iSCSI NAS for gaming

[Pteroduck]

Hi everyone! New to the forums!

I was watching one of linus's videos and he mentioned an iSCSI NAS that he could play games from

I was curious on how he set that up and if i could do the same.

My network is moderately fast i believe so i could support it.
I did some research on the topic and windows 7 comes with an application called iSCSI iniator, but after that, I cant get my main computer to get connected to that. Can someone help me through the whole process? Sorry for being such a noob :lol:

oh and i forgot to mention, both PC's are running windows 7

[chicksoup]

Hi everyone! New to the forums!

I was watching one of linus's videos and he mentioned an iSCSI NAS that he could play games from

I was curious on how he set that up and if i could do the same.

My network is moderately fast i believe so i could support it.

I did some research on the topic and windows 7 comes with an application called iSCSI iniator, but after that, I cant get my main computer to get connected to that. Can someone help me through the whole process? Sorry for being such a noob :lol:

oh and i forgot to mention, both PC's are running windows 7

I think one of the systems has to be an actual NAS, but I don't think it would be smart to play the same games on different systems, because you'll lose your settings and stuff

[X1XNobleX1X]

Hi everyone! New to the forums!

I was watching one of linus's videos and he mentioned an iSCSI NAS that he could play games from

I was curious on how he set that up and if i could do the same.

My network is moderately fast i believe so i could support it.

I did some research on the topic and windows 7 comes with an application called iSCSI iniator, but after that, I cant get my main computer to get connected to that. Can someone help me through the whole process? Sorry for being such a noob :lol:

oh and i forgot to mention, both PC's are running windows 7

I wouldn't bother, as chicksoup said before, they are suppose to be used with NASs. I would just throw in 3TBX2/3 drives into your computer, you experience will be seamless and without problems. 

Also,  I'm pretty sure Linus is on a 10GB network. 

I also 100% guarantee you're using a 1gb network. 

[stevv]

@X1XNobleX1X @Pteroduck
 
iSCSI over gigabit is fast and though I personally haven't played games over it, I do know it can easy  surpass the speed of a regular hard drive.  Sure it tops out at 100MB/s, but key is the latency is still low.
 
This is the speed measured with a ram-disk drive on the network

 
in comparison, This is a WD 160GB vraptor on local computer
 

 
 
But also know the drawbacks of iSCSI.  As @chicketsoup said, there are issues with sharring.  It's "like" a sata cable over the network, and it's not "share-able" (unless you have a clustering file system set up).  Only one computer connecting writing to it will cause data curruption.  Multiple read-only ok.
 
There's a lots of tutorials out there, but if you're interested in playing around with it (and have windows)  I recommend the free Starwind iSCSI server to get a grasp of it's workings.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Hi everyone! New to the forums!

I was watching one of linus's videos and he mentioned an iSCSI NAS that he could play games from

I was curious on how he set that up and if i could do the same.

My network is moderately fast i believe so i could support it.

I did some research on the topic and windows 7 comes with an application called iSCSI iniator, but after that, I cant get my main computer to get connected to that. Can someone help me through the whole process? Sorry for being such a noob :lol:

oh and i forgot to mention, both PC's are running windows 7

Could you link the video so we have more information on the NAS itself?

 

iSCSI is really useful if your NAS has RAID configured, so all your files will be better protected. Of course, if your network goes down you won't be able to use it.

[Pteroduck]

@X1XNobleX1X

 

iSCSI over gigabit is fast and though I personally haven't played games over it, I do know it can easy  surpass the speed of a regular hard drive.  Sure it tops out at 100MB/s, but key is the latency is still low.

 

This is the speed measured with a ram-disk drive on the network

iSCSI_Ramdisk_gigabit.JPG

 

in comparison, This is a WD 160GB vraptor on local computer

 

CDM_WD_VRAPTOR_160GB_t1.JPG

 

 

But also know the drawbacks of iSCSI.  As @chicketsoup said, there are issues with sharring.  It's "like" a sata cable over the network, and it's not "share-able" (unless you have a clustering file system set up).  Only one computer connecting writing to it will cause data curruption.  Multiple read-only ok.

 

There's a lots of tutorials out there, but if you're interested in playing around with it (and have windows)  I recommend the free Starwind iSCSI server to get a grasp of it's workings.

I saw starwind but I lack a corporate email so I cant download it unless there is a workaround?

[Pteroduck]

I wouldn't bother, as chicksoup said before, they are suppose to be used with NASs. I would just throw in 3TBX2/3 drives into your computer, you experience will be seamless and without problems. 

Also,  I'm pretty sure Linus is on a 10GB network. 

I also 100% guarantee you're using a 1gb network. 

I dont have much experience with NAS's so I'm not sure how that would work out for me

[Pteroduck]

Could you link the video so we have more information on the NAS itself?

