Non of this is magic it all in the setup. Being most familiar with Windows, i will show that below but most steps would would with other OSs
1) Setup the NIC/HBA with all the information to point to the Target This varies by NIC/HBA. Also set it up as basic as you can, you can always go back and setup failover etc.
2) Setup the storage to provide a LUN/Volume/ETC to the Initiator This varies by storage
Now an important piece, if during POST a device is not shown as Disk, then you need to go back to step 1 or 2. Check spelling over and over again, then have someone else check it for you.
Note on Broadcom, but might be others, if you set the device to boot from iSCSI, then it will try to boot and will fail, then log out. For installation purposes, you must not try to boot from from iSCSI. For other version of F/W, do not enable boot from iSCSI, for new version, ther is on option about something not on the first time, dont remember the exact option.
3) Load the drivers. Sometimes it takes a bit for the intial login to the storage to happen, press refrest a few times to see if it will present you with a DISK. If a disk is not present, and it was presented during POST, then chances are its the driver or the iSCSI Initiator logged out, check your storage eventlog.
4) Load OS, then it will reboot.
Note: on Broadcom, if you manual disabled boot from iSCSI, here is where you would turn it on.
5) Finish the loading of the OS.
Another easy way is to load it to a local hard drive, use sysprep and then image the drive. Put the image onto a LUN that you created on your storage.. With Windows 2008 R2, look up something to do with the light weight feather driver or something like that, remember, doing this out of my warped mind.
JP1110, I'm between the load network driver (which I've done; otherwise the drive wouldn't show up) and the Complete OS Installation. Basically, the I see the drive and start the OS installation, but then the installation reboots and needs to reload the pre-install environment to Complete the install, the iSCSI boot agent tries to load the half installed OS instead.
Richard_Thompso, your steps are exactly what I am trying to do. There is just a problem where it will not run step 5. The Broadcom setting to manually disable is boot from iSCSI. I set this to Disable for the first time. So the first time through, the iSCSI boot agent will test the connection successfully then boot from the Windows installation DVD. I run step 4, and when it reboots, the broadcom boot from iSCSI option is enabled so it will try to load the OS. This is where the iSCSI boot agent should see that Windows needs to boot back into the pre-install environment to complete the install, but it does not. It tries to boot to a half installed OS.
I would try the imaging software, but we don't have any licensed software and the servers do not have internal hard drives.
Half installed OS? During the first part of the windows install, Windows basically copies all the files it needs to complete the install to the hard disk. After the reboot, it boots to the hard disk and continues the installation with the files that were copied in the first part.
The part where it boots to the hard disk and continues the installation.
The inital install works fine after I install the broadcom iSCSI driver. After it reboots, the boot agent will try to load the OS and not continue the installation.
Yes, you have to install both drivers for it to work, surprised it found the hard disk without using hte new VBD driver.
from the support.dell.com/.../iSCSI.pdf listed above.
Extract NIC Drivers for Later Use If Necessary
You will first need to extract the Broadcom NetXtreme Virtual Bus Driver (VBD) and the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) drivers or the Intel PRO plug and play drivers, in case you need them later in this process.
1. Use the setup.exe /a command for Broadcom or the setup.exe -a command for Intel on a workstation to extract the drivers from the setup executable file, specifying a target directory for the extracted files.
NOTE: Make note of the directory structure to which the files are extracted. For example, the Broadcom drivers for Windows Server 2008 x64 are extracted to the following locations:
For VBD: /Program Files 64/Broadcom/BDrv5706/VBD
For NDIS: /Program Files 64/Broadcom/BDrv5706/W2k8
2. Copy the driver files to removable media suitable for use during operating system installation, preferably a USB flash drive.
The install doc does indicate you need both Glad you got it up and running finally.
Final note: This will not work with Windows 2008 R2 with ISOE or the 10GB NICS, the drivers have to be removed from the CD see KB article located at support.microsoft.com/.../974072
Richard_Thompso
28 Posts
0
September 25th, 2011 08:00
Non of this is magic it all in the setup. Being most familiar with Windows, i will show that below but most steps would would with other OSs
1) Setup the NIC/HBA with all the information to point to the Target This varies by NIC/HBA. Also set it up as basic as you can, you can always go back and setup failover etc.
