisco.MyIscsiThing

since a user would be likely to confuse these.  Again, it doesn't
affect the protocol itself, just its usability.


Any thoughts?  Will it hurt anyone's plans if iSCSI names were
case-sensitive?



-- 
Mark A. Bakke
Cisco Systems
mbakke@cisco.com
763.398.1054