How Do I Modify the iSCSI Initiator's Driver Timeout Time?

During the iSCSI initiator driver timeout time, a host can still send device files to upper-layer applications when links to the host are down.

If multipathing software is installed, the iSCSI initiator driver timeout time needs to be changed so that the multipathing software can receive link errors in a timely manner and then initiates a path switchover.

To change the iSCSI initiator driver timeout time in the registry, perform the following steps:

1. Run the CMD command regedit to start Registry Editor.
2. Query the registry key.

   Choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > Class > {4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} > Instance Number > Parameters, as shown in Figure 7-10.

   Figure 7-10 Changing the iSCSI initiator driver timeout
   

3. Modify the registry key.

   By default, LinkDownTime and MaxRequestHoldTime are 15s and 60s respectively. On a multi-path network, the path failover time decreases with the values of the two parameters. If MPIO is enabled, it is recommended that you set LinkDownTime to 5s; if MPIO is not enabled, it is recommended that you set MaxRequestHoldTime to 5s.

   If UltraPath is installed, run CMD command iscsiconfig get timeout value to query the iSCSI initiator driver timeout and then run iscsiconfig set timeout xxx to specify the timeout value.

4. Restart the host for the change to take effect.