03 VC Iscsi Jan2011 2nd

HP Virtual Connect with iSCSI Cookbook
January 2011, 2nd Edition Technical white paper
Table of contents
Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 System requirements............................................................................................................................. 4 Mezzanine: ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Interconnect modules: ...................................................................................................................... 4 Targets: .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Firmware and Software Update ......................................................................................................... 5 Supported configuration ................................................................................................................... 6 Unsupported configuration ................................................................................................................ 6 Networking recommendations ............................................................................................................... 7 Network considerations .................................................................................................................... 7 Keep it simple and short ................................................................................................................... 7 Storage vendors recommendations .................................................................................................... 8 Flow Control ................................................................................................................................ 8 Jumbo Frames .............................................................................................................................. 8 Storage considerations ..................................................................................................................... 9 iSCSI multipathing solutions ............................................................................................................... 9 Virtual Connect network scenarios ....................................................................................................... 10 Scenario 1: iSCSI network physically separated ................................................................................ 10 Defining two iSCSI networks vNet ................................................................................................ 12 Scenario 2: iSCSI network logically separated .................................................................................. 14 Defining a first Shared Uplink Set (VLAN-trunk-1)............................................................................ 15 Defining a second Shared Uplink Set (VLAN-trunk-2)....................................................................... 16 Accelerated iSCSI .............................................................................................................................. 18 Accelerated iSCSI Virtual Connect profile (also known as iSCSI Offload) ............................................. 18 Manage iSCSI target connection ...................................................................................................... 22 Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 ...................................................................................................... 22 VMware ESX Server 4................................................................................................................. 22 Citrix XENServer ........................................................................................................................ 22 Linux Redhat Entreprise ............................................................................................................... 22 Linux SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 .......................................................................................... 22 iSCSI Boot Virtual Connect profile .................................................................................................... 24 iSCSI Boot Step-by-Step Guides ........................................................................................................... 32 Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 .......................................................................................................... 32 Manual Windows installation Method........................................................................................... 32 Post installation steps .................................................................................................................. 37 VMware ESX 4.1 ........................................................................................................................... 44 Manual ESX installation Method ................................................................................................... 44 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 ................................................................................................ 52 Manual RHEL installation Method ................................................................................................. 52 Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 ....................................................................................................... 56 Manual Suse installation Method .................................................................................................. 56 Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................. 62 iSCSI BIOS Utility (i.e. ServerEngines iSCSISelect utility) ..................................................................... 62 VC configuration checking .......................................................................................................... 63 Pinging the Target ...................................................................................................................... 65 Emulex OneCommand Manager ...................................................................................................... 66 Problems found with OneCommand Manager ................................................................................... 69
Problems found during iSCSI Boot .................................................................................................... 70 PXE booting problems ..................................................................................................................... 71 iSCSI boot install problems with windows 2003 ................................................................................ 72 VCEM issues with iSCSI Boot and offload ......................................................................................... 73 iSCSI issues with LeftHand products .................................................................................................. 73 Appendix 1- iSCSI Boot Parameters ..................................................................................................... 75 Mandatory iSCSI Boot Parameters entries ......................................................................................... 75 iSCSI Initiator (iSCSI Boot Configuration)....................................................................................... 75 iSCSI Target (iSCSI Boot Configuration) ........................................................................................ 76 Initiator Network Configuration .................................................................................................... 78 Optional iSCSI Boot Parameters entries ............................................................................................ 79 Secondary iSCSI Target Address .................................................................................................. 79 Security enhancement using an authentication ............................................................................... 79 Appendix 2 - Dynamic configuration of the iSCSI Boot Parameters .......................................................... 81 Windows DHCP server configuration ............................................................................................... 82 Linux DHCP server configuration ...................................................................................................... 88 Format of DHCP option 43 for NC551/NC553 CAN ........................................................................ 89 Examples ...................................................................................................................................... 90 For more information .......................................................................................................................... 91
Abstract
Abstract
This paper will describe how to configure HP Virtual Connect for an iSCSI envirronment. This documentation will describe the tips and some troubleshoot information for iSCSI boot and install. The document outlines the steps. Detailed information regarding Emulex/SE requirements is subject to change, and readers should always refer to the documentation from the providers.
Introduction
The iSCSI standard implements the SCSI protocol over a TCP/IP network. While iSCSI can be implemented over any TCP/IP network, the most common implementation is over-1- and 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). The iSCSI protocol transports block-level storage requests over TCP connections. Using the iSCSI protocol, systems can connect to remote storage and use it as a physical disk although the remote storage provider or target may actually be providing virtual physical disks. iSCSI serves the same purpose as Fibre Channel in building SANs, but iSCSI avoids the cost, complexity, and compatibility issues associated with Fibre Channel SANs. Because iSCSI is a TCP/IP implementation, it is ideal for new field deployments where no FC SAN infrastructure exists. An iSCSI SAN is typically comprised of software or hardware initiators on the host connected to an isolated Ethernet network and some number of storage resources (targets). While the target is usually a hard drive enclosure or another computer, it can also be any other storage device that supports the iSCSI protocol, such as a tape drive. The iSCSI stack at both ends of the path is used to encapsulate SCSI block commands into Ethernet Packets for transmission over IP networks iSCSI boot allows the c-class Blade to boot from a remote operating system image located on an Ethernet based storage network. Additionnaly accelerated iSCSI enables the Converged Network Adapter on a ProLiant Blade server to run accelerated iSCSI, it offloads the iSCSI function to the CNA rather than taxing the CPU of the server.
Abstract
System requirements
Accelerated iSCSI Boot with Virtual Connect is only supported when using the following hardware:
Mezzanine:
HP NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Adapter HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC553i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter
NOTE: iSCSI Boot is available as well on Virtual Connect with the QLogic QMH4062 1GbE iSCSI Adapter but with some restrictions. The QMH4062 iSCSI settings cannot be managed by a Virtual Connect profile but they can manually be set through the Qlogic Bios (CTRL+Q during Power-on Self-Test). The constraints to remember is that during a Virtual Connect profile move, the iSCSI boot settings will not be saved and reconfigured on the target server.
Interconnect modules:
HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Module HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module
NOTE: 10Gb KR-based Ethernet switches (like Procurve 6120XG, Cisco 3120G) can be used as well for Accelerated iSCSI boot but this is not covered in this document
Targets:
Any target that supports the iSCSI protocol, for example, the HP LeftHand Networks 2120 with 10Gb iSCSI (CX4 connection)
System requirements
Firmware and Software Update

Setup of your iSCSI Solution with HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 or FlexFabric Module and FlexFabric Adapters (integrated and mezzanine cards) will require use of the current HP BladeSystem Firmware Release Set 2010.10 with updates for specific components of the solution. For best results, follow the pre-deployment planning steps in: HP Virtual Connect for c-Class BladeSystem Setup and Installation Guide http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&pro dNameId=3552696&taskId=135&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3552695&lang=en&cc= us HP BladeSystem ProLiant Firmware Management Best Practices Implementer Guide http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/literature.html
Requirements for Accelerated iSCSI and iSCSI boot: VCM 3.10 (or above) is required in order to have Accelerated iSCSI and iSCSI boot support
NOTE: If the VC firmware is downgraded to a version older than 3.10, the iSCSI boot parameter configuration is not supported. All iSCSI boot parameters are cleared One Command OS tool be2iSCSI driver [FlexFabric Adapters driver (integrated and mezzanine cards)] be2iSCSI Driver Update Disk for iSCSI boot installs iSCSI target DHCP server (optional)
NOTE: For the supported firmware, drivers and software versions supported by HP, please see the HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric Solution Recipe at http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=Suppor tManual&lang=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64180&taskId=101&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId =4144084 and refer to the FlexFabric Adapter Firmware and FlexFabric Adapter Operating System Drivers tables.
System requirements
Supported configuration
The following combination of devices supports iSCSI Boot and iSCSI Accelerated:
+ Virtual Connect FlexFabric
+ BladeSystem BLxx G6 or G7 Latest System BIOS
NC551 CNA Integrated or mezzanine
+ Virtual Connect Flex-10 Minimum VC 3.10 and above
+ BladeSystem BLxx G6 or G7 Latest System BIOS
NC551 CNA Integrated or mezzanine
Unsupported configuration
All other Virtual Connect modules does not support Accelerated iSCSI and iSCSI Boot, this includes:
1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet module
1/10Gb-F Virtual Connect Ethernet module
The following adapters will NOT support iSCSI Boot and Accelerated iSCSI with VC Flex-10 or VC FlexFabric: HP NC532i/m Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE (Broadcom) HP NC522m Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE (NetXen) HP NC542m Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE (Mellanox) Not supported on 1 Gb NICs
System requirements
Networking recommendations
Network considerations
When constructing an iSCSI SAN with Virtual Connect, some network considerations must be taken into account. Dont think of iSCSI network as just another LAN flavor, IP storage needs the same sort of design thinking applied to FC infrastructure particularly when critical infrastructure servers can boot from a remote iSCSI data source. Network performance is one of the major factors contributing to the performance of the entire iSCSI environment. If the network environment is properly configured, the iSCSI components provide adequate throughput and low enough latency for iSCSI initiators and targets. But if the network is congested and links, switches or routers are saturated, iSCSI performance suffers and might not be adequate for some environments. Here are some important tips and tricks to think about:
Keep it simple and short

