Setting up iSCSI system

[benwood]

I have a HTPC running Windows 7 x64 Home Premium and I'm using WMC7 to record TV shows. Unfortunately I've run out of hard drive space on the HTPC. But I also have a media server which holds all my movies and it has plenty of space. So I'd like to record TV shows onto my media server instead. My media server runs Win XP Pro SP2. I know that WMC7 wont record TV shows onto hard drives over a network unless you use ISCSI. Does anyone have step by step instructions on how to set this up and and what software I'll need? I'm a newbie at iSCSI. Thanks.

 

[theevilsharpie]

You will need an iSCSI target software installed on your XP box. Most iSCSI target software packages are for the server versions of Windows, but I believe Starwind iSCSI SAN will work. They offer a free version that will suit your needs.

The Windows 7 HTPC already has an iSCSI initiator built in, so you just need to configure it to point to the iSCSI target.

This should go without saying, but iSCSI is a bandwidth-intensive application. To prevent iSCSI from impacting your other network traffic, you should use a separate NIC than what you're using for general network traffic. Also, iSCSI will not perform well unless it's running on at least Gigabit Ethernet.