usr.sbin/ctld/ctl.conf.5

.\" Copyright (c) 2012 The FreeBSD Foundation
.\" Copyright (c) 2015 Alexander Motin <mav@FreeBSD.org>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This software was developed by Edward Tomasz Napierala under sponsorship
.\" from the FreeBSD Foundation.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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.Dd August 6, 2025
.Dt CTL.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ctl.conf
.Nd CAM Target Layer / iSCSI target / NVMeoF controller daemon configuration file
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
configuration file is used by the
.Xr ctld 8
daemon.
Lines starting with
.Ql #
are interpreted as comments.
The general syntax of the
.Nm
file is:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.No pidfile Ar path

.No auth-group Ar name No {
.Dl chap Ar user Ar secret
.Dl ...
}

.No portal-group Ar name No {
.Dl listen Ar address
.\".Dl listen-iser Ar address
.Dl discovery-auth-group Ar name
.Dl ...
}

.No transport-group Ar name No {
.Dl listen Ar transport Ar address
.Dl ...
}

.No target Ar name {
.Dl auth-group Ar name
.Dl portal-group Ar name
.Dl lun Ar number No {
.Dl 	path Ar path
.Dl }
.Dl ...
}

.No controller Ar name {
.Dl auth-group Ar name
.Dl transport-group Ar name
.Dl namespace Ar number No {
.Dl 	path Ar path
.Dl }
.Dl ...
}
.Ed
.Ss Global Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic auth-group Ar name
Create an
.Sy auth-group
configuration context,
defining a new auth-group,
which can then be assigned to any number of targets.
.It Ic debug Ar level
The debug verbosity level.
The default is 0.
.It Ic maxproc Ar number
The limit for concurrently running child processes handling
incoming connections.
The default is 30.
A setting of 0 disables the limit.
.It Ic pidfile Ar path
The path to the pidfile.
The default is
.Pa /var/run/ctld.pid .
.It Ic portal-group Ar name
Create a
.Sy portal-group
configuration context,
defining a new portal-group,
which can then be assigned to any number of targets.
.It Ic transport-group Ar name
Create a
.Sy transport-group
configuration context,
defining a new transport-group,
which can then be assigned to any number of NVMeoF controllers.
.It Ic lun Ar name
Create a
.Sy lun
configuration context, defining a LUN to be exported by any number of targets
or controllers.
.It Ic target Ar name
Create a
.Sy target
configuration context, which can optionally contain one or more
.Sy lun
contexts.
.It Ic controller Ar name
Create a
.Sy controller
configuration context, which can optionally contain one or more
.Sy namespace
contexts.
.It Ic timeout Ar seconds
The timeout for login sessions, after which the connection
will be forcibly terminated.
The default is 60.
A setting of 0 disables the timeout.
.It Ic isns-server Ar address
An IPv4 or IPv6 address and optionally port of iSNS server to register on.
.It Ic isns-period Ar seconds
iSNS registration period.
Registered Network Entity not updated during this period will be unregistered.
The default is 900.
.It Ic isns-timeout Ar seconds
Timeout for iSNS requests.
The default is 5.
.El
.Ss auth-group Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic auth-type Ar type
Sets the authentication type.
Type can be either
.Qq Ar none ,
.Qq Ar deny ,
.Qq Ar chap ,
or
.Qq Ar chap-mutual .
In most cases it is not necessary to set the type using this clause;
it is usually used to disable authentication for a given
.Sy auth-group .
.It Ic chap Ar user Ar secret
A set of CHAP authentication credentials.
Note that for any
.Sy auth-group ,
the configuration may only contain either
.Sy chap
or
.Sy chap-mutual
entries; it is an error to mix them.
.It Ic chap-mutual Ar user Ar secret Ar mutualuser Ar mutualsecret
A set of mutual CHAP authentication credentials.
Note that for any
.Sy auth-group ,
the configuration may only contain either
.Sy chap
or
.Sy chap-mutual
entries; it is an error to mix them.
.It Ic host-address Ar address Ns Op / Ns Ar prefixlen
An NVMeoF host address: an IPv4 or IPv6 address, optionally
followed by a literal slash and a prefix length.
Only NVMeoF hosts with an address matching one of the defined
addresses will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on host
address.
.It Ic host-nqn Ar name
An NVMeoF host name.
Only NVMeoF hosts with a name matching one of the defined
names will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on NVMe host
name.
.It Ic initiator-name Ar initiator-name
An iSCSI initiator name.
Only initiators with a name matching one of the defined
names will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on initiator
name.
.It Ic initiator-portal Ar address Ns Op / Ns Ar prefixlen
