NAME: NICKELL CONSTANCE

COURSE: ITNS
CAMPUS: STE.MADELINE
INSTRUCTOR: MS. SHARDHA MANICK
ASSIGNMENT: 23001 INDIVIDUAL
ASSESSMENT
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
OBJECTIVE...................................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................5
UTILIZING iSCSI DEVICES..............................................................................................................................6
REDUCING DISK SPACE USAGE...................................................................................................................20
DISCUSSION...............................................................................................................................................26
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................29
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................31
 OBJECTIVE
Objective: The objective of this individual research assignment is to explore solutions for
utilizing iSCSI devices to share disk space among servers and reducing disk space usage in a
virtualized environment.
Assignment Components:
1. Introduction:
 Brief overview of the assignment objective and its significance in understanding iSCSI
utilization and disk space management in server environments.
2. Utilizing iSCSI Devices:
 Research and explanation of the steps and considerations for configuring iSCSI devices
to share disk space among servers running Windows Server 2012 R2, including:
a. Setting up iSCSI initiators on the target servers.
b. Configuring iSCSI targets on the server with 8 TB of disk space.
c. Connecting the target servers to the iSCSI targets and configuring disk access.
d. Testing and verifying disk space usage on the target servers.

3. Reducing Disk Space Usage:

 Research and explanation of strategies for reducing disk space usage in a virtualized
environment using Hyper-V and SAN, including:
a. Identifying and analyzing the primary factors contributing to disk space usage on the
SAN. b. Implementing techniques such as deduplication, compression, and thin
provisioning to optimize disk space utilization.
b. Utilizing tools and features provided by Hyper-V and SAN management software to
monitor and manage disk space usage effectively.
4. Discussion:
 Discussion on the benefits and challenges of utilizing iSCSI devices for disk space
sharing and implementing strategies for reducing disk space usage in virtualized
environments.
 Comparison of different approaches and considerations for choosing the most appropriate
solution based on specific requirements and constraints.

5. Conclusion:
 Summary of key findings and recommendations for effectively utilizing iSCSI devices
and optimizing disk space usage in server environments.

6. Submission:
 Guidelines on how to submit the completed assignment, including any additional
documentation or references, through the specified platform or as instructed by the
instructor.

7. Assessment Criteria:
 Depth of research and understanding demonstrated in exploring iSCSI utilization and
disk space management solutions (10%)
 Clarity and coherence of the discussion on strategies for reducing disk space usage in a
virtualized environment (5%)
 Proper adherence to the APA format in the reference list (5%)
 Report Submission or Late Submission (5%)

