Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

NTDEV
1

> That aside, have you scanned the list for virtual SCSIPORT miniports?

Virtual SCSI miniports have been discussed many times here and in the
Microsoft forums. I’m assuming you have a nifty little widget and a nifty
little driver to control it, and now you want to write a nifty virtual
SCSIPORT to provide a nifty interface for your nifty driver and nifty
widget to interact with the storage stack. In actuality it’s a nifty way
to burn up about 18 months, and ask a splendiferous amount of questions
here, which will always be answered with “you can’t do that”.

YET, would be the correct qualifier.

I was told at WinHEC a few months ago there WILL be an updated version of
storport that WILL function correctly as a virtual miniport.

There is at least one product shipping right now that uses the iscsiprt
wrapper to make a virtual storage miniport on a virtual I/O bus.
Specifically, the Broadcom CNIC chip+drivers have a virtual bus driver that
talks to the hardware, and then creates virtual storage and network pdo
devices. The virtual storage pdo get’s a miniport+iscsiprt driver attached.
The Broadcom drivers are WHQL signed too (which also is proof that WHQL
will, under the right conditions, sign a virtual bus driver). I was told at
WinHEC that iscsiprt and storport will be combined to be a new storport
available as a QFE.

  • Jan
2

> I was told at WinHEC a few months ago there WILL

be an updated version of storport that WILL function
correctly as a virtual miniport.

That is very good news! It will be interesting to see if this is back ported into a XP and/or 2003 at some point in the future.

There is at least one product shipping right now
that uses the iscsiprt wrapper to make a virtual
storage miniport on a virtual I/O bus.

To tell you the truth, you don’t need a wrapper to do this and you don’t need to wait for Vista. There is already at least one source code allowing you to make your own virtual storport miniport: www.perisoft.net/storram/index.htm

eof

3

Of course if you read the perisoft website you never see WHQL since I
suspect they would never pass the testing. The ISCSI work stuff is
supported on 2003 AFAIK.

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
http://www.windrvr.com
Remove StopSpam from the email to reply

wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>> I was told at WinHEC a few months ago there WILL
>> be an updated version of storport that WILL function
>> correctly as a virtual miniport.
>
> That is very good news! It will be interesting to see if this is back
> ported into a XP and/or 2003 at some point in the future.
>
>> There is at least one product shipping right now
>> that uses the iscsiprt wrapper to make a virtual
>> storage miniport on a virtual I/O bus.
>
> To tell you the truth, you don’t need a wrapper to do this and you don’t
> need to wait for Vista. There is already at least one source code allowing
> you to make your own virtual storport miniport:
> www.perisoft.net/storram/index.htm
>
> eof
>
>

4

Our CNIC - the tiny little chip, requires a lot of drivers: virtual bus
driver which talk to the chip, NDIS5.2/ndis6.0 TCP chimney miniports,
iscsi miniport, WinSock direct provider and kmd, Remote DMA/kernel
bypass driver. It’s a pretty interesting project.

It’s true that all drivers are signable (well, everyone including MSFT
are just doing business). In fact, all drivers must be signed before we
can deliver to top tire OEMs in mass production. We have been working
very closely with various dev teams in MSFT as well as big OEMs for
years to make it happen. BRCM is the most active IHV supporting MSFT’s
Scalable Network Pack and advanced networking technologies being
deployed in Longhorn server.

Calvin Guan
NetXtreme NTX Miniport
Broadcom Corporation
Connecting Everything(r)

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-256571-
xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Jan Bottorff
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:11 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

> That aside, have you scanned the list for virtual SCSIPORT
miniports?
> Virtual SCSI miniports have been discussed many times here and in
the
> Microsoft forums. I’m assuming you have a nifty little widget and a
nifty
> little driver to control it, and now you want to write a nifty
virtual
> SCSIPORT to provide a nifty interface for your nifty driver and
nifty
> widget to interact with the storage stack. In actuality it’s a nifty
way
> to burn up about 18 months, and ask a splendiferous amount of
questions
> here, which will always be answered with “you can’t do that”.

YET, would be the correct qualifier.

I was told at WinHEC a few months ago there WILL be an updated version
of
storport that WILL function correctly as a virtual miniport.

