Windows Mobile iSCSI Initiator - Connect to your HDD no matter where you are!

Matt_Williams · Jul 15, 2011

Hello all!

I would like to tell you that there is an app that allow you to connect to your hard drive whenever you are over WiFi or 3G/4G. Thanks to that you can get huge storage boost (even 2TB) in your Windows Mobile 4.x to 6.x phone. Best thing is, you can do it for free!

First this software is KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator and it works for both, Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile. It uses iSCSI technology to attach new storage to your phone. You can connect to your drive using either WiFi or 3G/4G.

It can be used in many different ways:

* Access hard drive when you are not at home
* Copy data directly from mobile device to backup drive
* Automatically save pictures from your phone to your hard drive
* Easily share data with friends that have WinCE iSCSI Initiator installed
* Stream movies from your hard drive directly to your mobile device

The best way to see it in action is to watch a video tutorial on Youtube.

Finally, you can download this software FOR FREE here:

http://www.kernsafe.com/product/wince-iscsi-initiator.aspx

Matt_Williams · Jul 20, 2011

Does any one have some feedback or suggestion about it?

I would love to hear some comments from users.

cajunflavoredbob · Jul 24, 2011

I've watched the video and looked into it myself, but the downside to this software seems to be that you need the $99 iStorage software installed on your PC first. I'm sorry, but as amazing as this application is, most users on this site are not going to pay a hundred dollars to have that added storage space when their are several online backup solutions to choose from. I understand that the iStorage Server software is shareware, but that still means that it would still eventually need to have a license purchased.

swiss420 · Jul 24, 2011

FreeNAS and KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator

With this very helpfull hint I imediately tried it out and it works amazingly good. I never used iSCSI before but after reading up on Extends, Targets, and Portals, a quick and dirty setup worked well. I now can define as many disks I want. For the test I set up a 500MB Disk. That said there are still a couple of things I have to look into. Right now its setup for a local target via WLAN. Copying a MP3 of 3.3MB took about a minute where the device was responding poorly. Once it was on the iSCSI drive I wanted to listen to the MP3 and double clicked on it. After 20 to 30 seconds it started playing it without interruptions. I wonder if the delay is soly based on the bandwidth or if there are things I could do too improve the speed. An 200KB text file can be copied and opend without delay.

Edit: Speed seemed to be related to a very old HDD. Will leave more reliable benchmarks and experience in a later post.

Things to figure out:

Wireless connectivity in Standby
Backup for KernSafe iSCSI Initiator
MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI
Secure Worldwide Access (iSCSI with CHAP authentication through a SSH Tunnel)
Writeout Clear instructions on how to set up everything. (The posibilities are very complex)
PIMBackup iSCSI drive as Target through 3G

Server Software used:

FreeNAS v7 (http://www.freenas.org/)
KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator (http://www.kernsafe.com/download/WinCE-iSCSI-initiator1.0.zip)

Screenshots:

Matt_Williams · Jul 25, 2011

cajunflavoredbob said:
I've watched the video and looked into it myself, but the downside to this software seems to be that you need the $99 iStorage software installed on your PC first. I'm sorry, but as amazing as this application is, most users on this site are not going to pay a hundred dollars to have that added storage space when their are several online backup solutions to choose from. I understand that the iStorage Server software is shareware, but that still means that it would still eventually need to have a license purchased.

You are not entirely correct. iStorage Server, as you will see on the licensing page here http://www.kernsafe.com/product/istorage-server/license-compares.aspx, have also a free version available. That means you don't need to purchase it, in order to use it after the trial period is expired.

In other words, after installing trial version, you may either choose to use it in unlimited form for 20 days and then change it to limited free version, or immediately apply free license to it after installation.

NOTE:
Free version of iStorage Server allow you to create one iSCSI target which is sufficient to use all Mobile iSCSI Initiator features. Therefore using app itself even with iStorage Server is completely free.

cajunflavoredbob · Jul 25, 2011

Matt_Williams said:
You are not entirely correct. iStorage Server, as you will see on the licensing page here http://www.kernsafe.com/product/istorage-server/license-compares.aspx, have also a free version available. That means you don't need to purchase it, in order to use it after the trial period is expired.

In other words, after installing trial version, you may either choose to use it in unlimited form for 20 days and then change it to limited free version, or immediately apply free license to it after installation.

NOTE:
Free version of iStorage Server allow you to create one iSCSI target which is sufficient to use all Mobile iSCSI Initiator features. Therefore using app itself even with iStorage Server is completely free.

