PE 1955 Boot from SAN

Question

Hi there,   I currently have a PE 1955's with BROADCOM 2PORT TCP/IP OFFLOAD ENGINE NIC.   I have been told that it is possible to use this blade for boot from SAN, but I can't work out how to do it. I have never done boot from SAN before so hopefully I'm just missing something obvious.   Thanks in advance.   Steve.

Steve-R · Answer

Sorry I forgot to mention, we are trying to boot from an iSCSI SAN.

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

At this time there is no option to enable booting to an iSCSI SAN in the BIOS for the integrated Broadcom NICs.   The operative term in that sentence would be 'At this time'...

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

If you are talking about booting from a Fiber SAN then you will need to have the fiber daughtercards installed in the blades.  This process is dependant on the type of fiber HBA that you have and the type of SAN and fiber switches.   In other words there is no simple answer to this question.

Steve-R · Answer

Thanks for the quick response, I have another question if you dont mind? Before we purchased the blades we asked our account manager if it was possible to boot from SAN using the TOE NICs. We got an email back from a Dell Technical Consultant saying the following:   Regarding the boot from SAN using NIC's, i'm assuming you're talking about booting from iSCSI. If so - yes, using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator it is possible to perform boot from SAN using the Broadcom NICs.   I understand that said there is no current way to enable boot from SAN in the BIOS. I dont suppose you would know anything about the above methord? From my understanding (fairly new to SAN technology) the Microsoft iSCSI initiator needs to be installed in the OS and therefore would not help with booting from SAN.

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

Steve,   You have hit the nail on the head.  Basically you have the chicken and egg thing at this point.  You have to be able to enable the BIOS functions of the iSCSI boot on your HBA/NIC.    The Broadcom 5708 chipset DOES support these features, but they have NOT yet been enabled by Dell in the BIOS.   While I am not allowed to speak about upcomming features, I can say that this support will be added.  Should be sometime this year....

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

Heh! I am in Gold support....

Steve-R · Answer

Thanks for the help I am starting to get my head around all this, thought I was going crazy!!   I might have to post here more often, seems quicker than Gold Support!   Kind Regards,   Steve

Steve-R · Answer

Not bad mouthing Gold Support, just impressed with your help :)

Canada101 · Answer

You can presently boot from iSCSI SAN if using an iSCSI HBA, much the same as fibre HBA, just so you are aware.

tester25 · Answer

The Intel PCI-e Adapters from Dell support iSCSI Boot. It's been tested and works well. I would hold off on setting it up though until Microsoft releases version 2.04 of the Initiator. Version 2.03 has several issues that are fixed in version 2.04.

Dev Mgr · Answer

Yeah, but there are no iSCSI HBAs for the Dell blades (they don't have a regular PCIe/PCI-X slot).

There are a few offerings; 2 dual ported NIC offerings (with or w/o TOE) and 3 Fibre channel HBAs (Qlogic 2342M, Qlogic 2462M and an Emulex offering (the Emulex offering isn't on the download page, but it's an option when you go through the Dell site and 'build' one)).

Edit: And iSCSI 2.04 came out last week or so I believe (I downloaded it yesterday).

Message Edited by Dev Mgr on 05-01-2007 07:10 AM

allboutiscsiboo · Answer

Has anyone tried software iSCSI boot over NetXtreme II onboards on 1955? BIOS 1.4.2 doesn't give me the 'Enabled with iSCSI Boot' option as documented. Just Enabled, Enabled with PXE Boot, and Disabled. Using NetXtreme II F/W version 3.5.15.

Dell-Jeff G · Answer

You may want to download the latest firmware for the NIC from support.dell.com, here's a link. Also, Dell has posed instructions for Booting from iSCSI on support.dell.com at this link.

PowerEdge Hardware General

PE 1955 Boot from SAN

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