Project 1787/INCITS 411 - Information technology - iSCSI Management API (IMA), Version 1.1.4


The purpose of this document is to specify the SNIA iSCSI Management API.

The IMA is a specification for a C language based API for managing iSCSI capable HBAs and NICs, along with the device drivers that control them. The IMA provides APIs to perform a variety of different functions including:

• Configuring HBAs and device drivers
• Downloading firmware to HBAs
• Discovering iSCSI storage devices that can be reached via a network connection on an iSCSI capable HBA or NIC
• Controlling the visibility of iSCSI peripherals to the host operating system
• Retrieving statistics describing how much data has been transferred to and from iSCSI peripherals

As an “open systems” specification, the IMA is intended for use across a wide variety of operating systems such as Windows®, Linux®, Solaris™, HP-UX, and AIX®. Storage management applications will use the IMA to help them manage iSCSI SANs.