With iSCSI it is possible to route packets between different networks and sub networks but keep in mind every route and hop a packet must use, network latency will be added and affect tremendously the performance between iSCSI initiator and iSCSI target. A network switch will also add latency to the delivery time from the iSCSI packet, so we recommend keeping the distance short and ovoid any router or network switches in between the connection. It simply costs performance, reduces the IOPs per second and the chances of storage traffic competing with other data traffic on congested inter switch links. To avoid bottlenecks, inter switch links should be sized properly and use stacking cables, 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, or link aggregation or port trunking. Networking considerations include: Minimizing switch hops Maximizing the bandwidth on the inter-switch links if present. Use of 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks
Storage vendors recommendations

Storage Vendors usually have iSCSI SAN design recommendations; we will list here some of the most important one.
Flow Control Enabling Flow Control is frequently recommended by iSCSI storage vendors. It must be enabled globally across the switches and the server adapter ports. Flow control set on all NICs allows hardware-based adjustments that prevent dropped packets. Setting flow control is highly recommended and helps resolve in an efficient manner any imbalance in network traffic between sending and receiving devices.
How to enable Flow Control across the network: For the server FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter, Flow Control is enabled by default. For the network switches, see the switchs manufacturer documentation. For Virtual Connect, Flow Control is enabled by default on all VC Ethernet module downlink ports. Beginning with VC 2.30, a VC Administrator can change the behavior of Flow Control through the VCM CLI. This CLI command is a private/hidden command. To turn on Flow Control on all ports in the VC domain, enter: -> set advanced-networking FlowControl=on
Jumbo Frames Jumbo frames (9000 bytes long) are also frequently recommended by iSCSI storage vendors. Jumbo Frames have many benefits particularly for iSCSI traffic as it reduces the fragmentation overhead which translates straight away to lower CPU utilization. It gives as well more aggressive TCP dynamics, leading to greater throughput and better response to certain types of loss. Enable Jumbo frames across the dedicated VLAN or hardware infrastructure (always endto-end). Not all Switches support both Jumbo Frames and Flow Control if you have to pick between the two choose Flow Control. Jumbo Frames are enabled by default on the Server FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter (NC551 and NC553) With Virtual Connect, Jumbo Frames are enabled by default, there is no configuration required.
Storage considerations
Storage system performance is as well one of the major factors contributing to the performance of your iSCSI environment. Contact your Storage Administrator if issues occur with storage system performance. You can refer to the storage system vendors documentation, usually the use of Flow Control and Jumbo Frames are recommended.
iSCSI multipathing solutions

The use of Multipathing solutions is highly recommended for load balancing and failover to improve iSCSI performance and availability. Multipathing solutions use redundant physical path componentsadapters, cables, and switchesto create logical "paths" between the server and the storage device. In the event that one or more of these components fails, causing the path to fail, multipathing logic uses an alternate path for I/O so that applications can still access their data. For the Operating System, this multipathing means the need of an intelligent path manager called Multipath I/O (also known as MPIO) to log in multiple sessions and to failover if needed among multiple iSCSI Host Bus Adapters (HBAs). MPIO is a key component to building a highly available, fault tolerant iSCSI SAN solution. MPIO technologies provide for the following: I/O path redundancy for fault tolerance I/O path failover for high availability I/O load balancing for optimal performance
For Microsoft Windows OS, storage vendors usually provide a vendor-specific DSM (Device Specific Module) to optimize multipathing using the Microsoft MPIO framework. This Vendor-specific module (DSM) for multi-path I/O must be installed under the Operating System, consult your Storage provider web site for more information.
Virtual Connect network scenarios

For security and performance purposes, it is recommended that the iSCSI network be separated either logically (using different VLANs) or physically (using different physical switches) from the ordinary data network. Isolating the iSCSI traffic helps to improve response times, reliability and prevent bottlenecks and congestion, it also helps to address the TCP/IP overhead and flow control issues inherent in an Ethernet network. Another recommendation to maximize availability and optimal performance is to use an iSCSI redundant network path from Virtual Connect (and therefore from the server) to the storage system. This enables failover mechanism in case of path failure among multiple iSCSI HBA. The use of Multipath I/O software running under the OS (Windows, Linux and VMware) is required to provide an automatic means of persisting I/O without disconnection.
Scenario 1: iSCSI network physically separated

In this first scenario, the iSCSI network is physically separated from the ordinary data network using a different switch infrastructure. This scenario uses more VC uplinks and thus more cabling but maximize the bandwidth availability, here the iSCSI traffic do not have to fight for bandwidth as we have a dedicated infrastructure for the storage traffic. For a more complete step by step typical scenario configuration, please refer to the Virtual Connect Ethernet Cookbook http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01990371/c01990371.pdf
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Figure 1 - Physical view
PRODUCTION NETWORK
IP STORAGE NETWORK
iSCSI Target
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Port A IP A Port B IP B
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Figure 2 Logical View

IP Storage Network
Switch 1
IP Storage Network Switch 2 Prod-vNet-2
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VC FlexFabric 10Gb Enc0:Bay1

SHARED: UPLINK or X-LINK

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1A FlexNIC 1B FlexiSCSI 1C FlexNIC 1D FlexNIC
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Defining two iSCSI networks vNet Create a vNet and name it vNet-iSCSI-1 On the Virtual Connect Manager screen, click Define, Ethernet Network to create a vNet Ether the Network Name of vNet-iSCSI-1 Optionally select Smart Link, but, do NOT select any of the other options (i.e.; Private Networks etc.) Select Add Port, then add one port from Bay 1; Leave Connection Mode as Auto Select Apply
Create a vNet and name it vNet-iSCSI-2 On the Virtual Connect Manager screen, click Define, Ethernet Network to create a vNet Ether the Network Name of vNet-iSCSI-1 Select Smart Link, but, do NOT select any of the other options (ie; Private Networks etc.) Select Add Port, then add one port from Bay 2; Leave Connection Mode as Auto Select Apply
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NOTE: By creating TWO vNets we have provided a redundant path to the network. As each uplink originates from a different VC module and vNet both, uplinks will be active. This configuration provides the ability to lose an uplink cable, network switch or depending on how the iSCSI ports are configured at the server (iSCSI Software Initiator supporting failover), even a VC module. Smart Link In this configuration Smartlink SHOULD be enabled. Smartlink is used to turn off downlink ports within Virtual Connect if ALL available uplinks to a vNet or SUS are down. In this scenario if an upstream switch or all cables to a vNet were to fail on a specific vNet, VC would turn off the downlink ports connect to that vNet, which would then force the iSCSI Software Initiator to fail-over to the alternate NIC.
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Scenario 2: iSCSI network logically separated

