Iscsi booting vmware

[mhyde]

I am trying to setup a UCSB to boot esxi off an iSCSI drive.  I have the iSCSI boot setup and it looks good, but when I boot ESXi, it does not show the iSCSI drive as available to install to.  Any ideas where I should be looking?

Forgot to mention, its ESXi 5.5 and UCS 2.2.2c

[Walter Dey]

Are you sure that you have end to end IP connectivity to your iSCSI storage system ?

- is the iSCSI device directly connected or via a network ?

- the iSCSI boot requires the Vlan to be native !

I would as a quick test install ESXi locally (if this is possible at all ? or on a USB, if you don't have local disks) and see whether you can see the iSCSI lun ?

[mhyde]

Everything looks ok:

vnic iSCSI Configuration: 

----------------------------

vnic_id: 17

          link_state: Up

       Initiator Cfg: 

     initiator_state: ISCSI_INITIATOR_READY

initiator_error_code: ISCSI_BOOT_NIC_NO_ERROR

                vlan: 0

         dhcp status: false

                 IQN: iqn.1992-08.cisco.com:2501

             IP Addr: 172.25.30.199

         Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

             Gateway: 172.25.30.1

          Target Cfg: 

          Target Idx: 0

               State: ISCSI_TARGET_READY

          Prev State: ISCSI_TARGET_DISABLED

        Target Error: ISCSI_TARGET_NO_ERROR

                 IQN: c240freenas.local:ucs

             IP Addr: 172.25.30.198

                Port: 3260

            Boot Lun: 0

          Ping Stats: Success (12.127ms)

        Session Info: 

          session_id: 0

         host_number: 0

          bus_number: 0

           target_id: 0

[mhyde]

There is IP connectivity.  The iSCSI  plan is set native and is on the same plan as the NAS (no routing).

Trying to install ESXi locally and connecting the iscsi to it.

[mhyde]

If I install ex locally, I can connect to the iscsi drive I am trying to boot from.  Could it be a driver issue on the install disk?  It is the customized cisco one from vmware, ESXi-5.5.0-1746018-Custom-Cisco-5.5.1.3

[Walter Dey]

How does the boot policy look like ?

check configured and actual ?

Which I/O adaptor ?

[mhyde]

Boot policy is setup to boot iSCSI first, and it does appear to try and boot it.  Problem is the drive does not show up as an installable drive in ESXi setup program.

Its a Vic 1240 

[Walter Dey]

And what iSCSI box do you have ?

Is it listed for iSCSI boot support (check for 12)) in

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/interoperability/matrix/r_hcl_B_rel2-21.pdf

[mhyde]

Its the latest version of FreeNas

[Walter Dey]

Maybe I miss something, but I can't find this box on the interop matrix for iSCSI boot.

This is the time where you need a protocol analyzer to see where the problem is.

You might open a TAC case, but most likely its a waste of time, see above.

[mhyde]

Figured it out.  The Freeness box had the iSCSI name messed up.  It was not in the proper format and appears to have been rejected by VMWare during install, but did work fine once vmware was running.  Changed the format to the proper one and everything is working fine.

[Walter Dey]

OK, perfect ! Good to hear !