iSCSI is a protocol that allows two hosts to send SCSI commands over a TCP/IP network. By doing this, you can use SCSI but free yourself of the limitations of traditional SCSI cabling and, instead, use your LAN to connect your SCSI PCs and Server to your SCSI storage.
iSCSI is a type of storage area network (SAN) and it is typically compared to Fibre Channel (FC) – its much more expensive competitor.
With iSCSI you have a client who needs access to the storage on the server. The client uses initiator software (making it the initiator) to connect to the storage server (called the target). While the iSCSI client software initiator is included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the iSCSI target (the server) is usually costly to obtain.
|