In this second scenario, we use the same switch infrastructure but the iSCSI network is logically separated from the ordinary data network through the use of VLANs and separate subnets. In booth examples Virtual Connect is connected with more than one cable to the LAN Switch and can form a LACP 802.3AD Link aggregation channel. It will increase your bandwidth to the LAN Switches by have up to 8 cables combined to one communication channel. Load balancing for packets passing this channel will also provide. This 802.3AD connection channel can also have several 802.1Q VLANs. Please look at the Virtual Connect Ethernet Cookbook for additional information.
Figure 3 - Physical view
PRODUCTION NETWORK
LAN Switch
LAN Switch
IP STORAGE NETWORK
Port A IP A Port B IP B
iSCSI Target
802.3ad LAG 802.1Q Trunk 802.3ad LAG 802.1Q Trunk
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Figure 4 - Logical view
Prod 802.1Q Trunk

(VLANs 101 through 105)
Prod 802.1Q Trunk

(VLANs 101 through 105)


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Defining a first Shared Uplink Set (VLAN-trunk-1) Create a SUS named UplinkSet_1 On the Virtual Connect Home page, select Define, Shared Uplink Set Insert Uplink Set Name as UplinkSet_1 Select Add Port, then add two ports from Bay 1; Add Networks as follows (to add a network, right click on the grey bar under the Associate Networks (VLAN) header, the select ADD; VLAN_101-1 = VLAN ID = 101 = CONSOLE VLAN_102-1 = VLAN ID = 102 = VMOTION VLAN_103-1 = VLAN ID = 103 = First VM Guest VLAN VLAN_104-1 = VLAN ID = 104 = Second VM Guest VLAN (More VM Guest VLANs can be defined here) iSCSI_1 = VLAN ID=105
Enable SmartLink on ALL networks Leave Connection Mode as Auto (this will create a LCAP port channel if the upstream switch is properly configured) Optionally, if one of the VLANs is configured as Default/untagged, on that VLAN only, set Native to Enabled Click Apply
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Defining a second Shared Uplink Set (VLAN-trunk-2) Create a SUS named UplinkSet_2 On the Virtual Connect Home page, select Define, Shared Uplink Set
Insert Uplink Set Name as UplinkSet_2 Select Add Port, then add two ports from Bay 2; Add Networks as follows (to add a network, right click on the grey bar under the Associate Networks (VLAN) header, the select ADD; VLAN_101-2 = VLAN ID = 101 = CONSOLE VLAN_102-2 = VLAN ID = 102 = VMOTION VLAN_103-2 = VLAN ID = 103 = First VM Guest VLAN VLAN_104-2 = VLAN ID = 104 = Second VM Guest VLAN (More VM Guest VLANs can be defined here) iSCSI_2 = VLAN ID=105
Enable SmartLink on ALL networks Leave Connection Mode as Auto (this will create a LCAP port channel if the upstream switch is properly configured)
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Optionally, if one of the VLANs is configured as Default/untagged, on that VLAN only, set Native to Enabled Click Apply
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Accelerated iSCSI
Traditional software-based iSCSI initiators generate more processing overhead for the server CPU. An accelerated iSCSI capable card offloads the TCP/IP operations from the server processor freeing up CPU cycles for the main applications. The main benefits are Processing work offloaded to the NIC to free CPU cores for data-intensive workloads Increased server and IP storage application performance Increased iSCSI performance
Software-based iSCSI initiators are of course supported by all Virtual Connect models (1/10Gb, 1/10Gb-F, Flex-10 and FlexFabric) but 10Gb accelerated iSCSI (Hardware-based iSCSI initiator) is only provided today by Converged Network Adapters (i.e. NC551i/m or NC553i/m) with only Virtual Connect Flex-10 and Virtual Connect FlexFabric. The QLogic QMH4062 1GbE iSCSI Adapter is another adapter which also supports accelerated iSCSI but it is not supported by VC Flex-10 and VC FlexFabric.
Accelerated iSCSI Virtual Connect profile

(also known as iSCSI Offload)
The following steps provide an overview of the procedure to enable Accelerated iSCSI: Open Virtual Connect manager and go to server profile. Either you right click and select add or you use the Menu item Define and select Server Profile.
NOTE: VCM assigns FCoE connections by default!
Accelerated iSCSI
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NOTE: A server with one FlexFabric adapter can be configured with a unique personality, either all Ethernet, or Ethernet/iSCSI, or Ethernet/FCoE. Therefore its not possible in this case to enable at the same time both FCoE and iSCSI connections. So the two existing FCoE connection must be deleted. On the other hand, a server with multiple FlexFabric Adapters can be configured with both iSCSI and FCoE connections.
If you have a unique FlexFabric Adapter, delete the two FCOE connections, otherwise jump to the next bullet aSelect and right-click* on the second connection, and then select Delete Connection
NOTE: * The VCM graphical user interface introduces a new visual component in 3.0x using Adobe Flash technology. To add, delete, or edit a row (such as a connection or a profile), select the row and right-click it to access the context menu.
b-
Do the same on the first connection:
Accelerated iSCSI
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In the Flex-10 iSCSI Connections section, right-click over Network Name
Select Add Connection
In the Network Name column, select your iSCSI dedicated VC network
In the Port Speed column, adjust the speed settings (Auto Preferred Custom) In the Boot Setting column, leave Disabled
NOTE: Disable means Accelerated iSCSI enabled with no iSCSI boot. The disable mode offloads the iSCSI protocol processing from the OS to the NIC. In addition to offloading TCP/IP protocol processing, it also offloads iSCSI protocol processing. The multiple network feature (i.e. when using 802.1Q VLAN tagging) is not supported for iSCSI connections. Accelerated iSCSI 20
Optionally create a second iSCSI Connection for multipathing configuration
NOTE: Allowing more than one iSCSI application server to connect to a volume concurrently without cluster-aware applications or without an iSCSI initiator with Multipath I/O software could result in data corruption.
Additional VC Ethernet Network connections must be added to the VC profile in order to give to the server some other network access like Service Console, VM Guest VLAN, VMotion, etc. This will obviously depend on your server application.
When done, you can assign the profile to a server with an Ethernet adapter that supports Accelerated iSCSI
Accelerated iSCSI
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Click Apply to save the profile The server can now be powered on (using either the OA, the iLO, or the Power button)
Manage iSCSI target connection

After creating a VC profile with the Accelerated iSCSI, you can mount an iSCSI storage; this can be done through different ways: using the iSCSI BIOS utility (i.e. ServerEngines iSCSISelect utility) If you need more information, you can consult the Troubleshooting section. using OS tools (i.e. MS iSCSI Initiator, Emulex OneConnect Manager, etc.)
These following articles will guide you into mounting an iSCSI Target from a server for the following Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 See the HP LeftHand SAN iSCSI Initiator for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01750839.pdf
VMware ESX Server 4 See the chapter 2 of the VMware iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide, http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf
Citrix XENServer See http://docs.vmd.citrix.com and http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_use_iSCSI_Targets_on_Citrix_XenServer
Linux Redhat Entreprise See the Red Hat Storage Administration Guide http://docs.redhat.com/docs/enUS/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/pdf/Storage_Administration_Guide/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux-6Storage_Administration_Guide-en-US.pdf
Linux SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Detailed documentation can be found on http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles11/
Accelerated iSCSI
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Accelerated iSCSI Boot

The iSCSI Boot feature allows a server to boot from a remote disk (known as the iSCSI target) on the network without having to directly attach a boot disk. The main benefits are: Centralized boot process Cheaper servers (diskless) Less server power consumption - Servers can be denser and run cooler without internal storage. Boot From SAN-like benefits at attractive costs Easier server replacement You can replace servers in minutes, the new server point to the old boot location. Easier backup processes The system boot images in the SAN can be backed up as part of the overall SAN backup procedures.
Note that under Virtual Connect management, accelerated iSCSI takes automatically place when iSCSI boot is enabled.
Accelerated iSCSI
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iSCSI Boot Virtual Connect profile

