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36479
September 4th, 2013 15:00
installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on iSCSI disk DELL MD3000i - problem
Hello!
I'm trying to install W2k8 r2 direcrty on DELL MD3000i iSCSI disk and use windows server 2008 diskless boot. I use Intel Ethernet adapters and Intel iSCSI remote boot technology. According to Intel last PROINFO v18.5
Windows Server* 2008 (and beyond) natively supports OS installation to an iSCSI target without a local disk and also natively supports OS iSCSI boot.
Well, OK. Server starts and NIC succesfully maps to selected LUN (4 or 5 in my case)
When I selected an iSCSI LUN on the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen I've got an ERROR
Windows cannot be installed on this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk, ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in computer's Bios menu
I used 2 different servers with 2 different NICs and got identical results. One is Supermicro with X8DTL-iF motherboard with 2 Intel 82574L LOM (iSCSI boot enabled). Second is Intel SR1530 with additional Intel CT Desktop Connection (updated with iSCSI v2.8.x boot firmaware).
All this stuff are connected via CISCO Catalyst 3560G-24TS switch through dedicated static VLAN. Network connectivity is OK because DELL MD3000i works as common storage for SQL Server 2008 cluster with 2 nodes.
For iSCSI remote boot I use free LUN (number 4 or 5).
Any questions for detailed info accepted.
Any help, tips, links, suggestions will be highly apreciated.
Thanks for your time.
Dev Mgr
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September 5th, 2013 09:00
The boot lun may need to be lun 0 (this is the host lun id, not the array lun id).
Craftsman.lv
7 Posts
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September 5th, 2013 14:00
Thanks for your post.
Do you mean to set LUN 0 in Intel iSCSI boot setup menu and leave array LUN as it was (4 or 5) ? There is no TCP/IP connection in this case :(
Or, pleas,e explain what do you mean.
I have one more question - can I have more than one LUN 0 on the array? Configuration program (MD Storage Manager) lets me do this, but I'm afraid, my production (2-node SQL cluster) will have problems or even be broken - it already uses LUN 0 for qourum disk.
Is there a rule that boot LUN have to be 0 ? Or it can be any LUN number?
And another question - when I see disks in Where do you want to install Windows? screen I see another disk with size 17Mb (!). I think it is Access disk with LUN 31 which I see in MD Storage Manager. Is it OK that I see it ?
Dev Mgr
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September 5th, 2013 18:00
First you have to manually register the host in MDSM using the iqn of the Intel iSCSI adapter. Then you assign the LUN to the host and make sure that the host lun ID is 0. Now you can try to boot to the Windows DVD and install Windows. If Windows cannot find the controller and/or disk, you may need to provide the iSCSI adapter drivers.
Craftsman.lv
7 Posts
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September 6th, 2013 12:00
I DID exactly that, but boot LUN was 4 (not 0). Can I set more than one LUN 0 in MDSM? In separate host groups, for example? wouldn't be a problem existence of another LUN 0 on the array? I wrote that my 2-node SQL cluster uses quorum disk with LUN 0
Craftsman.lv
7 Posts
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September 6th, 2013 13:00
How can I set up several hosts to boot from single MD3000i box if each of them needs to boot from LUN 0 ?
Dev Mgr
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September 6th, 2013 15:00
You cannot set more than 1 lun 0.
A boot lun cannot (ever) be shared, so the server should not be registered in a hostgroup. Leave the host as standalone.
If you then also want to do a cluster, use completely different network cards with or without iSCSI support and use those to register them separately with their own unique IQN and put those connections in a hostgroup.