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Forum Discussion
iSCSI support is broken for LION users - Netgear drops ball
After struggling for what seemed like months to get a stable iSCSI solution (ReadyNAS Pro 6) on Snow Leopard, I see that once again any of us that upgrade to Lion are screwed as it renders the ReadyNAS iSCSI volumes inaccessible from Lion clients. In the past I've pleaded with Netgear to provide Mac OS X customers a stable and supported iSCSI initiator but they never did anything about it except do a survey of Mac users - which I presume gave them the info to make the decision to not doing anything about this ongoing problem. I'm vocal about it because I bought my Readynas Pro specifically for the iSCSI support and was unclear about the lack of a supported solution until I found out the hard way through multiple problems with the GlobalSAN free initiator (currently incompatible with Lion and no communication from SNS as to when it will be compatible).
So the only option continues to be paying $200 for the ATTO product, which up until now I have refused to do given what I spent on the Pro. I had expected Netgear to solve this problem by now. Hell, even the Drobo people have an iSCSI solution for their customers because that ARE FOCUSED ON A SOLUTION for supporting the iSCSI features of the Drobo. Netgear, on the other hand, simply ignores Mac customers who need a solution and expects them to fork over another $200 to get one. Not our problem must be the internal line. Very disappointing. I went as far as suggesting that Netgear just OEM the damn thing from SNS and charge for it - $50 would be reasonable - so they could justify the effort and share the revenue with SNS to keep the software current. Nope. No deal.
So once again it's time to vent a little on this glaring failure by Netgear to think like a solutions company. Where does it say in the marketing materials for the Netgear iSCSI NAS products that a 3rd party iSCSI software is required TO ACTUALLY USE the iSCSI functionality of the Pro? Where does it say that you must spend an additional $200 on top of the $1500 I spent on my Pro. For that amount of money I would expect A SOLUTION.
Bitchfest over. Thanks for listening. Very disappointed in Netgear on this topic and it majorly dents what is otherwise a stellar rep the ReadyNAS team has on Mac OS X support.
:(
-m
So the only option continues to be paying $200 for the ATTO product, which up until now I have refused to do given what I spent on the Pro. I had expected Netgear to solve this problem by now. Hell, even the Drobo people have an iSCSI solution for their customers because that ARE FOCUSED ON A SOLUTION for supporting the iSCSI features of the Drobo. Netgear, on the other hand, simply ignores Mac customers who need a solution and expects them to fork over another $200 to get one. Not our problem must be the internal line. Very disappointing. I went as far as suggesting that Netgear just OEM the damn thing from SNS and charge for it - $50 would be reasonable - so they could justify the effort and share the revenue with SNS to keep the software current. Nope. No deal.
So once again it's time to vent a little on this glaring failure by Netgear to think like a solutions company. Where does it say in the marketing materials for the Netgear iSCSI NAS products that a 3rd party iSCSI software is required TO ACTUALLY USE the iSCSI functionality of the Pro? Where does it say that you must spend an additional $200 on top of the $1500 I spent on my Pro. For that amount of money I would expect A SOLUTION.
Bitchfest over. Thanks for listening. Very disappointed in Netgear on this topic and it majorly dents what is otherwise a stellar rep the ReadyNAS team has on Mac OS X support.
:(
-m
4 Replies
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- Well, you're right. This topic is years old and never has been solved. Netgear advertises the iSCSI support for the Pro models from the beginning, charging even high surcharges for this "Pro" feature (Business/Pioneer), but never offered a working solution for OS X users.
Their lazy reaction is to point to instable (globalSAN) oder extremly expensive (Atto Xtend SAN) 3rd party solutions, what in fact would be in their responsibility. Compared to other NAS manufacturers they charge a premium price, but offer a minimum support. Other companies like Drobo offer NAS boxes for a fraction of a ReadyNAS Pro 6 price, but for free include the Attotech Xtend SAN client for their customers: http://www.drobo.com/support/updates/da ... _2_0_4.pdf
It's a shame for Netgear not being able to offer a working iSCSI solution for OS X users, be it an own iSCSI initiator or a licenced product like Drobo does. A licence of the Attotech Xtend SAN client limited to the ReadyNAS only would cost them maybe $5 per ReadyNAS Pro, while they expect from their customers to buy a full licence from Atto for all kinds of NAS/SAN boxes, which in fact these customers don't need at all. - any update to this?
I do not want to pay any extra for this feture. - A while back Apple considered adding an iSCSI initiator to Mac OS X. Sadly they got rid of it. Now that Apple is pushing Thunderbolt I doubt they'll add an iSCSI initiator anytime soon. It's a feature they should have added years ago. Microsoft's had a free initiator for Windows for years.
I have several Macs and prefer Mac OS X over Windows but some of Apple's decisions I reckon are terrible. - Adding Thunderbolt should make it even more important for Apple to add iSCSI support - iSCSI initiator for OS X and iSCSI server for OS X Server. The newly released Thunderbolt Drobo boxes would be a perfect solution with a Mac Mini running an iSCSI server. We just need the iSCSI server software from either Apple or Drobo. There’s of course StudioNetworkSolutions’ Xtarget - an iSCSI server for OS X, but it costs $899, which is insane.
I’m not quite sure why Netgear should be required to provide an iSCSI initiator, though. They provide an iSCSI target, and if they can get it to work right, that’s all I need from them. Right now, I’m having issues with their iSCSI server in RAIDiator 4.2.21; my iSCSI initiator is VMware ESXi 5.
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