 

iSCSI is really useful if your NAS has RAID configured, so all your files will be better protected. Of course, if your network goes down you won't be able to use it.

Do you mean Linus's video? He briefly mentioned it in one of his recent videos featuring a case unboxing.

[stevv]

I saw starwind but I lack a corporate email so I cant download it unless there is a workaround?

 

hrm... do you have anything that doesn't end in gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc... ? 

[Pteroduck]

hrm... do you have anything that doesn't end in gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc... ? 

Not exactly...

[Atlantisman]

i can play games from my NAS over iSCSI, but it definitely requires hardware such as, gigabit networking, a decent NAS setup, and knowledge of networking and how to setup iSCSI. For most people it's way more trouble than its worth and you might as well just buy some extra hard drives and put them in your computer.

 

Edit: Unless you can afford to spend hundreds of dollars(at least) on a NAS, and learn about advanced networking that's generally only used in enterprise setups, its not really worth it.

[stevv]

Not exactly...

you can create a free office365 account (no credit card, just verify phone) 

[Pteroduck]

you can create a free office365 account (no credit card, just verify phone) 

Ok, I just got the client thank you so much for the help!

[Pteroduck]

Are there any good and detailed guides on the process that someone can link me to?

[stevv]

Are there any good and detailed guides on the process that someone can link me to?

What version do you have?

 

in a nutshell:

serverside (target)

-create target (call it anything)

-create device (image file)

-assign the device to the target

 

windows

-find the server/target (use IP address)

-connect to target(s) 

 

MORE DETAILS BELOW

 

This video from 0:40 - 4:00 does a basic setup (ignore the clustering option) when creating target for now.

 

 

In Window 7 iSCSI, you basically :

1: start ==> type: iscsi ==> run the iscsi  (or follow instruction to get it working)  .  Allow it to start/connect up everytime if prompted

2: to go DISCOVERY tab ==> DISCOVER Portal ==> type in IP address of the server/target ==> if no error, then it's found

3: go back to TARGETS tab ==> "refresh" ==> you should see the target you created

4: choose the target and "CONNECT"

5: done.. almost.  Basically you just added a blank hard drive to your system (if it had never been used before).

 

 

an example:  (sorry it's a bit disorganized... just threw it together.  Might do a tutorial if people here interested)

SERVER SIDE [Target] - One TARGET with two devices created 

 

CLIENT SIDE [initiator] - Added One target, end up with two hard drives

[Pteroduck]

What version do you have?

 

in a nutshell:

serverside (target)

-create target (call it anything)

-create device (image file)

-assign the device to the target

 

windows

-find the server/target (use IP address)

-connect to target(s) 

 

MORE DETAILS BELOW

 

This video from 0:40 - 4:00 does a basic setup (ignore the clustering option) when creating target for now.

 

 

In Window 7 iSCSI, you basically :

1: start ==> type: iscsi ==> run the iscsi  (or follow instruction to get it working)  .  Allow it to start/connect up everytime if prompted

2: to go DISCOVERY tab ==> DISCOVER Portal ==> type in IP address of the server/target ==> if no error, then it's found

3: go back to TARGETS tab ==> "refresh" ==> you should see the target you created

4: choose the target and "CONNECT"

5: done.. almost.  Basically you just added a blank hard drive to your system (if it had never been used before).

 

 

an example:  (sorry it's a bit disorganized... just threw it together.  Might do a tutorial if people here interested)

SERVER SIDE [Target] - One TARGET with two devices created 

target.JPG

 

CLIENT SIDE [initiator] - Added One target, end up with two hard drives

initiator.JPG

I have the most recent one from their website, i dont know how to check for it though.

I'll try this out and come back with results

[X1XNobleX1X]

@X1XNobleX1X @Pteroduck

 

iSCSI over gigabit is fast and though I personally haven't played games over it, I do know it can easy  surpass the speed of a regular hard drive.  Sure it tops out at 100MB/s, but key is the latency is still low.

 

This is the speed measured with a ram-disk drive on the network

iSCSI_Ramdisk_gigabit.JPG

 

in comparison, This is a WD 160GB vraptor on local computer

 

CDM_WD_VRAPTOR_160GB_t1.JPG

 

 

But also know the drawbacks of iSCSI.  As @chicketsoup said, there are issues with sharring.  It's "like" a sata cable over the network, and it's not "share-able" (unless you have a clustering file system set up).  Only one computer connecting writing to it will cause data curruption.  Multiple read-only ok.

 

There's a lots of tutorials out there, but if you're interested in playing around with it (and have windows)  I recommend the free Starwind iSCSI server to get a grasp of it's workings.

What you're saying is actually true, the speeds of gigabit are actually very similar to what you see of a HDD. 

