Hi All,

I am trying to implement I/O Fencing on my VMware test setup using CentOS 5.6 64 bit and Veritas Cluster Server 5.1

I need to have SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation (PR) disks for coordinator disks.

This link says that Starwind 5.4 supports SCSI-3 PR disks, But it is not working for me.

Has anyone used Starwind iScsi for creating SCSI-3 PR disks successfully ?

Any alternatives to create SCSI-3 PR disks virtually (to be used in VMware) ?

Thanks all in advance.

1) StarWind definitely supports PR. It would not be possible to pass VMware, Citrix and Microsoft certification without it.

2) You need to make sure you did not disable "multiple connections per logical unit". With this thing enabled second connect access to the unit would be blocked to prevent data damage.

3) Version you're using (5.4) is very old. Make sure you do run at least 5.7 for now.

I could not find option "multiple connections per logical unit" in Starwind 5.4 but yes there is an option to "Allow multiple concurrent iSCSI connections (clustering)".

I have already selected this but this did not worked for me.

1) It's the same.

2) OK, can you configure basic target, connect to it with initiators from both nodes (I assume you did this and it's not the step failing for you) and try to run cluster validation tool or whatever you use to get "it does not work" message. Then grab StarWind log, zip it and send back with your comments to support@starwindsoftware.com so guys could take a look and say what's broken. AFAIK, we *did* have issues with Veritas cluster thing but it was quite a time ago and they should be gone with 5.4 version. But in any case - bother yourself to upgrade to V5.7 before you'll do the trick.

Hi Kooler,

Is there any "free" alternative to have SCSI-3 PR disks in virtually ?

StarWind has free edition with functionality you require so I'm a but lost what you need... You can try MS iSCSI target 3.3 but I don't think MS support would help with making Symantec cluster stuff work. And from what I see your issue is not with target itself but with client side configuration. If you don't want to stick with Windows OS as a target you're welcomed to give a try to OpenIndiana.

Thanks Kooler, actually I tried installing Starwind 5.7 trial version. But that was giving some issues, I doubt that is due to the 32 bit Win XP which I am running.

I will surely give it a try again. Thank again.

You can use Windows XP to run Management Console only. To run actual StarWind service you need Windows Server 2008 R2 (or Windows 7). In any case if you have issues with the product you'd better bug StarWind support stuff as they are keen to help w/o asking for $$$ or buying something. Good luck!

Many Thanks Kooler, StarWind 5.7 works flawlessly with Windows 7 Enterprise.

I was able to have SCSI-3 PR disks and create some test scenarios with IO Fencing.

I have become a big fan of StarWind since it is too easy and does not hogs system resources at all.

I am marking this thread as solved.

I'm glad I've been able to help Have a nice cluster