The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target can be installed on Windows Storage Server 2008 failover clusters to provide highly available instances of file or block storage. There are some things to keep in mind when working with the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target in a cluster environment, such as:

• The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target must be installed on each node of the cluster in order to provide full failover protection for iSCSI resources on the cluster.
  
  
• You must be a member of the Administrators group on each node of the cluster to perform management tasks.
  
  
• When you connect to a node of the failover cluster and run the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target console, you will only see the iSCSI targets and virtual disks that were created on that node. This means that you could connect to a node and not see the iSCSI resources that you have already created. In that case, connect to the node that “owns” the iSCSI resource to manage that resource.
  
  
• A useful management technique for dealing with multiple nodes of a cluster hosting the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is to create a custom Microsoft Management Console (MMC) containing an instance of the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target console for each node.
  
  

1. Start a new instance of the MMC. Click Start, click Run, type mmc.exe, and then click OK. Click Continue when prompted for elevation.

2. Click File, and then click Add or Remove Snap-ins.

3. Under Available Snap-ins, click Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. Click Add.

4. Under This snap-in will always manage click Another computer. Type the name of the remote computer using the format \\ComputerName. Click Finish. Repeat this step for each node of the cluster.

5. Click OK to close Add or Remove Snap-ins.

6. Save the MMC. Click File, and then click Save. Select a location to save the console and type a name for it. Click Save.

Additional considerations