we are using Windows Server 2012 R2 to provide some iSCSI targets for other servers. The server has a storage pool, and there is a virtual disk on top of that, and then an iSCSI target is created on this virtual disk.
However, after server restart, the target is always lost and the initiator cannot connect to this target. If I then restart the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target service (i.e. "WinTarget"), the target is initialized properly and works fine.
Since I believe this is a dependency issue, I tried setting the service startup to "Automatic (Delayed Start)", but it fails with an error ("The delayed start could not be set, parameter is incorrect").
Is this a known issue? I.e. if yes, how do I delay startup of this service?
Best Answer
Yes, this is a known issue. Unfortunately native Microsoft iSCSI Target is not something that can be put in production. It is slow, unstable, has limited performance and no caching etc. There are multiple free tools that a capable to provide you with a fast and reliable iSCSI target. We are using Starwind https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-free for this purposes that provides iSCSI targets for ESX and Windows servers. Will solve your issues for sure.