install ESXi on UCS to boot from SAN

[Hythim Ali El Hadad]

Hi,

I have ucs and I need to boot from SAN

I need to confirm one thing

When I was installing windows server on ucs to boot from SAN. I attached the drivers iso for the HBA driver so the blade can detect the boot LUN.

Now I'll install ESXi. Do you know if I need to use the drivers iso also for the HBA as with windows or ESXi will detect it and will present me the boot LUN to start the installation ?

We'll be using the ESXi from VMware not the customized one by Cisco

Thanks

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

Hi

One major difference:

MSFT Windows has no UCS fnic enic driver preinstalled with the iso distribution.

ESXi has, but most likely not the one which the UCS support matrix requires.

see http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html

Therefore you install ESXi from the distribution iso, and then you update the enic/fnic drivers

see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/vic_drivers/install/ESX/2-0/b_Cisco_VIC_Drivers_for_ESX_Installation_Guide/Cisco_VIC_Drivers_for_ESX_Installation_Guide_chapter2.html

[Hythim Ali El Hadad]

Hi Walter,

Please advise where the driver files located when I install the HBA driver for windows or ESXi before connecting to the boot LUN and we don't have local disks.

Normal behavior is I install the drivers after windows installation. So the driver files will be located on drive C

But where the HBA driver file is located on this case when booting from SAN

Thanks

[Walter Dey]

Please check

https://speakvirtual.com/2013/01/14/cisco-ucs-101-windows-boot-from-san/

http://jeffsaidso.com/2010/11/boot-from-san-101-with-cisco-ucs/

The driver files are located here:

https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=283853163&softwareid=283853158&release=2.1(1b)&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest

[Hythim Ali El Hadad]

Thanks for your reply

sorry, You didn't get me question

I'm asking for that installing the driver software will require a location as HDD to place the driver files in it ?

For boot from SAN, we don't have local HDD also we still not connected to the SAN

So where the files created from installing the driver to be saved as we have no connected disks ?

Thanks

[Walter Dey]

You have 2 iso files, one for your OS, one for the drivers.

In the initial step after association of the SP, you mount OS iso in the kontext of KVM and start installing the OS; then you are asked about any optional driver installation; you dismount the OS iso, mount the driver iso and install the drivers (eg. hba, after which you will see the boot lun, assuming the zoning and masking / mapping is ok); now you dismount the driver iso, and remount the OS iso, and continue; it will you ask where to install, and assuming all is ok, you see the boot lun, where you install the OS.

Hope this is clear ?

[Hythim Ali El Hadad]

Hi Walter,

Sorry you didn't get my question again

I know all these steps

Only after installing this driver software. the driver files after this installation should be placed on C drive as I thought.

But we don't have local disk on our case. So I think the installed driver files will be put in RAM or a cache !!

What do you think ?

I hope you got my question :)

[Walter Dey]

You don't need a disk at all; the enic/fnic information is placed on the boot lun.

This is why you can move the SP to another blade and boot from SAN; no information is stored on the local blade.

Take another example: PXE boot the OS, but once the OS is up and enic / fnic drivers have been installed initially, you can access a SAN lun.

[Hythim Ali El Hadad]

You don't need a disk at all; the enic/fnic information is placed on the boot lun.

Great. My question is here. We install the driver for the HBA to see the boot LUN then choose the boot LUN.

So the LUN isn't known at the driver installation time to put that info on it

So is it put on a the RAM or a chach or internal SSD card ? then after choosing the LUN to start windows installation, Is this info is moved from the RAM to the boot LUN ?

Thanks

Haitham