question on reserve and release !

["Ramesh Ramakrishnan" <ramesh@global.com>]

> Hi All,
> 
> I have a question on how iscsi will handle the scsi reserve and release commands.
> 
> When multiple iscsi initiators make calls to the same iscsi target, the actual scsi
> device only sees one single scsi id (that of the scsi HBA on the iscsi target
> machine).  This would mean that different iscsi initiators sending scsi reserve
> command will be interpreted by the scsi target as commands from the same
> scsi initiator.  This defeats the purpose of implementing the scsi reserve/release
> commands.  And in a way, makes iscsi not very useful in environments where
> iscsi initiator requires exclusive access to a iscsi target. (Imagine a iscsi initiator
> doing a back up to a iscsi tape device when another iscsi initiator starts rewinding
> the same iscsi tape device.)
> 
>  Is this something that should be implemented in the iscsi target
> driver?  I found that Cisco's iscsi driver (1.8.1) for AIX has a  feature called 
> "reserve/release proxy".  Is this cisco's implementation for getting around this
> problem?  Has anyone any experience with that driver? Another interesting
> thing:  I only find reference to this reserve/release proxy mentioned in the AIX driver.
> 
> thanks
> ramesh