The iSCSI configuration setup feature enables a VC user to configure a server to boot from a remote iSCSI target as part of the VC server profile. The following steps provide an overview of the procedure to enable iSCSI boot: Open Virtual Connect manager. From the Menu Define, select Server Profile in order to create a new VC profile.
Be careful, note that VCM assigns FCoE connections by default!
NOTE: A server with one FlexFabric adapter can be configured with a unique personality, either all Ethernet, or Ethernet/iSCSI, or Ethernet/FCoE. Therefore its not possible in this case to enable at the same time both FCoE and iSCSI connections. So the two existing FCoE connection must be deleted. On the other hand, a server with multiple FlexFabric Adapters can be configured with both iSCSI and FCoE connections.
If you have a unique FlexFabric Adapter, delete the two FCOE connections, otherwise jump to the next bullet
Accelerated iSCSI
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a-
Select and right-click* on the second connection, and then select Delete Connection
NOTE: * The VCM graphical user interface introduces a new visual component in 3.0x using Adobe Flash technology. To add, delete, or edit a row (such as a connection or a profile), select the row and right-click it to access the context menu.
b-
Do the same on the first connection:
In the Flex-10 iSCSI Connections section, right-click over Network Name
And select Add Connection
Accelerated iSCSI
25
In the Network Name column, select your iSCSI dedicated VC network,
NOTE: The multiple network feature (i.e. when using 802.1Q VLAN tagging) is not supported for iSCSI connections
In the Port Speed column, adjust the speed settings (Auto Preferred Custom) In the Boot Setting column, select Primary
NOTE: Accelerated iSCSI takes automatically place when the iSCSI boot is enabled. Primary enables you to set up a fault tolerant boot path and displays the Flex-10 iSCSI connections screen.
Accelerated iSCSI
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A new window menu pops-up automatically when Primary is selected, enter all iSCSI boot parameters for the primary connection
Enter all your iSCSI Boot parameters for the primary connection; you can consult the Appendix 1 for help.
After all entries have been correctly entered, save the iSCSI Boot parameters, by clicking Apply
Accelerated iSCSI
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Now we can define a second iSCSI connection, in the Flex-10 iSCSI Connections section, right-click over Network Name and select Add Connection
NOTE: Allowing more than one iSCSI application server to connect to a volume concurrently without cluster-aware applications or without an iSCSI initiator with Multipath I/O software could result in data corruption.
In the Network Name column, select your second iSCSI dedicated VC network,
In the Port Speed column, adjust the speed settings (Auto Preferred Custom) In the Boot Setting column, select Secondary
A new window menu pops-up automatically when Secondary is selected, enter all iSCSI boot parameters for the secondary connection; you can consult the Appendix 1 for help.
Accelerated iSCSI
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After the minimum entries have been correctly set in the iSCSI Boot configuration windows, save the iSCSI Boot parameters, by clicking Apply
Additional VC Ethernet Network connections must be added to the VC profile in order to give to the server some other network access like Service Console, VM Guest VLAN, VMotion, etc. This will obviously depend on your server application.
When done, you can assign your profile to a server bay
Accelerated iSCSI
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Click Apply to save the profile The server can now be powered on (using either the OA, the iLO, or the Power button)
NOTE: A press on Any key for servers with recent System BIOS is required to view the Option ROM boot details.
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While the server starts up, a screen similar to this one should be displayed:
Make sure the iSCSI disk is shown during the ServerEngines iSCSI scan. Validation of the iSCSI configuration:
Initiator name iSCSI port 1 Make sure you get an IP address if DHCP is enabled iSCSI port 2 Make sure you get an IP address if DHCP is enabled
iSCSI Disk Volume Make sure you see the drive information
If everything is correct, you can start with the OS deployment, otherwise consult the Troubleshooting section.
Accelerated iSCSI
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iSCSI Boot Step-by-Step Guides

Microsoft Windows 2008 R2
Manual Windows installation Method An iSCSI boot Windows Server installation does not require any particular instructions except that the iSCSi drivers must be provided right at the beginning of the Windows installation in order to discover the iSCSI drive presented to the server. 1- Launch the Windows installation
2- At the Where do you want to install Windows? stage, the Windows installation does not detect any iSCSI drive
3- Click on Load Driver in order to provide the iSCSI drivers for the NC551/NC553 10Gb FlexFabric CNA. iSCSI Boot Step-by-Step Guides 32
To obtain these drivers, go to the following hp.com websites or see the System Requirements section HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC553i 10Gb 2-port FlexFabric Server Adapter http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Dri verDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4145269 &taskId=135&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=41451 06&lang=en&cc=us http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Dri verDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4132827&lang=en&cc=us &prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4132949&taskId=1 35 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Dri verDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4194638&lang=en&cc=us &prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4194735&taskId=1 35
4- Using the iLO Virtual Drives menu, mount a virtual folder and select the iSCSI folder located where your HP drivers have been unpacked.
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5- Then browse the newly iLO folder
6- Windows should detect the be2iscsi.inf file contained in the folder
34
7- Click Next
8- If the iSCSI volume has been properly presented and the correct iSCSI driver has been loaded, the Where do you want to install Windows window should indicate the iSCSI Boot volume presented to the server:
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9- Select the iSCSI Volume and click Next then you can complete the Windows installation.
Sometimes a same drive is detected several times by the Windows installation due to multipathing; this is because the server profile under VCM is configured with two iSCSI ports. In such case, the Windows installation automatically turns offline the duplicated drives and only leave one online drive to be selected.
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Post installation steps Firmware and Software updates After the Windows installation you can open the Device Manager and check the hardware status. Install the latest HP updates for Microsoft Windows to get the latest utilities, firmware and drivers, go to www.hp.com
Multipathing with Microsoft MPIO MPIO solutions are needed to logically manage the iSCSI redundant connections and ensure that the iSCSI connection is available at all times. MPIO provides fault tolerance against single point of failure in hardware components but can also provide load balancing of I/O traffic, thereby improving system and application performance. There are two main components in the Microsoft MPIO solution: Microsoft iSCSI Initiator, provided by Microsoft. Device Specific Modules (DSM) provided by the storage vendor and dependent on the iSCSI storage array.
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator For Windows 2003: Download and install the latest version of the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator software. You must select the Microsoft MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI option when you install the Microsoft iSCSI initiator.
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For Windows 2008: The Microsoft iSCSI initiator comes installed with both the Windows Server 2008, and the Server Core installation.
Device Specific Modules (DSM) for MPIO Storage providers can develop multipath solutions called Device Specific Modules (DSMs) that contain the hardware specific information needed to optimize connectivity with their storage arrays. These modules are a server-side plug-in to the Microsoft MPIO framework; it provides enhanced MPIO functionality over native MPIO solutions. 1. Download the specific DSM for your iSCSI storage array from your storage vendors website.
NOTE: You can find the HP LeftHand P4000 DSM for MPIO software by going to www.hp.com/go/P4000downloads and download the Windows Solution Pack CD.
2. Install the DSM for MPIO. 3. Once the DSM for MPIO is installed on the server (reboot might be required), open the iSCSI Initiator. All iSCSI volume connections made to an iSCSI SAN will attempt to connect with the DSM for MPIO. You do not need to configure the multiple I/O paths manually. The iSCSI Initiator Properties application has changed slightly for Windows Server 2008. The procedures below include both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 instructions.
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4. On the target tab, select the target volume and click detail
5. You can verify the DSM for MPIO operations here, you should see the multiple sessions of this target as the DSM for MPIO automatically builds a data path to each storage node in the storage cluster.
39
6. Click on Devices tab, select one of the devices and click Advanced
7. From the MPIO tab, make sure the Load Balancing policy is Vendor Specific
The Vendor specific option validates the DSM for MPIO installation
40
Emulex OneCommand Manager OneCommand Manager is an Emulex utility to manage the NC551and NC553 10Gb FlexFabric Converged Network Adapters. Among other things, it provides comprehensive control of the iSCSI network including discovery, reporting and settings. OneCommand Manager can be installed by HP System Update Manager (HP SUM) but it can as well be downloaded from the web: 1- From the Support and Driver hp.com page, enter a Blade model, for example: BL465 G7
2- Then select the Microsoft OS, Microsoft Windows 2003 or 2008
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3- Then click on the Utility FC HBA section
4- Then download the OneCommand Manager Application:
5- Then install the application
6- Launch the OneCommand utility from Windows start menu / All Programs / Emulex / OCManager
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7- OneCommand Manager shows the ports (iSCSI or FC) detected on your server:
For more information about OneCommand Manager, refer to the OneCommand Manager section further below in this document.
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VMware ESX 4.1

