Subject: Re: How should a target respond if it receives a TEXT command before a LOGIN?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 14:00:50 +0200

1. A text command before the login... what for?

In the normal sequence of events it could happen only if the Login command
is dropped - and
it is hard to see how this can happen.

The login phase is a long linked set of commands (there can't be several
outstanding) that have one singe Initiator task tag.
Text before login is an error.

2. If I'll see another vote for a 0,1 flip in the WN - I'll change it (1
and 0 have equal weight with me and with many of the implementers close to
me) -:)

Julo

Mark Burton <[email-masked]> on 27/02/2001 13:31:56

Please respond to Mark Burton <[email-masked]>

To:   [email-masked]
cc:
Subject:  How should a target respond if it receives a TEXT command before
      a LOGIN?

The choice seems to be one of:

1 - reject with format error -- not really true as the TEXT command
    may actually contain valid information

2 - reject with full feature phase error -- again, not really true as
    TEXT commands are allowed in the login phase

3 - just ignore -- unhelpful

Any ideas?

BTW - I second the proposal that the sense of the
what-comes-next-is-a-data-segment bit in the WN word should be
inverted.

Regards,

Mark

---

From: Mark Burton <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 13:55:26 GMT

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: How should a target respond if it receives a TEXT command	 before a LOGIN?
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 14:00:50 +0200

> Text before login is an error.

I realise that it is an error, what I want to know is, what is the
"approved" error response that the target should produce if this
situation occurs?

IMHO, a robust iSCSI implementation must be able to respond
appropriately to an out of order command that has been sent to it by
an initiator.

It's no good saying that it should never occur because the
specification disallows it. Remember, if it is possible for something
bad to happen then it WILL happen.

Regards,

Mark

---

From: Daniel Smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 10:42:07 -0800 (PST)

> "approved" error response that the target should produce if this

If I were the target, I'd drop the TCP connection because the initiator is
obviously not talking iSCSI.  (On the premise that dropping the connection
is probably better than sending back something that could be
misinterpreted.)
-- 
IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120-6099, USA

---

From: Mark Burton <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 19:05:34 GMT

From: Daniel Smith <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: How should a target respond if it receives a TEXT command
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 10:42:07 -0800 (PST)

> is probably better than sending back something that could be

That sounds reasonable to me. If the initiator is broken enough to
send a TEXT before a LOGIN then it deserves to be ditched.

Thanks,

Mark