Thank you for clearing that up. I think I will give it another try then. I wouldn't mind paying for an app like this, I just thought $100 was pretty steep for it. Have you considered making a standalone app for WM that would accomplish this? Ever since MS announced they would be shutting down their storage and backup services for WM, users have been looking for other ways. This is a very nice method.

Matt_Williams · Jul 25, 2011

swiss420 said:
With this very helpfull hint I imediately tried it out and it works amazingly good. I never used iSCSI before but after reading up on Extends, Targets, and Portals, a quick and dirty setup worked well. I now can define as many disks I want. For the test I set up a 500MB Disk. That said there are still a couple of things I have to look into. Right now its setup for a local target via WLAN. Copying a MP3 of 3.3MB took about a minute where the device was responding poorly. Once it was on the iSCSI drive I wanted to listen to the MP3 and double clicked on it. After 20 to 30 seconds it started playing it without interruptions. I wonder if the delay is soly based on the bandwidth or if there are things I could do too improve the speed. An 200KB text file can be copied and opend without delay.

Things to figure out:

Wireless connectivity in Standby
Backup for KernSafe iSCSI Initiator
MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI
Secure Worldwide Access (iSCSI with CHAP authentication through a SSH Tunnel)
Writeout Clear instructions on how to set up everything. (The posibilities are very complex)
PIMBackup iSCSI drive as Target through 3G

Server Software used:

FreeNAS v7 (http://www.freenas.org/)
KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator (http://www.kernsafe.com/download/WinCE-iSCSI-initiator1.0.zip)

Screenshots:

View attachment 664358 View attachment 664359 View attachment 664368 View attachment 664369 View attachment 664370 View attachment 664371

swiss420,

Thank you very much for giving our app a try!

To help you with you low performance problem, you would first need to check if this is software or hardware related.

To determine it, you would need to copy files to your phone using same network (WLAN).

To do it, you can set up a build-in IIS in Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Then you can easily open a website using your phone and download some files from it.
You would need to setup IIS because you would need to download some files locally so you can check the performance of your network using your device.
Using Internet to test it wouldn’t be accurate source of information since then speed of the internet is additional variable.

If you don't know how to set up IIS, please tell on which OS you would like to do it and I can guide you set by step how to do it.

Alternatively you may use other software like XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) which can be installed on either Windows, Linux or Mac.
Same as with IIS, it will allow you to create a web server from which you may download file.
If you would like me to assist you with XAMPP, please tell me, and I will be glad to help you.

About your MP3 problem, did you use default Windows Media Player to listen to it? If not, can you check if using WMP will help?

Matt_Williams · Jul 25, 2011

cajunflavoredbob said:
Thank you for clearing that up. I think I will give it another try then. I wouldn't mind paying for an app like this, I just thought $100 was pretty steep for it. Have you considered making a standalone app for WM that would accomplish this? Ever since MS announced they would be shutting down their storage and backup services for WM, users have been looking for other ways. This is a very nice method.

Im glad you will check it!
But what do you mean by creating a separate version for Windows Mobile?
Create an iSCSI Target app for WM?

swiss420 · Jul 25, 2011

Matt_Williams said:
...To help you with you low performance problem, you would first need to check if this is software or hardware related.
...

Acctualy I probably know what impacts performance in my case. Its a 20 Year old HDD that I used in my NAS.

But since it worked I can now set up a brand new FreeNAS v8 x64 Server with a couple 2TB SATA3 drives. Its been long overdue anyway. I preferr FreeNAS because it allows great flexibility, its super easy to setup, and just like KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator its just a great product from some very talented people. Will post instructions on how I set up everything so in case someone is interested in giving it a try. Offcourse on the Windows Side of life KernSafe seems to have other nice products unfortunately Unix based Servers are just so much more convenient for my purposes. So that I dont feel to bad maybe setup a donation button on your website for the free powerhouse client. Just an idea.

PS: All my external HDD's are hooked up to the FreeNAS Server. My System boots and in general responds better. FreeNAS Emails or Alerts me if one of the HDD's is running into problems and Hotpluggeable to take with me is also no problem. I can only recomend this set up. Used to have 5 external HDD's on my System which was a pain under Windows.