Some Tips before the installation: Ensure that the LUN is presented to the ESX system as LUN 0. The host can also boot from LUN 255. Ensure that no other system has access to the configured LUN.
Manual ESX installation Method 1. Obtain the iSCSI drivers The VMware ESX 4.1 CD does not include the drivers for the FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapters (NC551 and NC553 drivers) so during the install, its necessary to provide the iSCSI drivers (be2iscsi) and the NIC drivers (be2net). But at this time of writing, the iSCSI drivers (be2iscsi) for VMware ESX 4.1 are not yet distributed; they will be made available soon from the following links: HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC553i 10Gb 2-port FlexFabric Server Adapter http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Drive rDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4145269&task Id=135&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4145106&lan g=en&cc=us http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Drive rDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4132827&lang=en&cc=us&pro dTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4132949&taskId=135 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Drive rDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4194638&lang=en&cc=us&pro dTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4194735&taskId=135
2. Start the VMware installation by inserting the ESX 4.1 DVD or ISO image through ILO Virtual Media. 3. At the Custom Drivers page, click Yes and Add to install first the Emulex NIC drivers (be2net)
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4. Then insert the just downloaded Emulex ESX4.1 NIC driver CD and select the only module to import
5. The NIC driver should be listed now in the Custom Drivers window
45
6. Click Add again to provide now the Emulex iSCSI drivers (be2iscsi), insert the Emulex ESX 4.1 iSCSI driver CD and select the module to import
7. You should have now the two drivers listed, click Next
8. Click Yes to load the Load Drivers warning
9. Later on, make sure you have the Emulex Network Adapter properly detected, and then configure the network settings
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10. If the iSCSI volume has been properly presented and the correct iSCSI driver has been loaded, the Select a location to install ESX window should indicate the iSCSI Boot volume presented to the server:
11. Select the iSCSI volume and click Next then follow the traditional installation procedures. Check VMware's documentation for more details.
47
View iSCSI Storage Adapter Information Procedure: 1. Using a vSphere client, select the host and click the Configuration tab, then in Hardware, select Storage Adapters. To view details for a specific iSCSI adapter, select the adapter from the Storage Adapters list.
2. To list all storage devices the adapter can access, click Devices.
3. To list all paths the adapter uses, click Paths.
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How to configure/change/check the iSCSI Multipathing on ESX4.1 Generally there is nothing to change under ESX, the default multipathing settings used by VMware is correct. However if changes are required, its possible to modify the path selection policy and preferred path. Procedure: 1. Select the host and click the Configuration tab, then in Hardware, select Storage. From the Datastores view, select the datastore and click Properties
2. Click Manage Paths
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3. Set multipathing policy Fixed (VMware) This is the default policy for LUNs presented from an Active/Active storage array. Uses the designated preferred path flag, if it has been configured. Otherwise, it uses the first working path discovered at system boot time. If the ESX host cannot use the preferred path or it becomes unavailable, ESX selects an alternative available path. The ESX host automatically returns to the previously-defined preferred path as soon as it becomes available again. VMW_PSP_FIXED_AP Extends the Fixed functionality to active-passive and ALUA mode arrays. Most Recently Used (VMware) This is the default policy for LUNs presented from an Active/Passive storage array Selects the first working path, discovered at system boot time. If this path becomes unavailable, the ESX host switches to an alternative path and continues to use the new path while it is available. ESX does not return to the previous path when if, or when, it returns; it remains on the working path until it, for any reason, fails. Round Robin (VMware) Uses an automatic path selection rotating through all available paths, enabling the distribution of load across the configured paths. For Active/Passive storage arrays, only the paths to the active controller will used in the Round Robin policy. For Active/Active storage arrays, all paths will used in the Round Robin policy.
Note: This policy is not currently supported for Logical Units that are part of a Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) virtual machine.
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4. For the fixed multipathing policy, right-click the path to designate as preferred and select Preferred. 5. Click Ok to save and exit the dialog box.
6. Reboot your host for the change to impact the storage devices currently managed by your host.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4

Manual RHEL installation Method 1. Obtain the iSCSI drivers At this time of writing, Red Hat Enterprise Linux DVD does not include the drivers for the FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapters (NC551 and NC553 drivers) so during the install, its necessary to provide the iSCSI driver disk (be2iscsi). To obtain the be2iscsi driver disk, refer to the following table: HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC553i 10Gb 2-port FlexFabric Server Adapter http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport /DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=41 45269&taskId=135&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeries Id=4145106&lang=en&cc=us http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport /DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4132827&lang=en &cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4132949 &taskId=135 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport /DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4194638&lang=en &cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4194735 &taskId=135
And download the HP NC-Series ServerEngines Driver Update Disk for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Update 4
2. Start the RHEL5.4 installation by inserting the DVD or ISO image through iLO Virtual Media. At the boot prompt: a/ If there is a single I/O path to the iSCSI device you want to use for the RHEL5.4 installation, type: linux dd This command prompts to load a driver disk during the setup for the FlexFabric CNA. must enable multipath support,
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b/ If there are multiple I/O paths to the iSCSI device you want to use for the RHEL5.4 installation, enter: linux dd mpath This command enables multipath and prompts to provide a driver disk for the FlexFabric CNA.
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3. When prompted, Do you have a driver disk? click Yes
4. Then insert the floppy disk image using the iLO virtual Media and click OK.
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Notice the floppy is being read, and pressing <Alt> <F3> will show be2iscsi driver being loaded.
5. Press <Alt> <F1> and return to the main install screen. 6. When prompted again with Do you wish to load any more driver disks? click No then follow the traditional installation procedures. Check Red Hat's documentation for more details. 7. At the Select the drive to use for this installation windows, make sure only one iSCSI drive is proposed (with multipathing detected for a multipath iSCSI target installation)
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Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11

