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Configuration : Protocols > iSCSI : Understanding iSCSI : How iSCSI communication sessions work
How iSCSI communication sessions work
During an iSCSI session, the initiator and the target communicate over their standard Ethernet interfaces, unless the host has an iSCSI HBA or a CNA.
The storage system appears as a single iSCSI target node with one iSCSI node name. For storage systems with a MultiStore license enabled, each vFiler unit is a target with a different iSCSI node name.
On the storage system, the interface can be an Ethernet port, interface group, UTA, or a virtual LAN (VLAN) interface.
Each interface on the target belongs to its own portal group by default. This enables an initiator port to conduct simultaneous iSCSI sessions on the target, with one session for each portal group. The storage system supports up to 1,024 simultaneous sessions, depending on its memory capacity. To determine whether your host’s initiator software or HBA can have multiple sessions with one storage system, see your host OS or initiator documentation.
You can change the assignment of target portals to portal groups as needed to support multi-connection sessions, multiple sessions, and multipath I/O.
Each session has an Initiator Session ID (ISID), a number that is determined by the initiator.

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