The OpenSolaris COMSTAR project is one of Sun's leading Open Storage initiatives. It separates and abstracts back-end storage any way access is allowed. Through COMSTAR's SCSI Target Mode Framework (SMTF) users can allocate some raw disk and then provide it to SAN through an FC Target, iSCSI Target or SAS Target etc. Users can now, with 100 percent open source software, turn a white-box PC with SATA disks and a Fibre Channel HBA into what appears to a SAN, to be an enterprise grade Fibre Channel array.

"COMSTAR is short for 'Common Multiprotocol SCSI Target'. It's core is the 'SCSI Target Mode Framework' (STMF). The STMF acts like a hub into which you plug Logical Unit Providers (LU... disk, allocated space on some device, tape, etc) and Port Providers (Target Implementations; think 'port' as in Server Daemon). This abstraction is interesting because it means I could potentially take one allocation of disk and provide it as BOTH an iSCSI Target AND a Fibre Channel LUN," said Ben Rockwood in his blog.

Rockwood shows that users can go to the iSER Project and download a binary bundle. Also for the demonstration snv_94 or newer is recommended. The binary bundle contains 4 packages, users will need to install them all for the demonstration. Then Rockwood will run through how 'stmfadm' can be used to list LU's and Targets, and how to create the view/mapping. He gives all needed codes to complete the task and creates brief explanations of:

• itadm: The iSCSI Target admin command which controls the COMSTAR iSCSI Port Provider

• smtfadm: The STMF management CLI; it is the most central of all COMSTAR related commands which maps Port Provider resources (targets) to Logical Unit (LU) Providers (storage)

• sbdadm: The SCSI Block Disk (LU Provider) CLI

More Information

The Blog of Ben Rockwood

OpenSolaris COMSTAR

iSCSI Extensions for Remote DMA (iSER) Project [...read more...]

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