Add iSCSI Portal Group

Use the Add iSCSI Portal Group page to create a new user-defined iSCSI target portal group.

A target portal group is a group of one or more network interfaces over which the filer receives iSCSI requests. The network interfaces in a target portal group collectively coordinate an iSCSI session. All TCP connections within an iSCSI session must use interfaces assigned to the same target portal group. Each interface can be assigned to one and only one target portal group.

To facilitate multi-connection iSCSI sessions, you can define your own target portal groups that contain multiple network interfaces. Using multi-connection sessions means that the loss of a single TCP connection (due to a cable pull, for example) does not necessarily result in the loss of the iSCSI session. You do not need to use MPIO to enable support for multiple connections.

Data ONTAP assigns any interface that is not part of a user-defined target portal group to a system default target portal group.

Special Considerations for Clustered Filers

When assigning interfaces to target portal groups for clustered filers, make sure the interfaces on each filer fail over to an interface assigned to a target portal group with the same tag on the partner filer. If the target portal group tags do not match at the time of the takeover operation, the initiator will see a different mapping between the target portal and its target portal group. The mismatch can prevent the initiator from reestablishing the multi-connection session to the takeover filer.