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What does a target and initiator mean?

April 26, 2017Initiator mean target

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What does a target and initiator mean?

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SCSI protocol is fundamentally asymmetric in all forms: parallel SCSI, SCSI over Fibre Channel and iSCSI all have two types of devices which are present in the connection: initiators and targets. Initiators are the devices which request, or initiate, any SCSI communications. They request data writes, reads and any other SCSI operations. Usually initiator is the HBA in the computer which is using SCSI disks, tapes and other target devices. Targets are the devices which perform SCSI commands at a request from initiators, but never initiate SCSI activity. Examples of SCSI targets are: disks, tapes, RAID arrays, robotic libraries and many more. In any SCSI connection there should be at least one initiator and one target for it to be functional.