Access iSCSI from inside?

[ubis]

Hello,
i want to ask if it's possible to do.
Since iSCSI is faster than CIFS/SMB, so why not use it.
I can set up an iSCSI and access it from windows, but... I'm also using an transmission in N4F, and my downloads should go to that iSCSI drive.

So basically it's like mounting my disk0 on /mnt/disk0, setting iSCSI to use mounted disk on /mnt/disk0 and setting in transmission config
finished downloads - /mnt/disk0/Downloads.

Is that possible? As i saw, iSCSI can use only a Device or File disk types.

[STAMSTER]

I'm not sure I understand your thoughts.
You want to mount internal iSCSI block device as a local storage, on the same machine - n4f server? So you'll have both iSCSI target and initiator on the same machine/target?

[ubis]

Yes,
i got an hdd, what i want is to set up iSCSI device and store downloaded torrents from transmission in N4F to that iSCSI drive.

[STAMSTER]

So your N4F box is both Torrent client and Storage server?
Why would you do that over iSCSI since you already have direct block level access to the drive(s)?
You have file sharing protocols such as SMB/CIFS shares for writing torrents etc.

iSCSI is used for a completely different approach, when you have remote server or client machine who needs local storage emulation...

I think theoretically it is possible to have the Target and Initiator on the same N4F box, pointing to itself... but that's a route you really don't need to go..

[ubis]

Yes, well i don't want to mess with torrent client on my pc, and since my NAS is 24/7, torrents are downloading/seeding also at the same time, it's better to leave my NAS powered on instead my NAS and my another computer where torrent client is.

Anyway, i did some experiments with iSCSI target and initiator, and managed to mount it as a /mnt/disk0, and share it with CIFS. BUT, don't know what happened, because when i create a file/folder/whatever on iSCSI drive - it not shows on CIFS or even in mounted /mnt/disk0. And if i create a file/folder/whatever directly in CIFS or via filemanager/terminal in /mnt/disk0 it doesn't shows that file in iSCSI drive, so basically iSCSI is like freezed or smth like that. Anyway, this shouldn't be done, because after NAS reboot, it's stuck, bootloop. N4F tries to connect to iSCSI target and fails, since it's a disk, N4F tries again and again,so it's a loop, and never stops.

I thought if it's possible so why not, especially when iSCSI faster than CIFS.

[STAMSTER]

Yeah, as expected - lot's of trouble.

What is your: "Download directory" (Where to save downloaded data.) setting on Services|BitTorrent ?
Can you cd into that directory via local console (ssh)?

[ubis]

Well, since that bootloop with iSCSI, i dropped it off, i don't have any ideas...
At the moment, im just using a disk and CIFS with UFS and mounted it on /mnt/disk0. My download directory is /mnt/disk0.

[STAMSTER]

Well, isn't that working fine for torrents?
That's the only logical way to do it...
For example you can have a dedicated UFS drive without any CIFS sharing, just local filesystem.. Fastest access.