iSCSI on Apple Mac

ChrisHolloway · ‎2010-08-09

Hi

Has anyone got an experiences with iSCSI on Macs (Snow Leopard or Leopard I think). I've got it working using the globalSAN initiator, but it's not that great, so has anyone used at ATTO (not free) initiator?

Is iSCSI on a Mac even supported by NetApp?

ralfaro01zero · ‎2010-08-09

Hi Chris,

I set up a cheap Mac/iSCSI solution (not netapp) for a friend using globalSAN, he has a recording studio, he is using protools on snow leopard; I made several read and write tests with protools (a very read/write demanding application) and it worked like a charm, that was a single host solution, so it is not a good reference. What kind of app are you trying to set up to use the iSCSI LUN(s)?

There's a integration document using NFS and CIFS ( https://fieldportal.netapp.com/ci_getfile.asp?method=1&uid=8356&docid=18142 ), I haven't seen anything regarding iSCSI and Mac OS

Hope that helps,

Cheers!

ChrisHolloway · ‎2010-08-10

Thanks for the reply. The app is some kind of digital artwork or rendering thing, which they currently run via some Apple servers. We did have it working using globalSAN without too many problems, but the two issues we found with that initiator were:

1- It wouldn't work with a 64bit kernel, the server had to be booted as a 32bit kernel

2- As far as I could tell the only way of getting the initiator to recognise a disk was to restart the session. This meant hot adding disks during production hours was not feasible.

The ATTO initiator is chargeable, so we weren't able to try it out.

Chris

radek_kubka · ‎2010-08-10

Hi Chris,

Good to see you around!

Needless to say, the customer in question would be better off switching to NFS, but I guess they want to save some money on the filer side licence.

Re ATTO: surely they should supply trial versions? Did you try to get hold of it (e.g. via one of their partners)?

Cheers,

Radek

ChrisHolloway · ‎2010-08-13

Radek

The customer is actually evaluating both CIFS, NFS and iSCSI and we have had all three working for them. For the ATTO initiator, I think the customer has asked for an eval version from them but I don't know if they've actually heard anything back yet.

Chris