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Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

 
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jliu79
Frequent Advisor

Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

Hi I'm trying to figure out how to boot Windows 2008 R2 directly from Nimble via iSCSI, and need a little bit help.

So far I've configured the network card and it is able to see the volume and connect to it. Then it says no boot sector found which is true cause I need to install Windows 2008 R2 on it. Then it'll continue to boot from the USB drive which has the Windows installation files. But the Windows installation can't see the Nimble volume. Also when I check on the volume it says connected initiators is 0. Do I need some kind of driver for Nimble?

Thanks.

4 REPLIES 4
Nick_Dyer
Honored Contributor

Re: Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

Hi Jason,

Chances are you need to provide the physical iSCSI HBA drivers to the Windows installer to see the volume to be able to install the OS (it's definitely required for the HP FlexFabric adapter for example, as I learnt from a recent experience!).

Nick Dyer
twitter: @nick_dyer_
jliu79
Frequent Advisor

Re: Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

Hi Nick, I did provide the network driver to Windows installer according to HP's documentation. The server is a HP Proliant DL360 G5 and the network card is NC382T which is actually a Broadcom 5709. Thanks.

Nick_Dyer
Honored Contributor

Re: Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

Hi Jason,

It looks like that NIC does not have any Boot from SAN capability. Typically BFS requires a hardware iSCSI HBA, a Converged Network Adapter (CNA) or a NIC with something called "iSCSI Offload".

Even though the Broadcom chip may have the feature on their spec-page, I've learnt recently HP severely limit the chipsets in their OEM cards (I found this out the hard way burning through 3 different models HP NICs).

Nick Dyer
twitter: @nick_dyer_
jliu79
Frequent Advisor
Solution

Re: Has anyone done Windows 2008 R2 boot from Nimble via iSCSI?

Thanks Nick. I'll get a newer card to try it again.