[ShadowCaptain]

I have a basic file server running on a pentium g3220 haswell chip, the drive was a WD green drive

 

i tested using borderlands 2, i mapped the hardrive on the server as a regular network hard drive, and created a steam library folder on there, i downloaded the game pointing the download at the server directory, short while later opened the game and it ran flawlessly i have tried a few other games and they work just fine, i get really smooth framerate and load times seem exactly the same

 

i didnt use iscsi or anything just mapped the network drive

[Atlantisman]

I have a basic file server running on a pentium g3220 haswell chip, the drive was a WD green drive

 

i tested using borderlands 2, i mapped the hardrive on the server as a regular network hard drive, and created a steam library folder on there, i downloaded the game pointing the download at the server directory, short while later opened the game and it ran flawlessly i have tried a few other games and they work just fine, i get really smooth framerate and load times seem exactly the same

 

i didnt use iscsi or anything just mapped the network drive

Games don't generally support installing to a network drive, that is why you generally need a iscsi drive, because windows sees it as an internal hard drive.

[Pteroduck]

What version do you have?

 

in a nutshell:

serverside (target)

-create target (call it anything)

-create device (image file)

-assign the device to the target

 

windows

-find the server/target (use IP address)

-connect to target(s) 

 

MORE DETAILS BELOW

 

This video from 0:40 - 4:00 does a basic setup (ignore the clustering option) when creating target for now.

 

 

In Window 7 iSCSI, you basically :

1: start ==> type: iscsi ==> run the iscsi  (or follow instruction to get it working)  .  Allow it to start/connect up everytime if prompted

2: to go DISCOVERY tab ==> DISCOVER Portal ==> type in IP address of the server/target ==> if no error, then it's found

3: go back to TARGETS tab ==> "refresh" ==> you should see the target you created

4: choose the target and "CONNECT"

5: done.. almost.  Basically you just added a blank hard drive to your system (if it had never been used before).

 

 

an example:  (sorry it's a bit disorganized... just threw it together.  Might do a tutorial if people here interested)

SERVER SIDE [Target] - One TARGET with two devices created 

target.JPG

 

CLIENT SIDE [initiator] - Added One target, end up with two hard drives

initiator.JPG

I got to it to work kinda. Do i have to reinstall the games on the drive?

[Atlantisman]

I got to it to work kinda. Do i have to reinstall the games on the drive?

Usually, yes.

[ShadowCaptain]

Games don't generally support installing to a network drive, that is why you generally need a iscsi drive, because windows sees it as an internal hard drive.

 

Yeah thats what it thought i was going to set up iscsi but i couldnt work it out, i didnt want to destroy my server as i had alot of help from my friend (who is 8 million times better than me) who set it up

 

from my experiance steam and origin games had no problem having their library directed at a mapped network drive

 

I then also went to install the game again on a second computer, once again pointing the same game installation at the mapped network drive, steam detected i already had the game installed and verified the files (took longer than it took me to download the game origionally haha) and then i could launch the game from either computer (not simultaneously i might add) and it ran perfectly from either, it even worked just fine over wifi

[Pteroduck]

Usually, yes.

Will backing it up and restoring it work instead of having to reinstall?

[stevv]

I have a basic file server running on a pentium g3220 haswell chip, the drive was a WD green drive

 

i tested using borderlands 2, i mapped the hardrive on the server as a regular network hard drive, and created a steam library folder on there, i downloaded the game pointing the download at the server directory, short while later opened the game and it ran flawlessly i have tried a few other games and they work just fine, i get really smooth framerate and load times seem exactly the same

 

i didnt use iscsi or anything just mapped the network drive

 

I'd be surprised any current games would be slowed much by a Gigabit network, even with all the overhead of standard network shares (not iscsi).. but I'll have to try it out one of these days out of curiosity.  I would prefer a non-iscsi setup since you can easily share/unshare.

 

 

I got to it to work kinda. Do i have to reinstall the games on the drive?

Steam games can just be copied/moved to new location.  Same with Origin games.  There are some simple steps I can't remember off the top of my head. Don't  know about other games outside of these game managers.  I had Batman AC separate and it just made me re-activate at worse. 

[Pteroduck]

I'd be surprised any current games would be slowed much by a Gigabit network, even with all the overhead of standard network shares (not iscsi).. but I'll have to try it out one of these days out of curiosity.  I would prefer a non-iscsi setup since you can easily share/unshare.

 

 

Steam games can just be copied/moved to new location.  Same with Origin games.  There are some simple steps I can't remember off the top of my head. Don't  know about other games outside of these game managers.  I had Batman AC separate and it just made me re-activate at worse. 

I tried it and I'm getting registry errors I believe when i try a network drive