- SCSI initiator
In
computer storage , a SCSI initiator is the endpoint that initiates aSCSI session, that is, sends a SCSI command. The initiator usually does not provide anylogical unit number s (LUNs).On the other hand, a SCSI target is the endpoint that does "not" initiate sessions, but instead waits for initiators' commands and provides required
input/output data transfers. The target usually provides to the initiators one or more LUNs, because otherwise no read or write command would be possible.Detailed information
Typically, a
computer is an initiator and adata storage device is a target. As in aclient-server architecture, an initiator is analogous to the client, and a target is analogous to the server. Each SCSI address (each identifier on a SCSI bus) displays behavior of initiator, target, or (rarely) both at the same time. There is nothing in the SCSI protocol that prevents an initiator from acting as a target or vice versa.SCSI initiators are sometimes wrongly called "SCSI controllers". See the
SCSI host adapter article for a more detailed description of initiator's operation.Other protocols
"Initiator" and "target" terms are applicable not only to traditional parallel SCSI, but also to
Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP),iSCSI ,HyperSCSI , (in some sense) SATA,InfiniBand , and many other storage networking protocols.Address versus port
In most of these protocols, an address (whether it is initiator or target) is roughly equivalent to physical device's port. The situation where a single physical port hosts multiple addresses, or where a single address is accessible from one device's multiple ports is not very common,
as of 2008 . Even when usingmultipath I/O to achievefault tolerance , thedevice driver switches between different targets or initiators statically bound on physical ports, instead of sharing a static address between physical ports.
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