Multipath I/O Support
Applies To: Microsoft iSCSI Software Target
Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) enables hardware vendors to create interoperable multipathing solutions that increase reliability, interoperability, and high-speed data access. Multipathing is the ability of a system to use more than one read/write path to a storage device, and it is a high-availability solution that provides fault tolerance against a single point of failure in hardware components. Multipathing can also provide load balancing for I/O traffic.
Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 supports MPIO for block storage on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2. It also includes a device specific module (DSM), which works with SPC-3 compliant targets.
The following procedure explains how to install MPIO as an additional feature through Server Manager.
To install MPIO
To open Server Manager, click Start, and then click Server Manager.
Click Features, and then click Add Features.
Under Features, select Multipath I/O, and then click Next.
Click Install.