Comments on: Follow Up #2: HP Blades iSCSI Boot SOME OS’s http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/ Tips, Tricks, and Gotchas for IBM and HP Blades & Servers, Virtualization Products, and Storage Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:25:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Aaron Delp http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-328 Aaron Delp Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:00:20 +0000 http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-328 Hey Graham - Nothing official but here is the way I see it. I don't see support for the iSCSI onboard coming any time soon, if ever. If I remember correctly the onboard iSCSI is a Broadcom chipset (keep me honest on that) and right now VMWare only supports Q-Logic for iSCSI boot. I haven't heard of them adding any additional manufacturers (Intel, Broadcom, etc). Maybe with ESX 4.0 or whatever the next major release will be. Here is something else to think about. ESX doesn't handle boot from iSCSI fail over well at all. If you lose a connection to the iSCSI boot LUN, you will usually crash. Check around on the VMWare forums for more information. I have come to the conclusion that I don't recommend iSCSI boot of ESX for this reason and FC boot isn't much better. We are having most of our customers just put the ESX OS on local hard drives and then use iSCSI, FC, or NFS to talk to VM's residing on SAN storage. Thanks for your comment! Hey Graham - Nothing official but here is the way I see it. I don’t see support for the iSCSI onboard coming any time soon, if ever. If I remember correctly the onboard iSCSI is a Broadcom chipset (keep me honest on that) and right now VMWare only supports Q-Logic for iSCSI boot. I haven’t heard of them adding any additional manufacturers (Intel, Broadcom, etc). Maybe with ESX 4.0 or whatever the next major release will be.

Here is something else to think about. ESX doesn’t handle boot from iSCSI fail over well at all. If you lose a connection to the iSCSI boot LUN, you will usually crash. Check around on the VMWare forums for more information. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t recommend iSCSI boot of ESX for this reason and FC boot isn’t much better. We are having most of our customers just put the ESX OS on local hard drives and then use iSCSI, FC, or NFS to talk to VM’s residing on SAN storage. Thanks for your comment!

]]> By: Graham Zulauf http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-327 Graham Zulauf Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:37:24 +0000 http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-327 Any updates on when VMware will support boot-from-iSCSI via the onboard NICs on the BL460c? Any updates on when VMware will support boot-from-iSCSI via the onboard NICs on the BL460c?

]]> By: Kevin Foster http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-48 Kevin Foster Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:22:49 +0000 http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-48 I am trying to boot ESX via iSCSI. I currently do this using QLogic iSCSI HBAs on HP DL585's. We wanted to explore the blade route so we began the discussion quite a while back. All along I have said, "boot ESX via iSCSI"... "boot ESX via iSCSI"... in every meeting. I will have more details come Monday. Right now it looks like you are spot on. You cannot boot ESX via iSCSI on the HP Blades. I am trying to boot ESX via iSCSI. I currently do this using QLogic iSCSI HBAs on HP DL585’s. We wanted to explore the blade route so we began the discussion quite a while back. All along I have said, “boot ESX via iSCSI”… “boot ESX via iSCSI”… in every meeting.

I will have more details come Monday. Right now it looks like you are spot on. You cannot boot ESX via iSCSI on the HP Blades.

]]> By: Aaron Delp http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-44 Aaron Delp Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:49:54 +0000 http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-44 Kevi - Are you trying to boot Windows or VMWare? The support above is what I was told (but I wasn't given access to the document) by one of my local HP SE's. I would be happy to be wrong!! Please double check on your end and let me know what you find out. Thanks! Kevi - Are you trying to boot Windows or VMWare? The support above is what I was told (but I wasn’t given access to the document) by one of my local HP SE’s. I would be happy to be wrong!! Please double check on your end and let me know what you find out. Thanks!

]]> By: Kevi Foster http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-43 Kevi Foster Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:50:28 +0000 http://www.bladevault.info/2008/03/04/follow-up-2-hp-blades-iscsi-boot-some-os%e2%80%99s/#comment-43 Son of a Nugget! I am supposed to get my setup today.... Time for me to smack some AE and SE heads! Son of a Nugget! I am supposed to get my setup today…. Time for me to smack some AE and SE heads!

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