How to create iscsi target on FreeNAS

This tutorial will show you how to create an iSCSI target server on FreeNAS. As you might notice, FreeNAS comes with prebuilt iSCSI server. With a little efforts, you can build a free and powerful iSCSI target server for your network. Before you go through, you may want to read about iSCSI first.

First, login to FreeNAS web admin. In order to successfully set up the iSCSI target server, FreeNAS storage must be configured properly. Then, we can jump to iSCSI configuration on FreeNAS. Go to Service section and click the configuration button. You should see a popup window like this one below

create iscsi target server freenas 1.png

There are several tab on the Block (iSCSI) section. First, go to target Global Configuration. We need to enter the Base Name. In this example, I use the default base name. Optionally, you may also specify the space threshold for the available space.

Next, go to Portal section. Click Add portal to create a new portal.

create iscsi target server freenas 2.png

Enter the required detail on the Add Portal window. See my example below. Please note that I do not use the authentication method on this portal. You should change the Auth Method is security is your concern.

create iscsi target server freenas 3.png

Next, we need to add new initiator. Open the initiators tab and click Add Initiator.

create iscsi target server freenas 4.png

Since we do not use any authentication method, next step is to configure the target. Click Add target and create a new one. Enter the Target Name and Target Alias.

create iscsi target server freenas 5

Now after creating Target, we need to add extent to the newly created target.

create iscsi target server freenas 6.png

On this example, I use File as the extent type. You can also use device extent type if you want to. Specify the Path to extent and extent size as well. Click OK and your new extent should be listed.

The last step is to associate target with the new extent.

create iscsi target server freenas 7.png

Select iscsi03 (the newly created target) and iscsi03 (newly created extent). Click OK to confirm.

Done. Now the new iscsi target has been completed. We can then connect to our new iSCSI target from other computer. Windows and Linux system can use iSCSI target from FreeNAS without any problems.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to share this article if you found good things in it. Cheers.

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