8. Late Submission: Please be advised that a late submission of individual report

assignments will incur a penalty of minus 5% from the course work grade score. It is
important to adhere to the specified deadlines to avoid any deductions in your grades.
 INTRODUCTION
As technology advances, there has been a significant increase in the need for more efficient
storage systems for modern computing. That’s where Internet Small Computer System Interface
(iSCSI) and Storage Networking come in handy. In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the
definition of iSCSI, its functionality, and how it differs from traditional storage systems.
Additionally, we will provide a brief overview of Storage Networking, including its advantages
and uses in modern computing. Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) is a storage
networking protocol for transmitting data over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. In simpler terms,
iSCSI is a way to send and receive storage-based data over the internet. One of the critical
advantages of iSCSI is that it allows organizations to run their storage networks on their existing
Ethernet infrastructures, thereby reducing costs and simplifying management.
 UTILIZING iSCSI DEVICES
Step 1: Open Server Manager by either clicking on the Server Manager icon next to start button
or click on Start button and start typing Server Manager.
On the Server Manager window select “File and Storage Services”.
Step 2:
Selecting iSCSI
Click on “To create an iSCSI virtual disk, start the new iSCSI Virtual Disk wizard”.
Step 3:
On the “Select iSCSI virtual disk location” window select the Server on which iSCSI Target
Server role is installed and then select the volume on which you want to create the storage. In
this practical we have two volumes i.e. C drive and E drive. We’ll select E drive to save the
storage. However we can also select the custom path to save the file.
Click on next to continue.
Step 4:
On the “Specify iSCSI virtual disk name” window type the name and description.
We have assigned Vol1 as the name.
Step 5:
On the “Specify iSCSI virtual disk size” window we can see total free Space available. In this
practical our E drive was of 200 GB therefore we can see 200 GB as free space. Define the size
of storage that you want to create, we are assigning 100 GB of space. Select “Dynamically
expanding”. It provides better use of physical storage space and is recommended for servers
running applications that are not disk intensive.
Click on next to continue.
Step 6:
On the “Assign iSCSI Target” console we can define new iSCSI target however we can use
existing iSCSI target if already used.
Step 7:
Specify the target name and description.
Step 8:
Specify the iSCSI initiator that would access the iSCSI virtual disk.
Click on Add to define the initiator.
Step 9:
We can see three methods to identify the initiator
a) Either we can query initiator computer for ID but it is not supported for Windows Server 2008
R2, Windows 7 or earlier Operating systems.
b) Select the initiator cache on the target server.
c) Enter the value for the selected server. We can define IQN, DNS Name, IP Address or MAC
Address. In this practical, we’ll define IP Address of the initiator servers.
Step 10:
You can add list of all the initiator servers that would access the iSCSI disk.
Click on next to continue.
Step 11:
You can also enable authentication however it is optional. You can enable CHAP protocol or
reverse CHAP to allow initiator to authenticate the iSCSI target however in this practical we are
not allowing them.
Click on next to continue.
Step 12:
You can confirm all the settings that you have defined. If all the settings are correct then click on
create else click on previous and make the changes.
Step 13:
Once the iSCSI virtual disk and iSCSI target is created successfully you can close the wizard.
Step 14:
Again go to Server Manager select “File and Storage Services” and select iSCSI, if you see
newly created disk then it confirms that disk is created successfully.

Hope you understood all the steps to configure iSCSI Target Server on Windows Server 2012
R2. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in the comment section.
 REDUCING DISK SPACE USAGE

If you use Hyper-V as a server virtualization platform, you might have noticed physical storage
space being depleted more quickly than it should be. In this article, I am going to show you two
reasons why your Hyper-V server may be consuming excessive storage space, and how you can
get back some of your lost storage space. One reason why you may be burning through physical
disk space more quickly than anticipated has to do with a safety mechanism within Hyper-V. Let
me show you what I mean. If you look at Figure 1, you can see that I have created a virtual
machine called Storage Space Demo. This virtual machine has a single virtual hard disk named
Storage Space Demo.vhdx. The virtual hard disk resides at F:\VMs\Storage Space Demo\Virtual
Hard Disks.
Now, for the sake of demonstration, I am going to delete the virtual machine, as shown in Figure
2.
Now, check out Figure 3. Although the virtual machine is gone, the virtual hard disk was not
deleted. This is a Hyper-V safety feature. The Hyper-V Manager protects against accidental VM
deletion by leaving the virtual hard disk intact. That way, if a virtual machine is accidentally
deleted, it is relatively easy to create a new VM and link it to the existing virtual hard disk.

Of course the disadvantage to this safety feature is that keeping old virtual hard disks means that
virtual machines that no longer exist continue to consume physical storage. The solution to the
problem is to periodically remove virtual hard disks that are no longer needed.

