Easy way to configure Iscsi

1. Storage Configuration
Here, we will create 5GB of LVM disk on the target server to use as shared storage for clients.
Let’s list the available disks attached to the target server using below command. If you want to
use the whole disk for LVM, then skip the disk partitioning step.
[root@server ~]# fdisk -l | grep -i sd
Output:
Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715200 sectors
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1026048 209715199 104344576 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/sdb: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes, 20971520 sectors
From the above output, you can see that my system has a 10GB of disk (/dev/sdb). We will
create a 5GB partition on the above disk and will use it for LVM.
[root@server ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.23.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Device does not contain a recognized partition table
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x173dfa4d.
Command (m for help): n --> New partition
Partition type:
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p --> Pimary partition
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1 - -> Partition number
First sector (2048-20971519, default 2048): --> Just enter
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-20971519, default 20971519): +5G
--> Enter the size
Partition 1 of type Linux and of size 5 GiB is set
Command (m for help): t --> Change label
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e --> Change it as LVM label
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'
Command (m for help): w --> Save
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
Create a LVM with /dev/sdb1 partition (replace /dev/sdb1 with your disk name)
[root@server ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
[root@server ~]# vgcreate vg_iscsi /dev/sdb1
[root@server ~]# lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n lv_iscsi vg_iscsi

2. Configure iSCSI target
Now you have an option of creating target either with or without authentication. In this article,
you can find steps for both scenarios. It is up to you to decide which one is suitable for your
environment.
Here, will configure iSCSI target without CHAP authentication.
Install the targetcli package on the server.
[root@server ~]# yum install targetcli -y
Once you installed the package, enter below command to get an iSCSI CLI for an interactive
prompt.
[root@server ~]# targetcli
Warning: Could not load preferences file /root/.targetcli/prefs.bin.
targetcli shell version 2.1.fb41
Copyright 2011-2013 by Datera, Inc and others.
For help on commands, type 'help'.
>
Now use an existing logical volume (/dev/vg_iscsi/lv_iscsi) as a block-type backing store for
storage object scsi_disk1_server“.
/> cd backstores/block
/backstores/block> create scsi_disk1_server /dev/vg_iscsi/lv_iscsi
Created block storage object scsi_disk1_server using /dev/vg_iscsi/lv_iscsi.
Create a target.
/backstores/block> cd /iscsi
/iscsi> create iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1
Created target iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1.
Created TPG 1.
Global pref auto_add_default_portal=true
Created default portal listening on all IPs (0.0.0.0), port 3260.
/iscsi>
Create ACL for client machine (It’s the IQN which clients use to connect).
/iscsi> cd /iscsi/iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1/tpg1/acls
/iscsi/iqn.20...sk1/tpg1/acls> create iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:node1node2
Created Node ACL for iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:node1node2
Create a LUN under the target. The LUN should use the previously mentioned backing storage
object named “scsi_disk1_server“.

3. /iscsi/iqn.20...er:disk1/tpg1> cd /iscsi/iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1/tpg1/luns
/iscsi/iqn.20...sk1/tpg1/luns> create /backstores/block/scsi_disk1_server
Created LUN 0.
Created LUN 0->0 mapping in node ACL iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:node1node2
Verify the target server configuration.
/iscsi/iqn.20.../tpg1/portals> cd /
/> ls
o- /
.............................................................................
............................................ [...]
o- backstores
.............................................................................
................................. [...]
| o- block
.............................................................................
..................... [Storage Objects: 1]
| | o- scsi_disk1_server ..................................................
[/dev/vg_iscsi/lv_iscsi (5.0GiB) write-thru activated]
| o- fileio
.............................................................................
.................... [Storage Objects: 0]
| o- pscsi
.............................................................................
..................... [Storage Objects: 0]
| o- ramdisk
.............................................................................
................... [Storage Objects: 0]
o- iscsi
.............................................................................
............................... [Targets: 1]
| o- iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1
............................................................................
[TPGs: 1]
| o- tpg1
.............................................................................
..................... [gen-acls, no-auth]
| o- acls
.............................................................................
............................. [ACLs: 1]
| | o- iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:node1node2
.......................................................... [Mapped LUNs: 1]
| | o- mapped_lun0
..................................................................... [lun0
block/scsi_disk1_server (rw)]
| o- luns
.............................................................................
............................. [LUNs: 1]
| | o- lun0
...............................................................
[block/scsi_disk1_server (/dev/vg_iscsi/lv_iscsi)]