Manual Suse installation Method 1. Obtain the iSCSI drivers At this time of writing, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 CD does not include the drivers for the FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapters (NC551 and NC553 drivers) so during the install, its necessary to provide the iSCSI driver disk (be2iscsi). To obtain the be2iscsi driver disk, refer to the following table: HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter HP NC553i 10Gb 2-port FlexFabric Server Adapter http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupp ort/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameI d=4145269&taskId=135&prodTypeId=3709945&pr odSeriesId=4145106&lang=en&cc=us http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupp ort/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4132827&lan g=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4 132949&taskId=135 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupp ort/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4194638&lan g=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4 194735&taskId=135
And download the HP ServerEngines Driver Update Disk for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 2. Start the SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 CD1 installation by inserting the DVD or ISO image through ILO Virtual Media. 3. A menu will be displayed prompting for input.
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4. Press F6 and select Yes to get prompted during the installation for the driver update disk
5. Then click Installation
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6. Then insert the floppy disk image using the iLO virtual Media and click OK.
7. After a while, you should get the following windows with the new mounted sda: drive listed, select sda: and click OK
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8. Notice the floppy is being read, and pressing <Alt> <F3> will show be2iscsi driver being loaded.
9. Press <Alt> <F1> and return to the main install screen where you should now see the iSCSI drive(s)
10. Click Back and follow the traditional installation procedures as prompted. Check SUSE's documentation for more details.
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11. If there are multiple I/O paths to the iSCSI device you want to use for the SUSE installation, you must enable multipath support, click Partitioning to open the Preparing Hard Disk page,
12. Click Custom Partitioning (for experts), then click Next.
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13. Select the Hard Disks main icon, click the Configure button then select Configure Multipath, then click Yes when prompted to activate multipath.
14. This rescans the disks and shows available multipath devices (such as /dev/mapper/ 3600a0b80000f4593000012ae4ab0ae65). This is the device that should be used for all further processing.
15. Click Accept to continue with the traditional installation procedures.
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Troubleshooting
iSCSI BIOS Utility (i.e. ServerEngines iSCSISelect utility)
The iSCSI BIOS Utility is an Int 13h option ROM resident utility that you can use to configure, manage and troubleshoot your iSCSI configuration.
NOTE: In order to get into the iSCSI utility, iSCSI must be enabled in the Virtual Connect profile! With iSCSISelect you can: Configure an iSCSI initiator on the network Ping targets to determine connectivity with the iSCSI initiator Discover and display iSCSI targets and corresponding LUNs Initiate boot target discovery through Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Manually configure bootable iSCSI targets View initiator properties View connected target properties
NOTE: HP Virtual Connect profile takes precedence over the settings in this menu: If iSCSI SAN boot settings are made outside of Virtual Connect (using iSCSISelect or other configuration tools), Virtual Connect will restore the settings defined by the server profile after the server blade completes the next boot cycle. Only the USE-BIOS option in a VC Profile preserves the boot settings options set in the iSCSI Utility or through other configuration utilities.
To run the iSCSISelect utility, start or restart the server, when prompted, press <Ctrl> + <S>.
NOTE: A press on Any key for servers with recent System BIOS is required to view the Option ROM boot details.
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The iSCSI Initiator Configuration menu will appear after the BIOS initializes.
The iSCSI Initiator name we get here is related to the control of Virtual Connect. A server with a VC profile without iSCSI Boot parameters shows a factory default initiator name like iqn.1990-07.com.Emulex.xx-xx-xx-xx-xx with in red the default Factory MAC address of the iSCSI adapter. A server with a VC profile with iSCSI Boot parameters shows the initiator name defined in the VC Profile.
VC configuration checking If you are facing some connection problems with your iSCSI target, you can use the iSCSISelect Ping utility to troubleshoot your iSCSI configuration. If you dont see any iSCSI Boot drive detected during POST, you might need to check the iSCSI configuration written by VC. 123From the iSCSI Initiator Configuration menu, tab to Controller Configuration menu, and press Enter. Select the first Controller and press Enter. Move to the iSCSI Target Configuration and press Enter.
Troubleshooting
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456-
Verify you have one iSCSI target, this target must correspond to your Virtual Connect profile configuration Select the target and press Enter. You can verify the target name, the IP Address, etc.
Troubleshooting
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Pinging the Target If you are still facing some connection problem with your iSCSI target, you can use the iSCSISelect Ping utility to troubleshoot your iSCSI configuration. To verify that you can connect to the target, follow these steps: 1- From the Edit/Ping iSCSI Target menu, tab to Ping and press Enter.
2- You must get the following successful result:
If you still cannot connect or ping your iSCSI target, please refer to the following paragraphs
Troubleshooting
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Emulex OneCommand Manager

The Emulex OneCommand Manager Application is a comprehensive management utility for Emulex and converged network adapters (CNAs) and host bus adapters (HBAs) that provides a powerful, centralized adapter management suite, including discovery, reporting. Its an excellent tool for troubleshooting. OneCommand Manager is available under: Windows Linux VMware ESX Server
Some of the OneCommand Manager interesting features available for iSCSI: Run diagnostic tests on adapters Reset / disable adapters Manage an adapter's CEE settings Discover iSCSI targets Login to iSCSI Targets from CNAs View iSCSI Target session information Logout from iSCSI targets
Not all OneCommand Manager Application features are supported across all operating systems. Consult the Emulex OneCommand documentation.
Target LUN 0 from Port 1
3 NIC 1 iSCSI 0 FCoE iSCSI Initiator
iSCSI Target
Target LUN 0 from Port 2
MAC of the NICs
Troubleshooting
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LUN information
If you select the target, you can click on Sessions
And get lots of diagnostic of the target session
Troubleshooting
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Diagnostics
Troubleshooting
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Problems found with OneCommand Manager

Problem: You have configured a VC server profile with two iSCSI ports but OneCommand Manager or the iSCSI Initiator show only one iSCSI port connected to the iSCSI LUN
Solution: To properly configure iSCSI load balancing sometimes like with HP LeftHand P4000 SAN Solutions, you must use for the Primary Target Address in the iSCSI boot parameters the Virtual IP Address (VIP) of the cluster and not the IP address of the LeftHand node.
Make sure you use the VIP of your storage cluster when using two iSCSI ports boot connections Also verify with your Storage Administrator that all appropriate clusters have VIPs configured.
Troubleshooting
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Problems found during iSCSI Boot

Problem You are using a DHCP server to get the iSCSI Boot parameters but during POST (server Power-On Self-Test) the iSCSI disk is not be displayed when the ServerEngines option ROM is executed although the menu shows correct initiator IP addresses:
Solution 1 You are not able to get the DHCP option 43 to work with the FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapters, for more information see Appendix 2 Solution 2 Make sure the Storage presentation is correct
Problem You get a warning message with IP address: 0.0.0.0
Solution There are different reasons for this issue: o Your second iSCSI boot connection is not configured in the VC profile. o You have a network connection issue; check the VC profile and the vnet corresponding to the iSCSI connection. Verify the status of the vnet and make sure it is properly configured with all ports in green.
Troubleshooting
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Problem BIOS Not installed appears without any drive information,
Solution Make sure the Storage presentation is correct
Problem You cannot boot from iSCSI and your boot iSCSI LUN ID is above 8 Solution Change the iSCSI boot LUN ID to a number lower than 9 as iSCSI Boot from SAN is only supported on the NC551i and NC553i Dual-Port FlexFabric adapter when boot LUN IDs are specified in the range of 0-8.
PXE booting problems

Problem Media test failure when PXE booting a G6 server with a CNA mezzanine and only FlexFabric modules in bay 3 and 4: Solution Make sure all the LOM ports (i.e. 1 and 2) are PXE disabled in the VC profile otherwise you will see the PXE error media test failure because the default VC settings are Use-Bios,
Troubleshooting
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iSCSI boot install problems with windows 2003

Problem Installation loaded the iSCSI driver and installation proceeded seeing iSCSI target lun, later during copy file phase, it complained cannot find the driver be2iscsi.sys/cat/inf file even though the same files were used to access the target. Skipping the files will end up windows installation failed. Solution Make sure you get the window installation DVD which provides choices of Custom and Express install. You have to choose Custom installation. Express installation requires boot driver to be Windows Signed driver (WinLogo), if its not, w2k3 installation just gives very misleading generic message (file not found) and failed the installation.
Problem Drivers loaded successfully, target lun seen, installation proceeded to target lun, no complaint of drivers not found, but blue screen occurred. Solution Monitor the network to the iSCSI storage. This used to be one of the causes. iSCSI boot install problems with windows 2008
Problem load driver seem to hang. It should only take a few seconds. Solution Check if the firmware version matches driver version. It may hang if not match.
Problem During Expanding files phase, installation complained could not locate some files and terminated. Solution Monitor the network access to the iSCSI storage. Network can be a cause.
Problem iSCSI boot parameters are set up in VC side, but iSCSISelect utility does not show configurations in the iSCSI Target Configuration for the specified controller. Solution Make sure controller Network Configuration is correct. Check link status, make sure its Link Up, check Static IP Address setup: correct ip, mask, and gateway (if routing is required from initiator to target).
Troubleshooting
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VCEM issues with iSCSI Boot and offload

Problem During the creation of an iSCSI boot Virtual Connect profile under VCEM 6.2 and you get an unclear format error message. Solution VCEM 6.2 only allows all LOWERCASE for the initiator and target information (does not apply to VCM)
iSCSI issues with LeftHand products

Problem You are connected to a LeftHand StorageWorks P4000 solution and during heavy network utilization; the iSCSI initiator driver reports a device failure. Solution There is something that is significantly slowing down the response time on the network such that the iSCSI initiator session recovery cant occur within the default driver settings. In this case, it might be useful to increase the iSCSI initiator driver timeout parameter called ETO (or Extended TimeOut) and is configurable via OneCommand Manager. By default ETO is 90 seconds on all Windows operating systems. It can be set between 20 and 3600 seconds. You can set it to 0 also, but the minimum value assumed by the driver is 20. To set the value: 1. Launch OneCommand Manager.
Troubleshooting
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2. Click on the first iSCSI port and select the iSCSI target.
3. In the ETO entry, enter the new timeout value and click Apply
4. Do the same on the second iSCSI port.
Troubleshooting
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Appendix 1- iSCSI Boot Parameters