Shrinking Virtual Hard Disks

Another way that you may be able to reclaim some physical storage space is by shrinking virtual
hard disk files. When I created the demo virtual machine that was shown in Figure 1, I used the
default virtual hard disk size of 127GB. If you look at Figure 3 however, you will notice that the
virtual hard disk file is only 4MB in size. The reason for this is that the Hyper-V Manager
creates dynamically expanding virtual hard disks by default. Dynamically expanding virtual hard
disks are designed to conserve physical storage space. When created, a dynamically expanding
virtual hard disk initially only consumes a few MB of space. As data is written to the virtual hard
disk, the virtual hard disk file expands to accommodate that data. The file can expand up to
either the limit that was specified at the time of creation (in my case, 127GB) or until the server
runs out of physical disk space. The nice thing about dynamically expanding virtual hard disks is
that they will only claim as much physical storage space as it takes to accommodate the data that
is stored on the virtual disk. What you might not realize however, is that although these virtual
disks can grow dynamically, they cannot dynamically shrink. Suppose for instance, that you
write 10GB of data to a dynamically expanding virtual hard disk. The virtual hard disk will
consume 10GB of physical disk space to accommodate the data. If you then delete the 10GB of
data, the amount of space consumed by the virtual hard disk will not change. Before you
compact a virtual hard disk, it is a good idea to defragment it. It is also a good idea to create a
backup of the disk, just in case anything should go wrong while compacting the disk.
When you are ready, you can begin the process of compacting a dynamically expanding virtual
hard disk by shutting down the virtual machine that is using it. Then, in Hyper-V Manager, right
click on the virtual machine and choose the Settings command from the shortcut menu. Now,
select the virtual hard disk that you want to compact, and click the Edit button, shown in Figure
4. This will cause Windows to launch the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard.

Click Next to bypass the wizard's Welcome screen. You will then be prompted to choose the
action that you want to perform. Choose the Compact option, and click next, followed by Finish.
The virtual hard disk will be compacted, as shown in Figure 5.
To give you a more concrete example, take a virtual hard disk E: in Figure 6. The disk is about
790MB in size.
I logged into the VM, erased some files, and then compacted the disk. As you can see in Figure
7, the disk's size was shrunk to 364MB.

As you can see, Hyper-V can waste a considerable amount of physical storage space. You can
reclaim some of this storage by deleting unwanted virtual hard disks, and by compacting
dynamically expanding disks.
 DISCUSSION
Discussion on the benefits and challenges of utilizing iSCSI devices for
disk space sharing and implementing strategies for reducing disk
space usage in virtualized environments.

The advent of all-flash Solid-State Drives (SSDs) has transformed the storage function in
enterprise and cloud computing. SSDs offer greatly improved storage performance compared to
traditional spinning hard disk drives (HDDs). It is therefore not surprising that 18% of businesses
are now using all-flash storage, with industry research predicting that a further 14% will have
adopted it by 2022. The all-flash storage market is growing briskly at 11% per year. The
adoption of compute acceleration technologies, more modern applications, and faster storage
media is leading IT infrastructure architects to confront the challenge of networking–getting the
data from the storage media to the application that needs it. Most infrastructure now in place
relies on the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) standard–the networked version
of the bus SCSI protocol–to link storage with servers. iSCSI carries SCSI commands over a
TCP/IP network in order to deliver block-level access to storage devices. The difficulty is that
iSCSI is a serial technology.
 It is therefore far too slow to accommodate the massively parallel nature of solid-state storage
drives. Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express, or NVMe, is a much better solution for this
workload. However, NVMe, too, has drawbacks. For example, NVMe devices are great in that
they deliver performance, but can suffer from the local “puddling” of storage resources. The
innovative NVMe over Fabrics (NVME-oF) protocol will work well in theory, but in reality, the
various implementations: Fiber Channel (FC), RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE),
InfiniBand, iWARP, TCP/IP are not all created equal in terms of ease of use and cost. Thus it
makes it a difficult option to select. In contrast, NVMe over TCP/IP is superior in all respects:
performance, ease of use, and cost-efficiency because it utilizes standard TCP/IP networking.

