Editing Internet Storage Name Service (section)

== Components ==

The iSNS standard defines four components:

; The iSNS Protocol: iSNSP is a protocol that specifies how iSNS clients and servers communicate. It is intended to be used by various platforms, including switches and targets as well as server hosts.

; iSNS Clients: iSNS clients are part of iSNSP aware storage devices. iSNS clients initiate transactions with iSNS servers using the iSNSP, register device attribute information in a common Discovery Domain (DD), download information about other registered clients and receive asynchronous notification of events that occur in their DD(s).

; iSNS Servers: iSNS servers respond to iSNS protocol queries and requests made by iSNS clients using the iSNSP. iSNS servers initiate iSNSP State Change Notifications and store properly authenticated information submitted by a registration request in an iSNS database.

; iSNS Databases: iSNS databases are the information repositories for iSNS server(s). They maintain information about iSNS client attributes; while implementations will vary, a directory-enabled implementation of iSNS, for example, might store client attributes in an LDAP directory.