View Discovered Volumes

From the Volumes tab of the HPE Storage Connection Manager GUI you can:
  • Select a volume without connections and create new initial connections
  • Create an initial connection that is not a Favorite by deselecting the Favorite box
  • Click Connect to create the optimal number of connections balanced across the host initiator ports
  • Click Disconnect to disconnect a connected volume
  • Check the Remove connect on startup box to remove to remove Favorite logins.
  • View the properties of the connections to a connected target

Favorite refers to an iSCSI session that the host automatically attempts to reestablish when Windows reboots. When working with Favorites, keep the following in mind:

  • If something changes on the host, network or array such that the Favorite iSCSI session cannot be established on reboot, the iSCSI session reports its state as 'reconnecting'. (The reconnecting state occurs during the time the host cannot ping the array discovery IP address.) The Connection Services ages and tries to remove reconnecting sessions gradually over time. Attempts to close reconnecting iSCSI sessions frequently fail. It may take several attempts to close a reconnecting session.
  • If you attempt to close one or more Favorite connections in the reconnecting state, HPE Storage Connection Manager may show a negative number of connections. If this occurs, stop the Connection Services service while you are trying to close the connections. When the desired sessions are established, restart the Connection Services service.
  • The iSCSI Initiator (iscsicpl.exe) process may hang when attempting to close reconnecting iSCSI sessions. To exit this condition, open the Task Manager, select the Processes tab, highlight the iscsicpl.exe process and click End Process.
  • Disabling host NICs used in Favorite login definitions sometimes causes the Favorite iSCSI login definitions to change. On reboot, these iSCSI sessions may not be able to be reestablished. Ensure that the Favorite iSCSI login definitions are correct after adding or removing host NICs, or enabling or disabling host NICs.
NOTE: The connection manager does not display Volume Scoped Target (VST) snapshot volumes by design. For Group Scoped Target (GST), snapshot LUNs are no different that regular data LUNs. They appear as child LUNs under the GST.
NOTE: A deep discovery operation may take anywhere from several seconds to several minutes depending on the I/O load, the network bandwidth utilization, and the number of active and reconnecting connections.
  1. In the HPE Storage Connection Manager GUI, click the Volumes tab.
  2. Click Refresh to refresh the list of discovered targets and their status.
    NOTE: Clicking Refresh on the Volumes tab may take several minutes. The time is dependent on the total number of connections, as well as the number of connected targets, the number of iSCSI connections that are in the "reconnecting" state, the I/O activity on the iSCSI connections, and other work the system may be doing.

    The following information is displayed:

    Table 1. Volume Connections
    Item Meaning
    Volume Name Name of the Storage target.
    Green check icon This connection is OK. Data is being served optimally.
    Yellow ! icon One or more connections are in the reconnecting state. No data is served by a reconnecting session.

    This could be in intermittent network condition, the result of a change on the array and the array is breaking and rebalancing a connection.

    Otherwise, the condition that needs immediate attention.

    Red ! icon All connections are in the reconnecting state. No data is being served.

    Correct this condition immediately.

    Red X icon This target is not connected. No data is being served.

    The target does not appear as a disk in Windows Disk Management.

    Correction is needed only if you want a connection to this target.
    Table 2. Volume Information
    Item Meaning
    Target Name Name of the Storage target.
    Properties A star icon means this connection is a Favorite login and is automatically restored when the Window host reboots.

    A padlock icon means this target has CHAP authentication on the host. See Note below.

    Connections The number of connections to the target.
    Array Version Version of the array OS running on the array.
    Mapping Info The physical disk number, and drive letter, that correlates with a physical disk under Windows Disk Management.
    Size Size of the Storage target on this connection.
    Array Count The number of Storage arrays supporting this target.
    NOTE: A green padlock does not indicate that the target has been defined to require a CHAP username and password on the array, or that the CHAP username and password on the host are correct. Login attempts will fail if the host has stale or incorrect CHAP username and password values.
  3. Highlight the target and click Properties…
    The following information is displayed:
    Table 3. Volume Properties
    Property Meaning
    iSCSI Target Name Name of the Storage target.
    Target IQN iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) of the Storage target.

    To see the full iSCSI qualified IQN name, hover the mouse over the target name in the Volumes tab.

    Initiator IP IP address of the iSCSI initiator port or network interface on the Windows host
    Target IP Target portal IP address of the iSCSI target. This is actually one of the VTIPs the array advertises as the target's portals.
    State The connection to the Storage target is in the active state or reconnecting state
    Favorite Yes means this connection is a Favorite login and is automatically restored when the Window host reboots.
    Header Digest Indicates whether iSCSI header checksum is enabled or not
    Data Digest Indicates whether isSCSI data payload checksum is enabled or not
  4. Click OK to close the Target Properties box.
    NOTE:

    When there is a change in your arrays or network interfaces, Connection Services recalculates the optimal number of connections to each Storage target and adjusts them as needed.

    Connection Services does not remove the last connection to a target under any circumstances.

    Connection Services adds, deletes, and balances connections based on a two-minute cycle. However, it could take several cycles before the connections are adjusted and stable.

    If you need to change the Connection Services time interval, contact support for assistance.

    IMPORTANT: Microsoft Windows limits the total number of iSCSI connections to 255. Connection Services will not attempt to make additional connections if the total number of iSCSI connections exceeds 250. If you need to modify the 250 iSCSI connection limit, contact Support for assistance.