An iSCSI initiator portal: an IPv4 or IPv6 address, optionally
followed by a literal slash and a prefix length.
Only initiators with an address matching one of the defined
addresses will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on initiator
address.
.El
.Ss portal-group Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic discovery-auth-group Ar name
Assign a previously defined authentication group to the portal group,
to be used for target discovery.
By default, portal groups are assigned predefined
.Sy auth-group
.Qq Ar default ,
which denies discovery.
Another predefined
.Sy auth-group ,
.Qq Ar no-authentication ,
may be used
to permit discovery without authentication.
.It Ic discovery-filter Ar filter
Determines which targets are returned during discovery.
Filter can be either
.Qq Ar none ,
.Qq Ar portal ,
.Qq Ar portal-name ,
or
.Qq Ar portal-name-auth .
When set to
.Qq Ar none ,
discovery will return all targets assigned to that portal group.
When set to
.Qq Ar portal ,
discovery will not return targets that cannot be accessed by the
initiator because of their
.Sy initiator-portal .
When set to
.Qq Ar portal-name ,
the check will include both
.Sy initiator-portal
and
.Sy initiator-name .
When set to
.Qq Ar portal-name-auth ,
the check will include
.Sy initiator-portal ,
.Sy initiator-name ,
and authentication credentials.
The target is returned if it does not require CHAP authentication,
or if the CHAP user and secret used during discovery match those
used by the target.
Note that when using
.Qq Ar portal-name-auth ,
targets that require CHAP authentication will only be returned if
.Sy discovery-auth-group
requires CHAP.
The default is
.Qq Ar none .
.It Ic listen Ar address
An IPv4 or IPv6 address and port to listen on for incoming connections.
.\".It Ic listen-iser Ar address
.\"An IPv4 or IPv6 address and port to listen on for incoming connections
.\"using iSER (iSCSI over RDMA) protocol.
.It Ic offload Ar driver
Define iSCSI hardware offload driver to use for this
.Sy portal-group .
The default is
.Qq Ar none .
.It Ic option Ar name Ar value
The CTL-specific port options passed to the kernel.
.It Ic redirect Ar address
IPv4 or IPv6 address to redirect initiators to.
When configured, all initiators attempting to connect to portal
belonging to this
.Sy portal-group
will get redirected using "Target moved temporarily" login response.
Redirection happens before authentication and any
.Sy initiator-name
or
.Sy initiator-portal
checks are skipped.
.It Ic tag Ar value
Unique 16-bit tag value of this
.Sy portal-group .
If not specified, the value is generated automatically.
.It Ic foreign
Specifies that this
.Sy portal-group
is listened by some other host.
This host will announce it on discovery stage, but won't listen.
.It Ic dscp Ar value
The DiffServ Codepoint used for sending data. The DSCP can be
set to numeric, or hexadecimal values directly, as well as the
well-defined
.Qq Ar CSx
and
.Qq Ar AFxx
codepoints.
.It Ic pcp Ar value
The 802.1Q Priority CodePoint used for sending packets.
The PCP can be set to a value in the range between
.Qq Ar 0
to
.Qq Ar 7 .
When omitted, the default for the outgoing interface is used.
.El
.Ss transport-group Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic discovery-auth-group Ar name
See the description for this option for
.Sy portal-group
contexts.
.It Ic discovery-filter Ar filter
Filter can be either
.Qq Ar none ,
.Qq Ar address ,
or
.Qq Ar address-name .
When set to
.Qq Ar none ,
discovery will return all controllers assigned to that transport group.
When set to
.Qq Ar address ,
discovery will not return controllers that cannot be accessed by the
host because of their
.Sy host-address .
When set to
.Qq Ar address-name ,
the check will include both
.Sy host-address
and
.Sy host-nqn .
The default is
.Qq Ar none .
.It Ic listen Ar transport Ar address
An IPv4 or IPv6 address and port to listen on for incoming connections
using the specified NVMeoF transport.
Supported transports are
.Qq Ar tcp
.Pq for NVMe/TCP I/O controllers
and
.Qq Ar discovery-tcp
.Pq for NVMe/TCP discovery controllers .
.It Ic option Ar name Ar value
One of the following options:
.Bl -column "max_admin_qsize" "Default" "Transports"
.It Sy Name Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Transports Ta Sy Description
.It MAXH2CDATA Ta 256KiB Ta TCP Ta
Size in bytes of the maximum data payload size for data PDUs accepted from
remote hosts.
The value must be at least 4KiB and must be a multiple of 4.
.It SQFC Ta false Ta any Ta
Always enable SQ flow control.
.It HDGST Ta false Ta TCP Ta
Enable PDU header digests if requested by a remote host.
.It DDGST Ta false Ta TCP Ta
