VLANs and Initiator Groups

An initiator group is a group of one or more initiator names (iSCSI IQNs or Fibre Channel WWPNs) that can be used to grant access to volumes or LUNs in a SAN, or to assign those volumes or LUNs to a VLAN.

The array OS supports the configuration of multiple initiator groups with access control. Access can be added to or removed from a volume by configuring initiator groups. By default, iSCSI volumes are set up with full access, while Fibre Channel volumes are set up with no access.

The array OS also supports the configuration of an initiator group with no access control, by entering "*" in both the IQN and IP fields in the Edit an Initiator Group screen. This configuration allows the initiator group to control access through the Target Subnet List, if selected.

VLANs allow you to have multiple subnets per interface. By selecting the Target Subnet List, you can limit the number of subnets that have access to a volume. This is useful when there are so many subnets that timeouts may occur, for example when subnets need to be scanned on volume restart. It can also be used for security, to prevent certain subnets from accessing the volume.