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james_daley

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iSCSI NAS error when connecting to windows 2003 server...

Hi,

We have a Win2003 STD server using MS Initiator to connect a 2TB Thecus N5200 NAS box.  For the last few days, we're getting a lost connection and we reboot the server, and this resolves the issue.

In the windows system event log, we get this error
Event id: 1
Source: iscsiprt
Description:

"Initiator failed to connect to the target. Target IP address and TCP Port number are given in dump data.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

MS Initiator states the target is connected, or sometimes it turns to a 'reconnecting' status and just hangs.

Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening?

Thanks,

James Daley
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Duncan Meyers
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First place to start looking is at the basic network connectivity: make sure you're using Cat 5e or better cables for gigabit Ethernet. Turn off auto negotiation and set both the speed and duplex of the network ports to 1000Mbps/full duplex. You'll need to do this on the server and the network switches. Check that you have the latest network card drivers installed. You may also want to disable NIC teaming if it's installed.
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james_daley

ASKER

Thank you for your quick respnose.  Cables are cat6 and are excellent condition, so they seem fine... ive made the changes you've requested except for the drivers.. ill do that tomorrow sometime.

Any other suggestions in the mean time?

It looks like the network connection is dropping out as a first guess. Have you checked that you've got all the latest OS patches?
We have WSUS implemented so updates are pulled and installed automatically...
All patches have been installed.
Hi,

Have you by any chance applied windows 2003 sp2 recently and you are noticing this changed behaviour. If that is the case then check if TCP chimney is enabled this was part of scalable network pack released along with sp2 and what this does is it offloads the network packet processing to the network card instead of doing at the os level.  

disable TCP chiminey and check if the connectivity issues persist

bhanu
Bhanu,

It was installed recently.  I've disabled tcp chiminey through the registry and will reboot tonight to see if it works.

Thank you for your help.
It seemed to help for a few days but the problem is still apparent.  Any further suggestions?
PLEASE NOTE THIS PROBLEM HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED...
Hi,

The possible reason why the connection might be disconnecting might be a network related issue. Please ensure that you have the latest firmware upgraded for the NAS box

http://www.thecus.com/download.php?pid=8

Also check if you have the latest version of iSCSI initiator software

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=12cb3c1a-15d6-4585-b385-befd1319f825&DisplayLang=en


And confirm if you have checked the network card drivers are update and the iSCSI network devices if it is plugged to a different swithch than a regular switch is working fine. Please consider making the changes recomended in my earlier post

bhanu
Thank you Bhanu, ill keep you posted as i make these changes/updates.
I've made all the changes you said to... Although now we're getting large amounts of event id 9 and 27.

Event id 9 - "Target did not respond in time for a SCSI request. The CDB is given in the dump data."

Event id 27 - "Initiator could not find a match for the initiator task tag in the received PDU. Dump data contains the entire iSCSI header."

ANy suggestions?

Thank you for your continued support
Hi,

Event id 9 and event id 27 are normally seen when there is a hardware error. In this case the suspicion is on the iSCSI inititiator the error "Target did not respond in time for a scsi request" means to say that while the OS is trying to send a SCSI code the device is not responding correctly or timing out.

The next error "initiator could not find a match for the initiator task tag in the recieved pdu" seems more like the packets are not getting sequenced. On thing that you can try is reducing the size of data being sent to the NAS device. If you are using a different network card for the iSCSI connections then ensure that the network card has the latest drivers and check what is the settings on the network cards full duplex or half duplexe 1 gb or 100 mb or auto.

What are the settings on the switch. Does it have auto or 1 gb full 1 gb half 100mb full/half duplex.

Try to set the switch to 1 gb half duplex and also the network card to 1 gb half duplex and see how it works.

bhanu
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