Accessing Parallels Cloud Storage Clusters via iSCSI

Parallels Cloud Storage allows you to export cluster disk space outside Parallels Cloud Storage bounds to operating systems and third-party virtualization solutions. Using dedicated pstorage-iscsi tools, you can export Parallels Cloud Storage disk space as LUN block devices over iSCSI in a SAN-like manner.

In Parallels Cloud Storage, you can create and run multiple iSCSI targets per Parallels Cloud Storage cluster Node. In turn, each iSCSI target can have multiple LUNs (virtual disks). At any given moment, each iSCSI target runs on a single Hardware Node. Thanks to High Availability, if a Node fails, iSCSI targets hosted on it are moved to and relaunched on a healthy Node (for more details on High Availability, see the HA chapter in the Parallels Cloud Server 6.0 User's Guide).

The figure below shows a typical network configured for exporting Parallels Cloud Storage disk space over iSCSI.

In this example are three Parallels Cloud Server Hardware Nodes working in a Parallels Cloud Storage cluster. Two Nodes host one iSCSI target each while the third hosts two iSCSI targets. Each Node has a static or dynamic IP address assigned from the Storage BackNet (created along with the Parallels Cloud Storage cluster) and the FrontNet. Each iSCSI target has a static IP address assigned from the FrontNet.