Does FOG work with iSCSI?

[Wayne Workman]

@ManofValor The interface name isn’t so important I guess. You could guess at it by just putting in eth0 which is a typical default name, but it could very well be something else. I did some Googling and couldn’t find any CLI stuff for the Terastation either. Best to not spend a lot of time on it I guess.

The important thing is to ensure the FTP credentials you have set in Storage Management for the storage node are correct, by trying them manually AND transferring a file to the terastation. That’ll be the proving point. There are examples of this in the wiki, in the “Troubleshoot FTP” article.

[ManofValor]

@Wayne-Workman Ok, thanks. Let you know how it goes.

[ManofValor]

@ManofValor I get the feeling that this particular NAS is not going to work. I can’t get into CLI and, I’m probably doing something wrong but, I can’t get FTP to work on the NAS side,it works on the windows and CentOS side. The firewall is disabled and vsftpd is enabled and active. Can you think of anything? I’m beginning to think that this NAS was not made for this. Any thoughts?

P.S. Still getting the error when trying to go to FOG Configuration.

[Wayne Workman]

@ManofValor If the NAS supports FTP and NFS, of course it can work. Those are the only two requirements for a storage node.

Have you created a user account for FTP access? Have you set a password for it? Have you given that account access to a directory? Have you shared that directory via NFS?

What do you mean FTP works on the windows and CentOS side? You should be testing FTP access to the NAS.

[ManofValor]

@Wayne-Workman I was talking with Buffalo tech and it does not support FTP and NFS. It is iSCSI only. I mentioned it before but I wasn’t thinking when we started talking FTP. This is why I’ve been trying to connect it iSCSI. I’ve got it connected I just figure out if I’ve got it right seeing that I can’t access CLI or, like most storage devices, even see what’s on the drives. Thoughts?

[Tom Elliott]

@ManofValor iSCSI means creating a target and establishing a mount using that target. I forget the terms please forgive me.

YOu will be using the FOG system to do the work, you just need to fstab the iscsi mount point on boot.

My guess, currently /images is not using anything correct?
https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/iscsi-initiator.html
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/rhel-centos-fedora-linux-iscsi-howto.html

A couple links to hopefully help you along the way.

The interesting thing here is all this effort toward something you (or anybody really) are even sure will work. With all this time you have been using to try to get something working (and not succeeding) when this could’ve just been all done a LONG timeago by setting up a proper drive or giving the OS more space to begin with.

[Wayne Workman]

@Tom-Elliott And even if it can be mounted and read/writable in Linux, that doesn’t mean it can be re-exported. That part will likely fail.

[Tom Elliott]

@Wayne-Workman iSCSI shows up as if it’s a physical volume. iSCSI is block level so you can export it.

[Wayne Workman]

@Tom-Elliott Ah… See that’s why I hang around here lol. Learn new stuff all the time.

[ManofValor]

@Tom-Elliott Thank you Tom. I’ve done some of the stuff in the links, I am connected to my NAS, but this is the first I’ve seen of some of this. I guess I need to learn how to search better. As I said I am connected I just haven’t been sure if it was working yet, mostly because this NAS doesn’t support CLI or the ability to go in and see what’s on the drives. I’ve never seen a storage unit that doesn’t let you see what’s on it.

I agree about it taking a long time but I don’t think either of us, my boss and I, expected it to take this long either. It doesn’t bother him though because he it’s a good learning experience. In the beginning he wanted to use FOG because it was free and he’s heard good things about it. Also, we have this old NAS, that I now hate, that he is wanting to utilize, but again we didn’t think it would take this long. I have enjoyed learning about Linux, mostly, so I guess there’s that. I really appreciate you guys helping me, I know I ask a lot of dumb questions. With this experience I’ve been to other sites and asked for help with other stuff and there is nobody else I’d rather learn this stuff, even FOG aside, than you guys. Y’all have been awesome.

[Tom Elliott]

@ManofValor iscsi is block level. You will never see the data on the drive.

[Wayne Workman]

@ManofValor once it’s mounted and configured tho, you can browse it from the server’s OS.

[ManofValor]

@Tom-Elliott Oh is that what that means…lol. Thanks, I really didn’t know that.

[ManofValor]

@Wayne-Workman Oh ok. Cool.

[Tom Elliott]

@ManofValor What I mean, that was by cell phone voice to text translation. Essentially, what a “block level” device is, it is a device that operates at the block level. This is how HDD’s operate. In the iscsi world a section of the space is delved out. The receiving (target) of the initiator can use the point as if it were a local device. Think CD Drive, or HDD (more appropriate).