iSCSI Overview

The IT hardware industry has been addressing the requirement to connect storage devices with
computers for many decades. Starting in the 1990s, companies like Apple and Microsoft worked
together to publish the original SCSI X3.131-1986 standard, known as “SCSI-1” with the X3T9
technical committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In this effort, the
industry benefited from the American slang term “scuzzy,” which connotes sloppy, unattractive
behaviour as an ironic counterpoint to the technology’s slick capabilities. Based on a shared bus
transport model, SCSI comprises a set of standards for the physical connection and transfer of
data between peripheral devices and computers. It defines protocols, commands, and interfaces
for almost any kind of peripheral, but in practice, it was mostly used for hard disk drives.
Computers and storage technologies proceeded to grow larger and faster over time. With the
resulting increases in bandwidth and distance requirements, the industry developed several new
serial SCSI transports, including:
 Fibre Channel (FC)—a high-speed data transfer protocol that provides lossless delivery
of raw block data. FC is mostly used in the connection of storage to servers in storage
area networks (SANs). An FC network is a “switched fabric,” so-named due to its having
switches in a network operate in unison, effectively as “one big switch.” FC networks
usually run on fiber optic cables.

 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)—a point-to-point serial protocol that moves data in and out
of storage devices like HDDs or tape drives. It uses the standard SCSI command set.

 SCSI over TCP/IP (iSCSI)—a transport layer protocol that works over the Transport
Control Protocol (TCP). iSCSI makes it possible to transport block-level SCSI data
between an iSCSI “initiator” and a storage device using common TCP/IP network
connections.
In the “How to pick a project management methodology (PMM),” I covered the some of the
most recognized methodologies, as well as a few high-level factors, that may impact selection
decisions. These methodologies are repeatable, effective and efficient processes that help
organizations streamline project activities. Because these processes, once developed, can be
documented and repeated, they help organizations to spend less time focusing on how to execute
the project itself, and more time on the project objectives and deliverables. The process required
to fully assess, document, and finally select the right methodologies for each project is much
more detailed, time-consuming and complex initially, but worth it in the end (assuming the most
appropriate PMMs have been selected).

Key considerations when determining the best

methodology

PMMs are definitely not one-size-fits all, even within the same company, project type or
industry. In one situation a specific methodology may work best, and in others it may be more
suitable to have another one, or even a hybrid methodology. The same methodology is unlikely
to work in the same organization on all projects; a best practice is to develop and implement a
streamlined methodology assessment process (MAP) to determine the best approach for each
project. Keep in mind, this process itself may require reassessment and modifications as business
factors change.
 CONCLUSION
As the technology advances, there has been a significant increase in the need for more efficient
storage systems for modern computing. That’s where the Internet Small Computer System
Interface (iSCSI) and Storage Networking comes in handy. In this article, we’ll develop deeper
into the definition of iSCSI, its functionality, and how it differs from traditional storage systems.
Additionally, we will provide a brief overview of Storage Networking, including its advantages
and uses in modern computing. Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) is a storage
networking protocol for transmitting data over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. In simpler terms,
iSCSI is a way to send and receive storage-based data over the internet. One of the critical
advantages of iSCSI is that it allows organizations to run their storage networks on their existing
Ethernet infrastructures, thereby reducing costs and simplifying management. If you use Hyper-
V as a server virtualization platform, you might have noticed the physical storage space that is
being developed more quickly than it should be. In this article, I am going to show you two
reasons why your Hyper-V server may be consuming excessive storage space, and how you can
get back some of your lost storage space. One reason why you may be burning through physical
disk space more quickly than anticipated has to do with a safety mechanism within Hyper-V. Let
me show you what I mean. If you look at Figure 1, you can see that I have created a virtual
machine called Storage Space Demo. This virtual machine has a single virtual hard disk named
Storage Space Demo.vhdx. The virtual hard disk resides at F:\VMs\Storage Space Demo\Virtual
Hard Disks. The advent of all-flash Solid-State Drives (SSDs) has been transformed the storage
function in enterprise and cloud computing. SSDs offer greatly improved storage performance
compared to traditional spinning hard disk drives (HDDs). It is therefore not surprising that 18%
of businesses are now using all-flash storage, with industry research predicting that a further
14% will have adopted it by 2022. The all-flash storage market is growing briskly at 11% per
year. The adoption of compute acceleration technologies, more modern applications, and faster
storage media is leading IT infrastructure architects to confront the challenge of networking–
getting the data from the storage media to the application that needs it. Most infrastructure now
in place relies on the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) standard–the networked
version of the bus SCSI protocol–to link storage with servers. iSCSI carries SCSI commands
over a TCP/IP network in order to deliver block-level access to storage devices. The difficulty is
that iSCSI is a serial technology. It is therefore far too slow to accommodate the massively
parallel nature of solid-state storage drives. Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express, or NVMe, is
a much better solution for this workload. However, NVMe, too, has drawbacks. For example,
NVMe devices are great in that they deliver performance, but can suffer from the local
“puddling” of storage resources. The innovative NVMe over Fabrics (NVME-oF) protocol will
work well in theory, but in reality, the various implementations: Fibre Channel (FC), RDMA
over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), InfiniBand, iWARP, TCP/IP are not all created equal in terms
of ease of use and cost. Thus it makes it a difficult option to select. In contrast, NVMe over
TCP/IP is superior in all respects: performance, ease of use, and cost-efficiency because it
utilizes standard TCP/IP networking.
The IT hardware industry has been addressing the requirement to connect storage devices with
computers for many decades. Starting in the 1990s, companies like Apple and Microsoft worked
together to publish the original SCSI X3.131-1986 standard, known as “SCSI-1” with the X3T9
technical committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In this effort, the
industry benefited from the American slang term “scuzzy,” which connotes sloppy, unattractive
behaviour as an ironic counterpoint to the technology’s slick capabilities. Based on a shared bus
transport model, SCSI comprises a set of standards for the physical connection and transfer of
data between peripheral devices and computers. It defines protocols, commands, and interfaces
for almost any kind of peripheral, but in practice, it was mostly used for hard disk drives.
Computers and storage technologies proceeded to grow larger and faster over time. With the
resulting increases in bandwidth and distance requirements, the industry developed several new
serial SCSI transports, including:
 Fibre Channel (FC)—a high-speed data transfer protocol that provides lossless delivery
of raw block data. FC is mostly used in the connection of storage to servers in storage
area networks (SANs). An FC network is a “switched fabric,” so-named due to its having
switches in a network operate in unison, effectively as “one big switch.” FC networks
usually run on fibre optic cables.

