BladeSystem - General
1754147 Members
3177 Online
108811 Solutions
New Discussion

Booting Win 2008 R2 to iSCSI MSA from c3000

 
Bob Cullen
Occasional Advisor

Booting Win 2008 R2 to iSCSI MSA from c3000

We have a new c3000 with BL460c G6 blades, VC 1/10G ethernet and a MSA2324i storage array. All firmware is up to date.
I have been trying for a week to get the OS (Win 2008 R2 Standard) installed such that the server will boot from iSCSI LUN. I have followed every procedure I can find. The HP/Broadcom documented method does not work; in some configurations the LUN is attached in the BIOS but then Windows decides it is not a bootable volume and so doesn't install.
I found some other instructions to install to local HDD (successful) then take an image (I used R-Drive), copy it to the LUN (does that OK), then set the BIOS to boot from LUN. In this mode, the NIC logs onto the MSA, and boot-up starts, but Windows then decides it hadn't previously shut down properly. Try safe mode, and usually it just reboots or I get a BSOD with STOP 7C error.
I can't believe that this can't be made to work - all the instructions make it seem so straightforward - but the right method has eluded me.
If anyone can tell me how I will be extremely grateful.
Bob