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I am setting up a video editing / encoding workstation based on a mac mini and a freenas box for mass storage. We plan to use iSCSI to share the disk with the mac and had planned on using GlobalSAN's iSCSI initiator as it had worked in testing and was free. Unfortunately, version 5 isn't free so we are back to the drawing board. Or at least now that we have to pay we'd like to make sure we buy the right one.

Anyhow, we've identified a two options:

a) GlobalSAN v5.0
b) Xtend SAN iSCSI Initiator

In addition, I wonder of some open source iSCSI initiators might work since it is BSD under the hood. But I couldn't find a clear answer.

So, for what is essentially a single-user SAN, what iSCSI initiator would use on OSX 10.7?

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  • I'm having the same issue. I was using the free globalSAN initiator under Snow Leopard, but globalSAN has decided to make it pay, and the old free version has issues on 10.7.
    – Fake Name
    Commented Dec 15, 2011 at 11:35
  • Any reason why you can't use Firewire or Thunderbolt disks? Since it's a single-user system you might not need the overhead of a network connection.
    – adib
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 16:36
  • @abid: project isn't high priority enough to justify paying for hardware. And I really hate to pay for external hardware limited to a specific type of computer. Nothing else has thunderbolt or firewire . . .
    – Wyatt Barnett
    Commented Feb 8, 2012 at 17:27
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    For what it's worth I'm still using the latest 4.x build of the Global SAN initiator on Lion without issues. It's worth noting that I only use this occasionally to connect to an iSCSI volume for a tertiary backup of Aperture libraries so can't really comment on 24/7 use
    – Dean Smith
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 14:48

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Sorry but "global san Initiator" is both buggy and a slow. The read/write figures are low, not to mention when you try to combine multiple LAN links together it is highly unreliable.

The ATTO version is far better, but I just wish Apple would provide a version in the kernel.

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  • Can you add some facts/measurements/references to your statement about performance and reliability?
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 8:43

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