Fiber, iSCSI and me...

[Boris]

Hello Sirs,

I am not experienced with Fiber, iSCSI and rest, but in past i tried to add same iSCSI target from Windows Server to multiple computers and found it nice, because my media storage was visible as internal disk. But i noticed, changes i made (copy new files, add folders) from my computer was not visible from my wife computer. Only after "reboot" i see changes. At least it's how i remember it. Atm i have iSCSI target, but only for my personal computer for music files and photo.
I googled and came to the conclusion that Windows uses a non-clustered file system. Therefore it works this way. At least I understood this so.

Tell me, please, do all storage systems work like this? Or, let's say, if I make an iSCSI target through OmniOS/OpenIndiana + napp-it and ZFS, will it work the same way? Or is there a way for all my home computers to be connected to the same iSCSI target and any changes immediately visible to other computers?

There are a lot of cheap fiber adapters over eBay, i even have some 2x4Gb cards. Want to use it somehow.

Sorry, if my question is too noob'ish.

Boris.

 

[gea]

Yes, correct.
Unless you use a cluster OS/filesystem on top, iSCSI is a method to use parts of a SAN storage exactly like a local disk without any sharing option with other computers or users. If you would want to share them, you would need to use the sharing option ex on Windows.

If you want to simply share files between several computers/users, use SMB on OmniOS.
SMB shares the filesystem and you can connect from any computer and you can restrict access with ACL permissons. On Solaris/ OmniOS they are quite the same like on Windows ntfs. If you do snaps, you can access them via Windows previous versions.

 

[Boris]

Yes, correct.
Unless you use a cluster OS/filesystem on top, iSCSI is a method to use parts of a SAN storage exactly like a local disk without any sharing option with other computers or users. If you would want to share them, you would need to use the sharing option ex on Windows.

If you want to simply share files between several computers/users, use SMB on OmniOS.
SMB shares the filesystem and you can connect from any computer and you can restrict access with ACL permissons. On Solaris/ OmniOS they are quite the same like on Windows ntfs. If you do snaps, you can access them via Windows previous versions.

Thank you for reply, @gea. At first i even wanted to ask you directly by pm, because i read your threads last days and think to try OmniOS or Indiana +napp-it for my NAS (ASrockrack C2550 miniITX board + 8x3Tb WD Green).

Sad. I do not like SMB share, because some software do not want to use it. Like Hyper-V on W10 do not let me pick ISO file from SMB share, Lightroom do not let me pick SMB shared folder for backup, my foobar2000 sometime have access error to files on SMB share. I have no such issue with iSCSI, but looks like i can't have same disk correctly connected to all computers.

 

[gea]

iSCSI gives an application full access with the native OS filesystem like ntfs or hfs+ as it is treated like a local disk. If you need this, iSCSI is the answer especially when combined with ZFS as it adds its security features and snaps below the "unsecure" client filesystem. This gives you copy on write features with snaps, checksums and selfhealing. If you would use a local disk, you would lack these features.