You can move where that point mounts and even mount the same device on different systems (though I’d highly recommend it).

The SAN (Storage Area Network) is the most often place I’ve seen high use of iSCSI. NAS simply means (Network Attached Storage) which can mean any number of things. I suppose iSCSI is the same type of thing.

Please understand, I know people come from different experience levels and know different things. I know you have to start somewhere. Most work up from a lower point though. Not in an IT position already trying to integrate advanced items to a system that’s hardly known about in their already existing environment.

[ManofValor]

@Tom-Elliott Gotcha.

[Wayne Workman]

Yup. Although I entered my first job with education and certs, I was just a lab assistant helping people with computer usage, i.t. homework, and filling paper in printers. I quickly gained experience and responsibilities though, and my boss let me do way more stuff than what was on my job description back then. Of course I thought I knew it all from the git-go… people in i.t. who continually move up are those who constantly learn, make mistakes and learn more, and continually do more… every day.

[ManofValor]

Curious, why do I have two of the same sd’s, sdb and sdc? I was going to partition one, I guess it doesn’t matter but just wondering.

[root@localhost images]# dmesg | grep sd
[    4.849861] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 976707632 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[    4.850038] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    4.850041] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 6b 00 00 08
[    4.850145] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    4.854445]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 >
[    4.855586] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[    8.932316] Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
[   10.314292] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[   12.148400] EXT4-fs (sda5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[   18.889193] talpa-vfshook: nfsd is on the skip list, not patching
[   25.390122] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[   25.391593] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.391837] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 17488150528 512-byte logical blocks: (8.95 TB/8.14 TiB)
[   25.392079] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[   25.392083] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 77 00 00 08
[   25.392599] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: disabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   25.393716] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.420711]  sdb: unknown partition table
[   25.421463] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.423684] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[   25.464766] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[   25.466368] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.466836] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 17488150528 512-byte logical blocks: (8.95 TB/8.14 TiB)
[   25.467369] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[   25.467373] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 77 00 00 08
[   25.468057] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: disabled, read cache: disabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   25.468843] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.474337]  sdc: unknown partition table
[   25.475430] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16).
[   25.476647] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[10997.260848] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache

[ManofValor]

I’m not sure I quite understand this message during the FOG install/update. Am I supposed to add those two lines to the .fogsettings file, cause I don’t see them in there? If so, does it matter where it goes?

 ########################################################################################
   FOG has adjusted to using a login system to protect what can/cannot be downloaded
   We have detected that you don't have credentials defined to perform the backup
   If you would like the database to be backed up during install please define
   in your /opt/fog/.fogsettings file

   fogguiuser='usernameOfFOGGUI'
   fogguipass='passwordOfFOGGUIUser'

   You can also re-run this installer as:

   fogguiuser='usernameOfFOGGUI' fogguipass='passwordOfFOGGUIUser' ./installfog.sh -y
########################################################################################

Also, I believe I’ve got the iSCSI mounted right and ready to try an image.

# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Thu Feb 18 14:47:41 2016
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
/dev/mapper/centos00-root00 /                       ext4    defaults        1 1
UUID=31117e50-bdd0-446a-8527-e08cebd24684 /boot                   ext4    defaults        1 2
/dev/mapper/fog-opt_fog_images /opt                    ext4    defaults        1 2
/dev/mapper/centos00-swap swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/opt/fog/images /images bind bind 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /opt/fog/images 

[root@localhost bin]# df -H
Filesystem                      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/centos00-root00      22G  7.4G   13G  37% /
devtmpfs                        2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /dev
tmpfs                           2.0G  6.6M  2.0G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                           2.0G  9.4M  2.0G   1% /run
tmpfs                           2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda5                       1.1G  308M  639M  33% /boot
/dev/mapper/fog-opt_fog_images  424G  240G  163G  60% /opt
/dev/sdb1                       8.9T   95M  8.5T   1% /images
tmpfs                           397M  8.2k  397M   1% /run/user/1000
tmpfs                           397M     0  397M   0% /run/user/0

[root@localhost bin]# ls /opt/fog/images -a
.  ..  dev  lost+found  .mntcheck  postdownloadscripts
[root@localhost bin]# ls /opt/fog/images/dev -a
.  ..  .mntcheck

[Tom Elliott]

@ManofValor I think you are almost there.

Last bit, I’d do if I were you.

Make sure permissions are proper.

Run: chmod =R 777 /images

Then run her up and see how it goes.