There is at least one product shipping right now that uses the
iscsiprt
wrapper to make a virtual storage miniport on a virtual I/O bus.
Specifically, the Broadcom CNIC chip+drivers have a virtual bus driver
that
talks to the hardware, and then creates virtual storage and network
pdo
devices. The virtual storage pdo get’s a miniport+iscsiprt driver
attached.
The Broadcom drivers are WHQL signed too (which also is proof that
WHQL
will, under the right conditions, sign a virtual bus driver). I was
told
at
WinHEC that iscsiprt and storport will be combined to be a new
storport
available as a QFE.

  • Jan

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

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http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

5

I am a bit unclear; some are talking about what can be done in Windows 2003, what will be in Vista, and what iSCSI is doing.

Simple question: does Microsoft or anyone else have an existing, signable methodology for creating virtual scsi devices for XP right now (eg: iscsiprt)? If so, can someone please expand on what this entails and where it can be obtained? If it is a Microsoft offering that would be ideal. It seems there are half a dozen directions people go for virtual scsi devices and it’s unclear which, if any, are both signable and available.

eof

6

Is iscisprt supported for XP SP2? In that case you need to contact
Microsoft to get access to the iscsiprt api, which api should of course
be part of the DDK, but I digress.

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@email.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 1:02 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

I am a bit unclear; some are talking about what can be done in Windows
2003, what will be in Vista, and what iSCSI is doing.

Simple question: does Microsoft or anyone else have an existing,
signable methodology for creating virtual scsi devices for XP right now
(eg: iscsiprt)? If so, can someone please expand on what this entails
and where it can be obtained? If it is a Microsoft offering that would
be ideal. It seems there are half a dozen directions people go for
virtual scsi devices and it’s unclear which, if any, are both signable
and available.

eof

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

7

iSCSI is the only method that I know of that has hope of success in XP or
Server 2003. SCSIPORT and STORPORT both share the same problem in that
they do not expose, or provide functionality, to allow you to hang a
request on the ports DPC other than through the ISR or the timer. If iSCSI
provides that capability, then a virtual SCSI miniport is possible. The
STORPORT solution mentioned in an earlier post pointed to a solution in
Vista.

Gary G. Little

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@email.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:02 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

I am a bit unclear; some are talking about what can be done in Windows
2003, what will be in Vista, and what iSCSI is doing.

Simple question: does Microsoft or anyone else have an existing, signable
methodology for creating virtual scsi devices for XP right now (eg:
iscsiprt)? If so, can someone please expand on what this entails and where
it can be obtained? If it is a Microsoft offering that would be ideal. It
seems there are half a dozen directions people go for virtual scsi devices
and it’s unclear which, if any, are both signable and available.

eof

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

8

> The STORPORT solution mentioned in an earlier post pointed to a solution

in Vista.

Just to clarify, I was told at WinHEC06, that an updated STORPORT that would
allow virtual storage miniports, would be available for W2K3.

  • Jan
9

Our intention is to make virtual miniport support available in an update
to Storport. This is how we have implemented iSCSI in Vista (iscsiprt
was originally derived from Storport, now they are reunited). Bear with
us on the scheduling please, I know this is painful and we are
prioritizing this (behind Vista of course).

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@seagate.com [mailto:xxxxx@seagate.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 6:30 AM
Subject: RE: Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

iSCSI is the only method that I know of that has hope of success in XP
or Server 2003. SCSIPORT and STORPORT both share the same problem in
that they do not expose, or provide functionality, to allow you to hang
a request on the ports DPC other than through the ISR or the timer. If
iSCSI provides that capability, then a virtual SCSI miniport is
possible. The STORPORT solution mentioned in an earlier post pointed to
a solution in Vista.

Gary G. Little

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@email.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:02 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Virtual storage miniport, info from WinHEC

I am a bit unclear; some are talking about what can be done in Windows
2003, what will be in Vista, and what iSCSI is doing.

Simple question: does Microsoft or anyone else have an existing,
signable methodology for creating virtual scsi devices for XP right now
(eg:
iscsiprt)? If so, can someone please expand on what this entails and
where it can be obtained? If it is a Microsoft offering that would be
ideal. It seems there are half a dozen directions people go for virtual
scsi devices and it’s unclear which, if any, are both signable and
available.

eof

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer