TrueNAS Stable Version Documentation
This content follows TrueNAS 25.04 (Fangtooth) releases.
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Setting Up Fibre Channel
3 minute read.
TrueNAS Enterprise
Fibre Channel is a TrueNAS Enterprise feature. Only TrueNAS systems licensed for Fibre Channel show iSCSI Fibre Channel screens and settings found by going to Sharing > Block Shares (iSCSI).
The Fibre Channel feature is available to Enterprise-licensed High Availability (HA) and non-HA systems. Any Enterprise system, equipped with the required fibre channel hardware can implement this feature.
This article provides instructions for VMware VCenter ESXi. If you are using a different platform for your block share backups, use the documentation for that platform for alternative instructions for the ESXi process documented in this tutorial. .
When setting up iSCSI fibre channel for the first time:
(Optional) Create a zvol for each fibre channel port with a network interface associated with it.
The wizard provides an option to create a dataset on the Extents screen when adding the device. Selecting this option creates a dataset for organizational purposes and a zvol of the same name for block storage.
We recommend using the iSCSI wizard to create your target, create the extents, and set up fibre channel ports.
If the system is a High Availability (HA) system, turn on ALUA.
Click on the iSCSI widget header to open the Sharing iSCSI screens. Click on Global Target Configuration. Scroll down and select Asynchronous Logic Unit Access (ALUA), then click Save.
Next and for all systems, go to Shares and click Wizard on the iSCSI widget to open the wizard.
Select Fibre Channel as the target mode, then select Create New in Target. Click Next to show the Extents screen.
Configure the extent.
a. Enter a name for the target in Name.
b. Select Device in Extent Type, then select Create New on the Device dropdown list. When selecting Create New, the Pool/Dataset and /mnt fields display. Navigate through the pool and datasets to select the zvol and populate the /mnt field with the path.
Clicking Create Dataset allows you to add a dataset where the /mnt path indicates. TrueNAS creates the dataset for organizational purposes and a zvol of the same name for block storage.
c. Enter a value in Size.
d. Select the platform option that matches your use case and for this iSCSI share on the Sharing Platform dropdown list. For example, if using the VMware ESXi platform for your block storage, select VMware: Extent block size 512b, TCP enabled, no Xen compat mode, SSD speed.
e. Click Next to show the Protocol Options screen.
Select the protocol option for your use case. When installing iSCSI fibre channel ports the first time, select Create new virtual port.
Click Save.
Start the iSCSI service when prompted. If you did not stop the iSCSI service, restart it by clicking the button, stop the service, and when the status indicates it is stopped, start it.
Log into your block storage backup platform (i.e., VCenter ESXi) and configure your adaptors, devices, and datastores. Refer to VMWare or documentation for the platform used for instructions on completing the configuration.
