Intel ISCSI boot

[jschuricht]

Attempting to get ISCSI boot working in my HTPC using a Intel Pro1000PT with there ISCSI boot firmware. Should I be able to ping the adapter after the firmware loads, ie. before windows is up? My target dosn't show a connection until I have windows up, but it would need to be established before windows for booting purposes. I have a hunch that the card isn't communicating properly, but don't have another to confirm it's default functionality. It's not likely a problem with the connection or target as I have a Qlogic QLA4050c booting my TV server.

 

[ZXTT]

A little late, but here goes:

The iSCSI Option ROM should tell you when it's attempting to get link, will display info on the targets and will show you the target LUN info, like LUN size, when it successfully logs into the target.

You can use CTRL-D to change the iSCSI Boot config.

If you want to see if the Option ROM is doing anything on the network, then use Wireshark on another machine on the network (or back-to-back).

 

[jschuricht]

Did a lot of research and experimenting with that. The Intel adapter isn't quite like the Qlogic adapter I have, doesn't reply to ICMP until the driver is loaded which was making me think the adapter wasn't working properly. My real issue is that this is my HTPC which is running an Intel DG45ID MB and Intel doesn't want to bother supporting ISCSI boot. I can see the adapter in the MB bios and select it to boot from. Windows setup sees the target, but won't let me install to it, stating that the computer doesn't support booting from it. The same thing happens with the Qlogic adapter, and the MB will not boot from an image transferred to the ISCSI target.

 

[Keiichi]

Windows won't support an iscsi install. What you need to do is install locally, setup the iscsi drivers in windows, image it then transfer it over to the iscsi share. There's also some other things you need to consider when booting from iscsi. I know dell has a bfi whitepaper for win2k8 server. You probably could use that as a guide.

 

[jschuricht]

That depends on the version of windows. On W2K3 X32 some NICs will allow a F6 install, and I have successfully installed S2K8, Vista and 7 utilizing a Intel Pro 1000 server adapter w/ ISCSI firmware and a board that isn't crippled like the Intel DG45ID that I had wanted to use. When I setup my TV server running W2K3 X64, I did have to use a local HDD, install the ISCSI boot initiator and then transfer the image to the ISCSI target.