I have a Supermicro 2uTwin2 blade server which we're hoping to run XenServer on.
Because this motherboard only provides Intel's fakeraid, I was hoping to leverage its boot from iSCSI functionality to get some redundancy.
I can't figure out how this is meant to work.
My best guess would be that the NIC acts like an HBA, allowing me to boot off a CD and then install the OS onto the NIC-based disk. However this doesn't seem to be the case.
I can define an iSCSI target in the BIOS, and when the server boots I see it connect momentarily. Then it seems to disconnect and move-on.
So, my questions:
- Can someone explain how the Boot From iSCSI process is meant to work?
- How can I install an OS on to an iSCSI volume?
Best Answer
Here's what happening:
What you'll need to do: Boot from the CD, mount the iSCSI LUN (either through software or hardware) then install to that "drive". Then boot via iSCSI and it should be picked up.
Note: You need to use an OS that supports booting from iSCSI. Xen is not an OS, it's just a baremetal hypervisor. So whatever DomU you use must support booting from iSCSI. For Others reading this: I don't know which do offhand, but it should be in their spec list. For Xenserver (this question asked specifically about): Does support booting from iSCSI, the procedure is generally the same as any Linux, but a good writeup can be found here: Booting XenServer 5.5 from iSCSI (I'm not affiliated with this site).