Re: [Xen-users] HVM iSCSI Boot ROM

[Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>]

On Wed, Aug 06, 2008 at 07:04:33AM -0600, Nick Couchman wrote:
> I guess maybe it's more a discussion for the devel list, but I attempted
> to generate a gpxe .rom file on rom-o-matic.net and then use the mkhex
> tool in the tools/firmware/hvmloader directory to make it into a header.
>  I think rebuilt the hvmloader file and installed in the
> /usr/lib/xen/boot directory and attempted to boot an HVM off the network
> card.  No good - didn't even try to load the ROM image.  So, I guess
> I'll have to try to figure out why, but apparently there's more than
> just regenerating the header file :-). 
> 
> Thanks for the additional info - most of the support nowadays seems to
> be for servers - I'd actually love to boot my workstations off iSCSI. 
> Maybe that will come in time... 
> 

I think gPXE should allow that for your workstation.. 

It's also possible to do iscsi-root without iBFT. but then you need to
configure all the iscsi settings twice - for the boot initiator, and then
for the OS itself..

with iBFT you only have the configuration in one place.  

-- Pasi

> -Nick
> 
> >>> On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at  2:21 AM, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Aug 05, 2008 at 02:09:52PM -0600, Nick Couchman wrote:
> > Microsoft has their "boot" version of their iSCSI software initiator. 
> > Apparently this still requires that the network card be iSCSI Boot
> "enabled." 
> > Intel seems to be the only obvious company out there supporting it on
> their
> > Server adapters - I was wondering if there are any thoughts/plans on
> implementing
> > iSCSI Boot functionality in the HVM Boot ROM?  Or maybe there's
> already
> > some way to do it, with something like etherboot?
> >
> 
> I think broadcom server NICs support iSCSI boot too.
> 
> broadcom+dell:
> http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps4q07-20070596-Broadcom.pdf
> 
> press releases:
> http://www.embeddedstar.com/press/content/2004/10/embedded16905.html
> http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/hardware/14128/broadcoms-iscsi-block-storage-over-ethernet-delivers-high-performance
> http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=635611 (
> http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=635611 )
> http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=61762 (
> http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=61762 )
> http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/810702
> 
> 
> also, IBM blades contain iBFT capable iSCSI initiator in their BIOS,
> allowing
> iSCSI boot without HBA.
> 
> 
> Some links about booting from iSCSI disk without iSCSI HBA (using just
> the
> normal NIC and iBFT table):
> 
> http://etherboot.org
> http://etherboot.org/wiki/sanboot
> http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/iscsiboot
> http://www.etherboot.org/wiki/ibft
> 
> Although I'm not sure how up-to-date those pages are..
> 
> Anyway, the basic idea for iSCSI boot nowadays is that the iSCSI boot
> initiator (BIOS, NIC or firmware) doing the initial boot up (loading
> GRUB
> from the disk, int13h emulation) should fill up iBFT table with iSCSI
> NIC/IP
> configuration info, and also the target/LUN info.
> 
> The booted OS can then set up it's iscsi software initiator based on the
> info in iBFT table. iBFT table is stored in memory. 
> 
> RHEL 5.2 (and CentOS 5.2) already supports this. Microsoft iSCSI
> software
> initiator (boot version) also supports iBFT, I think.
> 
> So yeah.. to support iSCSI boot for HVM guests would mean being able to
> specify
> iBFT information in the domain configuration, and that information
> should
> end up in iBFT table in HVM domain memory. And then there should be
> int13h
> emulation using that same iBFT information so that bootloaders (GRUB)
> work..
> 
> Shouldn't be that hard thing to implement :)
> 
> -- Pasi
> 
> 
> 

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