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Create Discovery Domains and Discovery Domain Sets

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

With Storage Explorer, you can create and manage Discovery Domains and Discovery Domain Sets in your iSCSI fabric.

Important

This feature enables you to perform a select subset of the tasks that relate to iSCSI and iSNS configuration and administration. You can also perform these and other tasks using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator, which is included in Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft iSNS Server, which you can install from Server Manager. Additionally, vendors of networking and storage solutions provide similar tools to perform iSCSI and iSNS configuration and administration tasks. For more information about iSCSI, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=102299.

Discovery Domains in an iSCSI fabric, like zones in a Fibre Channel fabric, enable you to partition the storage resources in your storage area network (SAN). By creating and managing Discovery Domains, you can control the iSCSI targets that each iSCSI initiator can see and log on to.

You create a Discovery Domain by grouping the initiators and targets that are reported by each Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server in your SAN. Discovery Domains can be further partitioned into Discovery Domain Sets. The idea is similar to Discovery Domains, except that each Discovery Domain Set corresponds to a group of Discovery Domains, and each Discovery Domain Set can be either enabled or disabled. If a Discovery Domain is not a member of an enabled Discovery Domain Set, then that Discovery Domain cannot be used for discovery.

To summarize, in order for an iSCSI target to be discovered by an iSCSI initiator, both must be members of the same Discovery Domain, and that Discovery Domain must be a member of an enabled Discovery Domain Set.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

To create a Discovery Domain

  1. In iSCSI Fabrics, click the iSNS server under which you want to create a Discovery Domain.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Create Discovery Domain.

  3. Type a name for the Discovery Domain, and click OK.

  4. To add an iSCSI target or initiator to the Discovery Domain:

    1. Drag and drop the target or initiator from Registered Nodes into the Discovery Domain.

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    2. Click the Discovery Domain and in the Actions pane, click Add new Initiator or Target. Type the iSCSI name of the initiator or target, and click OK.

To create a Discovery Domain Set and add a Discovery Domain to it

  1. In iSCSI Fabrics, click the iSNS server under which you want to create a Discovery Domain.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Create Discovery Domain Set.

  3. Type a name for the Discovery Domain Set, and click OK.

  4. To add a Discovery Domain to the Discovery Domain Set, drag and drop the Discovery Domain into the Discovery Domain Set.

  5. To enable the new Discovery Domain Set, in the Actions pane, click Enable.

Additional considerations

  • To use Discovery Domains and Discovery Domain Sets, you must first add one or more iSNS servers to your iSCSI fabric. For more information, see Add an iSNS Server to the Fabric.

  • New Discovery Domain Sets are disabled by default.

  • It is possible to remove an iSCSI target from all Discovery Domains and manually configure an iSCSI initiator to access that target. This must be done outside of the context of an iSNS server and Discovery Domains, using the configuration tools for the initiator and the target, such as iSCSI Initiator in Control Panel.

Additional references