2) Setup the storage to provide a LUN/Volume/ETC to the Initiator This varies by storage
Now an important piece, if during POST a device is not shown as Disk, then you need to go back to step 1 or 2. Check spelling over and over again, then have someone else check it for you.
Note on Broadcom, but might be others, if you set the device to boot from iSCSI, then it will try to boot and will fail, then log out. For installation purposes, you must not try to boot from from iSCSI. For other version of F/W, do not enable boot from iSCSI, for new version, ther is on option about something not on the first time, dont remember the exact option.
3) Load the drivers. Sometimes it takes a bit for the intial login to the storage to happen, press refrest a few times to see if it will present you with a DISK. If a disk is not present, and it was presented during POST, then chances are its the driver or the iSCSI Initiator logged out, check your storage eventlog.
4) Load OS, then it will reboot.
Note: on Broadcom, if you manual disabled boot from iSCSI, here is where you would turn it on.
5) Finish the loading of the OS.
Another easy way is to load it to a local hard drive, use sysprep and then image the drive. Put the image onto a LUN that you created on your storage.. With Windows 2008 R2, look up something to do with the light weight feather driver or something like that, remember, doing this out of my warped mind.
Hope this helps.
mshen112
10 Posts
0
September 26th, 2011 10:00
JP1110, I'm between the load network driver (which I've done; otherwise the drive wouldn't show up) and the Complete OS Installation. Basically, the I see the drive and start the OS installation, but then the installation reboots and needs to reload the pre-install environment to Complete the install, the iSCSI boot agent tries to load the half installed OS instead.
Richard_Thompso, your steps are exactly what I am trying to do. There is just a problem where it will not run step 5. The Broadcom setting to manually disable is boot from iSCSI. I set this to Disable for the first time. So the first time through, the iSCSI boot agent will test the connection successfully then boot from the Windows installation DVD. I run step 4, and when it reboots, the broadcom boot from iSCSI option is enabled so it will try to load the OS. This is where the iSCSI boot agent should see that Windows needs to boot back into the pre-install environment to complete the install, but it does not. It tries to boot to a half installed OS.
I would try the imaging software, but we don't have any licensed software and the servers do not have internal hard drives.
Richard_Thompso
28 Posts
0
September 26th, 2011 12:00
Half installed OS? During the first part of the windows install, Windows basically copies all the files it needs to complete the install to the hard disk. After the reboot, it boots to the hard disk and continues the installation with the files that were copied in the first part.
What exactly is failiing?
mshen112
10 Posts
0
September 26th, 2011 13:00
The part where it boots to the hard disk and continues the installation.
The inital install works fine after I install the broadcom iSCSI driver. After it reboots, the boot agent will try to load the OS and not continue the installation.
Richard_Thompso
28 Posts
0
September 26th, 2011 16:00
oh, from further down the document :)
NOTE: For example, you will need to install both the VBD and the NDIS driver for the Broadcom NetXtreme adapter
Richard_Thompso
28 Posts
0
September 26th, 2011 16:00
Yes, you have to install both drivers for it to work, surprised it found the hard disk without using hte new VBD driver.
from the support.dell.com/.../iSCSI.pdf listed above.
Extract NIC Drivers for Later Use If Necessary
You will first need to extract the Broadcom NetXtreme Virtual Bus Driver (VBD) and the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) drivers or the Intel PRO plug and play drivers, in case you need them later in this process.
1. Use the setup.exe /a command for Broadcom or the setup.exe -a command for Intel on a workstation to extract the drivers from the setup executable file, specifying a target directory for the extracted files.
NOTE: Make note of the directory structure to which the files are extracted. For example, the Broadcom drivers for Windows Server 2008 x64 are extracted to the following locations:
For VBD: /Program Files 64/Broadcom/BDrv5706/VBD
For NDIS: /Program Files 64/Broadcom/BDrv5706/W2k8
2. Copy the driver files to removable media suitable for use during operating system installation, preferably a USB flash drive.
The install doc does indicate you need both Glad you got it up and running finally.
Final note: This will not work with Windows 2008 R2 with ISOE or the 10GB NICS, the drivers have to be removed from the CD see KB article located at support.microsoft.com/.../974072