@Craig Simpson We used VLAN1/default since this is an isolated environment right now. ... View more

@Robert Burns: If we are testing *without* a VLAN in this isolated setup, should it still fail? In other words, is a VLAN required for an appliance connection? ... View more

@padramas: Thanks. We used much of the same process when installing to fibre channel and were successful. It seems like there is something else going on. When we watch the EqualLogic management portal, the session is fine all the way until we load the card drivers whereupon the session completely drops. Putting the Windows installation ISO back in and hitting refresh did not re-initiate the iSCSI session. ... View more

My co-worker figured it out. Although we were specifying the HBA/NIC placement in the service profile, UCS requires there to be an explicitly attached policy for placement or it will not boot from SAN. We haven't tried booting over the network and I'm wondering if it'd be the same issue. It looks like we're good to go. ... View more

I'm also going to check with my boss to see if he'll allow me to post a screen video of all the different screens. Thanks for walking through it with me, though. ... View more

Some background on the architecture, we're currently testing with only  one interconnect and one path to the FC switch and one SP. We have tried all this with both 1.3(1) and 1.4(1) (our currently installed version). We do have a complete path. While installing ESX, the initiator does show in EMC, we do manually register, we do assign the host to the storage group, we are able to install ESX to the SAN LUN. Now we want to boot what we just installed correctly. I say correctly because we actually attached a stand-alone server and booted that LUN from the stand-alone server outside of UCS - it booted with no complaints. The installed image is good. Now that the install is complete and the server reboots, like you say, the VIC should login during the boot process and attach the LUN so it can boot. It's not. Even though the server can see the LUN just fine while installing ESX, it cannot see it when trying to boot from that LUN. One last thing we'll try before calling in a Cisco tech, we'll try booting from another blade and see if it's hardware related. I have a feeling it's not since ESX will install to the LUN but failing to find any small checkmark we've missed, everything appears to be configured correctly except for the fact we can't SAN boot. ... View more

I think we're good all the way down to your comment, "If you get this  far and start the ESX install , you’ll see this as an availble target."  Here's where we diverge. Here is what we had thought should be possible, from http://jeffsaidso.com/2010/11/boot-from-san-101-with-cisco-ucs/: UCS Manager Tasks Create a Service Profile Template with x number of vHBAs. Create a Boot Policy that includes SAN Boot as the first device and link it to the Template Create x number of Service Profiles from the Template Use Server Pools, or associate servers to the profiles Let all servers attempt to boot and sit at the “Non-System Disk” style message that UCS servers return Switch Tasks Zone the server WWPN to a zone that includes the storage array controller’s WWPN. Zone the second fabric switch as well. Note: For some operating  systems (Windows for sure), you need to zone just a single path during  OS installation so consider this step optional. Array Tasks On the array, create a LUN and allow the server WWPNs to have access to the LUN. Present the LUN to the host using a desired LUN number (typically  zero, but this step is optional and not available on all array models) From 1.5 above, that's where we'd hope to see the WWN show up in the storage and we could register the server's WWN and assign it to a storage group. It doesn't show up until the OS starts. But if we're trying to boot the OS from the LUN, we're at a catch-22 now. The initiator won't log in until the OS boots, and the OS won't boot until the initiator logs in, unless we're missing some little step. What we haven't done is check the local disk configuration policy, so we'll see if that's correct. EDIT: OK, when the vHBA BIOS message comes up, it sticks around for about 15 seconds and POST continues. The storage WWN does not show up and the Brocade's Name Servers screen doesn't show the server's HBA. It looks like it's misconfigured somewhere, it's just quite convoluted finding out where. I'll post back if we find it. EDIT2: We tried the installation again; the initiator stays logged out until ESX asks where to install and provides the SAN LUN. EMC then shows the initiator logged in. The Palo card does support SAN booting, correct? ... View more