Enable PDU data digests if requested by a remote host.
.It max_admin_qsize Ta 4096 Ta any Ta
The maximum number of entries a remote host can request for an admin queue pair.
.It max_io_qsize Ta 65536 Ta any Ta
The maximum number of entries a remote host can request for an I/O queue pair.
.El
.It Ic tag Ar value
Unique 16-bit port ID for this
.Sy transport-group .
If not specified, the value is generated automatically.
.It Ic dscp Ar value
See the description for this option for
.Sy portal-group
contexts.
.It Ic pcp Ar value
See the description for this option for
.Sy portal-group
contexts.
.El
.Ss target Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic alias Ar text
Assign a human-readable description to the target.
There is no default.
.It Ic auth-group Ar name
Assign a previously defined authentication group to the target.
By default, targets that do not specify their own auth settings,
using clauses such as
.Sy chap
or
.Sy initiator-name ,
are assigned
predefined
.Sy auth-group
.Qq Ar default ,
which denies all access.
Another predefined
.Sy auth-group ,
.Qq Ar no-authentication ,
may be used to permit access
without authentication.
Note that this clause can be overridden using the second argument
to a
.Sy portal-group
clause.
.It Ic auth-type Ar type
Sets the authentication type.
Type can be either
.Qq Ar none ,
.Qq Ar deny ,
.Qq Ar chap ,
or
.Qq Ar chap-mutual .
In most cases it is not necessary to set the type using this clause;
it is usually used to disable authentication for a given
.Sy target .
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single target.
.It Ic chap Ar user Ar secret
A set of CHAP authentication credentials.
Note that targets must only use one of
.Sy auth-group , chap , No or Sy chap-mutual ;
it is a configuration error to mix multiple types in one target.
.It Ic chap-mutual Ar user Ar secret Ar mutualuser Ar mutualsecret
A set of mutual CHAP authentication credentials.
Note that targets must only use one of
.Sy auth-group , chap , No or Sy chap-mutual ;
it is a configuration error to mix multiple types in one target.
.It Ic initiator-name Ar initiator-name
An iSCSI initiator name.
Only initiators with a name matching one of the defined
names will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on initiator
name.
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single target.
.It Ic initiator-portal Ar address Ns Op / Ns Ar prefixlen
An iSCSI initiator portal: an IPv4 or IPv6 address, optionally
followed by a literal slash and a prefix length.
Only initiators with an address matching one of the defined
addresses will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on initiator
address.
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single target.
.Pp
The
.Sy auth-type ,
.Sy chap ,
.Sy chap-mutual ,
.Sy initiator-name ,
and
.Sy initiator-portal
clauses in the target context provide an alternative to assigning an
.Sy auth-group
defined separately, useful in the common case of authentication settings
specific to a single target.
.It Ic portal-group Ar name Op Ar ag-name
Assign a previously defined portal group to the target.
The default portal group is
.Qq Ar default ,
which makes the target available
on TCP port 3260 on all configured IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
Optional second argument specifies
.Sy auth-group
for connections to this specific portal group.
If second argument is not specified, target
.Sy auth-group
is used.
.It Ic port Ar name
.It Ic port Ar name/pp
.It Ic port Ar name/pp/vp
Assign specified CTL port (such as "isp0" or "isp2/1") to the target.
This is used to export the target through a specific physical - eg Fibre
Channel - port, in addition to portal-groups configured for the target.
Use
.Cm "ctladm portlist"
command to retrieve the list of available ports.
On startup
.Xr ctld 8
configures LUN mapping and enables all assigned ports.
Each port can be assigned to only one target.
.It Ic redirect Ar address
IPv4 or IPv6 address to redirect initiators to.
When configured, all initiators attempting to connect to this target
will get redirected using "Target moved temporarily" login response.
Redirection happens after successful authentication.
.It Ic lun Ar number Ar name
Export previously defined
.Sy lun
by the parent target.
.It Ic lun Ar number
Create a
.Sy lun
configuration context, defining a LUN exported by the parent target.
.Pp
This is an alternative to defining the LUN separately, useful in the common
case of a LUN being exported by a single target.
.El
.Ss controller Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic auth-group Ar name
Assign a previously defined authentication group to the controller.
