HP-UX iSCSI Software Initiator Support Guide, HP-UX 11i v1 and 11i v2, July 2005

Chapter 2

HP-UX iSCSI Software Initiator Product Overview

HP-UX iSCSI Software Initiator Features

• iSCSI Specification Compliance

The iSCSI Software Initiator is based on the iSCSI Protocol Specification (RFC 3720). No attempt has

been made to support any preliminary version of the iSCSI specification. For details, consult RFC 3720

at: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3720.txt

• SCSI Specification Compatibility

The iSCSI Software Initiator is compatible with the current SCSI user API. Customers using the existing

interface to SCSI will experience no compatibility issues with the iSCSI Software Initiator.

• Application Compatibility

The iSCSI Software Initiator requires no changes to applications that access mass storage devices.

• Target Interoperability

The iSCSI Software Initiator is interoperable with all iSCSI Protocol Specification (RFC 3720) compliant

targets. No component of the iSCSI Software Initiator implementation is, in any way, HP proprietary. No

component of the iSCSI Software Initiator requires any feature of iSCSI that is not mandatory for iSCSI

Protocol Specification (RFC 3720) to operate properly.

• Driver Tracing and Logging

The iSCSI Software Initiator supports driver tracing and the logging of events.

HP-UX Event Monitoring Services (EMS) are supported by the iSCSI Software Initiator.

• Connections per Session

The iSCSI Software Initiator supports one connection per session (an iSCSI session is equivalent to a

SCSI I-T nexus).

•HP-UX Integration

The iSCSI Software Initiator has been fully integrated into HP-UX. Startup, shutdown, volume

managers, file systems, SAM, and STM, have been modified to support iSCSI.

The iSCSI Software Initiator will also work with PVLinks.

Existing applications will run unchanged on iSCSI volumes. See “System Startup” on page 72, for

additional information.

• Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP)

The iSCSI Software Initiator supports CHAP for target authentication of initiators and initiator

authentication of targets.

•Multiprocessor Compatible

The iSCSI Software Initiator is usable in a multi-processor environment.

• New Management Tool

The iSCSI Software Initiator introduces the “iscsiutil” management tool to the system. The iscsiutil

tool is installed with the iSCSI Software Initiator.

• Available Online

The iSCSI Software Initiator can be downloaded from the HP Software Depot and installed using the

Software Distributor (SD) installation software. See “System Startup” on page 72 for details.