PS: By the way Matt_Williams and or KernSafe thank you so much for a Windows Mobile Client. I know the trend goes to Windows Phone and Android so your contribution is greatly appreciated. I am realy looking forward to trying it over 3G once it runs good over Wireless. Just for knowledge sake do iSCSI clients exist under Windows Phone 7 and or Android?

mike2nl · Jul 25, 2011

Hi Matt and swiss,

swiss420 said:
PS: All my external HDD's are hooked up to the FreeNAS Server. My System boots and in general responds better. FreeNAS Emails or Alerts me if one of the HDD's is running into problems and Hotpluggeable to take with me is also no problem. I can only recomend this set up.

What i can say is, that i am using FreeNAS since it was up some years ago and it is a fast and secure system. I use it on a very small system with a 1TB HDD for backup's. And BTW, Unix is my best friend

.

swiss420 said:
PS: By the way Matt_Williams and or KernSafe thank you so much for a Windows Mobile Client. I know the trend goes to Windows Phone and Android so your contribution is greatly appreciated. I am realy looking forward to trying it over 3G once it runs good over Wireless.

+1 for it and don't forget the wm user at all. This OS will run longer then HTC and/or Microsoft has thought about the lifetime of that devices. Or is everyone bying a new device every year?

cajunflavoredbob · Jul 25, 2011

Matt_Williams said:
Im glad you will check it!
But what do you mean by creating a separate version for Windows Mobile?
Create an iSCSI Target app for WM?

I just meant that instead of setting up the full client, perhaps you could set up a lighter, limited version of the program. That way, instead of installing the full app with limited functions, the mobile user would have their own separate application. This would allow you to make it a bit more user friendly, since not everyone using WM is familiar with setting up servers. Although, the last remaining bunch of us seem to be more knowledgeable than the collective was several years ago. Anyway, it was just a thought I had. I plan to try the full setup later tonight, and I'll report back once I have it working.

swiss420 · Jul 25, 2011

cajunflavoredbob said:
I just meant that instead of setting up the full client, perhaps you could set up a lighter, limited version of the program. That way, instead of installing the full app with limited functions, the mobile user would have their own separate application. This would allow you to make it a bit more user friendly, since not everyone using WM is familiar with setting up servers. Although, the last remaining bunch of us seem to be more knowledgeable than the collective was several years ago. Anyway, it was just a thought I had. I plan to try the full setup later tonight, and I'll report back once I have it working.

Do you mean Hosted iSCSI Disks or a Server Software that is simpler? I am just wondering because the Client is realy simple already (IP, Port Password and Connect). Its the flexibility of iSCSI in general that makes the Server side more complicated to set up. You can have tons of different setups depending on what you want to spend and or achieve. If I understand you right you mean simpler Server Setup with predefined iSCSI Disk configuration only leaving the hostname and port to be adjustet for example?

Probably best if you try it out. Its very simple if you look past the rather strange looking iSCSI Qualified Names (IQN) (Example: iqn.2001-04.com.example:storage.disk2.sys1.xyz) and other iSCSI terms. I think if you follow KernSafes instructions and or we write out a nice Step by Step procedure for a default setup with either iStorage or FreeNAS we would probably achieve the before mentionend. But I think on the end you will not get the real deal if you dont adjust it to your needs and enviornment. Maybe someone provides hosted iSCSI Disks which you can suscribe to, but that will then most likely cost Money again because the bandwidth required would be immense.

cajunflavoredbob · Jul 26, 2011

swiss420 said:
Do you mean Hosted iSCSI Disks or a Server Software that is simpler? I am just wondering because the Client is realy simple already (IP, Port Password and Connect). Its the flexibility of iSCSI in general that makes the Server side more complicated to set up. You can have tons of different setups depending on what you want to spend and or achieve. If I understand you right you mean simpler Server Setup with predefined iSCSI Disk configuration only leaving the hostname and port to be adjustet for example?

Probably best if you try it out. Its very simple if you look past the rather strange looking iSCSI Qualified Names (IQN) (Example: iqn.2001-04.com.example:storage.disk2.sys1.xyz) and other iSCSI terms. I think if you follow KernSafes instructions and or we write out a nice Step by Step procedure for a default setup with either iStorage or FreeNAS we would probably achieve the before mentionend. But I think on the end you will not get the real deal if you dont adjust it to your needs and enviornment. Maybe someone provides hosted iSCSI Disks which you can suscribe to, but that will then most likely cost Money again because the bandwidth required would be immense.

Well, perhaps I did miss a few things. I read a bit about it, but I'm going to be trying it out momentarily to see it in action. This is a pretty genius application.