4. | o- portals
.............................................................................
....................... [Portals: 1]
| o- 0.0.0.0:3260
.............................................................................
........................ [OK]
o- loopback
.............................................................................
............................ [Targets: 0]Save and exit from target CLI.
/> saveconfig
Last 10 configs saved in /etc/target/backup.
Configuration saved to /etc/target/saveconfig.json
/> exit
Global pref auto_save_on_exit=true
Last 10 configs saved in /etc/target/backup.
Configuration saved to /etc/target/saveconfig.json
Enable and restart the target service.
[root@server ~]# systemctl enable target.service
[root@server ~]# systemctl restart target.service
Configure the firewall to allow iSCSI traffic.
[root@server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3260/tcp
[root@server ~]# firewall-cmd --reload
Configure Initiator
Now, it’s the time to configure a client machine to use the created target as storage. Install the
below package on the client machine (node1).
[root@node1 ~]# yum install iscsi-initiator-utils -y
Edit the initiatorname.iscsi file.
[root@node1 ~]# vi /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
Add the iSCSI initiator name.
InitiatorName=iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:node1node2
Discover the target using the below command.
[root@node1 ~]# iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p 192.168.12.20
Output:
192.168.12.20:3260,1 iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1

5. Restart and enable the initiator service.
[root@node1 ~]# systemctl restart iscsid.service
[root@node1 ~]# systemctl enable iscsid.service
Login to the discovered target.
[root@node1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1 -p
192.168.12.20 -l
Output:
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1, portal: 192.168.12.20,3260] (multiple)
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1,
portal: 192.168.12.20,3260] successful.
Create File System on ISCSI Disk
After login (connecting) to discovered target, have a look at messages file. You would find
similar output like below, from where you can find a name of the disk.
[root@node1 ~]# cat /var/log/messages
Feb 23 14:54:47 node2 kernel: sd 34:0:0:0: [sdb] 10477568 512-byte logical
blocks: (5.36 GB/4.99 GiB)
Feb 23 14:54:47 node2 kernel: sd 34:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Feb 23 14:54:47 node2 kernel: sd 34:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read
cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 23 14:54:48 node2 kernel: sdb: unknown partition table
Feb 23 14:54:48 node2 kernel: sd 34:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Output:
Feb 23 14:54:48 node2 iscsid: Could not set session2 priority. READ/WRITE
throughout and latency could be affected.
Feb 23 14:54:48 node2 iscsid: Connection2:0 to [target: iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1, portal: 192.168.12.20,3260] through [iface:
default] is operational now
List down the attached disks.
[root@node1 ~]# cat /proc/partitions
Output:
major minor #blocks name
8 0 104857600 sda
8 1 512000 sda1
8 2 104344576 sda2
11 0 1048575 sr0

6. 253 0 2113536 dm-0
253 1 52428800 dm-1
253 2 49799168 dm-2
8 16 5238784 sdb
Format the new disk (for the sake of article, I have formatted whole disk instead of creating
partition)
root@node1 ~]# mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb
Output:
meta-data=/dev/sdb isize=256 agcount=8, agsize=163712 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
= crc=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=1309696, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0 ftype=0
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=2560, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
Mount the disk.
[root@node1 ~]# mount /dev/sdb /mnt
Verify the disk is mounted using the below command.
[root@node1 ~]# df -hT
Output:
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/centos-root xfs 50G 955M 50G 2% /
devtmpfs devtmpfs 908M 0 908M 0% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 914M 54M 861M 6% /dev/shm
tmpfs tmpfs 914M 8.5M 905M 1% /run
tmpfs tmpfs 914M 0 914M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/centos-home xfs 48G 33M 48G 1% /home
/dev/sda1 xfs 497M 97M 401M 20% /boot
/dev/sdb xfs 5.0G 33M 5.0G 1% /mnt
Automount iSCSI storage
To automount the iSCSI storage during every reboot, you would need to make an entry in
/etc/fstab file.
Before updating the /etc/fstab file, get the UUID of the iSCSI disk using the following command.
Replace /dev/sdb with your iSCSI disk name.

7. blkid /dev/sdb
Output:
/dev/sdb: LABEL="/" UUID="9df472f4-1b0f-41c0-a6eb-89574d2caee3" TYPE="xfs"
Now, edit the /etc/fstab file.
vi /etc/fstab
Make an entry something like below.
#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Tue Jan 30 02:14:21 2018
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
UUID=9df472f4-1b0f-41c0-a6eb-89574d2caee3 / xfs
defaults 0 0
UUID=c7469f92-75ec-48ac-b42d-d5b89ab75b39 /mnt xfs
_netdev 0 0
Remove iSCSI storage
In case you want to de-attach the added disk, please follow the procedure (unmount and logout).
[root@node1 ~]# umount /mnt/
[root@node1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1 -p
192.168.12.20 -u
Output:
Logging out of session [sid: 1, target: iqn.2016-
02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1, portal: 192.168.12.20,3260]
Logout of [sid: 1, target: iqn.2016-02.local.itzgeek.server:disk1, portal:
192.168.12.20,3260] successful.
That’s All.