Linux iScsi Target and the Inquiry LUN Response

Ok, last time we completed compiling and installing the Linux iScsi target. Now we need to configure it and start it. All I wanted to do, at this stage, was a simple test. So I just did the minimal amount of configuration. I was going to be running the target on Centos-4, running under VmWare, so it was easy to add a second virtual hard drive to the environment, in this case '/dev/sdb', to export out from the target.

# cat /etc/ietd.conf
#IncomingUser nwsmith secretsecret
Target iqn.2007-01.net.nwsmith:test01
Lun 0 /dev/sdb fileio
Alias iscsitest01

# service iscsi-target start
Starting iSCSI target service:    [  OK  ]

# netstat -ntlp | grep 3260
tcp  0  0  0.0.0.0:3260  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN 3160/ietd

# tail /var/log/messages
Jan 14 15:59:02 localhost kernel: iSCSI Enterprise Target Software - version 0.4.5
Jan 14 15:59:02 localhost kernel: iotype_init(91) register fileio
Jan 14 15:59:03 localhost kernel: target_param(109) d 1 8192 262144 65536 2 20 8 0
Jan 14 15:59:03 localhost iscsi-target: ietd startup succeeded

The Linux iScsi target seems to work fine with the Microsoft iScsi initiator (v2.03).

Ok, now we have the target running, one of the thing I wanted to look at was how the Linux iScsi target handled the initial login and connection from the Microsoft initiator. I was looking for how it handles the "Inquiry LUN" packet. I used Ethereal to capture and analyse the packets - filter on port 3260.

I had a look at the source code, and found what I was looking for in file "target_disk.c" and in function:

static int build_inquiry_response(struct iscsi_cmnd *cmnd)

By editing the values in this function, you can adjust the following fields in the response packet:

Version, Flags, Vendor Id:, Product Id:, Product Revision Level:

I tried changing some of these fields in the code, recompiling, restarting the target, and then used Ethereal to check that the response (from the target) to the (initiators) 'Inquiry' LUN packet changed as expected. And it did what I expected. (To change the Version returned, edit the line "data[2] = 3;").

The Version field indicates which version of SCSI is supported by the target. You can check which values are valid by reading the specification. The specification is called "SCSI Primary Commands - 3" or SPC-3 and you can download it from www.t10.org.

In the case of the version field, the valid values are shown in table 84:

0x00 - The device does not claim conformance to any standard.
0x02 - Obsolete.
0x03 - The device complies to ANSI INCITS 301-1997 (SPC).
0x04 - The device complies to ANSI INCITS 351-2001 (SPC-2).
0x05 - The device complies to T10/1416-D (SPC-3).

Ok, I think that's enough detail for this post.