By default, controllers that do not specify their own auth settings,
using clauses such as
.Sy host-address
or
.Sy host-nqn ,
are assigned to the
predefined
.Sy auth-group
.Qq Ar default ,
which denies all access.
Another predefined
.Sy auth-group ,
.Qq Ar no-authentication ,
may be used to permit access
without authentication.
Note that this clause can be overridden using the second argument
to a
.Sy transport-group
clause.
.It Ic auth-type Ar type
Sets the authentication type.
Type can be either
.Qq Ar none
or
.Qq Ar deny .
In most cases it is not necessary to set the type using this clause;
it is usually used to disable authentication for a given
.Sy controller .
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single controller.
.It Ic host-address Ar address Ns Op / Ns Ar prefixlen
An NVMeoF host address: an IPv4 or IPv6 address, optionally
followed by a literal slash and a prefix length.
Only NVMeoF hosts with an address matching one of the defined
addresses will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on host
address.
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single controller.
.It Ic host-nqn Ar name
An NVMeoF host name.
Only NVMeoF hosts with a name matching one of the defined
names will be allowed to connect.
If not defined, there will be no restrictions based on NVMe host
name.
This clause is mutually exclusive with
.Sy auth-group ;
one cannot use
both in a single target.
.Pp
The
.Sy auth-type ,
.Sy host-address ,
and
.Sy host-nqn
clauses in the controller context provide an alternative to assigning an
.Sy auth-group
defined separately, useful in the common case of authentication settings
specific to a single controller.
.It Ic transport-group Ar name Op Ar ag-name
Assign a previously defined transport group to the controller.
The default transport group is
.Qq Ar default ,
which makes the controller available
on TCP port 4420 on all configured IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
The optional second argument specifies the
.Sy auth-group
for connections to this specific transport group group.
If the second argument is not specified, the controller
.Sy auth-group
is used.
.It Ic namespace Ar number Ar name
Export previously defined
.Sy lun
as an NVMe namespace from the parent controller.
.It Ic namespace Ar number
Create a
.Sy namespace
configuration context, defining an NVMe namespace exported by the parent target.
.Pp
This is an alternative to defining the namespace separately,
useful in the common case of a namespace being exported by a single controller.
.Sy namespace
configuration contexts accept the the same properties as
.Sy lun
contexts.
.El
.Ss lun Context
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic backend Ar block No | Ar ramdisk
The CTL backend to use for a given LUN.
Valid choices are
.Qq Ar block
and
.Qq Ar ramdisk ;
block is used for LUNs backed
by files or disk device nodes; ramdisk is a bitsink device, used mostly for
testing.
The default backend is block.
.It Ic blocksize Ar size
The blocksize visible to the initiator.
The default blocksize is 512 for disks, and 2048 for CD/DVDs.
.It Ic ctl-lun Ar lun_id
Global numeric identifier to use for a given LUN inside CTL.
By default CTL allocates those IDs dynamically, but explicit specification
may be needed for consistency in HA configurations.
.It Ic device-id Ar string
The SCSI Device Identification string presented to iSCSI initiators.
.It Ic device-type Ar type
Specify the SCSI device type to use when creating the LUN.
Currently CTL supports Direct Access (type 0), Processor (type 3)
and CD/DVD (type 5) LUNs.
.It Ic option Ar name Ar value
The CTL-specific options passed to the kernel.
All CTL-specific options are documented in the
.Sx OPTIONS
section of
.Xr ctladm 8 .
.It Ic path Ar path
The path to the file, device node, or
.Xr zfs 8
volume used to back the LUN.
For optimal performance, create ZFS volumes with the
.Qq Ar volmode=dev
property set.
.It Ic serial Ar string
The SCSI serial number presented to iSCSI initiators.
.It Ic size Ar size
The LUN size, in bytes or by number with a suffix of
.Sy K , M , G , T
(for kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes).
When the configuration is in UCL format, use the suffix format
.Sy kKmMgG Ns | Ns Sy bB ,
(i.e., 4GB, 4gb, and 4Gb are all equivalent).
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /etc/ctl.conf" -compact
.It Pa /etc/ctl.conf
The default location of the
.Xr ctld 8
configuration file.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bd -literal
auth-group ag0 {
	chap-mutual "user" "secret" "mutualuser" "mutualsecret"
	chap-mutual "user2" "secret2" "mutualuser" "mutualsecret"
	initiator-portal 192.168.1.1/16
}

