Setting Up iSCSI With FreeNAS So Any Computer Can Have Additional Virtual Internal Hard Drives

Six hard disk drives with cases opened showing platters and heads; 8, 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8 and 1 inch disk diameters are represented. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you know you can use FreeNAS to host iSCSI service? OK, what is this service anyway? To tell the truth, I’m so new to this that I’m scared to talk of it, because I don’t want to have this wrong and steer you wrong. Anyhow, I think I know how this service works inside FreeNAS. Let me sum this up, it’s like using FreeNAS’s storage volumes to act as hard drives on different computers. So, to make this clearer, let say you have a FreeNAS server with plenty of ZFS disk space and you had already created the necessary ZFS Datasets to act as if these ZFS Datasets are different partitions (i.e., ZFS volumes or hard disks); you can basically set up iSCSI service through FreeNAS to make these ZFS Datasets to act as if they are internal hard drives of any other computer you have access. Once you set a computer to connect to iSCSI service’s volumes (i.e., extents) and with appropriate permissions, the users who log onto this specific computer will be able to use FreeNAS’s ZFS Datasets (i.e., ZFS volumes) as if there are additional internal hard drives on the computer. How neat, right? Unfortunately, I think the setup for iSCSI is rather confusing, and you have to really understand iSCSI to not make mistakes when setting up iSCSI service in FreeNAS. I’m myself not exactly sure of how setting up iSCSI, therefore I can’t really make a video about iSCSI. Luckily, I’ve found an instructive video of teaching you how to setup iSCSI in FreeNAS. Please enjoy the video out right after the break!