How to prepare a Linux iscsi server for Esxi testing

To prepare an iscsi server for esxi testing, one can use linux very easily.

Here are the steps. In this example, the boot drive is partitioned during the install and the
partition to make available for esxi testing is slice/partition 6 on the boot drive (/dev/sda).
In this example, Chap (authentication) is not used.

Steps:

1. Install the iscsi packages into your ubuntu desktop.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install iscsitarget open-iscsi

2. Edit the /etc/default/iscsitarget and enable the iscsi functionality

$ sudo echo ISCSITARGET_ENABLE=true > /etc/default/iscsitarget

3. Edit the /etc/ietd.conf file (ietd=iscsi enterprise target daemon) and specify what to share.

$ sudo vi /etc/ietd.conf
TARGET iqn.2012-03.com.example:share1
Lun 0 Path=/dev/sda6,Type=fileio

4. Reboot the desktop to start the iscsi functionality

$ sudo reboot

5 Verify that iscsi is running and the partition is shared

$ sudo iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p your_ip_here

That is all is needed.