NC373i iSCSI Boot with Windows 2003

[vasu1124]

How can I setup a server (e.g. DL360 G5) with the NC373i iSCSI option rom to boot Windows 2003 from an iSCSI Target?

IBM has a setup document for doing exactly this with the same Broadcom OEMed multifunction NIC, so I know it should work. But the HP branded option rom does not work (or disables the interactive ctrl-i setup).

Thanks,
Vasu

[James ~ Happy Dude]

HP iSCSI boot is mainly available for linux only !

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00782461/c00782461.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/27411.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

for windows:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00099862/c00099862.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Cheers !
James.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Apologies !!!!!!!!!

For NC373i
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/networking/us/download/26804.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

For NCU
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/revision/8337.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
Version 8.37 & above supports iSCSI

From Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/iscsi/default.mspx
Try iSCSI Software Initiator v2.0

Thanks !

[vasu1124]

Kk, I understand. There is only a Linux referencing documentation on this (my context was Windows).

My problem was this:
--
The following sequence describes the iSCSI boot sequence.
At server boot
1. On power up, system BIOS detects the iSCSI boot option ROM.
2. iSCSI boot option ROM obtains iSCSI boot parameters from iLO/RILOE memory using the iSCSI environment variables.
--

Now, how do I set these boot parameters, if the RBSU section of this is disabled? If you press ctrl-s (or -b) during boot and go into the NIC configuration screen, in the menu you find a "crtl-I for iSCSI" option. Now this is totaly misleading (HP, you need to remove this text & option), as it seems that this section is disabled. Also, within the ILO2, there is no UI screen to set the iSCSI boot parameters.

Fortunatly, the Linux doc states that:
--
3. Write the boot path to the target server. The boot path configuration file may be written to the target server with the ev DOS utility (bios editor) or written using the ibootcfg utility.
o To write the boot path using the ev DOS utility, boot to DOS and change directories to the ev
DOS utility. The ev DOS utility is packaged with the HP iSCSI boot feature.
o Execute the following on the server with the option ROM.
ev -c o To use the iLO interface to write the iSCSI boot path parameters to the target server, install the
linux-iscsi-install RPM on the install server (see "Installing the iSCSI install RPM (on page 14)")
then execute the following command on the install server.
/opt/hp/iboot_install/utils/optrom/ibootcfg -I -s -u username> -p
--

Thats solved the mistery.

Thanks.

[robert cook]

vasu,

i am having basically the same troubles with a dl380 g5 and nc373i. what was your resolution?

thx,
robert

[vasu1124]

Robert,

I found no solution to boot the Windows OS via iSCSI. I only got passed the first barrier of setting parameters for the iSCSI NIC.

We probably have to wait until HP releases valid support (aka drivers which can be installed via the F6 install procedure).



Regards,
Vasu

[Michael Kincaid]

This might be helpful on how to load the drivers during F6 setup, as it's the same underlying NIC:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/broadcom/R125805/en/iscsi.htm

I believe the Broadcom driver distribution will include the right iSCSI driver packages, if HP doesn't:
http://broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii.php

I don't actually have the right HP hardware to test this on, but it does work on the Dell side of things, so perhaps it will get you going in the right direction...

[vasu1124]

Allmost one year after my initial request HP finally release official support for iSCSI Boot for Windows (see http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&swItem=MTX-028ce39726d74abfbb046f153f&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN).
Version 1.00 was released on 8 Jul 2008
and Version 9.30 on 7 Aug 2008 (what a quick jump!).

Nonetheless if you are curious like me and try out the new drivers and the guide included in the package, you will find that things still don't work (you will also find as a bonus some testfiles in that package with a working W2k3 License key from HP. Thanks Guys!).

I tried this package with a BL680c (NC373i) and was not able to install Windows with the described F6 procedure, since there are two F6 drivers disks necessary. During the Windows Setup process the ILO2 virtual floppy disk can not communicate a media/floppy eject&change. I tried it several times and found no solution. I wonder how the guide was developed (maybe I need a physical USB floppy diskdrive, which I haven't got. What is ILO2 VM then good for?).
I also tried to slipstream the drivers onto a Windows 2003 x64 cd. I also made sure that the drivers are loaded with the correct priority. Also that did not work.
In all cases, the Windows setup could not detect the correct iSCSI target disk (which correctly connects during the BIOS boot).

Does anybody have a hint?
(it seems to me that the release package version 9.30 is rather a 0.93).

[DankDub]

Vasu,

Have you had an opportunity to try this with the lastest release of the aforementioned drivers? Latest release being 9.35 (Oct 2008)...

I'm curious as to if you've been able to make any further headway on this issue. I hope to hear that you have and things went successfully. Thanks in advance for your reply.

-Chris

[vasu1124]

Thanks for this reminder!

I'll check out this new 9.35 version as soon as I can download it (at this time the ftp link is broken).

Btw., I did get the iSCSI Boot to work by installing a local disk with all required HP drivers, inserting a license for the iSCSI feature (this unhides the required drivers!) and then imaging the local disk onto an iSCSI LUN. Of course setting up the NIC via the ILO2 tool was required as well (whereas the 9.30 tool is buggy and you can't setup CHAP authentication properly).

Vasu

[vasu1124]

The only thing which changed in v9.35 versus 9.30 (imho) is that they removed the HP-Volume License Key which was probably accidently packaged with the delivery.

All binaries and versions are the same.

[NC373i iSCSI Boot with]

Vasu,

How did you image the local disk(after loading drivers) to iSCSI disk. What utility you used ?

[vasu1124]

I used a Knoppix LiveCD, had a device handle for the iscsi target and the local disk and used dd to copy the blocks flat. In case of Cyl/Head/Sec geometry changes, you probably should use a tool like parted or so ...

(Btw., I was astonished to find that Fujitsu had put a disk copy tool exactly for this purpose on their "SmartStart"-equivalent cd set. And with Fujitsu the iSCSI NIC option rom is as is, so you can specify your iSCSI boot environment via DHCP. This ILO branded option rom and the hpibootcfg imho is just crap architecture.)