Re: question on reserve and release !

["Julian Satran" <Julian_Satran@il.ibm.com>]

In fact the SCSI target sees ONE INITIATOR
(name+port) per session. Julo

"Ramesh Ramakrishnan" <ramesh@global.com> Sent by: owner-ips@ece.cmu.edu 18/10/02 23:13

To:        <ips@ece.cmu.edu>         cc:                 Subject:        question on reserve and release !

> 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