auth-group ag1 {
	auth-type none
	initiator-name "iqn.2012-06.com.example:initiatorhost1"
	initiator-name "iqn.2012-06.com.example:initiatorhost2"
	initiator-portal 192.168.1.1/24
	initiator-portal [2001:db8::de:ef]
}

portal-group pg0 {
	discovery-auth-group no-authentication
	listen 0.0.0.0:3260
	listen [::]:3260
	listen [fe80::be:ef]:3261
}

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0 {
	alias "Example target"
	auth-group no-authentication
	lun 0 {
		path /dev/zvol/tank/example_0
		blocksize 4096
		size 4G
	}
}

lun example_1 {
	path /dev/zvol/tank/example_1
	option naa 0x50015178f369f093
}

target iqn.2012-06.com.example:target1 {
	auth-group ag0
	portal-group pg0
	lun 0 example_1
	lun 1 {
		path /dev/zvol/tank/example_2
		option vendor "FreeBSD"
	}
}

target naa.50015178f369f092 {
	port isp0
	port isp1
	lun 0 example_1
}

controller nqn.2012-06.com.example:controller1 {
	auth-group no-authentication;
	namespace 1 example_1
	namespace 2 {
		backend ramdisk
		size 1G
		option capacity 1G
	}
}
.Ed
.Pp
An equivalent configuration in UCL format, for use with
.Fl u :
.Bd -literal
auth-group {
	ag0 {
		chap-mutual = [
			{
				user = "user"
				secret = "secretsecret"
				mutual-user = "mutualuser"
				mutual-secret = "mutualsecret"
			},
			{
				user = "user2"
				secret = "secret2secret2"
				mutual-user = "mutualuser"
				mutual-secret = "mutualsecret"
			}
		]
	}

	ag1 {
		auth-type = none
		initiator-name = [
			"iqn.2012-06.com.example:initiatorhost1",
			"iqn.2012-06.com.example:initiatorhost2"
		]
		initiator-portal = [192.168.1.1/24, "[2001:db8::de:ef]"]
	}
}

portal-group {
	pg0 {
		discovery-auth-group = no-authentication
		listen = [
			0.0.0.0:3260,
			"[::]:3260",
			"[fe80::be:ef]:3261"
		]
	}
}

lun {
	example_1 {
		path = /dev/zvol/tank/example_1
		options {
			naa = "0x50015178f369f093"
		}
	}
}

target {
	"iqn.2012-06.com.example:target0" {
		alias = "Example target"
		auth-group = no-authentication
		lun = {
			0 {
				path = /dev/zvol/tank/example_0
				blocksize = 4096
				size = 4GB
			}
		}
	}

	"iqn.2012-06.com.example:target1" {
		auth-group = ag0
		portal-group = pg0
		lun {
			0 = example_1
			1 {
				path = /dev/zvol/tank/example_2
				options {
					vendor = "FreeBSD"
				}
			}
		}
	}

	naa.50015178f369f092 {
		port = isp0
		lun {
			0 = example_1
		}
	}
}

controller {
	"nqn.2012-06.com.example:controller1" {
		auth-group = no-authentication
		namespace = {
			1 = example_1,
			2 {
				backend = ramdisk
				size = 1G
				options {
					capacity = 1G
				}
			}
		}
	}
}
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ctl 4 ,
.Xr ctladm 8 ,
.Xr ctld 8 ,
.Xr zfs 8
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
configuration file functionality for
.Xr ctld 8
was developed by
.An Edward Tomasz Napierala Aq Mt trasz@FreeBSD.org
under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation.