HOWTO: Debian and SCSI multipathing with multipath-tools

After getting iSCSI working on Debian Etch the next thing to do is to set up multipath to get redundancy in case one path from the SCSI client to the SCSI target fails.

First, let’s digg a bit more in depth about what a path is, what can go wrong and what we can do to prevent it. Usually in a simple iSCSI environment there are two network interfaces dedicated to the remote storage, each one connected to a distinct ethernet switch and each switch connected to the a distinct ethernet interface in the host SAN. Then here you have two separated controller cards (let’s call them A and B) which connect to the same logical volume (a RAID array.. so here redundancy is already covered). I repeat, this is the simplest redundant scenario, in which you can have redundancy, a good fault-tolerance and can parallelize via round-robin the requests from the initiator to the host target.

HOWTO: the definitive guide to Debian Etch open-iscsi (take 2)

I guess the fact I’m here writing again on this topic goes for that definitive I put in the title the first time :) So obviously it was not so definitive, and here we are again with a, I hope, better and improved version.
This time we are going to use th backports repository and the Etcn’n’half kernel, cause they provide a better and far more stable support for iSCSI under Debian (Etch).

So, first of all add the backports repository:


echo "deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list


and do some basic stuff:

# aptitude update
# aptitude install debian-backports-keyring
# aptitude update


Now, let’s install the newer 2.6.24 kernel from the Debian Etch’n’half project (note: it’s present in the officila Debian repository, it doesn’t come from the backports.org one)


# aptitude install linux-image-2.6-amd64-etchnhalf # remove amd64 if you're on x86_32


now here, if you are a Broadcom NeteXtreme 2 user (lsmod|grep bnx2), be careful and remember to install these NEW package before rebooting, or you will have an unpleasant surprise


# aptitude install firmware-bnx2


This is due to a change in newer Linux versions

Then reboot, cross your fingers and then install the newer open-iscsi package:

# aptitude install -t etch-backports open-iscsi


Everything should be ok and this time you should have all the config files in the right place, a proper script to mount/unmount iSCSI target devices at boot time and so on…
Anyway, I still prefer the old-school config file, so usually I replace the Debian stock one with something like this:


node.active_cnx = 1
#node.startup = manual
node.startup = automatic
#node.session.auth.username = dima
#node.session.auth.password = aloha
#node.session.timeo.replacement_timeout = 15
node.session.timeo.recovery_timeout = 15
node.session.err_timeo.abort_timeout = 10
node.session.err_timeo.reset_timeout = 30
node.session.iscsi.InitialR2T = No
node.session.iscsi.ImmediateData = Yes
node.session.iscsi.FirstBurstLength = 262144
node.session.iscsi.MaxBurstLength = 16776192
node.session.iscsi.DefaultTime2Wait = 0
node.session.iscsi.DefaultTime2Retain = 0
node.session.iscsi.MaxConnections = 0
node.conn[0].iscsi.HeaderDigest = None
node.conn[0].iscsi.DataDigest = None
node.conn[0].iscsi.MaxRecvDataSegmentLength = 65536


I have highlighted one line because that parameter is used to choose the timeout after which an iSCSI device is considered dead, and thus that path discarded (we’ll talk about paths later).

So, time to discover new devices now:

# /etc/init.d/open-iscsi restart
# iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p $SAN_IP_ADDRESS
# /etc/init.d/open-iscsi restart


check out your dmesg output and look for new /dev/sdX devices.
Some partitioning and formatting later, you can edit your fstab with something like this


/dev/sdb1 /mnt/files ext3 defaults,auto,_netdev 0 0


and you should be done!

HOWTO: the definitive guide to Debian Etch open-iscsi (step-by-step)

Ok, maybe this is a little bit arrogant title :) but since I’ve experienced more than a problem/issue when installing iSCSI initiator support in Debian 4.0 Etch, I think that this howto could help people setting up their first open-iscsi in Etch (in which open-iscsi is UTTERLY broken, let me say it loud).

First of all, install open-iscsi

aptitude install open-iscsi

and remove the broken init scripts (they are going to give you lots of headaches when rebooting, if you don’t do this.)

update-rc.d -f open-iscsi remove