 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)—a point-to-point serial protocol that moves data in and out
of storage devices like HDDs or tape drives. It uses the standard SCSI command set.

 SCSI over TCP/IP (iSCSI)—a transport layer protocol that works over the Transport
Control Protocol (TCP). iSCSI makes it possible to transport block-level SCSI data
between an iSCSI “initiator” and a storage device using common TCP/IP network
connections.
In the “How to pick a project management methodology (PMM),” I covered the some of the
most recognized methodologies, as well as a few high-level factors, that may impact selection
decisions. These methodologies are repeatable, effective and efficient processes that help
organizations streamline project activities. Because these processes, once developed, can be
documented and repeated, they help organizations to spend less time focusing on how to execute
the project itself, and more time on the project objectives and deliverables. The process required
to fully assess, document, and finally select the right methodologies for each project is much
more detailed, time-consuming and complex initially, but worth it in the end (assuming the most
appropriate PMMs have been selected). PMMs are definitely not one-size-fits all, even within
the same company, project type or industry. In one situation a specific methodology may work
best, and in others it may be more suitable to have another one, or even a hybrid methodology.
The same methodology is unlikely to work in the same organization on all projects; a best
practice is to develop and implement a streamlined methodology assessment process (MAP) to
determine the best approach for each project. Keep in mind, this process itself may require
reassessment and modifications as business factors change.

REFERENCES
https://itingredients.com/configure-iscsi-target-server-windows-server-2012-r2/ - Raakesh
Kapoor
https://ascentoptics.com/blog/a-comprehensive-guide-to-iscsi-understanding-how-it-works-and-
its-benefits/ - Ascent Optics
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2017/02/08/storage-space-in-hyper-v-vms.aspx -
Posey02/08/2017
https://www.cio.com/article/236191/how-to-choose-the-right-project-management-
methodology.html