I understand ARP is important in network. What I mean is the host should NOT have the arp entry for the cross vlan/subnet destination. The host only has the Gateway arp entry which is enough for host to find the destination. Here when I used iSCSI target 3.3, cross vlan/subnet destination arp broardcast will happen. So I have to open the local proxy arp feature on switch to response this special request. As compared, If I just ping or remote-desktop to the cross vlan/subnet destination, the arp broadcast will not happen.

One Windows server 2008 R2 with iSCSI target 3.3 installed and set static ip with 192.168.1.22/24, Gateway = 192.168.1.254 One Windows XP workstation set static ip with 192.168.0.231/24, Gateway = 192.168.0.254 Switch, configure two Vlan, and two vlan ip interface 192.168.0.254 and 192.168.1.254 with forwarding. 1. Then on 192.168.1.22, ping 192.168.0.231, OK, check arp cache, no arp entry 192.168.0.231 found, only Gateway 192.168.1.254 found 2. Use one iSCSI initiator on 192.168.0.231, LUN scan iSCSI target 192.168.1.22, check arp cache by "arp -a", 192.168.0.231 entry found.Which means "local proxy arp" feature is used on the switch. I want to whether this is the normal behavior for iSCSI target 3.3. Is there any way to turn off this kind of arp on iSCSI target server? And "local proxy arp" feature on switch will never be used. What I mean is the host should NOT have the arp entry for the cross vlan/subnet destination. The host only has the Gateway arp entry which is enough for host to find the destination. Here when I used iSCSI target 3.3, cross vlan/subnet destination arp broardcast will happen. So I have to open the local proxy arp feature on switch to response this special request. As compared, If I just ping or remote-desktop to the cross vlan/subnet destination, the arp broadcast will not happen. Thanks.

I would like to understand which version of windows has this proxy ARP behavior as a default behavior. I cannot reproduce this either in windows 7 or in windows 2008. Under what circumstances would a windows 7 use Proxy ARP. By default for out of subnet hosts windows 7 or a 2008 or a 2008 R2 will always send an ARP for the gateway and not for the host. I would like to understand when will windows 7 failback if there is such a scenario. The documentation provided here is not current to be honest. I am not sure which version is being referred to in the docs. The original post is correct windows should not send an ARP for a host whose IP is outside the subnet unless there is a failover mechanism enabled in XP days where we failover to proxy ARP scenario and send a broadcast for a host which is not in the same broadcast domain. The switch or router in-turn forwards the ARP to the second Vlan, proxy the ARP broadcast request as well as response. This behavior is not exhibited in windows 7 atleast on a vanilla build in a lab.