It’s REAL, Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 is FREE now!
This is probably one of the most exciting news from Microsoft for virtualization community in recent years! It’s a bad news for many others who offering the similar products for high cost like StarWind, SANMelody, etc. and it’s even a sad news for those who purchased W2K8R2 storage servers from OEMs like Dell, HP and IBM a year ago.
On Apr 8 Microsoft has made it’s iSCSI Target software (original it’s WinTarget) for FREE! So go grab it and use it in your VMware ESX. 
Sure, it doen’t have many fancy features comparing to Equallogic, but it’s FREE and it supports ESX and Hyper-V as well as Xen and comes with schedule snapshots, so there is really nothing to complain.
Setup is very simple, just make sure you DE-SELECT the non-iSCSI NIC interfaces and leave only the iSCSI ones or you may risk to open your iSCSI SAN to the world and please double check the firewall setting disabled Public access, note after the default installation, somehow it enables Public access to iSCSI Target, huh? Ouch!
I got ESX 4.1 to connect to the MS iSCSI Target without any problem, and also went as far as changing the multipathing policy to EQL_PSP_EQL_ROUTED, haha…guess what, it did work apparently as all paths showing Active (I/O), but obviously it won’t work as later I found out there is no disk to mount under Storage, well it was expected. This leaves Round Robin (VMware) the best choice for MPIO setting and finally I loaded IOmeter, MPIO did shoot up to 60-80Mbps as I have two active links, not bad consider the underlying RAID-5 has only 4 disks on PERC H700 and the good news is the CPU loading of WinTarget.exe is very low, almost close to 0%.
FAQ
Q: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is now free. Is it supported in a production environment?
A: Yes. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported in a production environment. The Hyper-V team regularly tests with the MS iSCSI Software Target and it works great with Hyper-V.Q: On what operating systems is the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target supported?
A: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions with or without SP1 (in fact, that’s what is recommended), and it can only be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 Full install, but not Core Install.The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3, is provided in only in an x64 (64-bit) version.
Q: Can the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 use the free Microsoft iSCSI Software Target?
A: Yes and No. Yes, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 can act as a client to access virtual machines via iSCSI. The way to do that is to type iscsicpl.exe at the command prompt to bring up the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (client) and configure it to access an iSCSI Target (server). However, you can’t install the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target requires Windows Server 2008 R2.Q: Can I use the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 as shared storage for a Windows Server Failover Cluster?
A: Yes. That is one of its most common uses.
Download the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=45105d7f-8c6c-4666-a305-c8189062a0d0 and download a single file called “iSCSITargetDLC.EXE”.
Finally, make sure you read and understand the Scalability Limits!
Hi,
it’s not sad news for us at all
MS offer very very basic functionality suitable for test & development only and what we actually sell is not what they offer 
So MS did a very good thing for us – they are heating the market. Thubs up and keep going!
Anton Kolomyeytsev
CTO, StarWind Software
Hi Anton,
Thanks for dropping by, we used to exchange technical support email before, what a small world. You are always a great guy, solved so many problems in the forum as well. Btw, there is another great guy named Anton who worked for Veeam, he said he once met you before in real life, ha…
Actually, I know your guys offer a free license for Starwind product as well (limited to 1 host?).
Yes, the free product from Microsoft is really feature limited comparing to many other vendors, I guess MS gave up on Wintarget finally as not many people buying the WSS bundled OEM servers, so probably I should say it’s too bad for MS that their initial investment or buy out didn’t work out as planned.
LOL
Yes, I know Anton Gostev from VEEAM. And you’re not the first man who had confused us together
Yes, we do. We’re giving free stuff “under the table” these days. And will officially bring back feature-rich StarWind Free with de-duplication and Linux-based version in a couple of weeks from now. With V5.7 release I hope. So stay tuned
I think the same. They could spell iSCSI as “I Still Cannot Sell It” and they now are giving it away for free
Thank you!
Anton Kolomyeytsev
CTO, StarWind Software