Mandatory iSCSI Boot Parameters entries
Mandatory entries have to be correctly filled up in order to get a successful boot from iSCSI.
iSCSI Initiator (iSCSI Boot Configuration) (also known as the iSCSI client or iSCSI host)
Name used for the iSCSI initiator on the booting system. The initiator name length can be maximum of 223 characters.
NOTE: Make sure the Initiator Name you set is unique. This Initiator Name must be given to the Storage Administrator for the Storage presentation. Use the same Initiator name for each iSCSI ports
Each iSCSI host is identified by a unique iSCSI qualified name (IQN). This name is similar to the WorldWide Name (WWN) associated with Fibre Channel devices and is used as a way to universally identify the device.
iSCSI qualified names take the form iqn.yyyy-mm.naming-authority:unique name, where: yyyy-mm is the year and month when the naming authority was established. naming-authority is usually reverse syntax of the Internet domain name of the naming authority. For example, the iscsi.vmware.com naming authority could have the iSCSI qualified name form of iqn.1998-01.com.vmware.iscsi. The name indicates that the vmware.com domain name was registered in January of 1998, and iscsi is a subdomain, maintained by vmware.com. unique name is any name you want to use, for example, the name of your host.
Examples: iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:win-g19b6w8hsum iqn.1990-07.com.Emulex.00:17:A4:77:04:02 iqn.1998-01.com.vmware.iscsi:name1 iqn.1998-01.com.vmware.iscsi:name2 Appendix 1- iSCSI Boot Parameters 75
iSCSI Target (iSCSI Boot Configuration) The iSCSI target parameters can be set either statically (by disabling DHCP) or dynamically (by enabling DHCP). For simplification and human error prevention, its may be easier to use a DHCP server for the iSCSI boot parameters. Statically configure the target information 1. The Target Name
The Target Name is your iSCSI target from which the server boots. The target name length is of maximum 223 characters. This target name is provided by the Storage Administrator 2. The Boot LUN
The LUN of the Target identifies the volume to be accessed. Valid values for standard LUNs are 0-255 decimal. Valid values for extended LUNs are 13 to 16 character hexadecimal values. This Boot LUN is provided by the Storage Administrator
3. The Primary Target Address
The Primary Target Address is the primary IP address used by the iSCSI target. The TCP port associated with the primary target IP address is by default 3260.
This Primary Target Address and TCP Port is also provided by the Storage Administrator.
Depending on your storage solutions, but sometimes if you plan to configured a second iSCSI boot connection from the second iSCSI HBA, it is required to enter here the Virtual IP Address (VIP) of your storage cluster and not the IP address of one of the node (thats the case with HP LeftHand P4000 SAN Solutions) Appendix 1- iSCSI Boot Parameters 76
NOTE: A virtual IP (VIP) address is a highly available IP address which ensures that if a storage node in a cluster becomes unavailable, servers can still access a volume through the other storage nodes in the cluster.
The benefits of using a VIP here, is that in case of a storage node failure, the iSCSI traffic does not failover to the second iSCSI port thus reducing risk, latency, etc.
Dynamically configure the target information 1. To use DHCP when configuring the iSCSI boot configuration, select the Use DHCP checkbox.
NOTE: In a dynamic configuration the target name and the IP address are provided by the DHCP server. Selecting this option requires a DHCP server to be set up properly with iSCSI extensions to provide boot parameters to servers. Refer to Appendix 2
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Initiator Network Configuration 1. The VLAN ID This is the VLAN number that the iSCSI initiator will use for all sent and received packets. Accepted value is from 1 to 4094. If you are using VLAN tagging, keep this entry empty.
2. The IP address/Netmask/Gateway This is the network configuration of the iSCSI initiator, a fixed IP address or DHCP can be either set.
The Use-DHCP checkbox allows the iSCSI option ROM to retrieve the TCP/IP parameters from a DHCP server.
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Optional iSCSI Boot Parameters entries

Some entries are optional and can be configured for enhancements.
Secondary iSCSI Target Address A second iSCSI boot target can be configured for redundancy in the event the primary target fails to boot.
The TCP port associated with the secondary target IP address is by default 3260.
This Secondary Target Address and TCP Port is provided by the Storage Administrator A secondary target here is usually not required for a server with a second CNA iSCSI port
Security enhancement using an authentication For added network security, the Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) can be enabled to authenticate initiators and targets. By using a challenge/response security mechanism, CHAP periodically verifies the identity of the initiator. This authentication method depends on a secret known only to the initiator and the target. Although the authentication can be One-Way, you can negotiate CHAP in both directions (2-way CHAP) with the help of the same secret set for Mutual authentication. You must make sure however, that what you have configured on the target side, is going to match the initiator side. Both One-Way (CHAP Mode) and Mutual authentication (CHAPM) are supported. To enable One-Way CHAP authentication: Select CHAP then enter the Target CHAP Username and Target Secret
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NOTE: The Target/Initiator CHAP Name and Target/Initiator Secret can be any name or sequence of numbers over 12 and less than 16 characters. However, the username and secret on the Target side must match the name and Target on the Initiator side.
CHAP authentication must be enabled as well on the storage system side by the Storage Administrator.
To enable Mutual CHAP authentication:
Select CHAPM then enter the Target CHAP Username, Target Secret, Mutual Username (known as well as Initiator CHAP Name), and Mutual Secret (known as well as Initiator Secret)
NOTE: The Target/Initiator CHAP Name and Target/Initiator Secret can be any name or sequence of numbers over 12 and less than 16 characters. However, the name and secret on the Target side must match the name and Target on the Initiator side.
CHAPM authentication must be enabled as well on the storage system side by the Storage Administrator.
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Appendix 2 - Dynamic configuration of the iSCSI Boot Parameters

The dynamic configuration of the iSCSI target parameters through a DHCP server is one of the options available in the iSCSI Boot configuration in order to get automatically the target name and its IP address. During this dynamic configuration, DHCP clients (i.e. iSCSI initiators configured with DHCP enabled for the iSCSI Boot configuration) are identified by the DHCP server by their vendor type. This mechanism is using the DHCP Vendor Option 43 which contains the vendor specific information. If the DHCP option 43 is not defined as specified by the vendors then the DHCP server has no possibility to identify the client and therefore will not provide the iSCSI target information. When this occurs the iSCSI disk will not be displayed when the ServerEngines option ROM is executed.
So its necessary to configure properly the DHCP server with the mandatory fields provided by the vendor (Emulex) for our NC551 and NC553 Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter. We will describe the configuration steps for both Windows and Linux DHCP servers.
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Windows DHCP server configuration

The following is the set up instruction for a Windows DHCP server to enable DHCP option 43 as specified by Emulex for the NC551 and NC553 Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter. 1. Start DHCP Manager. 2. In the console tree, click the applicable DHCP server branch. 3. Right-click the server and then click Define Vendor Classes to create a new vendor class.
4. Click Add.
5. In the New Class dialog box, type a descriptive identifying name for the new option in the Display name box. You may also add additional information to the Description box.
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6. Type in the data to be used by the DHCP Server service under ASCII (32 characters max) like Emulex To enter the data, click the right side of the text box under ASCII.
7. Click OK, and then click Close.
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8. Right-click the server again and then click Set Predefined Options to set the vendor specific
options.
9. In Option class, choose the vendor created above.
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10. Click Add
11. Then provide: a. an option name, e.g. "boot target" b. Data type = String or Encapsulated c. Code = 43 d. Add any description.
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12. Click OK
13. Click OK 14. In DHCP Manager, double-click the appropriate DHCP scope. 15. Right-click Scope Options and then click Configure Options.
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16. Click Advanced. 17. Now choose the vendor class we just entered above (e.g. Emulex)
18. Select the check box for 43 (created earlier) and enter the correct string. (e.g. iscsi:192.168.1.40:::iqn.2003-10.com.lefthandnetworks:1234567890::::D )
For more information about the format of the DHCP Option 43 string, see below. 19. Click OK. 20. After the configuration is complete on the DHCP server, you need to enable DHCP and use the same vendor ID within the iSCSI profile in the VCM:
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Linux DHCP server configuration

