Connecting euroNAS iSCSI Target on Citrix Xen Server

euroNAS Products are providing High-End iSCSI Target that is easy to configure and maintain. This article describes how to connect euroNAS on to a Citrix Xen Server using iSCSI protocol.

Firts create new iSCSI Target via Data Management - iSCSI Targets - Create iSCSI Target…

Now you can add this target in Citix XenCenter using the option New Storage – type iSCSI.

Assign it a new name for the storage and enter under Target Host the IP address of the euroNAS Server. Select then the option Discover IQNs, select your iSCSI target and click on Discover LUNs.

After clicking on finish – on a freshly created iSCSI Target you will get the Warning that the disk will be formatted.

After confirmation new iSCSI Target will be formatted and ready for use with Xen Server.

Connect NFS share on to Citrix Xen Server

euroNAS is perfect choice for use as storage with Citrix Xen Server – it not only provides iSCSI functionality but also has a very fast performing NFS Server that is ideal for use with Citrix Xen.

This article explains how to connect Xen Server to euroNAS using NFS protocol.

Create first in euroNAS administration Data Management - Shares - Create new share and select the option Allow NFS access.

Under Security Management - Access Control - NFS access enter the IP address of your XEN Server.

Make sure under System - Services that NFS Service has started and go to Citrix XenCenter to add this NFS share.

Select the option New Storage and as a type NFS VHD.

Enter now the IP address of the server and the name of the share and click on scan

NOTE:

Path to the NFS share must always contain prefix volumes or nfs – share must be mounted either with /volumes/sharename or /nfs/sharename (2012 version and higher)

After clicking on finish NFS share will be initialized and prepaired for use with XEN Server.

Increasing the disk timeout values under Linux

euroNAS HA Cluster provides you the highest level of redundancy. It even protects you if one of the replication servers fail. In this case all ressources will be moved to another running server automatically.

During failover the ressources are unavailable during the failover period. In most cases OS can handle this but sometimes it is nessesary to change default timeout settings.

When connecting to Linux using iSCSI timings depend on 2 factors:

Timeout of the disk and
of the open-iscsi initiator.

You can see the current time out values of your iSCSI disk with following command:
find /sys/class/scsi_generic/*/device/timeout -exec grep -H . ‘{}’ \;

Value can be changed by editing timeout settings in /sys – for example:
echo 180 > /sys/block/sdd/device/timeout

This setting is not remaining after reboot so putting it into a start script is recommended.

How do I install euroNAS?

Installation is easy and simple – after you have created an Installation-CD or Installation-USB-Stick (for creation follow separate instructions from our knowledge database) you can boot from it and start the installation

Select the option Begin Installation

Select the installation language (it can be changed later in administration inteface)

Select the installation drive (at least 4 GB Size – perferably SSD drive)

Installation will begin (it takes usually 5-10 Minutes)

After installation is done – reboot the server and make sure that your installation-CD is not inserte.

After reboot you will be shown this window. In here you can change the IP Address(Network Settings) or immediately access the server via web browser of your choice (IE, Firefox, Chrome etc.) by entering the IP Address that is shown – in this example that is:

http://192.168.178.122 or
http://192.168.178.106

When you open the administration interface in your browser you can enter the user name and password. Default user name and password is :
username: admin password: euronas

When you enter the administration interface you can start configuring your server