Jan,

> I'm wondering if it's possible to import a zpool on an iscsi-device  
> LOCALLY.
>
> Following scenario:
>
> HostA (Sol10u4):
> - Pool-1 (a striped-raidz-pool)
> - iscsi-zvol on Pool-1
>
> HostB (Sol10u3):
> - Pool-2 is a Mirror of one local device and the iscsi-vol of HostA
>
> Is ist possible to mount the iscsi-vol (or import Pool-2) on HostA?


No, due to a common misconception in the iSCSI space, spanning an  
iSCSI Target's backing store, to the resulting LUN as seen by iSCSI  
Initiators.

On HostA, the ZVOL called iscsi-zvol has a volume size, a size  
specified in the "zfs create -V <size> Pool-1/iscsi-zvol". When an  
iSCSI Target is created out of this ZVOL, then the iSCSI Initiator  
discovers and enables this LUN on HostB, but this LUN is unformatted.  
In other words, this LUN does not contain a Solaris VTOC or an Intel  
EFI disk label, as its just a bunch of blocks. When issuing the "zpool  
create Pool-2 mirror <local-disk> <iscsi-vol>", an Intel EFI disk  
label is placed on the disk (consuming some of the blocks), then all  
the remaining space is placed in partition (or slice 0), after which  
ZFS lays down its filesystem metadata in the space occupied by  
partition 0.

Now back on HostA, the ZVOL ( /dev/zvol/rdsk/Pool-1/iscsi-zvol ) looks  
like a bunch of blocks. Since this is a ZVOL, not a SCSI or iSCSI LUN,  
Solaris does not see the Intel EFI disk label, thus ZFS will not be  
able to see the ZFS filesystem metadata.

So even though the ZVOL contains all the right data, from the point of  
view of Solaris, this disk is not a LUN, and thus can not be accessed  
as such.

Jim

>
>
> I know, this is (also) iSCSI-related, but mostly a ZFS-question.
>
> Thanks for your answers,
> Jan Dreyer
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss

Jim Dunham
Storage Platform Software Group
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
wk: 781.442.4042

http://blogs.sun.com/avs
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/avs/
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/iscsitgt/
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/storage/

_______________________________________________
zfs-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss

Reply via email to