starwind & header/data digest

[macarthor]

Dear all,

I use the latest starwind VTL 4.1 to emulate tape lib. I found that starwind does not support header or data digest.

When initiator (latest MS initiator 2.0.7) sends "HeaderDigest=None,CRC32C" (through wireshark), starwind responses with "HeaderDigest=None", and the login is successful.

When initiator sends "HeaderDigest=CRC32C", starwinds thinks this parameter is invalid (through starwind log, """HeaderDigest=CRC32C" is invalid") and return "initiator error" response, and the login fails. When I use MS initiator to connect iSCSI Enterprise Target (0.4.17), IET responses "HeaderDigest=None" to MS's "HeaderDigest=CRC32C" request, and the login is successful.

According to RFC 3720, is MS initiator's sending "HeaderDigest=CRC32C" legal? Or it must sends "HeaderDigest=None,CRC32C" according to the spec, and let target decides whether to use digest? I think MS should do the right thing...

And, is there any starwind edition that supports digest? Just alpha or beta is OK.

Many thanks!

McArthor Lee

[Robert (staff)]

Hello McArthor,

We regret that HeaderDigest parameters will not be implemented in the nearest future. This appears to be an optional feature of iSCSI protocol.

RFC 3720 covers that quite poor. There are no deep details for this particular topic. However, if the initiator send "HeaderDigest-CRC32C" and the target does not support it, then StarWind should "bounce off" this connection. In this case the initiator should send "HEaderDigest-CRC32C,None" so that it would support different targets. This is however beyond our scope of Development since MS iSCSI Initiator is developed by Microsoft.

Thanks,

[macarthor]

thx

[Robert (staff)]