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user28362
Asked: 2009-12-08 04:50:32 +0800 CST

Some questions about iSCSI

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I searched the internet, but I couldn't find which sort of cables iSCSI adapters require. I will use it in a HP server, which has two HP NC382i Integrated Dual Port PCI Express Gigabit Server Adapters. Does it use CAT 5 or some special cabling and port (UTP)?

Thanks very much!

iscsi

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You should use Cat5e/6. You can use a standard NIC if you are going to use a software initiator, but if you want the extra performance that a hardware initiator gives you, you will need an iSCSI HBA.

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  2. I currently have acces to a HDS box that shares iSCSI via two 1Gb cards on cat5e

    the servers connecting to it both have two 1Gb ports on cat5e to...

    so all connections on this solution is cat5e

    hope that helps

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  3. iSCSI is a communications protocol. It's SCSI commands encapsulated in IP datagrams (basically).

    Typically you're running iSCSI over Ethernet in LAN environments (though it doesn't have to be), so you're going to want to use the types of cable suitable for an Ethernet LAN.

    For copper cable-based Ethernet with speeds up to gigabit, unshielded category 5 UTP cable is fine. (Let's not have the "Cat 5e / cat 5 gigabit Ethernet argument" here again... Gigabit Ethernet works fine on properly terminated and certified category 5 cable plants.) You typically can't find much category 5 cable today, though, so category 5e or category 6 is fine, too.

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