CFISCSI(4)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1, nixpkgs unstable

💅 CFISCSI(4) — bestie, let me introduce you

okay so this is the manpage for cfiscsi, and it lives in the Kernel Interfaces Manual section (section 4, for those of you keeping score 🎀). It's a FreeBSD thing. Grab a snack, we're doing this. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

cfiscsi — the CAM Target Layer iSCSI target frontend. That's a lot of words, but like… it's the kernel-side brain that makes your box pretend to be an iSCSI disk server. Slay. 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Want it baked into the kernel? Add these lines to your kernel configuration file, exactly like this, no changes:

device cfiscsi
device ctl
device iscsi

Or, if you'd rather load it as a module at boot time (very valid, very main character 🫶), drop this line into loader.conf(5):

cfiscsi_load="YES"

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here's the vibe: the cfiscsi subsystem gives you the kernel component of an iSCSI target. And what's a target? It's the iSCSI server — the one handing out LUNs (backed by local files and volumes) to remote initiators. You're the server. You're hosting. You're the moment. 💅

The userspace half of this whole operation is provided by ctld(8), which is where you actually configure stuff.

Under the hood, cfiscsi is implemented as a ctl(4) frontend, and it leans on infrastructure provided by iscsi(4). Everything's connected, it's giving ecosystem. 🌈

⭐ SYSCTL VARIABLES ⭐

These bad boys are available both as sysctl(8) variables and as loader(8) tunables. Double duty, dual threat, iconic.

  • kern.cam.ctl.iscsi.debug — the verbosity level for log messages coming out of the kernel part of the iSCSI target. Set it to 0 to disable logging entirely, or 1 to warn you about potential problems. Bigger values unlock the debugging output — turn it up if you're investigating something. Defaults to 1. 🍓
  • kern.cam.ctl.iscsi.maxtags — the number of outstanding commands to advertise to each iSCSI initiator. Fr fr, the current implementation is not very accurate, so do not set this below 2. Defaults to 256. 💀
  • kern.cam.ctl.iscsi.ping_timeout — the number of seconds to wait for the iSCSI initiator to respond to a NOP-In PDU. If there's no response within that window, the session gets forcibly terminated. 😭 Set it to 0 to disable sending NOP-In PDUs altogether. Defaults to 5.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Go read them, I promise it's worth it. ✨

👑 HISTORY 👑

The cfiscsi subsystem first appeared in FreeBSD 10.0, back when it was part of the ctl(4) driver. Then in FreeBSD 12.0 it got split off from ctl(4) and became its own whole thing. Growth. Evolution. Glow-up. 🌱➡️🌸

🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

The cfiscsi subsystem was developed by Edward Tomasz Napierala <trasz@FreeBSD.org>, under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation. And this very manual page was written by Enji Cooper <ngie@FreeBSD.org>. Legends, both of them. 🙌

and that's the whole page, bestie — no notes, no cap 💜

Debian · May 28, 2017 · CFISCSI(4) — mwah, catch you in the next manpage 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from