White Papers

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Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series and Citrix XenServer | H18237
4 XenServer storage using Open-iSCSI initiator (software)
XenServer iSCSI storage repositories are supported with Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series storage
through the use of the Open- iSCSI initiator.
Shared iSCSI SRs using the software-based host initiator are capable of supporting VM agility using
XenMotion — VMs can be started on any XenServer host in a resource pool and migrated between them with
no noticeable interruption.
iSCSI SRs utilize the entire LUN specified at creation time and may not span more than one LUN. Support for
the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is provided for client authentication, during both
the data-path-initialization and the LUN-discovery phases.
XenServer hosts support a single iSCSI initiator, which is automatically created and configured with a random
iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) during host installation. iSCSI targets commonly provide access control through
iSCSI initiator IQN lists, so all iSCSI targets/LUNs to be accessed by a XenServer host must be configured to
allow access by the host initiator IQN. Similarly, targets/LUNs to be used as shared iSCSI SRs must be
configured to allow access by all host IQNs in the resource pool.
Changing the default XenServer IQN to one that is consistent with a naming schema in the iSCSI
environment is recommended. The XenServer host IQN value can be modified using the XenCenter GUI.
To set the host IQN using XenCenter:
Right-click the host, select Properties, enter the desired iSCSI IQN, and click OK.
Note: Use dedicated network adapters for iSCSI traffic. The default connection can be used, but the best
practice is to separate iSCSI and network traffic.