Matt_Williams · Jul 26, 2011

swiss420 said:
Acctualy I probably know what impacts performance in my case. Its a 20 Year old HDD that I used in my NAS. But since it worked I can now set up a brand new FreeNAS v8 x64 Server with a couple 2TB SATA3 drives. Its been long overdue anyway. I preferr FreeNAS because it allows great flexibility, its super easy to setup, and just like KernSafe WinCE iSCSI Initiator its just a great product from some very talented people. Will post instructions on how I set up everything so in case someone is interested in giving it a try. Offcourse on the Windows Side of life KernSafe seems to have other nice products unfortunately Unix based Servers are just so much more convenient for my purposes. So that I dont feel to bad maybe setup a donation button on your website for the free powerhouse client. Just an idea.

PS: All my external HDD's are hooked up to the FreeNAS Server. My System boots and in general responds better. FreeNAS Emails or Alerts me if one of the HDD's is running into problems and Hotpluggeable to take with me is also no problem. I can only recomend this set up. Used to have 5 external HDD's on my System which was a pain under Windows.

PS: By the way Matt_Williams and or KernSafe thank you so much for a Windows Mobile Client. I know the trend goes to Windows Phone and Android so your contribution is greatly appreciated. I am realy looking forward to trying it over 3G once it runs good over Wireless. Just for knowledge sake do iSCSI clients exist under Windows Phone 7 and or Android?

I'm glad that you found a probable cause of your low performance problem. But if later it will appear that this wasn't the cause, please let me know and we can try to figure it out together.

Swiss, you really don't need to feel bad that you are using our app for free. We decided it to be freeware from the very beginning when we started working on it.

PS. My name is Matt Williams but I work for KernSafe (though I'm not CEO). Don't worry we will not forget that many IT Pros are still using Windows Mobile and WinCE and it can help them do their work better.
As for Windows Phone 7 or Android, no I didn’t found any iSCSI Initiators. Therefore, as for now, WinCE iSCSI Initiator is the only app that is working on mobile devices.

If the demand will be high, we can create a separate version of it for Windows Phone 7 and Android.

mike2nl said:
Hi Matt and swiss,

What i can say is, that i am using FreeNAS since it was up some years ago and it is a fast and secure system. I use it on a very small system with a 1TB HDD for backup's. And BTW, Unix is my best friend .

+1 for it and don't forget the wm user at all. This OS will run longer then HTC and/or Microsoft has thought about the lifetime of that devices. Or is everyone bying a new device every year?

Mike, like I said earlier - we won't forget about WM users.

cajunflavoredbob said:
I just meant that instead of setting up the full client, perhaps you could set up a lighter, limited version of the program. That way, instead of installing the full app with limited functions, the mobile user would have their own separate application. This would allow you to make it a bit more user friendly, since not everyone using WM is familiar with setting up servers. Although, the last remaining bunch of us seem to be more knowledgeable than the collective was several years ago. Anyway, it was just a thought I had. I plan to try the full setup later tonight, and I'll report back once I have it working.

I don't think that would be necessary since every user can change iStorage Server to free version immediately after installation.
Most importantly, I recorded a video tutorial as well as prepared a White Paper that describes step-by-step how to use WinCE iSCSI Initiator with iStorage Server so I don't think any user would have any problems with that.

Also he have more video tutorials about different features that shows everything step-by-step on our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/kernsafe/#g/u
( New tutorial will be about Setting up High-Availability using iStorage Server for VMware ESXi Server. )

Except from that, all videos have its own corresponding White Paper that describes same things step-by-step.

So I really think such amount of information is sufficient to any Windows Mobile user that would like to test WinCE iSCSI Initiator by him/her self.

cajunflavoredbob said:
Well, perhaps I did miss a few things. I read a bit about it, but I'm going to be trying it out momentarily to see it in action. This is a pretty genius application.

Ok, I'm waiting to see the results.

dayznfuz · Jul 26, 2011

Great to see apps still being written for WinMo and to have the companies involved here.

Downloaded your app to try out and it works great on a local network. Set up of the iSCSI target was a piece of cake (following the how-to video). Connecting via the arm initiator also works just as advertised. Speed is good, was able to pretty much instantly stream music. This is definitely a viable solution to expand your storage on home WLAN.

On the other hand, I can't get the Initiator to work at all on 3G or over over a non-home network WiFi. The initiator won't even start, it just locks up the phone. Any ideas?

Matt_Williams · Jul 27, 2011

dayznfuz said:
Great to see apps still being written for WinMo and to have the companies involved here.

