Internet Small Computer Systems Interface device not visible on router

[MarkE1]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently purchased a SEN mass storage device for my media storage. The Lan format is Internet Small Computer Systems Interface or iSCSI. This appears not to be visible on the Device list in my new EE White Smart Router.

Do any of you have SENs or Devices that communicate with iSCSI instead of Ethernet? if so can you see it within the device list?

[Mustrum]

@MarkE1  how is your SEN physically connected to the router?

[MarkE1]

Hi Again Mustrum,

The SEN is connected to Port 1 of the White Smart Router via a Cat 6e Ethernet cable. The SEN's Volumes/Shares are all visible on my Windows 10 PC as mapped drives, and work well streaming 4K and various media around the house via a wired/wireless home network. Thanks for your reply

[Mustrum]

@MarkE1   I am very confused, it sounds like  NAS and now you say is ethernet connected.

ISCSI is just the protocol used for sharing and sits over TCPIP..

Not sure why it does not show on the devices tab in the router, but BT based router have been known to do this.

[MarkE1]

Hi Mustrum,

Yep I was confused myself, I have had a 5 bay NAS with Raid for my years and has been and continues to be a great work horse but it is arriving at the top end of its capacity for Hard Drive upgrades, so I bought an 8 bay SEN with Raid which is capable of storing and protecting a huge amount of Media and data. The SEN is set up admin wise via a USB this is when you generate its IP etc. Then you put the Hard drives in, format the drives and set up volumes to share, they are used by Windows iSCSI initiator as targets along with the management tool to be identified and mounted, the drives had to be put 'on line' by Disc Manager'

After that you would think that the SEN would be discoverable by Windows Network like the NAS is but not so far, I have pinged the SENs IP and I get no response. I would have thought it would respond. But as I have said it work really well and serves Plex Server. Maybe I should have got an 8 bay NAS instead.

[Mustrum]

@MarkE1   I have been trying to find out more info, and came across this article https://www.msp360.com/resources/blog/iscsi-nas-comparison/  iSCSI vs NAS Comparison.

Alas it did not say why its not on the device list, nor may be compelled to replace my 2 Bay Synology NAS, but it did fill a bit of the afternoon.

Out of interest, what make/model did you go for?

[MarkE1]

Hi again Mustrum Very interesting link thank you, Personally now I have my SEN integrated to my network its transfer speeds are amazing much faster than my NAS, all my devices are Gigabit and most of the network is hardwired, other rooms supplied by Dual Gagabit Powerlines by tp-link. So I have my big files like 4K files on my SEN now which delivers them to multiple TVs without buffering or juddering and very quick access.

My old work horse is a 12 year old 5 bay Drobo-FS an amazing machine with 30TB of storage sadly no longer made as Drodo (data robotics) has filed for bankruptcy in the USA recently.  My new 8 bay SEN is the Drobo B800i luckily I sourced this from a tech company on E-Bay it arrived as new, I was and still am thrilled to have this quality machine apart from the lack of visiblity as a Device on Windows Network & EE router, it is really ease to use and you can manage it through Drobo Dashboard which does discover both machines. However both my sons use Synology NAS's and they dead pleased with them.