Playing with COMSTAR

Common Protocol SCSI Target (COMSTAR) is a framework that was introduced in Oracle Solaris 11; this makes it possible for Oracle Solaris 11 to access disks in another system that is running any operating system (Oracle Solaris, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and so on). This access happens through the network using protocols such as iSCSI, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), or Fibre Channel (FC).

One big advantage of using COMSTAR is that Oracle Solaris 11 is able to reach the disks on another machine without using a HBA board (very expensive) for an FC channel access. There are also disadvantages such as the fact that dump devices don't support the iSCSI disks offered by COMSTAR and the network infrastructure can become overloaded.

Getting ready

This section requires two virtual machines that run Oracle Solaris 11, both with 4 GB RAM and eight 4 GB disks. Additionally, both virtual machines must be in the same network and have access to each other.

How to do it…

A good approach...