Downloaded your app to try out and it works great on a local network. Set up of the iSCSI target was a piece of cake (following the how-to video). Connecting via the arm initiator also works just as advertised. Speed is good, was able to pretty much instantly stream music. This is definitely a viable solution to expand your storage on home WLAN.

On the other hand, I can't get the Initiator to work at all on 3G or over over a non-home network WiFi. The initiator won't even start, it just locks up the phone. Any ideas?

Hmm....
You don't have any error massages of any kind? It always locks up your phone and you need to reboot it? Maybe some other app is running in background that is preventing WinCE Initiator to start? Do you have any other apps installed that maybe causing this?

Except for that, did you notice any other problems with app?

swiss420 · Jul 27, 2011

I thought it was the HDD but as I noticed after setting up a new Server that there are Error messages when I connect with KernSafe iSCSI Initiator. Connecting with other clients like Microsoft iSCSI Initiator I dont get these messages and copying or formating goes without any hangers. Attached is a screenshot (Sorry dident feel like writing them out.) of the error message showing when formating and or copying stuff with the KernSafe iSCSI Initiator. A quick google search did not reveal anything that helped. Does anyone recognize any of these errors?

Under Windows I now get an Average transfer rate of 120Mb/s to the iSCSI disk. Under Windows Mobile it takes minutes for a 3.3MB file because of the errors on the Server side. Any Tips? Increasing First burst length and Max burst length as suggested by someone over at the freenas forum did not solve or change anything. PS: tried it with CHAP and without it.

cajunflavoredbob · Jul 27, 2011

In dealing with the constant rain in my area, I've had to take the morning off to let the water drain from the road, so I've gotten a chance to play around with this together. I have to say that it is not what I was expecting from reading the tutorials. The process to set it up with the included software is FAR simpler than the instructions lead you to believe. This is a wonderfully simple solution to increase disk storage on your WM device without any sort of restrictions save from your own physical disk limitations.

I got it set up and running in two minutes with no problem. I first tried this over wifi and was able to stream video and music over the air without any hiccup. The music I normally use is FLAC encoded. I also re-encode my video to be able to play properly. So, my video files are all done as in the following image:

One thing I did notice was that file transfers are extremely slow. It does work fine, but transferring anything over about 5MB takes several minutes. I didn't get to test over 3G, since I've only got EDGE around me in my area right now. I just don't feel like driving all the way into the city to test the 3G speeds. I'd imagine they would be comparable or slower than my home Wifi connection.

EDIT: One problem I am having right now is that none of the drop down menus work in the iStorage Server. The only one that works is the Tools menu. I'm also not sure where I would be able to get the free license from if not from these menus. It does not appear to be on your website, or would that be an automatic thing if, after the 20 day trial, I haven't applied for a full license, it simply reverts to a free one.

dayznfuz · Jul 27, 2011

Matt_Williams said:
Hmm....
You don't have any error massages of any kind? It always locks up your phone and you need to reboot it? Maybe some other app is running in background that is preventing WinCE Initiator to start? Do you have any other apps installed that maybe causing this?

Except for that, did you notice any other problems with app?

No error messages. Nothing. It just completely hangs up the phone. My phone is pretty heavily modified with a custom ROM, and CHT, among other things. When I get some free time, I'll try hardbooting the phone and maybe a couple different ROMs to see if that's the problem.

On installing, I asked it to install to the storage card. Instead, it installed to my device and dropped two icons into the start up menu.

Not a bug, but more of a minor hassle. The free version of iSCSI server only allows one connection at a time, which I understand. However, the only way I can find to connect to the iSCSI drive is to start a iSCSI connector. So if I want to add files to it from the Desktop that actually hosts the iSCSI drive, it won't let me until I log out of it from the phone. A minor hassle, but it'd be nice to have the initiator be built into the server management program and not count as your one connection.

swiss420 · Jul 27, 2011

I wonder if we all have the same problem. In my Case the Phone does not realy hang well it does but because its waiting for answears from the iSCSI disc. I am about to try out the iStorage Server but under FreeNAS I can see Errors when copying something to the iSCSI Drive. It will eventually finsih but I have to wait and the Errors keep comming until its done with copying. I dont have that if I connect with Windows 7 to the iSCSI Drive. Wonder if I will experience the same with iStorage.

@cajunflavoredbob, regarding the 20 Day Trial if you go to Help > Apply License > You can select Free License to Apply a free license key. Why in your case everything is greyed out I am not sure.

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