Monitoring iSCSI Traffic Flows
The switch snoops iSCSI session-establishment and termination packets by installing classifier rules that
trap iSCSI protocol packets to the CPU for examination.
Devices that initiate iSCSI sessions usually use well-known TCP ports 3260 or 860 to contact targets.
When you enable iSCSI optimization, by default the switch identifies IP packets to or from these ports as
iSCSI traffic.
You can configure the switch to monitor traffic for additional port numbers or a combination of port
number and target IP address, and you can remove the well-known port numbers from monitoring.
Information Monitored in iSCSI Traffic Flows
iSCSI optimization examines the following data in packets and uses the data to track the session and
create the classifier entries that enable QoS treatment.
• Initiator’s IP Address
• Target’s IP Address
• Initiator defined session identifier (ISID)
• Initiator’s iSCSI qualified name (IQN)
• Target’s IQN
• Initiator’s TCP Port
• Target’s TCP Port
If no iSCSI traffic is detected for a session during a user-configurable aging period, the session data is
cleared.
Detection and Auto-Configuration for Dell EqualLogic Arrays
The iSCSI optimization feature includes auto-provisioning support with the ability to detect directly
connected Dell EqualLogic storage arrays and automatically reconfigure the switch to enhance storage
traffic flows.
The MXL uses the link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) to discover Dell EqualLogic devices on the
network. LLDP is enabled by default. For more information about LLDP, refer to Link Layer Discovery
Protocol (LLDP).
The following message displays the first time a Dell EqualLogic array is detected and describes the
configuration changes that are automatically performed:
%STKUNIT0-M:CP %IFMGR-5-IFM_ISCSI_AUTO_CONFIG: This switch is being configured
for optimal
conditions to support iSCSI traffic which will cause some automatic
configuration to occur
including jumbo frames and flow-control on all ports; no storm control and
spanning-tree port
fast to be enabled on the port of detection.
The following syslog message is generated the first time an EqualLogic array is detected:
%STKUNIT0-M:CP %LLDP-5-LLDP_EQL_DETECTED: EqualLogic Storage Array detected on
interface Te 1/43
iSCSI Optimization 477