The following is the set up instruction for a Linux DHCP server to enable DHCP option 43 as specified by Emulex for the NC551 and NC553 Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter. For a Linus DHCP server, the vendor option 43 is defined in the /etc/dhcpd.conf file. The example below illustrates how to define the vendor option 43 for the NC551/NC553 in dhcpd.conf:
option vendor-class-identifier "Emulex"; option space HP; option HP.root-path code 201 = text; class "vendor-classes" { match option vendor-class-identifier; }
This is the vendor identifier that must be set as well in the iSCSI VC profile
subclass "vendor-classes" "Emulex" { vendor-option-space HP; option HP.root-path "iscsi:\"10.10.10.203\":\"3260\"::\"iqn.198603.com.hp:storage.p2000g3.1020108c44\":::::"; } The string format must be defined correctly as shown. For more information about the format of the DHCP Option 43 string, see below. After the dhcpd.conf file has been modified and saved, restart the DHCP service: [root@DHCP_server]# service dhcpd restart The DHCP server configuration is now complete. Then you need to enable DHCP and use the same vendor ID (i.e. Emulex like configured earlier in dhcpd.conf) within the iSCSI profile in the VCM:
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Format of DHCP option 43 for NC551/NC553 CAN

iscsi:<TargetIP>:<TargetTCPPort>:<LUN>:<TargetName>:<InitiatorName>:<HeaderDigest>: <DataDigest>:<AuthenticationType> abcdStrings shown in quotes are part of the syntax and are mandatory. Fields enclosed in angular brackets (including the angular brackets) should be replaced with their corresponding values. Some of these fields are optional and may be skipped. When specified, the value of each parameter should be enclosed in double quotes. See examples below. All options are case insensitive.
Description of Optional Parameters TargetIP Replace this parameter with a valid IPv4 address in dotted decimal notation. This is a mandatory field. TargetTCPPort Replace this parameter with a decimal number ranging from 1 to 65535 (inclusive). It is an optional field. The default TCP port 3260 is assumed, if not specified. LUN This parameter is a hexadecimal representation of Logical Unit number of the boot device. It is an optional field. If not provided, LUN 0 is assumed to be the boot LUN. It is an eight-byte number which should be specified as a hexadecimal number consisting of 16 digits, with an appropriate number of 0s padded to the left, if required. TargetName Replace this parameter with a valid iSCSI target iqn name of up to 223 characters. This is a mandatory field. InitiatorName Replace this parameter with a valid iSCSI iqn name of up to 223 characters. This is an optional field. If not provided, the default Initiator name will be used. HeaderDigest This is an optional field. Replace this parameter with either E or D. abE denotes header digest is enabled D denotes that it is disabled.
If skipped, it is assumed that Header Digest is disabled. DataDigest This is an optional field. Replace this parameter with either E or D. abE denotes data digest is enabled and D denotes that it is disabled.
If not provided, it is assumed that Data Digest is disabled by default.
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AuthenticationType This is an optional field. If applicable, replace this parameter with D, E or M. abcD denotes authentication is disabled. E denotes that One-way CHAP is enabled - the username and secret to be used for one way CHAP must be specified by non-DHCP means. M denotes that MutualCHAP is enabled - user name and passwords required for mutual CHAP authentication must be specified by non-DHCP means. If not specified, this field defaults to authentication-disabled.
Examples
Emulex requires that all attributes are within double quotes () and that any optional parameter not defined must include a colon (:) in the string. If the string is not properly formed then the option ROM ignores the DHCP servers offer. iscsi:<TargetIP>:<TargetTCPPort>:<LUN>:<TargetName>:<InitiatorName>:<HeaderDigest>: <DataDigest>:<AuthenticationType> Default Initiator name and Data Digest settings: iscsi:192.168.0.2:3261:000000000000000E:iqn.2009-4.com:1234567890::E::E Target IP address: 192.168.0.2 Target TCP port: 3261 Target boot LUN: 0x0E Target iqn name: iqn.2009-04.com:1234567890 Initiator name: Not specified. Use the Initiator name already configured. Use the default name if none was configured. Header Digest : Enabled Data digest: Not specified. Assume disabled. Authentication Type: 1-way CHAP.
Default TCP Port and Mutual CHAP: iscsi:192.168.0.2::000000000000000E:iqn.2009-4.com:1234567890::E:D:M Target IP address: 192.168.0.2 Target TCP port: Use default from RFC 3720 (3260) Target boot LUN: 0x0E Target iqn name: iqn.2009-04.com:1234567890 Initiator name: Not specified. Use the Initiator name already configured. Use the default name if none was configured. Header Digest : Enabled Data digest: Data Digest disabled Authentication Type: Mutual CHAP
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For more information

HP Virtual Connect: www.hp.com/go/virtualconnect HP Virtual Connect documentation http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportM anual&lang=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64180&taskId=101&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=414 4084 HP Virtual Connect Cookbook: Single & Multi-Domain Series: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01990371/c01990371.pdf iSCSI Technologies in HP ProLiant servers using advanced network adapters, Technology Brief: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01600624/c01600624.pdf HP NC-Series ServerEngines iSCSISelect User Guide http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02255542.pdf
Please report comments or feedback to iscsicb@hp.com
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Copyright 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. c02533991, modified January 2011
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HP Virtual Connect with iSCSI Cookbook

January 2011, 2nd Edition Technical white paper

Firmware and Software Update

+ Virtual Connect FlexFabric

+ BladeSystem BLxx G6 or G7 Latest System BIOS

NC551 CNA Integrated or mezzanine

+ Virtual Connect Flex-10 Minimum VC 3.10 and above

+ BladeSystem BLxx G6 or G7 Latest System BIOS

NC551 CNA Integrated or mezzanine

1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet module

1/10Gb-F Virtual Connect Ethernet module

Keep it simple and short

Storage vendors recommendations

iSCSI multipathing solutions

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Scenario 1: iSCSI network physically separated

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Figure 1 - Physical view

802.3ad LAG 802.1Q Trunk

HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module

HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module

HP 4Gb VC-FC Module

HP 4Gb VC-FC Module

UID iLO Reset Active

Remove management modules before ejecting sleeve

Figure 2 Logical View

IP Storage Network Switch 2 Prod-vNet-2

VC FlexFabric 10Gb Enc0:Bay1

VC FlexFabric 10Gb Enc0:Bay2

HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module

HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module

Internal Stacking link Prod-vNet-1

Prod-vNet-2 Virtual Connect Domain Enc0:Bay2:X1,X2 VLAN_101-1 VLAN_103-1 VLAN_102-1 VLAN_104-1

VLAN_101-1 VLAN_103-1 LOM 1

vmnic1 1Gb A vmnic3 1.5Gb C vmnic5 3.5Gb D iSCSI3 4Gb 10Gb B

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Scenario 2: iSCSI network logically separated

Figure 3 - Physical view

HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module

HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module

HP 4Gb VC-FC Module

HP 4Gb VC-FC Module

UID iLO Reset Active

Remove management modules before ejecting sleeve

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Figure 4 - Logical view

Prod 802.1Q Trunk

Prod 802.1Q Trunk

VC FlexFabric 10Gb Enc0:Bay1

VC FlexFabric 10Gb Enc0:Bay2

HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module

HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module

Internal Stacking link

Virtual Connect Domain

Enc0:Bay1:X1,X2 VLAN_101-1 VLAN_103-1 LOM 1

Enc0:Bay2:X1,X2 VLAN_101-2 VLAN_103-2

vmnic1 1Gb A vmnic3 1.5Gb C vmnic5 3.5Gb D iSCSI3 4Gb 10Gb B

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Virtual Connect network scenarios

Accelerated iSCSI Virtual Connect profile