29.12. iSCSI Initiator and Target Configuration

iSCSI is a way to share storage over a network. Unlike NFS, which works at the file system level, iSCSI works at the block device level.

In iSCSI terminology, the system that shares the storage is known as the target. The storage can be a physical disk, or an area representing multiple disks or a portion of a physical disk. For example, if the disk(s) are formatted with ZFS, a zvol can be created to use as the iSCSI storage.

The clients which access the iSCSI storage are called initiators. To initiators, the storage available through iSCSI appears as a raw, unformatted disk known as a LUN. Device nodes for the disk appear in /dev/ and the device must be separately formatted and mounted.

FreeBSD provides a native, kernel-based iSCSI target and initiator. This section describes how to configure a FreeBSD system as a target or an initiator.

29.12.1. Configuring an iSCSI Target

To configure an iSCSI target, create the /etc/ctl.conf configuration file, add a line to /etc/rc.conf to make sure the ctld(8) daemon is automatically started at boot, and then start the daemon.

The following is an example of a simple /etc/ctl.conf configuration file. Refer to ctl.conf(5) for a more complete description of this file's available options.

portal-group pg0 {
	discovery-auth-group no-authentication
	listen 0.0.0.0
	listen [::]
}

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 {
	auth-group no-authentication
	portal-group pg0

	lun 0 {
		path /data/target0-0
		size 4G
	}
}

The first entry defines the pg0 portal group. Portal groups define which network addresses the ctld(8) daemon will listen on. The discovery-auth-group no-authentication entry indicates that any initiator is allowed to perform iSCSI target discovery without authentication. Lines three and four configure ctld(8) to listen on all IPv4 (listen 0.0.0.0) and IPv6 (listen [::]) addresses on the default port of 3260.

It is not necessary to define a portal group as there is a built-in portal group called default. In this case, the difference between default and pg0 is that with default, target discovery is always denied, while with pg0, it is always allowed.

The second entry defines a single target. Target has two possible meanings: a machine serving iSCSI or a named group of LUNs. This example uses the latter meaning, where iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 is the target name. This target name is suitable for testing purposes. For actual use, change com.example to the real domain name, reversed. The 2012-06 represents the year and month of acquiring control of that domain name, and target0 can be any value. Any number of targets can be defined in this configuration file.

The auth-group no-authentication line allows all initiators to connect to the specified target and portal-group pg0 makes the target reachable through the pg0 portal group.

The next section defines the LUN. To the initiator, each LUN will be visible as a separate disk device. Multiple LUNs can be defined for each target. Each LUN is identified by a number, where LUN 0 is mandatory. The path /data/target0-0 line defines the full path to a file or zvol backing the LUN. That path must exist before starting ctld(8). The second line is optional and specifies the size of the LUN.

Next, to make sure the ctld(8) daemon is started at boot, add this line to /etc/rc.conf:

ctld_enable="YES"

To start ctld(8) now, run this command:

# service ctld start

As the ctld(8) daemon is started, it reads /etc/ctl.conf. If this file is edited after the daemon starts, use this command so that the changes take effect immediately:

# service ctld reload

29.12.1.1. Authentication

The previous example is inherently insecure as it uses no authentication, granting anyone full access to all targets. To require a username and password to access targets, modify the configuration as follows:

auth-group ag0 {
	chap username1 secretsecret
	chap username2 anothersecret
}

portal-group pg0 {
	discovery-auth-group no-authentication
	listen 0.0.0.0
	listen [::]
}

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 {
	auth-group ag0
	portal-group pg0
	lun 0 {
		path /data/target0-0
		size 4G
	}
}

The auth-group section defines username and password pairs. An initiator trying to connect to iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 must first specify a defined username and secret. However, target discovery is still permitted without authentication. To require target discovery authentication, set discovery-auth-group to a defined auth-group name instead of no-authentication.

It is common to define a single exported target for every initiator. As a shorthand for the syntax above, the username and password can be specified directly in the target entry:

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 {
	portal-group pg0
	chap username1 secretsecret

	lun 0 {
		path /data/target0-0
		size 4G
	}
}

29.12.2. Configuring an iSCSI Initiator

Note:

The iSCSI initiator described in this section is supported starting with FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE. To use the iSCSI initiator available in older versions, refer to iscontrol(8).

The iSCSI initiator requires that the iscsid(8) daemon is running. This daemon does not use a configuration file. To start it automatically at boot, add this line to /etc/rc.conf:

iscsid_enable="YES"

To start iscsid(8) now, run this command:

# service iscsid start

Connecting to a target can be done with or without an /etc/iscsi.conf configuration file. This section demonstrates both types of connections.

29.12.2.1. Connecting to a Target Without a Configuration File

To connect an initiator to a single target, specify the IP address of the portal and the name of the target:

# iscsictl -A -p 10.10.10.10 -t iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0

To verify if the connection succeeded, run iscsictl without any arguments. The output should look similar to this:

Target name                                     Target portal   State
iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0                 10.10.10.10     Connected: da0

In this example, the iSCSI session was successfully established, with /dev/da0 representing the attached LUN. If the iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 target exports more than one LUN, multiple device nodes will be shown in that section of the output:

Connected: da0 da1 da2.

Any errors will be reported in the output, as well as the system logs. For example, this message usually means that the iscsid(8) daemon is not running:

Target name                                     Target portal   State
iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0                 10.10.10.10     Waiting for iscsid(8)

The following message suggests a networking problem, such as a wrong IP address or port:

Target name                                     Target portal   State
iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0                 10.10.10.11     Connection refused

This message means that the specified target name is wrong:

Target name                                     Target portal   State
iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0                 10.10.10.10     Not found

This message means that the target requires authentication:

Target name                                     Target portal   State
iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0                 10.10.10.10     Authentication failed

To specify a CHAP username and secret, use this syntax:

# iscsictl -A -p 10.10.10.10 -t iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 -u user -s secretsecret

29.12.2.2. Connecting to a Target with a Configuration File

To connect using a configuration file, create /etc/iscsi.conf with contents like this:

t0 {
	TargetAddress   = 10.10.10.10
	TargetName      = iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0
	AuthMethod      = CHAP
	chapIName       = user
	chapSecret      = secretsecret
}

The t0 specifies a nickname for the configuration file section. It will be used by the initiator to specify which configuration to use. The other lines specify the parameters to use during connection. The TargetAddress and TargetName are mandatory, whereas the other options are optional. In this example, the CHAP username and secret are shown.

To connect to the defined target, specify the nickname:

# iscsictl -An t0

Alternately, to connect to all targets defined in the configuration file, use:

# iscsictl -Aa

To make the initiator automatically connect to all targets in /etc/iscsi.conf, add the following to /etc/rc.conf:

iscsictl_enable="YES"
iscsictl_flags="-Aa"

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