Protocol that carries block storage over TCP on port 3260. When recovering files, Azure Backup's script mounts recovery point disks as local volumes using it.
Also called Internet Small Computer Systems Interface.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains iSCSI in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- General-purpose v1
The older storage account kind (
Storage), which lacks access tiers, Archive and premium file shares and retires on 13 October 2026. Converting to ZRS requires first upgrading to GPv2, a one-way change. - OVER
Gives a T-SQL window function its window: PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and, if wanted, a ROWS or RANGE frame. Rankings and running totals can then be worked out while every row is kept.
- TCP
A transport protocol that is connection-oriented.
- Azure Backup
Azure's backup service, which keeps recovery points, long-term retention included, in a Recovery Services vault. It restores data rather than failing workloads over, which is the job of Site Recovery.
- Recovery point
Point-in-time copy of backed-up data. One exists only where a backup actually ran, and it counts once even if several retention tiers apply to it.
- LSDOU
The sequence in which Group Policy is processed: the local policy first, followed by site, domain and organisational unit policies. The nearest, last-processed setting takes effect unless Enforced or Block Inheritance alters that.
Related terms
- CHAP
Initiators can be required to authenticate to an iSCSI target with this method; reverse CHAP makes it mutual.
- File recovery
Restores individual files from an Azure VM backup. You download a script, valid for a limited time, that mounts the recovery point's disks over iSCSI on a suitable machine; copy what you need, then select Unmount Disks.
- iSCSI Initiator
Connects a server, acting as the client, to storage that iSCSI targets offer.
- iSCSI Target Server
Turns a Windows Server into block storage for other machines, serving iSCSI virtual disks over TCP/IP.
- iSNS
Internet Storage Name Service, used to discover iSCSI targets. Windows Server no longer includes the iSNS server feature.
- MPIO
Multipath I/O: a Windows Server feature that reaches the same SAN LUN over more than one physical route, such as several HBAs or iSCSI sessions, to provide failover and spread load, via the Microsoft DSM or one supplied by the storage vendor.
- SAN
Block storage carried over its own dedicated network, typically iSCSI or Fibre Channel, which gives ESX hosts LUNs to format as VMFS datastores.
- VMFS
Clustered file system for block datastores, whether the storage is iSCSI, local or FC-attached. Unlike VMFS5, VMFS6 can use 4Kn devices and reclaims freed space by itself.