iSCSI: Interface with DHCP cannot be assigned to portal

[bestboy]

I'm currently experimenting with iSCSI and want to try MPIO. I'm running 9.2.1.8 and have 2 NICs:

• igb0 has IP 172.22.22.22/24 from DHCP.
  
• igb1 has IP 172.23.23.22/24 assigned statically.

Now, when I try to add both interfaces to the iSCSI portal for MPIO, then I can only find the interface with the statically assigned address in the dropdown. The interface with DHCP is not listed.

I wonder is this a known limitation or a bug? Or is there a configuration issue I'm currently not aware of?

 

[cyberjock]

is igb0 actually setup in the webgui? often people don't actually "set up" the dhcp card because its already working as DHCP.

 

[bestboy]

Yes, I think so:

Also it seems that I could use the DHCP interface to bind the web GUI:

 

[cyberjock]

Hmm.. I don't have any recommendations. I just checked on my server and it works for me. /shrug

Can you post your hardware and a debug file?

 

[bestboy]

Yes sure. Hardware is just the standard home user rig.

• Supermicro X10SLM+-F
• Intel Xeon E3 1230 v3
• 16 GB Kingston DDR3L ECC RAM
• IBM M1015 HBA
• 4x 3TB WD Reds in a 2x2 mirror pool
• 2x Intel i210AT NICs (onboard)

version history is 9.1.1 -> 9.2.1.6 -> 9.2.1.8

I'll consult the manual about how to create a debug file and report back later.

 

[cyberjock]

I received the debug via PM.

I don't know what to say. The debug isn't showing any errors.

I would go back to the FreeNAS documentation and make sure you are performing all of the applicable steps. I'm convinced you missed a step somewhere.

 

[bestboy]

I rechecked my iSCSI configuration but could not find any issues with it. Other than not giving me the DHCP device option it works flawlessly, so I don't think there is a configuration issue from my part.

I also tried to recreate my network interfaces. I deleted them from the web UI and then switched to the main console via IPMI. In the network section I resetted both devices, configured them anew and added them in the Web UI again. Still no luck with the DHCP interface in the portal.

At that point I gave up and just assigned a static IP address to igb0. The static IP then worked as expected and I could add both interface to the portal. Finally my MPIO test could begin.

Erm.. nope. It could not. I had to learn that MPIO is not supported by the Windows 7 iSCSI initiator I wanted to use.

But luckily there is a poor mans MPIO available in Windows 7. It's called Multiple Connected Sessions (MCS) and part of the iSCSI RFC. It's basically MPIO-by-the-initiator (in contrast to real MPIO which is MPIO-by-the-kernel).
So I gave MCS a run then. Unfortunately this did not work with the new ctl target I have been using in FreeNAS.
As it turns out ctl does not allow for multiple connections per sessions.

I checked the ctld.conf for some options to configure more connections. I tried to set

maxproc number
The limit for concurrently running child processes handling incoming connections. The default is 30. A setting of 0 disables the limit.

Global options:
num_threads
Specifies number of backend threads to use for this LUN.

but could not get ctl to allow multiple connections in the end.

When I switched the target in FreeNAS to istgt, then multiple connections per session were possible (default: 8). However, the results with istgt were pretty sucky. With 2 round-robin connections and multi-threading it was still slower than ctl with a single connection.

Setup: FreeNAS --(iscsi)--> Windows 7 --(device)--> Windows 7 @ VMWare Workstation

conclusions and open questions:

• M$ sucks for intentionally crippling the W7 initiator
  
• I suspect my config DB contains some garbage when it comes to iSCSI configuration. I get the weird DHCP interface behavior and I found an orphaned auth group in the ctl.conf that is not listed in the UI.
  
• Can someone provide information if (and how) it is possible to use multiple connections in ctl?
• istgt is slower than ctl