Cisco Systems MDS 9000 iSNS Client Functionality

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20-25

Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide

OL-6965-03, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x

Chapter 20 iSCSI Configuration

Configuring iSCSI Storage Name Services

iSNS Client Functionality

The iSNS client functionality on each interface (Gigabit Ethernet interface or subinterface or

PortChannel) registers information with its configured iSNS server using an iSNS profile. This process

is referred to as tagging an iSNS profile to an interface. Each iSNS profile keeps information about an

iSNS server IP address. One profile can be tagged to one or more interfaces.

Once a profile is tagged to an interface, the MDS switch opens a TCP connection to the iSNS server IP

address (using a well-known iSNS port number 3205) in the profile and registers network entity and

portal objects. It goes through the FC name server database and configuration to find storage nodes to

Statically mapped virtual targets are registered if the associated Fibre channel pWWN is present in the

FC name server database and no access control configuration prevents it. A dynamically mapped target

is registered if the dynamic target importing is enabled. See the “Using the iSCSI Wizard” section on

page 20-5.

A storage node is deregistered from the iSNS server when it becomes unavailable either because of

configuration changes (such as access control change or dynamic import disabling) or when the Fibre

Channel storage port goes off-line. It is registered again when the node is online.

When the iSNS client is unable to register/deregister objects with the iSNS server (for example, the

client is unable to make a TCP connection to the iSNS server), it retries every minute to re-register all

iSNS objects for the affected interface(s) with the iSNS server.

Untagging a profile causes the network entity and portal to deregister from that interface.

To create an iSNS profile, follow these steps:

Step 1 In Fabric Manager, select End Devices > iSCSI from the Physical Attributes pane. You see the iSCSI

tables in the Information pane.

In Device Manager, select IP > iSCSI. You see the iSCSI dialog box.

Step 2 Click the iSNS Profiles tab. You see the iSCSI authentication configuration table.

Step 3 Set the Name and IP address fields of the iSNS server.

Step 4 Click the Apply Changes icon in Fabric Manager or click Create in Device Manager to save these

changes, or click Undo Changes in Fabric Manager or click Cancel in Device Manager to discard

changes.

To modify (tag) the iSNS profile for an interface, untag the interface from the currently tagged iSNS

profile and then tag to a new iSNS profile.

To tag an interface to a profile using Device Manager, follow these steps:

Step 1 Select Interfaces > Ethernet or iSCSI. You see the interfaces dialog box.

Step 2 Click the General tab. You see the General interface configuration table.

Step 3 Select the iSNS ProfileName.