2008 R2 iSCSI Initiator Not Reconnecting To Target After Reboot

[Wyndru]

I'm not too sure what I'm overlooking, I feel like this should be simple, but after reading some docs on technet it might be a timing issue on services.

For some reason after I reboot any of our 2008 R2 file servers our iSCSI Initiator will not reconnect to the target. The target is in the favorite (persistent) list, and it doesn't have any authentication required. I've also tried auto configuring the volumes and devices, and it adds the correct mount point (i.e. drive letter) but it still will not connect automatically after a reboot until I open the iSCSI initiator gui and manually hit Connect.

The iSCSI initiator service is set to automatic, and it starts without any issue, and I don't get any errors or failures. It just seems that it's not even attempting to reconnect which makes me think there is another location where I need to specify that it reconnect at startup.

Before I do anything strange like adding scripts to change service startup order I just wanted to ask this here.

If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, anything that could point me in the right direction to figure this out, that would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Ketchup]

I have not delved into this, so you may have already done this, but I did find this page interesting:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee338477(v=ws.10).aspx

Especially the "running automatic start services" section.

 

[Wyndru]

Thanks for the reply. I did see that, although I didn't completely understand it. I'm not sure what they mean by logging into the targets and using persistent logons. And then they mention "clicking the appropriate item in the iSCSI initiator" to allow them to be persistent logons. I wish they had a screenshot though, because I don't see anything in the GUI labeled persistent logons, or bind or add or remove.

Unless they are simply referring to the favorite targets, which supposedly the keyword "favorite" replaced "persistent" in from 2003 and 2008 server OS's. If that is the case, I do have the target listed in my favorite targets, in fact each time I connect to it after a reboot, it has a check box to add it to the favorites (I leave it checked), and continues to state that having that target in the favorites list will ensure reconnection after reboots. For some reason it doesn't seem to work though.

 

[Lorne]

Is this target direct connect through NIC or through a switch?

 

[whathefox]

Make sure add to favorites and enable muilti-path is selected when you connect to targets:

When you discover portal, click advanced, don’t use defaults click “Microsoft iSCSI Intiator” and you’re NIC IP for Initiator IP.