iSCSI on FreeNAS 11.1 and how to set up and access from Windows 10

[knucklehead42]

I am confused (not surprising for a beat-up old dude of 75+). After following several paths, looking for information on iSCSI in FreeNAS 11.1, I seem to have hit the wall.

I'm not new to computers, though my experience with "desktop" sized systems is only about 25+ years old (large iron mainframe experience goes back about 60 years), starting with Xenix and Unix (SCO) and moving to Linux, I have frequently used SCSI disks and tapes in the past.

When I saw I could create an iSCSI zvol (I think that's right) it seemed like connecting that "drive" to a Windows machine shouldn't be that difficult... "Bzzzzzt! Next Contestant"
Googling the Web brought up some severely dated articles related to older versions of FreeNAS that have shed minimal light. Searching in the FreeNAS Community has found nothing... When I widen the search criteria, I am flooded with suggested articles that have little or nothing to do with iSCSI.

What I an trying to do is set up FreeNAS 11.1 with some iSCSI devices that I can directly mount to one Windows 10 desktop and three laptops, and if that works, an iSCSI device for my Linux machine.

Has anyone done this? (Successfully)?
Hints?
How to?

I seem to be forgetting what I learn at nearly the rate I take it in, which is frustrating (VERY), and yet I can recall database functions in a huge project management and billing system I designed and developed 30 years ago :-(

 

[dlavigne]

Have you seen that section in the Guide? If so, which part does not make sense to you?

 

[MrToddsFriends]

What I an trying to do is set up FreeNAS 11.1 with some iSCSI devices that I can directly mount to one Windows 10 desktop and three laptops, and if that works, an iSCSI device for my Linux machine.

After having read your question twice: Sorry if my query sounds dumb but are you really sure that block devices (iSCSI) is the right direction for you and not something as simple as SMB Shares?
http://doc.freenas.org/11/sharing.html#windows-smb-shares

 

[knucklehead42]

Have you seen that section in the Guide? If so, which part does not make sense to you?

Yes, I have seen and read the section, but there are several places that seem to conflict with what I have seen/learned to date.
1) I am not sure of the need for/if I might have ISNS Servers - certainly I have none I am aware of as that role;
2) Pool Available Space Threshold says: "when this percentage is reached, the system issues an alert, but only if zvols are used" and yet I recall seeing iSCSI referred to as one type of zvol;
3) zvol vs iSCSI - what is hierarchy or is there a hierarchy? Same? How are they different? In fact, what IS the hierarchy in ZFS, or is that even a relevant thought? I seem to be having trouble wrapping my head around ZFS, and as I said originally: I am a bit stuck in the old way of doing things.
4) When adding an iSCSI Portal, is the IP Address requested for the FreeNAS box (I have only a single NIC at this point - network traffic is fairly quiet most all the time) or for the box that will be accessing the iSCSI share? If for the FreeNAS box, am I correct in assuming that 0.0.0.0 would work just fine?
5) The whole Target and Extent settings raise more questions than I have answers for... which comes first? etc...

As I said originally, what I am trying to do is set up FreeNAS with iSCSI in such a way that I can give each Windows machine (and my Linux beast) a disk that will be mounted on the appropriate machine, and visible to the Cloud Backup, and to disk imaging software so I can make disk images of the Windows machine's user disk drives and store them on the iSCSI "drive"... if iSCSI is not the way to achieve this, what would work better? instead?

 

[knucklehead42]

After having read your question twice: Sorry if my query sounds dumb but are you really sure that block devices (iSCSI) is the right direction for you and not something as simple as SMB Shares?
http://doc.freenas.org/11/sharing.html#windows-smb-shares

Not sure if I should have included the "why" in the original post, but it has to do with how the Cloud Backup system I am using manages SMB Shares versus how it might manage an attached iSCSI... it's commercial, not free, software, and at my age and somewhat restricted income, paying for 5 machines (6 if we count the FreeNAS box) versus paying for 2 is driving my query.
And, as if my confusion about ZFS and iSCSI isn't enough, just wait until I try to digest "jails"... I'm sticking to figuring out the disk parts for now...

Thanks for reading and trying to understand... much appreciated

 

[SysBoot]

Hi, I'm not sure if I understand what happens to you, but your problem is that you can't mount the iSCSI resource on FreeNAS?